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Robert Taylor
Sweden's Social Democrats are still an inspiration for the rest of the European left.
The Swedish Social Democrats were the most successful left-wing party in the last century, not only in the longevity of their years in government but also in their ideology and programmes. At their conference this autumn in Stockholm the leadership produced new 'political guidelines' for the future in preparation for next September's general election. The Social Democrats and their allies on the left - the Greens and the Left Party - are by no means sure of a victory. Their electoral defeat in 2006 came as a shock, at a time when the Swedish economy was booming, with both trade and budget surpluses and relatively low unemployment. Now Sweden is suffering from high unemployment and huge deficits under its centre-right government, but in opinion polls the Social Democrats in the so-called left bloc are only running neck and neck with the ruling coalition.
But what happens to the party at the polls next autumn will provide pointers to the wider problems of the European left. This is why their recent conference is of such crucial importance. The Social Democrats made jobs the theme of their deliberations. Full employment for all was the slogan. This was in line with the traditional strengths of the party that have proved so successful ever since the early 1930s. As their leader Mona Sahlin explained in her keynote address: 'No matter how we say it we Social Democrats have always had our roots there [in jobs first and full employment]. Work has been our starting point, our means and our goal'. She went on:
'We have chosen to build up the country on the basis of work. The sons and daughters of work - that is our labour movement. We have wanted to work - for a wage, for our upkeep, for community and our own development, for participation in building the community for our children and their future. We have believed in work as a ground for the economy of the country, for welfare as a basis for the sense of solidarity that we want to characterise as Sweden.'
Importantly Sahlin and her colleagues have linked the primary objective of full employment for all to the other policy issues on the Swedish political agenda. Work provides the driving force that brings a unity and coherence to the rest of the party's new programme. It is not an add-on, or just one item on a shopping list of disconnected demands. In deciding on this over-arching theme of the primacy of work the Social Democrats can draw on the strengths that gave them such credibility over most of the last century. The Swedish Model that they built from the 1930s had its foundations in an enlightened and pragmatic democratic state that sought to keep unemployment low, through demand management but also through a comprehensive active labour market policy of training, relocation of work and a generous social benefit regime based on a progressive and high taxation system.
But the party's new 'political guidelines' do not lose sight of its fundamental values either. These remain as important in today's world as at any time in its history. Sweden is an open market economy with an internationalist outlook. It has welcomed globalisation. The Social Democrats believe in free trade and 'responsible' fiscal policies. But they have not lost sight of the need to ground their policy aims in deeply held ethical principles at a time when so many centre-left parties in Europe have surrendered to neoliberal capitalism, or turned to spin and private business for their political salvation. Sweden's Social Democrats are not purists. They have always shaped their programmes by accommodating them to the trends in the wider society and economy, but also turning them to their electoral advantage. In the past the party set the policy agenda in Sweden. It was Social Democracy that led the way. The party's self confidence, idealistic pragmatism and administrative competence proved remarkably successful. Now, however, it is in a real struggle to keep the initiative in a society that has grown more unequal, fragmented and individualistic. But as the party's policy statement to this autumn's congress points out: 'the classic social democratic values of freedom, equality and solidarity' are the party's starting point in its planned revival. The opening paragraphs show the party has lost none of its ability to place its detailed programme for government in a wider ideological framework:
'We Social Democrats bear with us a dream of freedom. We want everybody to be free to shape the course of their own lives and to pursue their dreams. That everyone should be able to follow their deepest longings with respect for the choices made by others. A policy of fair redistribution, welfare for all and smaller social divisions provide for that measure of security that allows individual freedom to grow. This is because our social democratic dream of freedom is also a dream of equality.
' 'Freedom and equality presuppose each other and this link becomes ever more apparent in our global community.'
The core of the Swedish Social Democratic approach to the modern world is apparent in a particularly crucial paragraph in the guidelines. It speaks for itself:
'When the unexpected happens in life - a child gets into difficulties in learning, you find yourself burnt out by stress, your business collapses or an elderly relative can no longer manage on his or her own - it is then that you see how important welfare is. When we help one another to share our risks then individual security increases. That security has an enormous value in terms of freedom. If welfare is to maintain a high quality, be run on the basis of needs and provided on equal terms to all regardless of background then it spreads risk, opportunities and security across the span of life as well as between generations. The fact that the Swedish Model is based on this fact is not an accident. This is the model that best manages to provide for greater freedom for the individual through high social mobility and broad opportunities to achieve life's goals after one's own choice and preconditions. For this reason we Social Democrats will always defend it.'
The European left - if it is to renew itself today - should look to Sweden's Social Democrats again for hope and inspiration. It is no exaggeration to suggest that next autumn's general election will be of crucial significance for all those of us who want to see a return of a pragmatic but enlightened progressive project in Europe, rooted in the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity.
Robert Taylor is an associate member of Nuffield College Oxford, and former employment editor of the Financial Times.
To read more articles,
and make a comment, go to
http://www.goodsociety.social-europe.eu
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