• Rasmussen, Magnus Bergli & Carl Henrik Knutsen (2023). Reforming to Survive:The Bolshevik Origins of Social Policies. Cambridge University Press  (order here) 

  • • • • Featured at Broadstreet: Bolshevik Origins of Social Policies – Broadstreet 

        • Featured in VG: Debatt: Lenin og den moderne velferdsstatens gjennombrudd - VG (Norwegian)

        • Featured in Apollon:   Frykten for revolusjon førte til store reformer - Apollon (uio.no) (Norwegian)

        • Featured at forskning.no:  Da ledere i Høyre og Venstre trodde de kunne bli drept av Arbeiderpartiet (forskning.no)  (Norwegian)

        • Working paper version (not updated): (PDF) Reforming to Survive:The Bolshevik Origins of Social Policies (researchgate.net)  

        • Updated dataset (working hours) see below or dataset section. 

• Dahlum, Sirianne ; Carl Henrik Knutsen; Magnus Bergli Rasmussen & Tore Wig (Under Contract). Å studere Statsvitenskap [How to study Political Science]. Fagbokforlaget

• Wig, Tore ; Sirianne Dahlum; Carl Henrik Knutsen, Magnus B. Rasmussen (2025). Cui Bono? Business Elites and Interstate Conflict.  European Journal of International Relations. link 

• Carl Henrik Knutsen, Sirianne Dahlum, Magnus Bergli Rasmussen, Tore Wig (2025). Behind the throne Regime support coalitions around the world, 1789-2020 .British Journal of Political Science. pre-print Journal Article

• Rasmussen, Magnus Bergli (2024): The Great Standardization: Working Hours around the World since 1789 . Labor History, 65(4), 563–591. Paper and  pre-print  

  • Dataset: Working Time Regulation in 203 Independent and dependent states from 1789 to 2014. download (STATA). Please read this paper before using

  • Appendix B: Download. 

• Rasmussen, Magnus Bergli., & Knutsen, C.H. (2024). Laying Down The Principles: How Local Socialist Achievements Spurred National Bourgeois Support for Noncontributory Pensions. World Politics 76(1), 172-217. Article link and Pre-print

  • Replication Dataset

• Rasmussen, Magnus Bergli (2024). The Politics of Time: The Political Origins of Working-Time Regulation. Social Science History. 48(1):65-91. Article link and Pre-print

• Rasmussen, Magnus Bergli (2022).Farmers and the Origin of the Welfare State: Evidence from 308 roll call votes between 1882 and 1940 Scandinavian Political Studies. 45: 202-226  Link to preprint Link to paper

  • Featured at forskning.no:  Senterpartiet støttet ikke Arbeiderpartiet da velferdsstaten skulle bygges før krigen (forskning.no)  (Norwegian)

• Rasmussen, Magnus Bergli; Haakon Gjerløw (2022). Revolution, elite fear, and electoral institutions.  Comparative Politics, 54(4), 595-619. Download here 

• Skorge, Ø. S., & Rasmussen, M. B. (2022). Volte-face on the welfare state: Social partners, knowledge economies, and the expansion of work-family policies. Politics & Society, 50(2), 222-254. main paper. online appendix (with additional case-studies)

• Andersen, David; Carsten Jensen & Magnus Bergli Rasmussen (2021)  Suffering from Suffrage: Welfare State Development and the Politics of Citizenship Disqualification. Social Science History, 45(4), 863-886.  Download here. 

• Cools, Sara ;Henning Finseraas & Magnus Bergli Rasmussen  (2020). Organizing Immigrants: Organized Labor in the Age of Migration. LABOUR: Review of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations. 35: 24-51. Download here 

• Knutsen, Carl Henrik & Rasmussen, Magnus Bergli (2019).  Majoritarian systems, rural groups, and (arrested) welfare state development. International Political Science Review, 41(2), 238-254. . International Political Science Review.  Download here

• Rasmussen, Magnus Bergli & Knutsen, Carl Henrik (2019). Party Institutionalization and Welfare State Development. British Journal of Political Science.51(3):1203-1229. Article here  and  Pre-print here

• Knutsen, Carl Henrik & Rasmussen, Magnus (2018). The Autocratic Welfare State: Old-Age Pensions, Credible Commitments, and Regime Survival. Comparative Political Studies. 51(5), 659-695.   Download here

  • Featured in Dagens Næringsliv (newspaper) : Velferd stabiliserer diktaturer (+) | DN (Norwegian)

  • Featured in MonkeyCage  (Washington Post) :Offering pensions can help autocrats stay in power longer - The Washington Post 

• Knutsen, Carl Henrik & Rasmussen, Magnus Bergli (2018). Electoral Rules, Labor Market Coordination and Macroeconomic Performance. Scandinavian Political Studies.41(3), 367-378.   Download here 

• Rasmussen, Magnus & Pontusson, Jonas (2018). Working-Class Strength by Institutional Design? Unionization, Partisan Politics, and Unemployment Insurance Systems, 1870 to 2010. Comparative Political Studies.51(6), 793-828.  Download here

  • Download my Union Density dataset on the dataset page.

Book Chapters

• Rasmussen, Magnus Bergli (Forthcoming). "The Norwegian Welfare state". Chapter 39 in Oxford Handbook of Norwegian Politics. Oxford University Press. Link

• Rasmussen, Magnus Bergli & Carl Henrik Knutsen (Forthcoming). "Political regimes and welfare state development" . Chapter XX in Oxford Handbook of Norwegian Politics. Oxford University Press. Link

• Rasmussen, Magnus Bergli & Øyvind S. Skorge (2019). “The business of change: Employers and work-family policy reforms”. Chapter 10 in Dennie Oude Nijhuis (ed.) “Business Interests and the Development of the Modern Welfare State” Routledge: New York.

Norwegian Peer-reviewed journals

• Rasmussen, M., & Rasmussen, P. (2010). Makt i psykisk helse. Tidsskrift for psykisk helsearbeid, 7(2), 142-152. 

Revise and Resubmitt 

• The Solidaristic Class? Urban Working Classes, Regime Coalitions, and Welfare State Expansion. With Sirianne Dahlum; Carl Henrik Knutsen & Wig, Tore.  Link (Revise and Resubmit World Politics)  

• Who Rules? Support Coalitions and Regime Survival, 1789-2020. With Knutsen, Carl Henrik Wig; Tore Wig ; Sirianne Dahlum. Link (Revise and Resubmitt Comparative Political Studies). 

• Strikes and Machines: Investment decisions in the inter-war period.  With Andreas Kotsadam, Kalle Moene, Anders Kjelsrud, &Haakon Gjerløv. Link (Reject and Revise The Journal of Economic History) 

• Welfare before the Welfare State: Worker Mobilization and Poor Relief Provisions in Norwegian Municipalities 1900-1922. With Haakon Gjerløw (Revise and Resubmitt Labour History)

Under Review

• Partiaization: How National Parties Took Hold of Local Politics. with Øyvind S. Skorge:  Contact for latest version. (Abstract)

  • Norwegian Local Assembly Election dataset to be published on publication (1901-1937).

• To Nip it in the Bud: Democratization and Institutional Safeguards against Redistribution.  Link (Under review). (note, this is a combination of two previously separate papers)

• Imperial Labor Standards:  Working Time Regulation in a World Dominated by Empires. (under review). With Carl Henrik Knutsen.

• Institutions (still) Rule: Labor Market Centralization and Trade Union Organization. under review

Working Papers

• The Right to Vote by Mail: The Politics of Absentee voting. (Under Construction) (Abstract)

• Organization Works: Hours of Work and the International Labor Organization. Link

•  Industrialization and Democratization: Historical evidence from Norway and Switzerland.  Noort, Sam van & Tore Wig: (Under Construction)

• Election fraud in Norway, 1860-1900: A preliminary investigation. (Under Construction)

• Reformism or Radicalism: Revisiting the Sources of Working-Class Politics. (Under Construction) 

Planned projects

• Magnus B. Rasmussen; Marina Povitkina & Øyvind S. Skorge. The Green Contagion? Investigating the causal effect of green-party entry on mainstream parties environmental position. 

• Magnus B. Rasmussen; Andreas Kotsadam; Jo Thore Lind: Becoming a Nazi: Explaining Membership in Facist and National Socialist Organizations using individual level data, 1920-1940. 

Resting Papers 

• Rasmussen, Bergli Rasmussen. The Origin of the Segmented Welfare State. 

• Educated to Democratize? Education and Elite support for Universal suffrage. With Dahlum, Sirianne; (Abstract)

• Finseraas, Henning & Magnus Bergli Rasmussen. Immigration, Policy Bundles, and Welfare State Generosity