Eugenics and the welfare state in Sweden: The politics of social margins and the idea of a productive society

Journal of Contemporary History

Volumn 39, Issue 3, 2004, Pages

  Spektorowski, Alberto ^b   Mizrachi, Elisabet ^a  

^a TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY   (Israel)

^b NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33845247197     PISSN: 00220094     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0022009404044443     Document Type: Article

References (33)

1. For the arguments raised in the British case, see for example G. Jones, Social Darwinism and English Thought (Brighton and Atlantic Highlands, NJ 1980)
2. See, for example, G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, Eugenics and the Welfare State (Michigan 1996), 108-9. This is the last and most impressive study of eugenics and welfare policy
3. See G. Broberg and M. Tydén, Oönskade i folkhemmet: Rashygien och sterilisering i Sverige (Stockholm 1991)
4. See A. Carlson, The Swedish Experiment in Family Policy: The Myrdals and the Inter-war Population Crisis (New Brunswick 1990)
5. and Y. Hirdman, Att lägga livet tili rätta: Studier i svensk folkhemspolitik (Stockholm 1989)
6. See M. Runcis, Steriliseringar i folkhemmet (Stockholm 1998)
7. See M. Zaremba 'Rasren i välfarden. Folkhemmets förträngda arv', Dagens Nyheter (20 August 1997)
8. N. Roll-Hansen, 'Scandinavian Eugenics in the International Context' in G. Broberg and N. Roll-Hansen, Eugenics and the Welfare State. Sterilization Policy in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland (Michigan 1996), 260
9. S. Trombley, The Right to Reproduce. A History of Coercive Sterilization (London 1988), 6
10. Z. Sternhell, 'Fascist Ideology' in W. Laqueur, Fascism: A Reader's Digest (New York 1979) 374. Sternhell has pointed out that fascist ideology was the result of the convergence of an integralist and conservative right and an anti-Marxian socialist left. This synthesis set the intellectual basis for the development of a national socialist path to political modernity, a 'third way' between Marxian Socialism and Liberalism. The important point is that this 'third way', adopted by a wide variety of modernist socialist intellectuals, was closer to political reactionism in its rejection of democratic and liberal values, in spite of its celebration of technological modernity, nationalist mobilization and social integration for all the productive and healthy forces of the nation. The 'others' were the non-productive forces, which could be defined in ethnic terms - Jews, gypsies, etc., or in socio-economic terms - 'intellectuals', etc
11. S. Webb, Socialism in England (London 1987), 10
12. J. Weeks, 'The Fabians and Utopia' in Ben Pimlott (ed.) Fabian Essays in Socialist Thought (London 1984), 76
13. S. Webb and B. Webb, Soviet Communism: A New Civilization (London 1937, 2nd edn), 1057
14. See E. Hobsbawm, 'The Fabians Reconsidered' in Labouring Men (London 1964), 250-71
15. See S. Ball, The Moral Aspects of Socialism (London 1896)
16. Sheri Berman, The Social Democratic Moment. Ideas and Politics in the Making of Interwar Europe (Cambridge, MA 1998), 51
17. Axel Danielsson, Om revolutionen i Sverige (Stockholm 1972), 28-9
18. Sheila Faith Weiss, 'The Race Hygiene Movement in Germany, 1904-1945' in Mark Adams, The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil and Russia (New York 1990)
19. Paul Weindling, 'Dissecting German Social Darwinism: Historicizing the Biology of the Organic State', Science in Context, 11, 3-4 (1988), 629
20. See Stefan Kuhl, The Nazi Connection. Eugenics, American Racism and German National Socialism (New York 1994), 13
21. See also Randhall Hansen and Desmond King, 'Eugenic Ideas, Political Interests and Policy Variance. Immigration and Sterilization Policy in Britain and the US', World Policy, 53 (January 2001), 237-63
22. Gisela Bock, Zwangssterilisation im Nationalsozialismus: Studien zur Rassenpolitik und Frauenpolitik (Opladen 1986), 60
23. W.A. Jackson, 'The Making of a Social Science Classic: Gunnar Myrdal's An American Dilemma', Perspectives in American History, New Series, vol. 2 (1985), 234
24. G. Heckscher, The Welfare State and Beyond: Success and Problems in Scandinavia (Minneapolis 1984), 44
25. A. Myrdal and G. Myrdal, Kris i befolkningsfrågan (Stockholm 1997), 200-4
26. G. Myrdal, 'Population Problems and Policies', The Annals, vol. 197, May 1938, 203-4
27. A. Myrdal, Nation and Family: The Swedish Experiment in Democratic Family and Population Policy (Cambridge, MA 1968), 215
28. H. Tingsten, Den svenska socialdemokratins idéutveckling, vol. 1 (Stockholm 1967), 336-8
29. Motioner i första kammaren, Nr. 38, Av herr Petrén, Alfred, angående lagbestämmelser, som i vissa fall medgiva sterilisering av sinnesslöa, sinnessjuka och fallandesjuka, eventuellt sedlighetsfö rbrytare. Saml. 3, Band 1, Nr. 1-92 (Stockholm 1922), 3-7
30. Statens Offentliga Utredningar 1936:46 Betänkande angående sterlilisering avgivet av befolkningskommissionen (Stockholm 1936), 14
31. Första kammarens protokoll, Nr. 24. Onsdagen den 23 april 1941, Nr. 18-33 (Stockholm 1941), 38
32. See G. Dahlberg, 'Anthropometry of "Tattare", a Special Group of Vagabonds in Sweden', Uppsala Läkareförenings Förhandlingar, New Series 50 (1944)
33. G. Broberg and M. Tydén, 'Eugenics in Sweden: Efficient Care' in Broberg and Hansen, op. cit., 133