Reforming to Survive: The Bolshevik Origins of Social Policies – A Works in Progress Presentation by Magnus B. Rasmussen

The Bolshevik Revolution brought profound social change to the modern world. This worker-led revolution, with aspirations far beyond the country of origin, became a threat and symbol of revolution to ruling elites around the world. CSE Visiting Researcher Magnus B. Rasmussen and his co-author, Carl Henrik Knutsen, develop a theory of how elites provide policy concessions when they face credible threats of revolution, highlighting how the motivation and capacity of opposition groups influence threats, but also how elites' absorption and interpretation of information signals matters. The Bolshevik Revolution and the formation of Comintern effectively enhanced elites' perceptions of a credible revolutionary threat, as it affected the capacity and motivation of labor movements, but also the nature and interpretation of information signals. This incentivized policy concessions from elites, including reduced working hours and expanded social transfer programs.

Rasmussen and Knutsen assess their argument by using original qualitative and quantitative data. First, using extensive archival resources, they document a change in perceptions of revolution, but also explicitly strategic policy concessions in early inter-war Norway. Second, they use party- and union representatives at the 1919 Comintern meeting as an indicator of the credibility of the domestic revolutionary threat in cross-national analysis. They find that states facing higher revolutionary threats expanded various social policies to a much greater extent, and some of these differences persist up until today.

Magnus B. Rasmussen is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo. His academic interests include comparative political economy, welfare state development, inequality and redistribution, labor market regulation and working time, trade unions and corporatism, and electoral systems.

The Works in Progress presentations are intended to foster interdisciplinary conversations among Europeanists and others at BU. Open to faculty, graduate students, and visiting researchers. Refreshments will be served. RSVP to edamrien@bu.edu.