'APPLIED SOCIALISM OF A FAIRLY MODERATE KIND'

摘要

This article analyses general opinions of Scandinavia held by British policymakers in the post-war period, before going on to examine a particular instance of Britain's attempts to copy 'Scandinavian policies' in the early 1960s. Given the generally positive views held as concerned Scandinavian economic and social policies at the time, and the influence those countries wielded in international economic and social policy networks, such attempts were only to be expected. During the 1959-1964 Parliament, the British Conservative Government attempted to adopt housing policies from Scandinavia, in particular housing co-operatives subsidized by the state, but organized by owners and tenants. They failed to entrench such new ideas in the British policy system, for four reasons. The first was the very strong institutional position of municipal housing and owner-occupation; the second was the taxation system, which proved impervious to change; the third was the obviously politically-motivated attempt to change British behaviour in a very short time-frame; and the fourth, crucially, was the lack of knowledge as to how Scandinavian housing markets actually worked. This failed experiment demonstrates the allure, but also the superficiality and some of the dangers, of direct policy transfer between nations.