Does anyone have works on the erosion of the welfare state in Nordic countries after the fall of the USSR?

u/parentis_shotgun - originally from r/GenZhou
I apologize that this isn't an academic study, but its a good overview by a communist student org in sweden:

What about social democracy / democratic socialism / the Nordic model? Isn't Sweden socialist?

u/stonedshrimp - originally from r/GenZhou
I don’t have any sources at hand, I live in Norway and have experience through my lived experience(i also study political science if that helps). The last 30 years have seen a lot of austerity. I, from my belief and understanding, believe that Europe and Scandinavia, owe our welfare and tax system as a response to our Soviet neighbours. It had to be, in order to placate the public, which were already sosialist leaning, to not go full state planing.

To your general question; Yes, workers, or the proletariat, in Norway, have experienced a large difference in life and work quality since 1990. The most noticeable is inequality, the lesser one is worker power. Unions, which is the bane of our (seemingly) «equal» society, have lost their bargaining power in relation to the production output. Its not organized in a marxist, dialectical manner. Workers get crumbs when they should’ve gotten bread. I’ve been organized myself, and unions nowadays don’t have teeth anymore, they’re organizations with their own interrest instead of class interrest.

As I said, I don’t have any sources at hand, but this is the general perception among Norwegian marxists. I could show you statistics on inequality in Scandinavia(which is rising), but you’ll have to take my word for it.

The austerity measures we have experienced, same as in the UK and the rest of Europe, are in favour of capitalists, not the people, and we push for every year in the name of «efficiency» and «cost saving». Which is bullshit. We work more for less, every year. «We need more employees» is met by expectations of working harder for the company to make more while we make the same wage as usual.

Austerity has ruined the comfortable working life in Norway. You’re expected to work more than you need, this neoliberal plague of producing more than needed.

Turns out now that our train tracks and staffing at hospitals have gone to shit that its needed. And thats two out of 100 areas where we’re in need of funding. Neoliberalism is the cancer that we are infected with, but capitalism is the main problem.