Stefan Svallfors
Umeå University
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Featured researches published by Stefan Svallfors.
Social Indicators Research | 2003
Stefan Svallfors
In this last chapter, it will be asked to what extent the different institutional configurations which have been explored in previous chapters correspond to patterns of public support for welfare state intervention. In order to do so, a broader set of countries, chosen to represent different welfare state regimes both within and outside Western Europe are compared.
Acta Sociologica | 1995
Stefan Svallfors
Sweden, by many regarded as the archetypal welfare state, has recently experienced severe problems of weak economic performance, sharply rising unemployment and cutbacks in social pohcies. In this paper, data from national surveys over the last decade are analysed in order to assess whether recent changes in the political arena point to more long-term problems of legitimacy for Swedish welfare policies. The purposes are (a) to track the overall attitudes to various aspects of Swedish welfare policies in order to assess which, if any, parts and aspects of the welfare state have experienced a fall in public support, and (b) to analyse what changes have taken place in how various structural cleavages are linked to attitudes It has been argued, from a variety of theoretical perspectives, that the former class-based conflicts around welfare policies are increasingly diluted, or superseded, by other conflicts emanating from gender, sector employment, client status, housing conditions or other possible sources of identity and interests. The results in this paper indicate that such claims are exaggerated, and that stability, in aggregate responses, attitudinal patterns and social cleavages, characterizes attitudes to Swedish welfare policies.
European Political Science Review | 2013
Stefan Svallfors
The paper analyses how perceptions of government quality – in terms of impartialityand efficiency – impact on attitudes to taxes and social spending. It builds on data fromthe European Social Surve ...
European Political Science Review | 2010
Stefan Svallfors
This paper tests contested arguments within the institutionalist literature about the relation between institutional and attitudinal changes, using the reunified Germany as a case. Eastern Germany ...
Acta Sociologica | 2001
Stefan Svallfors; Knut Halvorsen; Jørgen Goul Andersen
In this study we analyse employment commitment and organizational commitment in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, using data from the International Social Survey Programme (1997). We begin with an institutional comparison of the three countries, where it is concluded that a strong institutionalized commitment to work is of longest standing in Sweden and most recent in Denmark. It is concluded that, contrary to expectations, both employment and organizational commitment among the population is weakest in Sweden and strongest in Denmark. Group patterns in commitment are basically similar in all three countries, the only exception being a lower employment commitment among the unemployed in Denmark. In all three countries, differences related to stratification, such as differences between classes and between educational categories, are much more important than family structure in determining commitment. An especially noteworthy finding is that in all three countries, employment commitment is significantly higher among women than among men.
European Societies | 1999
Stefan Svallfors
AbstractAttitudes towards redistribution, and their links to political trust, are compared in Sweden and Norway using data from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP). Attitudes towards redistribution are quite similar in both countries at an aggregate level, but class differences and differences between left and right party sympathizers are larger in Sweden than in Norway. Levels of political trust and personal political efficacy are clearly higher in Norway, but in neither of the countries are there any links between political efficacy and trust on the one hand and attitudes towards redistribution on the other. It is concluded that arguments about such a link may be wrong in putting emphasis on political trust as a determinant of attitudes towards redistribution. A possible alternative interpretation of the findings in this paper is that they are specific to the Scandinavian countries, where welfare state intervention has been institutionalized to a higher degree than elsewhere.
New Political Economy | 2016
Stefan Svallfors
ABSTRACT In this paper, Sweden is used as an example of how organised politics has changed quite dramatically in the last couple of decades. The paper argues that there are a number of points that has recently changed Swedish organised politics in rather fundamental ways. These changes entail a new actor constellation in Swedish politics and policy-making, decreased visibility of political processes and the emergence of a strong feedback loop between inequality, participation and public policies. What this amounts to is a very different form of elite-driven policy-making than the old corporatist structures. An amorphous and quite invisible but still highly elite-driven process has emerged, in which inequality has increased dramatically, and the impact of money on politics has become stronger even in Sweden.
European Societies | 2005
Stefan Svallfors
This paper compares class patterns of ‘conformism’ in four Western countries, taking as its point of departure arguments, which suggest that conformism/authoritarianism is more prevalent in the working class than other classes. Data from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) are used in order to compare class attitudes towards sexual behaviour and civil rights/liberties, in Britain, Germany, Sweden and the United States. This study finds that class patterns in attitudes differ little between the countries in question, although aggregated levels vary quite substantially. It is also concluded that class differences in attitudes towards civil rights/liberties are almost exclusively a result from different levels of education, while significant class differences in attitudes towards sexual activities remain also after taking education levels into account. The implications of the results for social stratification and political articulation are discussed.
STUDI DI ESTETICA | 2013
Stefan Svallfors
ABSTRACT The article analyses the orientations of political employees in Sweden. It finds that their roles are diffuse: there is no agreement among political employees about whether they are politicians or not, and their mandate is fleeting and unclear. They hold the average politician’s intellectual abilities in low regard, and sometimes take on clearly paternalistic views toward elected representatives. They see little attraction in pursuing a career as elected politicians, because of intrusive media scrutiny and since they hold a view of elected politics as slow, boring, and shallow. The professional route to politics is seen as more fast and fun.
Arkiv. Tidskrift för samhällsanalys | 2014
Stefan Svallfors
Stefan Svallfors artikel utgar fran Jacob Hacker och Paul Piersons iakttagelse, i deras Winner-take-all politics (2010), att politik forst och framst ar organisation, narmare bestamt ”organiserad k ...
