Sovereign Consumers Enter the Scandinavian Welfare State: The Case of Denmark

Olsen, Niklas

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-89584-0_6

Niklas Olsen⁴

Part of the book series: Consumption and Public Life ((CUCO))

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Abstract

Focusing on the case of Denmark, this chapter explores how neoliberalism and the figure of the sovereign consumer entered political discussions of the Scandinavian welfare state in the 1970s. More precisely, it shows how a new generation of politicians in the Danish liberal party introduced the semantics of neoliberalism into national political debates in order to address the contemporary crisis of the welfare state and in efforts to renew the ideological foundation of their party. This chapter argues that Danish neoliberals expanded the figure of the sovereign consumer by relating its dynamics systematically to the arena of the public sector in an attempt to transform the welfare state into a competition state. Moreover, taking the analysis into the 1980s, it argues that leftist political forces also shaped and disseminated the neoliberal sovereign consumer in a Scandinavian context.

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Notes

1.
For exceptions that explore the attempts to institutionalize neoliberalism in Scandinavia from the 1940s to the 1970s, see Niklas Olsen, “A Second Hand Dealer in Ideas: Christian Gandil and Scandinavian Configurations of European Neoliberalism, 1945–1970,” in Re-Inventing Western Civilisation: Transnational Reconstructions of Liberalism in Europe in the Twentieth Century, eds., Niklas Olsen and Hagen Schulz-Forberg (Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2014), 137–167 and Lars Mjøset, “Trygve Hoff,” in Troen på markedet, eds., Håvard Friis Nilsen and Christian Anton (Oslo: Res Publica, 2011), 163–198.
2.
See, for example, Francis Sejersted, The Age of Social Democracy: Norway and Sweden in the Twentieth Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011); Mary Hilson, The Nordic Model: Scandinavia since 1945 (London: University of Chicago Press, 2008).
3.
For the notion of the competition state, see Philipp Genschel and Laura Seelkopf, “The Competition State: The Modern State in a Global Economy,” in The Oxford Handbook of Transformations of the State, eds., Stephan Leibfried, Evelyne Huber, Matthew Lange, Jonah D. Levy, and John D. Stephens (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 234–249. For a study of attempts to construct a competition state in a Danish context, see Ove K. Pedersen, Konkurrencestaten (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2011).
4.
Venstre literally means “left.” The party was named Venstre due to its position on the left side on the Danish parliament, when it was founded in 1870. It is today known as “Denmark’s Liberal Party.” However, Venstre in fact only added this description to its name in 1963, and, as it will appear below, it only developed a liberal identity and language after World War I. Therefore, the party is consequently labelled Venstre in the following.
5.
The following section is based on Jeppe Nevers and Niklas Olsen, “Liberalism and the Welfare State: The Danish Case in a European Perspective,” in Liberalismus im 20. Jahrhundert, eds., Anselm Doering-Manteuffel and Jörn Leonhard (Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag, 2015), 239–267.
6.
Det Radikale Venstre has often been labelled the “social liberal party.” However, Det Radikale Venstre literally means the Radical Left. Inspired by French radicalism, the party was founded in 1905 and located further to the political left than Venstre. To avoid misunderstandings and anachronisms, the original party name will be used consistently in the following.
7.
Jeppe Nevers, “The Rise of Agrarian Liberalism,” Contributions to the History of Concepts 8, 2 (2013): 96–102.
8.
Bo Lidegaard, A Short History of Denmark in the Twentieth Century (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2009), 106.
9.
Nevers, “The Rise of Agrarian Liberalism,” 104.
10.
Nevers and Olsen, “Liberalism and the Welfare State,” 255–260.
11.
Klaus Petersen, “Velfærdsstaten i dansk politisk retorik,” Tidsskrift for Velferdsforskning 5, 1 (2002), 22; Henning Fonsmark, Historien om den danske utopi (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1990), 206–215; Nikolaj Bøgh, Brødrene Møller: Historien om et konservativt dynasti (Copenhagen: Aschehoug, 2007), 209–222.
12.
Petersen, “Velfærdsstaten i dansk politisk retorik,” 20; Lidegaard, A Short History of Denmark, 233–239.
13.
Nevers and Olsen, “Liberalism and the Welfare State,” 255–260.
14.
Petersen, “Velfærdsstaten i dansk politisk retorik.”
15.
Thomas Ekman Jørgensen and Steven L. B. Jensen, 1968—og alt det der fulgte (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2008).
16.
Henrik Nissen, Landet blev by, 1950–1970 (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1991), 274–278.
17.
Klaus Petersen, Legitimität und Krise: Die politische Geschichte des dänischen Wohlfartsstaates 1945–1973 (Berlin: Berlin Verlag, 1998).
18.
Jørn Henrik Petersen, Klaus Petersen, and Niels Finn Christiansen, eds., Velfærdsstaten i tidehverv. Dansk Velfærdshistorie, bind 5, 1973–1993 (Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2013), 83.
19.
Michael Kuur Sørensen, “Den innovative ideolog i politisk historie: Mogens Glistrup som case,” Temp 4, 8 (2014): 115–129.
20.
Flemming Christian Nielsen, Glistrup—en biografi om en anarkist (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2013).
21.
Lidegaard, A Short History of Denmark, 294–295.
22.
Arne Hardis, Den kætterske socialdemokrat: Jørgen Dich og den herskende klasse (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2018).
23.
See first of all Jørn Henrik Petersen, Klaus Petersen and Niels Finn Christiansen, eds., Dansk velfærdshistorie. Bind 3: 1933–1956: Velfærdsstaten i støbeskeen (Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2012), 117–151 and Jørn Henrik Petersen, Klaus Petersen, and Niels Finn Christiansen, eds., Dansk velfærdshistorie. Bind 4: 1956–1973: Velfærdsstatens storhedstid (Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2012), 145–162.
24.
Jørn Henrik Petersen, “Værdier og interesser i socialpolitikken,” Politica 28, 4 (1996): 440–451.
25.
Jørgen S. Dich, Den herskende klasse (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1973), back cover.
26.
Dich, Den herskende klasse, 137–143.
27.
Dich, Den herskende klasse, 170.
28.
Galbraith did in fact not use the specific term “producer sovereignty.” Interpreters of Galbraith coined it to conceptualize his argument of how producers, and not consumers, determine what is produced, and ultimately how resources are allocated in the market economy. Raymond Benton, Jr., “Producer and Consumer Sovereignty,” in Encyclopedia of Political Economy, vol. 2, L-Z, ed., Philip Anthony O’Hara (London; Routledge, 2001), 912.
29.
Bertel Haarder, Statskollektivisme og spildproduktion—om årsagerne til overforbruget, skatteplyndringen, institutionernes tyranni og det tiltagende misbrug af vores ressourcer (Copenhagen: Bramsen & Hjort, 1973). Haarder’s book in fact appeared before the publication of Dich’s . However, Haarder knew about the argument of the ruling class from Dich’s contemporary talks. Hardis , Den kætterske socialdemokrat, 171–172.
30.
Henning Christophersen, En udfordring til de liberale (Holte: Forlaget Liberal, 1972).
31.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, “Lillesamfundet må være et liberalt mål,” Liberal. Venstres Månedsblad 6 (1973), 39.
32.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, “Vi må nyvurdere den økonomiske liberalisme,” in At være liberal i det moderne samfund, ed., Flemming Albertsen (Holte: Forlaget Liberal, 1974), 43.
33.
Poul Nyboe Andersen, “En liberal reformpolitik,” in At være liberal i det moderne samfund, ed., Flemming Albertsen (Holte: Forlaget Liberal, 1974), 25.
34.
Jesper Vestermark Køber, Et spørgsmål om nærhed: nærdemokratibegrebets historie i 1970ernes Danmark (PhD dissertation, University of Copenhagen, 2017).
35.
Nevers and Olsen, “Liberalism and the Welfare State,” 260–263.
36.
Christophersen, En udfordring for de liberale, 22.
37.
Christophersen, En udfordring for de liberale, 20.
38.
Christophersen, En udfordring for de liberale, 16–27.
39.
Haarder, Statskollektivisme og spildproduktion, 67.
40.
Bertel Haarder, Institutionernes tyranni (Copenhagen: Bramsen & Hjort, 1974).
41.
The belated development of the consumer figure in Denmark (and in other Scandinavian countries) had to do with the absence of consumer leagues and advocacy groups in the period before 1945. The emergence of such groups and leagues was seemingly pre-empted by the strong standing of the Danish cooperative movements in the period. Even if they were concerned with consumption-related issues, none of the Danish co-operatives—or the educational organizations that emerged in the early twentieth century Denmark—was closely associated with the social-political category of the consumer. They were founded to further the interests of the farmer/peasant, the worker , and the housewife. Tellingly, they did not refer to the consumer when naming their initiatives, and being a consumer was not a primary identity for their members.
42.
For a Scandinavian perspective on these developments, see Iselin Theien, “Shopping for the ‘People’s Home’: Consumer Planning in Norway and Sweden after the Second World War,” in The Expert Consumer: Associations and Professionals in Consumer Society, eds., Alain Chatriot, Marie-Emmanuelle Chessel, and Matthew Hilton (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006).
43.
Morten Bendix Andersen, “Kampen om forbrugersamfundet: Lis Groes og debatten om reklame i Danmark 1945–1965,” Arbejderhistorie 2 (2011): 46–67 and Karen Møller, Lis Groes: En kvinde i sin tid (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2000).
44.
Bendix Andersen, “Kampen om forbrugersamfundet,” 54–60.
45.
Hans Hertel, PH—en biografi (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2012), 351–354; Anne Borup, “PH og Tænk: Forbrugeroplysning og reklamekritik,” in Poul Henningsen—dengang og nu, ed., Hans Hertel (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2009), 292–300; Bendix Andersen, “Kampen om forbrugersamfundet,” 54–56.
46.
Niels Ole Finnemann, I broderskabets aand, den socialdemokratiske arbejderbevægelses idéhistorie 1871–1977 (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1985), 280–347.
47.
Thorsten Borring Olesen and Poul Villaume, I blokopdelingens tegn, 1945–1972 (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2005), 126–143.
48.
Margit Bech Vilstrup, Kampen om arbejderne—Arbejderbegrebets politiske historie, 1750–2017 (PhD dissertation, University of Southern Denmark, 2017), 184–193; Sissel Bjerrum Fossat, Den artige lille pige med iskagen: Marshall-plan, produktivitet og amerikanisering (Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2015), 221–222.
49.
See Lis Groes, ed., Forbruger, elsket, ombejlet—svigtet?, en debatbog om forbrugeren i det moderne samfund (Albertslund: Det danske forlag, 1972), 277–293, which documents the attitude of all Danish political parties toward consumer politics in their political programs and pamphlets in the 1960s.
50.
Bertel Haarder, “Et langsigtet liberaliseringsprogram kan rette op på vores overadministrerede, skatte-tyngede og skæve Danmark,” in At være liberal i det moderne samfund, ed., Flemming Albertsen (Holte: Forlaget Liberal, 1974), 67.
51.
Haarder, “Et langsigtet liberaliseringsprogram,” 67.
52.
Haarder, “Et langsigtet liberaliseringsprogram,” 67.
53.
Christophersen, En udfordring for de liberale, 23.
54.
Christophersen, En udfordring for de liberale, 23–24.
55.
Christophersen, En udfordring for de liberale, 25.
56.
Jesper Vestermark Køber, Liberale udfordringer, en undersøgelse af brugen af politiske begreber samt opfattelser af liberalisme og demokrati i årene 1971–1982 blandt liberale i Venstre (MA thesis: University of Copenhagen, 2013).
57.
Peter Brixtofte, Krisen i det danske samfund (Holte: Forlaget Liberal, 1977), 14–22.
58.
Brixtofte, Krisen i det danske samfund, 67–98 and 37–46
59.
Den truede velstand: En debatbog om, hvordan vi får styr på den offentlige sektor, ed., Peter Brixtofte (Holte: Forlaget Liberal, 1980).
60.
Claus Hjort Frederiksen, “Dagpengeordningen og erhvervslivet,” in Den truede velstand: En debatbog om, hvordan vi får styr på den offentlige sektor, ed., Peter Brixtofte (Holte: Forlaget Liberal, 1980), 66.
61.
Bertel Haarder , Erik Nilsson, and Hanne Severinsen, Ny-liberalismen—og dens rødder (Holte: Forlaget Liberal, 1982).
62.
See the video footage of Haarder’s introduction to the launch of the Danish translation of Free to Choose taking place at the (neo)liberal think tank Cepos in June 2010—“CEPOS Boglancering ‘Det frie Valg’ af Milton Friedman,” accessed 5 January 2018, Cepos, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNN6AHXyZe8 . See also Bertel Haarder, Op mod strømmen, med højskolen i ryggen (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2013), 120–121.
63.
Søren Hein Rasmussen and Poul Villaume, Et land i forvandling: Danmarks Historie, 1970–2005 (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2007), 79–307.
64.
Offering non-formal adult education, the Danish folk high school system was established in the second half of the nineteenth century and remains an important cornerstone of the Danish educational system. It was and remains associated with the ideas concerning free educational opportunities outlined by Danish philosopher, poet, educational thinker , and clergyman, N. F. S. Grundtvig (1783–1872).
65.
Olsen, “A Second Hand Dealer in Ideas.”
66.
Niels I. Meyer, Villy Sørensen, and K. Helveg Petersen, Oprør fra midten (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1978).
67.
Niels Finn Christiansen, “Velfærd. Vision og virkelighed,” in Udfordring og omstilling. Bidrag til Socialdemokratiets historie, eds., Gerd Callesen, Sten Christensen and Henning Grelle (Copenhagen: Fremad, 1996), 120.
68.
Hans Ole Stoltenberg, Dansk forbrugerpolitik 1935–2000, en institutionel analyse af etableringen af Statens Husholdningsråd, Forbrugerombudsmandens embede, Forbrugerklagenævnet samt Forbrugerinformationen (MA thesis, Århus University, 2000).
69.
Jørn Henrik Petersen, “Bedrag at forbrugerne styrer produktionen?,” Ny Politik 2 (1972): 10–18. The figure of the sovereign consumer had been introduced before within the discipline of economics in relation to discussions of welfare economics. See, for example, Erik Hoffmeyer and Erling Olsen, “Økonomisk velfærdsteori,” in Velfærdsteori og velfærdsstat, ed., Erik Hoffmeyer (Copenhagen, Berlingske Forlag, 1962), 9–28, which provided an account of recent international discussions of welfare economics, including the different figures of the sovereign consumer that these discussions thematized.
70.
Rasmussen and Villaume, Et land i forvandling, 243–285.
71.
Rasmussen and Villaume, Et land i forvandling, 276–277.
72.
Finansministeriet, Redegørelse til Folketinget om regeringens program for modernisering af den statslige administration (1983). The program is analyzed in Niels Ejersbo and Carsten Greve, Moderniseringen af den offentlige sektor (Copenhagen: Akademisk forlag, 2014), 34–36 and in Petersen, Petersen, and Christiansen, Velfærdsstaten i tidehverv, 115–116.
73.
Finansministeriet, Redegørelse til Folketinget, 3, 7, 5–6.
74.
Petersen, Petersen, and Christiansen, Velfærdsstaten i tidehverv, 119–121.
75.
Rasmussen and Poul Villaume, Et land i forvandling, 326–330.
76.
Finansministeriet, Moderniseringsplaner 1988–1989 (1988). See also Ejersbo and Greve, Moderniseringen af den offentlige sektor, 40–41.
77.
Finansministeriet, Den offentlige sektor år 2000—moderniseringsredegørelse 1991 (1991), 4. Petersen, Petersen, and Christiansen, Velfærdsstaten i tidehverv, 122–123 and Ejersbo and Greve, Moderniseringen af den offentlige sektor, 42–44.
78.
Finansministeriet, Valg af velfærd—konkurrence med frit valg for borgerne (1992), 5.
79.
Petersen, Petersen, and Christiansen, Velfærdsstaten i tidehverv, 123–123 and Ejersbo and Greve, Moderniseringen af den offentlige sektor, 42–44.
80.
Balder Asmussen, Drivkræfterne bag den økonomiske politik, 1977–1994 (PhD dissertation, Aalborg University, 2007), 121–127.
81.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Fra socialstat til minimalstat, en liberal strategi (Copenhagen: Samleren, 1993).
82.
For the ideological discussion and transformations taking place within the Social Democratic Party in the 1980s, see Jørn Henrik Petersen, Klaus Petersen, and Niels Finn Christiansen, eds., Velfærdsstaten i tidehverv. Dansk Velfærdshistorie, bind 5, 1973–1993 (Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2013), 105–136 and Rasmus Knold Andersen, “Det knager i Samfundets Fuger og Baand”: Individ, stat og marked i Socialdemokratiets ideologi fra 1982 til 1993 (MA thesis, University of Copenhagen, 2018).
83.
Cited from Petersen, Petersen, and Christiansen, Velfærdsstaten i tidehverv, 118.
84.
For ny fremgang: Socialdemokratiets arbejdsprogram 1984–1988 (Copenhagen, 1984), 26. See also Petersen, Petersen, and Christiansen, Velfærdsstaten i tidehverv, 118.
85.
Petersen, Petersen, and Christiansen, Velfærdsstaten i tidehverv, 121–123.
86.
Jenny Andersson, Between Growth and Security: Swedish Social Democracy from a Strong Society to a Third Way (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006), 105–127.
87.
Cited from Petersen, Petersen, and Christiansen, Velfærdsstaten i tidehverv, 122.
88.
SAMAK, Förnya den offentliga sektorn (1990).
89.
SAMAK, Förnya den offentliga sektorn, 15.
90.
SAMAK, Förnya den offentliga sektorn, 29.
91.
Petersen, Petersen, and Christiansen, Velfærdsstaten i tidehverv, 122–123.
92.
Knold Andersen, “Det knager i Samfundets Fuger og Baand.”
93.
Hein Rasmussen and Villaume, Et land i forvandling, 308–329.
94.
Knold Andersen, “Det knager i Samfundets Fuger og Baand,” 31.
95.
Socialdemokratier, Gang i 90’erne. Socialdemokratiets bud på en samlet indsats 1990–1995 (1989), 11. See also Petersen, Petersen and Christiansen, Velfærdsstaten i tidehverv, 123.
96.
Daniel T. Rodgers, The Age of Fracture (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011).
97.
Mark Bevir, Key Concepts in Governance (London: Sage, 2009), 142–145.
98.
See, for example, Kjeld Møller Pedersen and Jørn Henrik Petersen, “Den offentlige sektor og velfærdsøkonomien,” Nationaløkonomisk Tidsskrift 117 (1979), 35–54; Jørn Henrik Petersen, “Kan man - som alternativ til central planlægning - benytte elementer af markedsmekanismen i den offentlige sektor,” Nordisk Administrativt Tidsskrift 4 (1980), 29–44; Jørn Henrik Petersen, “Decentralisering i den offentlige sektor,” Nationaløkonomisk Tidsskrift 119 (1981): 314–327. See also Rasmus Remegius Berg, Indførsel og udbredelse af Public Choice teori i Danmark (MA thesis, University of Copenhagen, 2016).

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Niklas Olsen

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Olsen, N. (2019). Sovereign Consumers Enter the Scandinavian Welfare State: The Case of Denmark. In: The Sovereign Consumer. Consumption and Public Life. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89584-0_6

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89584-0_6
Published: 26 August 2018
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