Olle Törnquist

Can social democracy be reinvented? Insights from Indian and Scandinavian comparisons

Oct 17, 2016 | 4-6pm Orozco Room

In the age of market driven globalisation, social democracy is hard pressed. Can it be reinvented? Scholars on Scandinavia and India are just out with a joint book that is the first to compare experiences in the South and the North. Having identified the universal processes of social democracy and analysed Indian experiences by asking questions from Scandinavia, and vice versa,  they arrive at four general conclusions. One, the development strategy from the 1930s remain tenable, but it is missing a fundamental pillar in the form of comprehensive industrialisation and relatively coherent labour movement and modernisation oriented employers. The conditions for social growth pacts are poor in countries like India. Two, however, these conditions can be improved by transformative politics. Several additional historical factors in the rise of social democracy remain valid in the South too. Three, renewal in the South calls for reversed priorities. Struggles for welfare state, decent conditions at work and representation of the most vital interests in public policy making and administration must come ahead of social growth pacts. A number of experiences suggest that this may not be impossible. Four, it should be in the enlightened self-interest of social democracy in countries like Sweden and Norway to support such processes.

About the Speaker:

Olle Törnquist

Professor of Political Science and Development Research, University of Oslo, Olle has written widely on radical politics, development and democratization. In addition to parts of India, especially Kerala, his main empirical focus since the 1970s is Indonesia, where he also co-directs research with scholarly activists. His recent books are Assessing Dynamics of Democratisation (Palgrave, 2013) and the anthologies (with co-editors) Democratisation in the Global South (Palgrave, 2013) and Reclaiming the State: Overcoming Problems of Democracy in Post-Soeharto Indonesia (PolGo; PCD 2015).