ABSTRACT
Social theory as much as social practice arises in the context of distinct social relations of production, representing definite historical phases in the human metabolism with nature. Theoretical cultures, however, can vary radically even within the boundaries of a given mode of production and at a given stage of development, reflecting different histories, constellations of social forces, and customs in common. The classic home of the welfare state and of social-democratic politics, the four Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, have nurtured a political-economic environment. These social-democratic politics were drawn both on Marx, the leading socialist critic of capitalism, and on Keynes, capitalism's greatest liberal economic reformer. Although the resulting social-democratic formations were not socialist, since they remained geared to class-based, capital accumulation, they nonetheless constituted in many ways the antithesis within capitalist boundaries of what is now commonly referred to as neoliberal capitalism.
