The Political Management of Economic and Social Change: Contrasting Models of Advanced Industrial Society in Sweden and West Germany

In countries characterized by a tradition of an active rather than a passive state, such as Sweden and West Germany, politics constitutes an important autonomous factor in determining policy choices and hence economic and social outcomes over time. The key actors in this context are political parties and their aligned or affiliated interest groups. During the postwar period the Social Democrats initiated a policy shift toward neo-Keynesian expansionist economic measures in an effort to sustain growth and minimize unemployment in both countries, whereas the more conservative Christian Democrats were responsible for implementing a less interventionist policy based on social market economic principles during the formative years of the Federal Republic. As a result of these policy similarities and differences—buttressed by the contrasting role of organized labor in the two countries—Sweden and West Germany have experienced both convergence and continued divergence with respect to their economic and social performance. An important consequence is that they appear to have evolved different types of corporatism—with concomitant implications for both the comparative study of advanced industrial societies and democratic theory.