9058009783

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Hartmann. Sweden

wages for low-income groups, this produced a very Iow wage-differentia-tłon after a period of 20 years, with ratios of 1:3 in public administration and 1:5 in private enterprises. As Swedish employees are unionized to about 80% and the wage-agreements guaranteed the same income-level throughout the whole country, a continuous process of structural adjust-ment in the directión of the most profitable Industries and a decline of branches with Iow performance as e.g. the teitile industry was the result.

But the application of the Meidner-Rehn model also meant a strife for cen-traiization and advantages for large corporations which could adjust their modes of production to the newest technology. In order to identify areas of economic growth, long-term planning surveys were conducted regularly from 1948 onwards, which coordinated the forecasts madę by private and governmental research institutes. Though the results of the surveys only could be seen as information and recommendations by independent economists, their wide acceptance as a guideline for corporate investments and governmental intervention almost created an institutionalized link between the government and corporations in Sweden.

The common interest in planned development also paved the way for a generał acceptance of an active labour market policy by the Swedish gov-ernment. The government was given the finał responsibility to guarantee a sufficient labour supply to the corporations in times of economic eipansion and for fuli employment of the labour force in times of recession.

Thus, instruments for interventions on the labour market and in restruc-turing the qualification of the labour force were created during the 1950s and 1960s under the impact of economic ezpansion within the Labour Market Administration. A variety of interventions as vocational retraining, relief-work, sheltered work, wage-subsidies and financial aid for those mov-ing to other areas of work were supposed to ease the adjustment of the in-dividual to the needs of a restructured economy and were the prereąuisite for the acceptance of these transformations by the trade unions.

Furthermore, there was a common understanding to give priority to mea-sures securing employment (work-option) instead of only securing the in-come of a person (benefit-option). Gainful employment was seen as the prereąuisite of fuli citizenship in Sweden. The right to employment has not only been a goal for the trade unions and the Social Democratic Party, but has been a dominating goal for all political forces in Sweden during the re-cent 30 years. This shared belief in the importance of fuli employment has resulted in the acceptance of a high inflation ratę, repeated depreciation of the Swedish currency and tight legislation securing the rights of the employees on the labour market.