Equality with a Happy Bourgoisie. The Social Democratic Road to Equality

The parliamentary socialists, persuaded as they were of the imminent proletarian majorities, initially viewed socialization as a realistic objective. But historical progress proved them wrong. The first socialist government in Sweden constitutes, in fact, a rare historical attempt to dispossess the bourgeoisie democratically (via a taxation scheme). The policy was a miserable failure, not least because it garnered only lukewarm – at best – support from the working class electorate (Bergstrom, 1988). As did the Swedes very swiftly, most social democratic movements that aspired to govern had to redefine their egalitarian agenda. This they did by essentially reversing the target, leaving the bourgeoisie in peace and concentrating instead on enriching the proletariat. Thus emerged the great social democratic reversal. What is to be done translated into the socialization of income flows rather than capital stock.