A critique of the grand narrative of the Swedish model

ABSTRACT

Several historians have placed the roots of the Swedish model and the Swedish spirit of consensus back in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The present study is an attempt to problematize the image of Sweden as the homeland of consensus on earth. I argue that there is no specifically Swedish spirit of consensus. My thesis is that the Swedish model as manifested in the Saltsjöbaden Agreement of 1938 was the result of the political power relations that prevailed just then between the parties on the labour market. The thesis is pursued based on a study of developments in Sweden from the 1880s until 1938, that is, from the emergence of the socialist labour movement to the signing of the Saltsjöbaden Agreement. I show that conflict was the normal state on the labour market for several decades, and until the mid-1930s, Sweden was the country in the industrialized world with the most strikes. As regards democracy, Sweden was not a pioneer. Every step on the road to democracy was achieved through struggle. When Swedish history is presented as a history of consensus, it is an undervaluation of the efforts that many thousands of people expended in the struggle for civil rights.

KEYWORDS:

• Swedish model
• democracy
• consensus or conflict

Acknowledgments

My gratitude to Professor Emeritus Lars Olsson and associate Professor Jonas Sjölander for reading and commenting on the text.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

Stiftelsen Konung Gustaf VI Adolfs fond för svensk kultur: 15 000 Swedish Crowns.

Notes on contributors

Hans Dahlqvist

Hans Dahlqvist, PhD in History, author of the dissertation Fri att konkurrera, skyldig att producera. En ideologikritisk granskning av SAF 1902–1948 (2003) and the monograph Vem äger tiden? Ett idéhistoriskt perspektiv på arbetstidsfrågan i Sverige 1880–1925 (2018). Dahlqvist is the Head of Education at the municipality of Svalöv in Sweden.