Looking back, what can be learned from the rise and fall of Swedish social democracy? This article presents a history lesson of the (complicated) relationship between the social democrats and the radical left, and some ideas on where to go from here.

Second, the Left must devote significant intellectual and organizational attention toward the development of a plan for the socialization of investment. This is the only way to overcome the welfare state’s dependence on capital.

Unlike the wage-earner funds proposal, such policies for socialized investment must be directly tied to pertinent issues – welfare, housing, sustainability – that can mobilize people beyond the trade union movement.

Failure to address these issues has turned socialist movements that aim to change the world — from the Swedish Social Democrats to Syriza — into state managers whose electability depends on their ability to maintain business confidence.