7.3.7 Sweden History: Social Security
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This article is from the Nordic countries FAQ, by Antti Lahelma and Johan Olofsson, with numerous contributions by others.
7.3.7 Sweden History: Social Security
1945-1960
During the 1940'ies the agrarian proletarians are transformed to tenant
farmers, and house maids which now have gotten regulated working hours
become a very rare sight. The Social Democrats continue to dominate the
society, in the parliament in cooperation with the Agrarians when
neccessary. The industry expands. People leave the countryside for the
towns. Sick insurance, pensions, maternal allowance and yearly vacations are
expanded. The urbanization leads to a new kind of social misery with
shortage of housing and "wild" adolescent gangs in the towns. Immigrants are
welcomed by the industries: Germans, Italians, Hungarians, Finland-Swedes
and Finns.
1960-1980
Women participate in the caring for children and elderly as employees by the
municipalities. Taxes rise. A surge of immigrants are engaged in the
industries. Vacations get limited to not less than 5 weeks yearly. 40 hours
working week is enforced. Strong laws against arbitrary sacking of workers
are decided and the unions get right to participate in board meetings for
companies.
The educational system is made uniform with 10 years of mandatory
theoretical school with minimized freedom to choose subjects followed by 3
years of specializing ("Gymnasium"). Matriculation examination is abolished,
as are apprentices. All secondary schools give access to higher studies, the
mark system is debated and changed.
The king loses the last executive power. Princesses get equal rights with
princes to inherit the throne.
Swedish politicians tend to start their careers in younger years, before
having accomplished in any profession (Olof Palme is one of the first
examples), and the reduced number of municipal politicians contribute to a
growing alienation between politicians and the electorate.
The Swedish Social Democratic governments are eager to act in international
politics. Preferably on the "anti-imperialist" side against the United
States - and sometimes against the Soviet Union. Olof Palme belonged to the
Swedes who were strongly engaged against the Vietnam war, which led to the
US ambassador leaving Sweden for some years.
In Sweden communists were hunted in the unions and among the employees in
governmental institutions (as hospitals!). In the 1970:ies Jan Guillou, an
investigating journalist at a left-wing periodical, was imprisoned for
revealing the close cooperation between the Social Democratic party and a
secret organization registering people with leftist opinions threatening the
society. Jan Guillou became some 15 years later Sweden's most famous novel
writer with his series about the super-hero baron Carl G Hamilton in the
Swedish secret service.
In elections to the parliament 1973 the left block and the anti-Socialist
block got 175 seats each. Olof Palme remained as prime minister. Many laws
were decided after drawing of lots. The number of seats is made unequal.
1976-1994
The political majority in the parliament changes almost every 6:th year.
Waves of refugees arrive but fail to find employment.
Plans to force companies to give shares to the workers unions every year are
discussed, decided and abandoned.
The defense forces are successively reduced.
In 1976 the leader for the Center party, Thorbjörn Fälldin, becomes the
first non-Social Democratic prime minister since 1936 after an intense
campaign in favor of environment protection and against nuclear power. In a
referendum 1979 between three proposals to close the thirteen nuclear power
plants the Social Democratic version wins a relative majority and is
interpreted as use of all nuclear power is to be liquidated in thirty years.
In the autumn 1981 a Russian submarine runs a-ground in what the military
calls inner security zone of the navy base area in the Blekinge archipelago.
After half a day an inhabitant on the island informs the military about the
unexpected guest. A Russian navy gathers at the territorial border, but
leaves after the Swedish prime minister Thorbjörn Fälldin publicly declared
he had ordered the Swedish defense forces to use all means against further
intruders on the sea or in the air. The Russians denied accusations of
having brought atomic weapons to Sweden, as the US navy always had done when
they had come on (announced) visits. After this perturbing episode the
Swedish navy hunted Russian mini- and macro-submarines intensely for the
following ten years. Then it turned out that some, most or all of the hunted
objects had been minks.
Big devaluations solve some problems and cause other. In the 1980's a lot of
Swedish industrial profits are gambled away on continental real estates.
February 28th 1986, the Social Democratic prime minister Olof Palme, who had
dominated Swedish politics in the 70's and 80's, is assassinated while
returning from movies. A political heir of Tage Erlander (another
influential Swedish prime minister, in power 1946-69), he had an
international reputation as an architect of the Swedish welfare model and an
outspoken advocate of disarmament. He was the first Swedish leader to be
killed since king Gustav III. Despite feverish and almost tragicomic
investigations, the motive and the killer still remain unknown.
At the beginning of the 1990:ies the employment drops drastically, as does
the value of the currency, and the state budget deficit explodes. Subsidies
are diminished for sick insurance, maternal and paternal leave, unemployment
insurance... The bad times result in some changes on higher positions in the
banks and industries, and it turns out that their boards (also state owned
banks and companies) have granted the management fabulous pensions. The
Social Democrats have propagandized much against the Bildt cabinet policy,
populistically claiming it to strike hard against the weakest among the
people. The people got surprised when the Social Democrats, after the
election of 1994 back at power, in the parliament do much harder cuts in the
social security system.
The ferry Estonia en route between Tallin and Stockholm with over a thousand
people on-board sank into the icy Baltic September 28th 1994; only circa 130
were saved. Of the drowned, the vast majority were Swedes, and the disaster
shook the whole nation.
Latest news
In 1996 The Social Democratic party elected a new chairman, Göran Persson,
namesake to the chancellor of Erik XIV, who becomes prime minister and the
sixth leader of the party in 107 years. Persson's supporters have acted
against Mona Sahlin, proposed by the retiring Ingvar Carlsson, spreading
(true) rumors about her bad capability to take care of her own economy, and
her purchase of diapers and chocolate with a government credit card. Mona
Sahlin is made impossible and leaves the political life. Göran Persson is
caught shop-lifting chocolate, and the former minister of Justice (in mr
Bildt's cabinet) is forgiven purchase of shoes and dresses with her
government credit card. The strongest criticism comes from Per Uncle,
another former minister of mr Bildt's, who turns out to be the one the
prosecutor finds his greatest interest in.
Several municipal politicians and managers leave their positions after
having been too self-indulgent with municipal credit cards on night clubs,
brothels and holiday trips. The unveiling of this habit was introduced by a
Scanian radio journalist, Janne Svensson, who soon got employed as secretary
for the Social Democratic mayor of Malmö.
The former leader for the (Social) Liberal party leads an "independent"
commission investigating espionage on a private TV station where a reporter
had unveiled embarrassing facts about HSB, a national organization for
housing societies, not without ties to the Social Democratic party. The
espionage is ordered by the manager for a public relation firm with close
ties to the Social Democratic party, but the commission declares that HSB
could not be shown to have aimed at espionage - only at a vicious slander
campaign. The HSB manager, who over a bottle of whiskey had commissioned the
PR-firm manager, should not have acted on behalf of HSB.
- The commission worked on the behalf of HSB.
The European Union, which Sweden entered 1995, is among many perceived as
the greatest threat against the Swedish democracy (except for wars).
The alienation between the electorate and the elected becomes worse.
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