全球化下福利國家角色之挑戰─以2006年9月瑞典國會大選為例

Abstract

本文首先從歷年瑞典大選中相關福利體制、社會政策的改革來探討論瑞典福利國家所面臨的多層挑戰與其應對；最後聚焦在經濟全球化與歐盟整體架構下，探討2006年9月瑞典國會大選社會政策變化及其顯現的改革意涵。2006年9月18日的瑞典國會大選，以溫和黨為主的中間偏右聯盟擊敗以社會民主黨為主的中間偏左聯盟取得勝利。結束了瑞典社會民主黨的多年執政。從歷史與現實面來看，社民黨奠基瑞典福利國家制度典範有功、亦提出2006年上季失業率僅5.7%以及福利制度高度發展的亮麗成績，卻仍然無法贏得此次大選。 在總體經濟全球化與歐盟架構下，當外部環境變遷，瑞典福利國家除了因應內部本身龐大福利開支的負擔，其福利國家體制與社會政策若無法與時並進以應其潮流，便面臨替換的命運。值得注意的是，首先，瑞典大選向右轉的結果放大至全世界視野來看，其左右派路線之分，大體上仍在左派計劃經濟體制範疇內作二分動作；再者，經過2002年因主張大力改革福利體制慘遭落敗的溫和黨等中右聯盟，在2006年大選中亦稍往左派妥協，提出溫和改革與適度調整而不再激烈求變。 換句話說，瑞典人民在此次大選中轉向擁抱中右聯盟的社會政策體制，但從全球架構來看，依然還是在左派體制範疇內，因應全球化潮流、歐盟打擊貧窮不平等的整合政策，經濟體制向右轉向調整，但其瑞典人民原有的價值與觀念仍是持續存在，只是得進行微幅調整，例如其本身福利制度負擔沉重、老年人口與移民問題等，以為因應外部環境所帶來之結構性變遷。 關鍵字：經濟全球化、歐盟、瑞典、福利國家、瑞典國會大選、福利體制

The Moderate Party-dominated center-right coalition defeated the Social Democratic Party (SocDem)-dominated center-left coalition and won the victory of Sweden’s 2006 Riksdag (parliamentary) election on Sept 18. And the Social Democratic Party ended years of rule. From the pragmatical historical point of view, SocDem contributed to the foundation of Sweden’s national welfare system. SocDem also claimed the 5.7% unemployment last season in 2006 and the brilliant achievements in the highly-developed welfare system, but still failed to win in the general election. The thesis first investigates issues on welfare regime and social policy reforms in Sweden’s Riksdag (parliamentary) elections in the past decades, and then discusses on how Sweden face the multiple challenges as a welfare state and the counteractions, and at last focusing on economic globalization and European Union framework, investigates social policy transformations after Sweden’s Riksdag (parliamentary) election in 2006 and the ideology they appear. Under economic globalization and European Union framework, when external environment changes, Swedish welfare state not only deals with the burden of enormous internal welfare expenditures, and besides, if the welfare state regime and social policy can’t catch up with the times, then they also should be replaced. It is noteworthy that, firstly, if the right-turned result magnified into a global viewpoint, the separation of right wing and left wing routes are mainly split within the boundary of left-wing planned economic system. Moreover, the center-right coalition such as the Moderate Party, which advocated vigorous reforms on welfare policy and fell in 2002, also compromised with the left wing in the 2006 election and put forth moderate reform proposals instead of radical reforms. In other words, Swedish people make a turn and embrace the social policy system of the center-right coalition in this Riksdag (parliamentary) election, but form the viewpoint of global framework; it still lies within the boundary of left wing system. Accompanying with the impact of globalization, under EU’s integration policy fighting against poverty and inequality, the social economic system turned a little bit to the right, but the indigenous traditional values and concepts still remained. Accompanying with the structural changes, such as the heavy burden of its own welfare system, population aging and immigration problems, there must be a fine tuning.

Keywords: Economic globalization, European Union (EU), Sweden, welfare state, Swedish parliamentary election, welfare regime