2024
Bo Bengtsson
The article "The changing role of cooperatives in the Swedish housing regime" by Bo Bengtsson analyzes the historical development of cooperative housing in Sweden through a path dependence perspective. It highlights three critical junctures: the Tenant-Ownership Act of 1930, the establishment of a universal housing regime post-WWII, and the 1968-1969 deregulation that led to marketization. The study reveals that national politicians and cooperative leaders were the main drivers of change, while cooperative members had limited influence. The reforms resulted in long-term stability and a shift in the cooperative sector from a social movement to a marketized tenure form, currently comprising 25% of the housing stock. The author warns of the fragility of systems based on cooperative housing due to tensions between ownership and socio-political goals, suggesting that the path dependence framework could be beneficial for analyzing cooperative housing in other countries.
Title: The changing role of cooperatives in the Swedish housing regime - a path dependence analysis
Author: Bo Bengtsson
Published: March 2024 in Housing Studies
Context: This article analyzes the historical development of cooperative housing in Sweden using a path dependence perspective. Sweden has an unusually large cooperative housing sector, accounting for about 25% of the total housing stock. The author aims to explain how this sector developed over time and changed its role within Sweden's universal housing regime.
Key Findings:
- The article identifies three critical junctures that shaped the trajectory of cooperative housing in Sweden:
- At each critical juncture, the main actors driving change were national politicians (especially Social Democrats) and leaders of cooperative organizations. Cooperative members and potential members played a limited role, in contrast to similar reforms in Norway.
- The mechanisms of efficiency, legitimacy and power were at work in all three reforms, contributing to path dependence.
- The long-term consequences of these reforms were more far-reaching than anticipated by actors at the time:
- The 1930 Act guaranteed long-term stability of cooperative housing
- The 1940s reforms gave cooperatives a central role in the universal housing regime
- The 1968 deregulation led to marketization of the sector
- The cooperative sector has expanded steadily since the 1930s, reaching 25% of the housing stock today. However, its role has changed from a social movement providing decent housing to members, to an important part of the national housing regime, and more recently to a marketized tenure form.
- The author argues that the Swedish experience shows how a system of social housing based on cooperatives can be fragile due to tensions between ownership and socio-political goals. The marketization process proved difficult to reverse once started.
- The path dependence framework used to analyze the Swedish case could be fruitfully applied to study cooperative housing development in other countries, examining critical junctures, key actors, and mechanisms of change.
a) The Tenant-Ownership Act of 1930, which established tenant-ownership as a distinct housing tenure.
b) The introduction of Sweden's universal housing regime after WWII, which gave cooperative housing a central role in housing provision.
c) The deregulation of the cooperative tenure in 1968-1969, which opened the path to marketization and further expansion.
The article contributes to understanding how cooperative housing developed in Sweden through a path dependence lens, and suggests this approach could yield insights if applied to other national contexts.