IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/oxford/v14y1998i1p19-39.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding Swedish Social Democracy: Victims of Success?

Author

Listed:
  • Vartiainen, Juhana

Abstract

The economic policies of Swedish Social Democrats were not the product of one centralized authority but, rather, a series of initiatives influenced by many political actors and inspired by egalitarian preferences. We focus on three policy areas. First, the welfare state is a central achievement of Social Democracy. Although its expansion is over, it has cemented Social Democracy's position in power and is still popular among the electorate. Second, the labour-market model is in crisis. The centralized Rehn/Meidner model is not working, coordination of wage bargaining has turned out to be difficult, and the trade unions' radical politics of the 1970s alienated Swedish employers from social concertation. Finally, macroeconomic management has had to struggle with inflationary pressures, and the overheating of the late 1980s and the subsequent deflationary shock led to a sharp increase in unemployment in the 1990s. Many of these problems are related to Social Democracy's internal strains. Copyright 1998 by Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Vartiainen, Juhana, 1998. "Understanding Swedish Social Democracy: Victims of Success?," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 14(1), pages 19-39, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:oxford:v:14:y:1998:i:1:p:19-39
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hibbs, Douglas Jr. & Locking, Hakan, 1996. "Wage compression, wage drift and wage inflation in Sweden," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 109-141, September.
    2. Calmfors, Lars, 1993. "Lessons from the macroeconomic experience of Sweden," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 25-72, March.
    3. Soskice, David, 1990. "Wage Determination: The Changing Role of Institutions in Advanced Industrialized Countries," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 6(4), pages 36-61, Winter.
    4. Ramana Ramaswamy, 1992. "Wage Bargaining Institutions, Adaptability, and Structural Change: The Swedish Experience," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4), pages 1041-1061, December.
    5. Korpi, Walter, 1996. "Eurosclerosis and the Sclerosis of Objectivity: On the Role of Values among Economic Policy Experts," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(439), pages 1727-1746, November.
    6. Assar Lindbeck, 1997. "The Swedish Experiment," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(3), pages 1273-1319, September.
    7. Dowrick, Steve, 1996. "Swedish Economic Performance and Swedish Economic Debate: A View from Outside," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(439), pages 1772-1779, November.
    8. Hibbs, Douglas A, Jr & Locking, Hakan, 2000. "Wage Dispersion and Productive Efficiency: Evidence for Sweden," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(4), pages 755-782, October.
    9. Sherwin Rosen, 1997. "Public Employment, Taxes, and the Welfare State in Sweden," NBER Chapters, in: The Welfare State in Transition: Reforming the Swedish Model, pages 79-108, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Lundberg, Erik, 1985. "The Rise and Fall of the Swedish Model," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 1-36, March.
    11. Gunnarsson, Gudmundur & Lindh, Thomas, 1997. "Swedish Employment in the 1950s - Filling the Lacuna," Working Paper Series 1997:13, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    12. repec:bla:scandj:v:98:y:1996:i:2:p:203-18 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Henrekson, Magnus, 1996. "Sweden's Relative Economic Performance: Lagging Behind or Staying on Top?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(439), pages 1747-1759, November.
    14. Holden, S., 1991. "Economic Policy in an Economy with Local and Central Wage Bargaining," Memorandum 1991_008, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    15. Anders Forslund & Alan B. Krueger, 1997. "An Evaluation of the Swedish Active Labor Market Policy: New and Received Wisdom," NBER Chapters, in: The Welfare State in Transition: Reforming the Swedish Model, pages 267-298, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Kaitala, Veijo & Pohjola, Matti, 1990. "Economic Development and Agreeable Redistribution in Capitalism: Efficient Game Equilibria in a Two-Class Neoclassical Growth Model," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 31(2), pages 421-438, May.
    17. Mikael Apel & Per Jansson, 1999. "System estimates of potential output and the NAIRU," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 373-388.
    18. Lancaster, Kelvin, 1973. "The Dynamic Inefficiency of Capitalism," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(5), pages 1092-1109, Sept.-Oct.
    19. Freeman, Richard B. & Topel, Robert H. & Swedenborg, Birgitta (ed.), 1997. "The Welfare State in Transition," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226261782, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Eric Bengtsson & Engelbert Stockhammer, 2018. "Wages, income distribution and economic growth in Scandinavia," Working Papers PKWP1811, Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES).
    2. Yong Soo Park, 2005. "The Decline of the Welfare State?," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 8(2), pages 107-134, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Davis, Steven J. & Henrekson, Magnus, 2005. "Wage-setting institutions as industrial policy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 345-377, June.
    2. Erixon, Lennart, 2000. "A Swedish Economic Policy - The Theory, Application and Validity of the Rehn-Meidner Model," Research Papers in Economics 2000:13, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    3. Erixon, Lennart, 2005. "Travelling Along the Third Way. A Swedish Model of Stabilisation, Equity and Growth," Research Papers in Economics 2005:10, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    4. Gustavsson, Magnus, 2004. "Trends in the Transitory Variance of Earnings: Evidence from Sweden 1960-1990 and a Comparison with the United States," Working Paper Series 2004:11, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    5. Jakee, Keith & Sun, Guang-Zhen, 2005. "External habit formation and dependency in the welfare state," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 83-98, March.
    6. Ngai, L. Rachel & Pissarides, Christopher A., 2009. "Welfare policy and the distribution of hours of work," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 28698, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Francesco Vona & Luca Zamparelli, 2014. "Centralized Wage Setting and Active Labor Market Policies in Frictional Labor Markets: The Nordic Case," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 40(3), pages 349-364, June.
    8. Magnus Henrekson & Jesper Roine, 2007. "Promoting Entrepreneurship in the Welfare State," Chapters, in: David B. Audretsch & Isabel Grilo & A. Roy Thurik (ed.), Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurship Policy, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Magnus Henrekson, 2005. "Entrepreneurship: a weak link in the welfare state?," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 14(3), pages 437-467, June.
    10. Domeij, David & Ljungqvist, Lars, 2006. "Wage Structure and Public Sector Employment: Sweden versus the United States 1970-2002," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 638, Stockholm School of Economics.
    11. Krantz, Olle, 2004. "Economic Growth and Economic Policy in Sweden in the 20th Century: A Comparative Perspective," Ratio Working Papers 32, The Ratio Institute.
    12. Ulf Jakobsson & Magnus Henrekson, 2001. "Where Schumpeter was nearly right - the Swedish model and Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 331-358.
    13. Vidal, Jean-François, 2010. "Crises et transformations du modèle social-démocrate suédois," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 8.
    14. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pc:p:2985-3028 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Rasmus Landersø & James J. Heckman, 2017. "The Scandinavian Fantasy: Sources of Intergenerational Mobility in Denmark and the US," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 119(1), pages 178-230, January.
    16. Hibbs, Douglas A, Jr & Locking, Hakan, 2000. "Wage Dispersion and Productive Efficiency: Evidence for Sweden," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(4), pages 755-782, October.
    17. Barth, Erling & Moene, Karl O. & Willumsen, Fredrik, 2014. "The Scandinavian model—An interpretation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 60-72.
    18. Douglas A. Hibbs, Jr. & Håkan Locking, 1995. "Solidarity Wage Policies and Industrial Productivity in Sweden," Nordic Journal of Political Economy, Nordic Journal of Political Economy, vol. 22, pages 95-108.
    19. Jochem, Sven, 1998. "The social democratic full-employment model in transition: The Scandinavian experiences in the 1980s and 1990s," Working papers of the ZeS 02/1998, University of Bremen, Centre for Social Policy Research (ZeS).
    20. Calmfors, Lars & Forslund, Anders & Hemström, Maria, 2002. "Does active labour market policy work? Lessons from the Swedish experiences," Working Paper Series 2002:4, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    21. Győrffy, Dóra, 2006. "Globális kihívások és nemzetgazdasági alkalmazkodás. A gazdaságpolitikai fegyelem intézményesítése Svédországban [Global challenges and international economic adjustment. Institutionalization of ec," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(6), pages 540-559.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:oxford:v:14:y:1998:i:1:p:19-39. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/oxrep .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.