From Sweden to Socialism: A Small Symposium on Big Questions
Barkan, Joanna
Poking around Slightly-Imaginary-Sweden (SIS), even the skeptical socialist is impressed. A solidaristic wage policy (centralized bargaining to achieve equal pay for equal work nationwide)...
...The socialist keeps in mind that too much intervention will undercut market discipline and the economy will be dragged down by inefficient firms that don't cover their costs...
...Surplus from this dynamic economy is used to protect the environment...
...Unfortunately, new difficulties develop...
...National loyalty is a myth...
...Second, she believes that people can have substantial control over their work life only if the workplace belongs to them...
...The only solution is to operate in an international market where SIS conditions predominate...
...So the socialist joins the movement to build VIE—yet all the while is plagued by doubt: if an ever-improved SIS depends on the dynamism of private enterprise, how can the system ever be called socialism...
...They point with pride to the fact that the overall health of SIS children in the bottom 10 percent income group is identical to that in the top 10 percent...
...The socialized sector has been enlarged a little to ensure socially useful production that the market neglects...
...The socialist proposes laws to counter monopolization and to protect workers from themselves...
...Co-op A has the possibility of becoming a powerful conglomerate...
...The surplus also supports a system of universal, high quality social welfare programs that are decentralized enough to be "user-friendly...
...After living under this system for some decades, most SIS citizens hold dear the values of equality, social justice, solidarity, democracy, and freedom...
...Coops within an industry can compete ruthlessly...
...AssessWINTER • 1991 • 97 From Sweden to Socialism ment of responsibility becomes difficult...
...The co-op sector might be somewhat larger...
...The inevitable oversight agencies can undermine freedom of initiative for the managers of socialized firms...
...Finally, an economy dominated by cooperatives doesn't have labor unions uniting workers both industry wide and throughout the economy...
...The socialist doesn't value efficiency, competitiveness, and economic growth for themselves, but rather wants enough of these to fund the institutions that make social justice and equality possible...
...Life is sweet in SIS...
...The innovations must do more than upgrade SIS (more than, say, improve day care or make taxes more steeply progressive...
...But no matter how well the SIS system performs, private capital will defect if it perceives significant advantage elsewhere...
...Improved SIS is still vulnerable to capital flight...
...The fundamental contradiction of the system hasn't been resolved...
...Because the transition to new jobs is eased, a powerful democratic labor movement cooperates in industrial rationalization, once again increasing efficiency and growth...
...There is no solidaristic wage policy and therefore none of its far-reaching benefits...
...Rigorous legislation promotes small businesses and disperses large concentrations of economic power...
...some knock out others, leading to new concentrations of wealth and power...
...Under the new system, the state would own enterprises in key industries as well as natural monopolies (the telephone system, power companies, railroads, and so on...
...The current flight of capital from real Sweden into the EEC countries is sad proof...
...Strong tax incentives pull profits into reinvestment, further raising productivity and creating jobs...
...Forms of ownership must change, and the scope of markets be reduced...
...What SIS needs is Very-Imaginary-Europe (VIE...
...Then Co-op A decides to invest its surplus in Co-op B, turning Co-op A members into capitalists...
...The socialist points out that because most industry is privately owned, the system is vulnerable...
...98 • DISSENT...
...Public agencies oversee the immense pension funds, thereby exercising some democratic control over investment...
...The decision is made to expand SIS's existing cooperative sector until co-ops are the dominant form of ownership...
...And perhaps ways are found to root socialist values more deeply...
...Labor mobility decreases throughout the economy...
...Even if a good managerial culture develops in the socialized sector, the entrepreneurial function, essential to a dynamic economy, may be lost...
...National legislation prevents arbitrary firings, requires worker representation on the boards of directors of all firms, allows workers to halt production if they find unsafe conditions, and obliges employers to negotiate with local unions before implementing major changes...
...Good education builds a skilled work force...
...No one can fathom how to make such a system work, with its built-in inefficiencies, shortages, impossible data requirements, arbitrary prices, and inadequate criteria for evaluation...
...They give people the greatest control over their work life, eliminate unearned income, and encourage participation...
...Comprehensive planning—including price setting, production quotas, and the allocation of capital, raw materials, and intermediate goods between firms—is rejected...
...No socialist party wins a free election with a program of enforced autarky for a state-controlled economy...
...But more serious imbalances emerge: cooperatives resist taking in new members in order to keep profits per member as high as possible...
...Progressive tax policies shrink income inequalities, which keeps the market from listing too heavily toward luxury goods...
...What structural changes does the socialist propose...
...First, she would like to break up concentrations of wealth and power in order to promote democracy...
...some worker/members may resort to extreme selfexploitation...
...This gives them excessive economic power and political leverage...
...Until convinced that something else will work, the socialist opts for a level of planning and an economy of mixed ownership that resembles more than anything else . . . well . . . SIS...
...During their six weeks of vacation each year, SISers love to travel abroad...
...Our socialist is anything but satisfied...
...Laws are passed to prevent one co-op from investing in another...
...Intelligent labor market policies (job training and placement, subsidies for worker relocation, and so on) hold unemployment down to statistically irrelevant levels...
...A solidaristic wage policy (centralized bargaining to achieve equal pay for equal work nationwide) forces unproductive enterprises to shape up or go under...
...The left government and unions try endlessly to accommodate private capital...
...The socialist has other reasons for wanting to move beyond SIS...
...Investors might cut out anytime for places where the wages are lower, the regulations fewer, and the ethos less egalitarian— thus confirming the dictum that it's difficult to maintain SIS in just one country...
...But the skeptical socialist acknowledges serious problems...
...Co-ops also resist labor-saving technology, undermining overall efficiency...
...Socialization would keep concentrations of power and wealth out of private hands, give the government and labor movement more control over the economy, and prevent capital flight...
...Why go beyond...
...The government will shape economic development by phasing out declining industries and promoting new ones with tax credits, discounted interest rates, and direct subsidies...
...The gains made in SIS remain precarious...
...they must transform capitalist SIS into a socialist country...
...The response for now is another question: if the system is equally characterized by the decommodification of human needs, market regulation, and the redistribution of wealth and power, can it still be called capitalism...
...So the socialist suggests an alternative form of ownership—workers' cooperatives...
...Images of the homeless on the streets of New York shock them...
...The socialist advocates a lighter touch...
...Needing respite from the ownership question, the socialist considers the market and its noncapitalist alternative, planning...
...But this immobilizes capital, and the economy may lose its dynamism...
...Not only must profits be high, private owners and investors must be persuaded that they will benefit more by staying in SIS than by moving...
...But they return convinced that their system best implements basic values...
...Third, although SIS wins high marks for equalizing life opportunity, redistributing wealth, and fostering fine (socialist) values, the socialist thinks even more could be done...
...They pressure their government to increase aid to the Third World...
...Cooperatives, too, break up concentrations of power and wealth and prevent, capital flight...
...This boosts overall economic efficiency...
...The socialist recommends enlarging SIS's small socialized sector...
Vol. 38 • January 1991 • No. 1
