>Jorn if you know anything what is causing the dismal Swedish economic
>performance
>of the last 8--9 years written in English let me know I'm interested in
finding
>out.
I don't know much about Sweden. I read a short article in the International Socialism Journal (issue 51, summer 1991). What they argue here - from a brief re-reading - is that the specific way Swedish capital organized (the "Swedish model") made it rather vulnerable as soon as international crisis took off in the mid-70's.
The "Swedish model" was based on 1) a "social pact" containing a centrally controlled wages policy, a taxation favouring reinvestment and government provision of a highly developed education and infrastructure etc. 2) a very high level of exports from most key industries, and 3) a rather high level of rearmament.
Also it must be remembered that Sweden was one of the few european countries with a 100 pct. intact infrastructure and industry - actually they had provided lots of material for the German war machine during most of WW2.
All this favoured big business, but it didn't matter much that minor and inefficient businesses lost out as long as the boom continued. On the contrary it helped Sweden build a very modern and efficient industry - a model for many others during the boom years.
So Sweden was able to make the most out of the international boom. However the very success of internationalization built the problems that became obvious when the boom ended. The authors name 3 aspects:
a) the tendency to trade blocks (European Union etc.) would exclude Sweden from many of those markets it had lived on after WW2. This also created a political dilemma for the SocDems, because joining the EU would mean problems for the survival of the "model". (As you know the later gave up the "model" as well as their reservations towards EU.)
b) for some of the most successful Swedish companies internationalization meant that their core business was now outside Sweden. A couple of figures (from this 1991 article): Swedish owned companies employed 450.000 workers outside Sweden - with a total Swedish workforce of 4.5 millions, or maybe more comparable: a domestic industrial labour force around 1.5 millions. I.e. 1 out of 4 industrial workers. Electrolux employed 140.500, 110.000 of them abroad; Ericsson employed 70.900, 50 pct. abroad.
c) the tendency to fusions of big business internationally esp. since the 80's also included Swedish capital.
The effect of (esp. the last two points) is of course to undermine the mutual dependency between these parts of big business and the Swedish state. Parts of big business no longer need the SocDems as much as during the boom, and they no longer need to pay the relative higher wages and taxes, if they can move some of its investments abroad or merge/make joint ventures with foreign companies.
Another factor was the highly centralized bargaining system on the labour market, which gave stability during the boom. But the flip side was that wages (incl. social security etc.) were high not only in export industries but throughout the labour market. Also: While industry became more and more capital intensive, this was not so much the case for public sector, small business etc.
I think we can sum all this up in the title of the article: "Goodbye to the Swedish miracle". The circumstances which made it possible no longer exist, and this means breaking up the welfare state, which will provoke a lot of bitterness - and probably also resistance from workers. There are already horrifying examples of the effects of privatization in the social and hospital sectors in Sweden.
Hope this helps a little - but don't expect me to expand the arguments. This is in the main a paraphrase of the article.
> Also is Denmark's unemployment anything like the 9 - 10% unemployment
>reported in Sweden.
No, not quite. Danish economy has been doing quite well the last 5-6 years - up to this summer. Now balance of payments will turn negative in a couple of months, exports is going down etc. Un top of this comes the effects of the international crisis which has led the major employers' magazine to write in a headline "Mass sackings coming in Denmark" - while the government (SocDem/Liberal) continue to paint the rosy picture.
Unemployments statistics have become very unreliable during this SocDem govt. It is not only that they have fudged the statistics (which they have), but also that there are a lot of forced labour schemes etc. But according to official statistics unemployment is 6.7 pct. for august 1998 - down from 8.0 pct. in august 1997. For "Key indicators" (in English) see: <URL: http://www.dst.dk/internet/k16/nyetal/NYeTaluk.HTM>
Yours
Jorn
-- Jorn Andersen
Internationale Socialister Copenhagen, Denmark IS-WWW: http://www2.dk-online.dk/users/is-dk/