Sweden as almost Paradise

...Research for this article was made possible by a grant from the Bicentennial Swedish-American Exchange Fund...

...Control over the economy is divided between two equally matched but contending forces...

...In the 1988 campaign, the three bourgeois parties presented a joint proposal on child-care allowances as an alternative to comprehensive public day care, but they also bickered over tax policy...

...The party's youth organization, the SSU, has embraced decentralization of the public sector, democratic participation, and greater choice as its primary themes...

...Starting with that fact, American radicals usually describe the model in a single breath: Sweden has a capitalist economy with a large welfare state...

...According to Svegfors, the Social Democrats approach every problem by creating a new public institution or a new piece of bureaucracy...

...But for now, activists are skeptical that socialization would improve anyone's daily life...

...He thoroughly dislikes the Social Democrats...

...wealth is being redistributed away from wage earners...

...The system also provides nursing and housekeeping help eight hours a day...

...When pressed by the media, prime minister Ingvar Carlsson simply says that he is a Social Democrat...

...Party and union activists seem to tackle these questions with something better than optimism...

...And many of the conservatives I spoke to would be liberals (in the American sense) or even left liberals outside Sweden...

...Residents of a prosperous agricultural community called SjObo voted in 1988 not to accept fifteen immigrants who were to be settled there...

...This, he 148 • DISSENT nmport from Abroad maintains, will provoke a "brain drain" in Sweden— something a tiny country with limited human resources can't afford...

...No one in Sweden—right or left—calls this socialism...

...This display of xenophobia made the rest of the nation shudder—which was judged to be a good sign...

...Now, however, many union economists argue that corporate profits are too high...

...Can the solidaristic wage policy, which has deteriorated during the 1980s, be rebuilt...

...The aversion has historical and geopolitical roots...

...In retrospect, it's clear that establishing hegemony has depended on the labor movement and the SAP's choosing a "universalist strategy...

...There's a serious nursing shortage, and many people wait two years for elective surgery...

...The ownership/socialization issue doesn't begin to exhaust the meaning of socialism for Swedish Social Democrats, but it does provide a handy way for American leftists to categorize the Swedish model...

...at the same time, they must convince people that they can govern together...

...The assumption that society should strive for a modicum of equality provides support for the basic social democratic model even among those who don't vote for the SAP...

...The labor-marketparticipation rate is one of the highest worldwide (for women, the highest...

...the level of material inequality would be greater...

...Voters returned the SAP to office in 1982, and the party has maintained a minority government since then...

...The degree of consensus also makes it difficult for the other "bourgeois" parties— the Liberal party and the Center party—to present an overall alternative...

...These Social Democrats approach their project much the way a sculptor approaches a piece of clay—with a sense of shaping and transforming...

...He complains that all income above his government pension is taxed at 70 percent...

...It's legal, but obtaining a permit and covering costs are difficult because the government sets fees and standards...

...Everyone knows that 85 percent of Swedish industry is privately owned, making that economy the least socialized (in the usual sense) of Western Europe...

...Here is a plain case of ideological hegemony...

...They rail against high marginal income taxes, the welfare system, and what they regard as the gradual collectivization of Swedish life...

...Some 90 percent of blue-collar workers and 75 percent of white-collar workers belong to unions...

...Americans often say that Sweden is a SPRING • 1989 • 149 Report from Abroad , consensual society —as if the consensus could have formed around any set of values simply for reasons of national temperament or tradition...

...Instead they try to win votes with specific policy recommendations—for teachers' salaries, Third World textile imports, charges for toxicwaste disposal, and so on...

...If leaders in his party were completely open, he says, they'd admit that equality is not one of their central values...

...This raises the efficiency of the entire economy...

...His Social Democratic Labor party (SAP)—out of office for six years—was concluding a demanding campaign...

...National legislation prevents arbitrary firings, allows workers to halt production if they find unsafe conditions, guarantees union representation on the boards of directors of companies with more than twenty-five employees, and obliges employers to negotiate with local unions before implementing any major changes...

...Some economists in the left wing of the movement think that a form of socialization—perhaps through the huge pension funds—may be necessary in the future to maintain control over the economy...

...The government rents the trailers to workers who don't own country cabins...

...Built on a group of islands at the point where the Baltic Sea meets Lake Malaren, Stockholm's neighborhoods are surrounded by water and intersected by canals...

...But there's something else as well...

...Early on, Swedish socialists judged the Soviet experiment to be a failure...

...and recent tax and credit laws undermine equality...

...As a symptom, nonvoters increased in 1988...

...Groups to the left present no immediate threat to the SAP...

...Campaigning openly to disassemble the system wins no elections...

...Meanwhile, the SAP must also refurbish its image...

...the government must regularly shift policies in response to the world economy...

...A better sketch would look something like this: A solidaristic wage policy (centralized bargaining to achieve equal pay for equivalent work nationwide) forces unproductive enterprises to shape up or go under because they can't pay low wages—and the SAP government doesn't subsidize failing businesses...

...But it's hardly run-of-the-mill capitalism either...

...There's no paternalism here...

...He'd be a liberal Democrat...

...only 86 percent of the electorate went to the polls, the lowest figure since 1964...

...Who could complain...

...Through the immense trade-union structure, they will pressure the government for policy changes...

...Both call themselves businesswomen and both vote for the Moderates...

...It was a memorable exception, they say, pulled off by an unusually charismatic leader during a conservative period...

...Beatrice is a systems analyst in a huge social service administration...

...But for every SAP activist I spoke with—youth organizers, local leaders, strategists, labor economists, party staffers— values, not formal ownership, define the socialist project...

...Zvi, now in his early thirties, emigrated from Israel when he was eleven, completed a medical degree in Sweden, and now does cancer research at the prestigious Karolinska Institute in Stockholm...

...Having evolved since the SAP first came to power in 1932, the model helped transform one of Europe's most desperately poor nations (more than 20 percent of the population emigrated to North America before the First World War...

...but as compensation, market forces would re-energize society...

...Today the eyes of SAP activists still light up when they recall that speech—one of the few times in recent years that a Social Democratic leader in Sweden has been able to embrace the "S" word so forcefully...

...But they don't see restrictions on private business as the main problem...

...In what Svegfors calls his utopia, the Moderates would dominate the government for twenty years, transferring to the market prerogatives now exercised by the state...

...Unemployment has now dropped to 1.5 percent while the West European average is stuck at 9 percent and just across the sound in Denmark, the jobless rate hovers around 11 percent...

...When the SAP returned to office in 1982, it was saddled with budget deficits, rising unemployment, and a weakened position on the international market...

...For many Swedes, the word socialism conjures up images of prison camps and food lines...

...The Moderates insist that the socialization of their society has gone too far...

...HellstrOm considered this for a moment but then shrugged his shoulders and said, "Why should they be...

...But I wondered about the relationship between accomplishment and approval for a movement...

...There's no room for creativity...

...Then Eva describes her job, which she loves...

...What do non–Social Democrats complain about...

...Today Sweden not only has one of the highest living standards in the world, but income differentials are smaller than in other Western industrial countries...

...He complains that the push for excellence is not strong enough in the Swedish system...

...The movement emphasized economic growth and high employment in the context of social justice and equality—and then made good on its promises...

...To make matters worse for the opposition parties, they must compete against each other for the same pool of votes (SAP supporters rarely shift to the right...

...They shaped the system from early on to benefit just about everyone—not only the working class and the poor...

...People don't seem very grateful," I remarked...

...Many consider themselves committed socialists, but few have any interest in what has traditionally defined socialism—public ownership of the means of production...

...Zvi smiles and shrugs, "So I guess it's a good thing...

...If the facts look good on paper, they look even better in Stockholm...

...Progressive tax policies reduce income inequalities, and this in turn keeps the market from listing too heavily toward luxury goods...

...As the information officer of the SAP told me, "Socializing ownership would be very un-Swedish...

...Since the transition to new jobs is eased, the trade SPRING • 1989 • 147 Report from Abroad unions can cooperate in industrial rationalization, once again increasing efficiency and growth...

...Governing for fifty-one of the last fifty-seven years, the SAP could have become an entrenched network of corrupt interests or a behemoth incapable of responding to new conditions...

...Like any complex mechanism, the Swedish system needs constant readjustment...

...Robert clearly loves the standard of equality expressed in allemansratten more than he dislikes the tax policy...

...He argues that steeply progressive taxes make it impossible for upper-middleclass people to raise their standard of living...

...they'll mention something about the structure of Swedish feudalism or medieval agriculture...

...The SAP turned the situation around, avoiding the Thatcheroid austerity practiced elsewhere in Europe...

...Some SAP activists think the media—especially the powerful conservative newspapers—hound their party more aggressively than the others...

...Anyone can walk, picnic, or even sleep on any piece of property in Sweden as long as the land and what stands on it is treated with respect...

...This was quite a shift since, by all accounts, ecology—unlike employment and economic growth—had not been central to the Social Democratic political culture...

...But its public figures continue to avoid the issue of socialism...

...Even lesser transgressions undermine the Social Democrats, who are held to exacting standards by the electorate...

...But the vast majority of these people—including a good number of Moderate party voters—don't endorse the fundamental changes advocated by the most frank of the conservative ideologues...

...Svegfors would like to see the public welfare system privatized to increase quality, efficiency, and choice...

...This is where the best creative energy goes...

...We chat in the handsome apartment where he lives with his invalid mother...

...This rankles him...

...Why so many wheelchairs...

...He accepted the challenge, and with a sizable portion of the population watching, Palme proclaimed himself a democratic socialist...

...Everyone has noticed a decline in participation...

...the country depends on exports, with one-third of Gross Domestic Product going into world trade...

...the government taxes at a steep rate to provide extensive social services...

...Labor-market policy is designed to support economic restructuring while protecting wage earners...

...Right now a number of strategists and economists think the movement needs a new goal in order to avoid stagnation...

...she hopes that by pressing hard from that direction, things will change a little...

...Ivar complains about taxes and welfare cheats as we have lunch on the patio of his small country cabin...

...Strong tax incentives channel profits into reinvestment, boosting productivity and creating jobs...

...SPRING • 1989 • 151...

...But no one knows if other Sjobos will crop up...

...In a post-Fordist economy where work is more diversified, it won't be easy to design a program for better conditions in a host of specific situations...

...Child allowances, education, health care, day care, and disability are not means-tested...

...Activists in the social democratic movement express some of the same wariness, but their position is complex...

...They have a self-critical confidence...

...The social democratic movement has fashioned a system balanced on the edge of two ideological and economic orders...

...He explains there's one for outdoors, one for the bathroom, one for eating, and so on—all supplied free by the health care system...

...The party lost votes in the last election because of scandals ranging from illegal arms sales 150 • DISSENT Report from Abroad and the mismanaged investigation of Olof Palme's murder to the head of the trade union confederation's using his influence to get an apartment for his daughter and cabinet ministers indulging in a drink at Friday afternoon meetings...

...But most Social Democrats accept the notion that the behavior of public figures must not contradict movement values...

...Will racism grow as the number of non-Nordic immigrants increases...

...Challenged by the Green party's energetic campaign in the 1988 elections, for example, the SAP made the environment a key issue...

...By the time they finish their report, it sounds as though they're living in Poland...

...the commitment to equality means that co-workers look askance at anyone who stands out...

...If she lived in West Germany, she'd be a Social Democrat...

...They complain about the lack of freedom and choice...

...Will the Social Democrats be able to maintain their labor-market policy and control over the economy after EEC integration in 1992 (Sweden is not an EEC member...

...Most Swedes outside the social democratic movement consider equality, social justice, democracy, solidarity, and freedom to be values that society must act on...

...Moreover, Sweden has accomplished all this while competing in a volatile international market...

...Their level of expertise and sophistication is impressive...

...I broached the subject with Mats HellstrOm, minister of agriculture...

...At the end of that time, he's sure equality as a popular value would be weaker than it is today...

...The conservatives, buoyed by an aggressive right-wing wave in Western Europe, threatened voters that an SAP victory would slam Sweden behind the barbed-wire barricades of totalitarian communism...

...After all, they are citizens of a credible democracy...

...Conservatives like Mats Svegfors understand that this ideological hegemony is one of the greatest obstacles facing the Moderates...

...When asked to explain why these values resonate powerfully in Sweden, nonmovement people look puzzled...

...Walking down to the water's edge, a New Yorker automatically cringes...

...Not only can services be upgraded...

...Take, for example, two Stockholm women in their late twenties: Eva works as a financial consultant for a small private company...

...The tax system kills all initiative because people can't keep what they earn...

...And when the landlord renovated the bathroom without making it wheelchair accessible, the government required that the renovation be redone...

...A dynamic capitalist class wields its power to invest, while a left social democratic movement draws its strength from two other sources—state power held almost continuously for more than a half-century and a high level of unionization in society...

...The national secretary of the VPK summarizes his view of the Social Democrats: "They're not socialists...

...Yes, people have jobs, they say, but are those jobs really satisfying...

...The means of production are still privately owned, wage labor still generates wealth, and the surplus created by workers is appropriated to finance the system...

...Thinking about the future of the Swedish model brings a few questions to mind...

...For socialists to the left of the SAP—they include the small Eurocommunist party (VPK with 5.8 percent of the vote), tiny sects, and independents— the model is inadequate because property relations have not changed...

...Although the entire political spectrum is as broad as it is in other countries, the vast majority of Swedes fall into a relatively narrow band, left of center...

...This, he insists, erodes free society...

...I heard this story several times in Stockholm: It was the final television debate before the 1982 parliamentary election...

...They'd like to see a campaign to improve the "quality of work" throughout society...

...No matter how well the system functions, neither those to the left of the SAP nor those to the right (together more than 56 percent of the voters) get exactly what they want—or think they want...

...But the welfare system is just one manifestation of a deeper ill—the never-ending expansion of the intrusive state...

...They (and much of the movement's left wing) keep badgering the SAP to push harder on these matters...

...Did the complaining discourage them...

...Olof Palme, then a former prime minister of Sweden, was about to speak...

...And like full employment and social welfare, quality work is the kind of vast mission that the movement seems to thrive on...

...Identification with that system was made all the more unappealing by a centuries-old fear of the neighboring Russian empire...

...Socialization is seen not as an end, but as a possible means—and perhaps not the most effective one...

...The current consensus in Sweden prevents the most rigorous Moderate party thinking from becoming party program...

...Almost without exception, the lists of complaints I heard ended with the observation, "Of course, things are better here than anywhere else...

...Later he points out a tidy trailer camp that sits on a fine piece of lakefront property...

...The concept is not much more popular there than it is in the United States...

...Democracy, equality, freedom, social justice, and solidarity function as concrete goals that determine party policies...

...Yet the movement also needs its opposition...

...They move with ease in managing the system, but they probe constantly—picking out problems, researching solutions...

...But that's the challenge...

...Surplus from a dynamic economy supports a vast system of universal social welfare programs...

...In the United States, he claims, he would never vote for a Reagan or a Bush...

...Another good thing...

...Instead the party and the unions react to constant pressure from the right, the left, and dissident tendencies within the movement...

...Why shouldn't people be able to start their own schools and day-care centers...

...How can the movement counter apathy...

...What might come floating by...

...Like many European capitals, this city of seven hundred thousand is lovely with its gracious architecture and dozens of parks, all beautifully maintained...

...Watching the salmon fishers in front of Parliament and remembering the despair in the streets of New York, I thought Swedish social democracy looked good...

...Neither the adjustments people want nor their ideological assumptions have anything to do with dismantling the system...

...This didn't inspire confidence...

...As a result, almost all Swedes view poverty, extreme inequalities of wealth, and the degradation that comes with unemployment as unacceptable...

...The government oversees the immense pension funds, thereby exercising some control over investment and capital formation...

...Were the Social Democrats ever resentful that less than half the electorate votes for the SAP...

...Beatrice admits that she takes a political stand that's farther to the right than she really is...

...Meanwhile, the opposition on all sides is demanding improvements in the health care system which is plagued by bottlenecks and inefficiencies...

...Why should people in Stockholm be assigned to a hospital rather than choose one themselves...

...But unlike other large urban centers, you'll find not one pocket of poverty...

...Benefits for sick leave, parental leave, unemployment, and pensions are based on a percentage of income within a system that reduces income disparities...

...But to compete in the political arena, they make accommodations...

...Swedes regard the fundamental goals of the movement as basic rights...

...Although the Moderates lost votes in the 1985 and 1988 elections and now stand at 18.3 percent, they've articulated discontents felt by many Swedes who don't support the SAP...

...As we hike, he tells me with great pride about allemansratten the tradi — tional Swedish right to the land...

...Journalists kept pressing Palme to reveal his ideological identity...

...They benefited from the rightward shift throughout Western Europe, with one group—the Moderate party—promoting a Swedish-style Thatcherism...

...The trick for these two groups is to differentiate themselves from the SAP without alienating the progressive elements within their ranks...

...At the other end of the spectrum, however, Swedish conservatives mounted a serious challenge that began in the mid-1970s and is waning only now...

...Eva agrees...

...Herbert, a longtime activist with the Moderate party, worked as a journalist for a conservative news agency before joining a consulting firm...

...It includes a vast program of job placement, training with pay, interim work in the public sector, vocational counseling, grants for worker relocation, education grants, subsidies to companies to retrain workers and to speed up hiring when expansion is anticipated, and sheltered employment for the disabled...

...Having a fragmented opposition is a great advantage for the Social Democrats...

...In fact, the values that provide political cohesion are social democratic values, internalized over the course of fifty years of Social Democratic government...

...I go mushroom collecting with Robert, a retired conservative journalist...

...Will the government manage to set up a viable alternative to nuclear power (which now supplies 50 percent of all electricity) by the legislated 2010 deadline...

...But this standard description skips right over the most interesting features of the Swedish system...

...Countering the conservatives' call for privatization, the younger activists argue that the system can be restructured within the public sphere...

...The explanation for this seems fairly simple: ideological consensus...

...Indeed...

...Mats Svegfors, chief political editor of the conservative paper Svenska Dagbladet, is an important Moderate ideologue...

...But the water is crystal clear—clean enough for salmon fishing next to Parliament and summertime swimming off the terrace steps of City Hall...

...A lot of people do—but in a limited way...

...The firm is young and pays a low salary, but the work is creative, she's autonomous, and there's the possibility of growth...