The new government quickly took strong steps to alleviate the country’s economic stagnation, including an increase in the value-added tax (VAT) and a sharp decrease in the value of the national currency, the krona. Simultaneously, pressures were brought to bear on employers to resist workers’ demands for higher wages to offset the resulting price increases. Signs of recovery began to appear in response to the government’s measures and also as a result of the improving international economic scene in 1983–84. Taxation rose to a very high level, however, as a result of the large budget deficit and rapidly growing employment in the public sector. At the same time, a controversial issue developed over the legislation for the wage-earner investment fund that the Social Democrats and the Communists had managed to push through the Riksdag in late 1983, in spite of unified resistance from the nonsocialist parties and the business community. The opposing groups feared that the legislation would move Sweden too heavily in the direction of socialism. After their implementation the employee funds appeared not to affect the economic system in any appreciable way. Although they suffered some losses, the socialist parties continued to hold a majority of the seats in the Riksdag after the 1985 election. The most significant outcome of the election was a strong advance by the Liberal Party, which had come under new leadership.
On Feb. 28, 1986, Prime Minister Palme was assassinated, shocking a country unused to political violence (this was the first political assassination in modern Swedish history). He was replaced by Ingvar Carlsson, the deputy prime minister, who, although a less-dynamic figure, shared Palme’s political philosophy. Without Palme, however, Sweden’s role in the arena of international politics, where it had championed human rights and promoted peace and disarmament, diminished.
The 1988 election did not change the political picture greatly. Nonetheless, the Green Ecology Party garnered 5.5 percent of the vote, exceeding the 4 percent minimum required to enter the parliament. The domestic policy of the Social Democratic government was characterized by concessions to a more liberal program carried through with the support of the Liberal Party. For example, there was a considerable reduction in direct taxes on income, and a program for an energy policy for the future was developed.
The September 1991 election, on the other hand, resulted in a major change in Swedish politics. With the country mired in a recession, the Social Democrats were swept from office. The main victor in this election was the Moderate Party, under the leadership of Carl Bildt. The Moderates received 22.1 percent of the vote and took 80 seats in the Riksdag, while the Social Democrats lost 18 seats. As a result, the nonsocialist parties controlled 170 seats (not a majority) against only a combined 154 for the Social Democrats and the Left Party (the former Communist Party). Prime Minister Carlsson immediately resigned, and a nonsocialist coalition government was formed by Bildt. He had campaigned on a platform of directing Sweden’s economy away from socialism and toward a free-market system. His centre-right coalition immediately proposed privatizing state-owned companies, cutting taxes and government spending, and lifting restrictions on foreign ownership of Swedish companies.
With the recession continuing, the Social Democrats returned to office in September 1994 again under Carlsson’s leadership. He attempted to reduce both Sweden’s enormous budget deficit—which had reached 13 percent of gross domestic product—and its 13 percent unemployment rate. With the Soviet Union’s collapse having rendered Sweden’s traditional neutrality obsolete, Carlsson also pursued membership in the EU, despite opposition from within his own party and from environmentalists. On Nov. 13, 1994, 52 percent of voters backed EU membership, and Sweden officially joined in 1995. However, notwithstanding the favourable recommendation of a government commission, Prime Minister Göran Persson (who succeeded Carlsson in 1996 after his retirement) cited public opposition and rejected adoption of the euro, Europe’s single currency, when it went into effect in 1999. Jörgen Weibull Susan Ruth Larson The 21st century
By the end of 1999, Sweden had emerged from its economic crisis. A number of economic changes had occurred in the late 1990s, reflecting a profound change in the concept of folkhemmet and shifting more economic responsibility from the central government to the provinces and municipalities and from the state to the individual. Although the Social Democratic Party’s share of the vote dropped from 45.3 percent in 1994 to 39.8 percent in 2002, Persson was able to continue as prime minister. While still Sweden’s largest political party, the Social Democrats were increasingly divided on such important issues as the September 2003 referendum on the replacement of the krona with the euro, which voters overwhelmingly rejected. That same month the public stabbing of Anna Lindh, the popular minister of foreign affairs, shocked Swedes and again raised questions about the price of an open and egalitarian society.
Göran Persson, prime minister of Sweden (1996–2006), in 2005.© Nordic Council/Council of Ministers
Despite a thriving economy, growing concerns about Sweden’s ability to maintain its strong social welfare programs while remaining competitive in the globalized economy contributed to the victory of the Moderate Party, under the leadership of Frederik Reinfeldt, in a tightly contested election in 2006. Among the policy changes of the new government was retreat from the Social Democrats’ commitment to end the use of nuclear power by 2010. Initially Reinfeldt’s government pledged to plan no new nuclear plants during its first term, but then in 2009 it rescinded that restriction and looked forward to a long-term future that would continue to include nuclear power.
The Swedish economy was hard-hit by the global financial crisis and economic downturn of 2008–09, with gross domestic product (GDP) growth at a virtual standstill in 2008 and declining by more than 5 percent in 2009, arguably the most difficult year for the country’s economy since World War II. During this period unemployment climbed to more than 8 percent, an unheard-of level for a country in which the pursuit of full employment was a source of national pride. Partly as a result of government stimulus-spending efforts, however, the economy bounced back quickly, with GDP growth back in the black by more than 4 percent in 2010.
Seemingly rewarding the government for its assured handling of the economic downturn, Swedish voters again showed strong support for the four-party centre-right Alliance led by Reinfeldt, though the coalition came up three seats short of a majority in the September 2010 parliamentary election and chose to form a minority government, with Reinfeldt remaining as prime minister. The election marked the first time that a nonsocialist government had won reelection. It was also notable for the success of the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats, who broke through the 4 percent threshold necessary for representation and became the first far-right party to enter the Swedish parliament, capturing 20 seats.
Notwithstanding the Riksdag’s approval in 2008 of the Lisbon Treaty, which sought to restructure some of the institutions of the EU, Sweden remained outside the euro zone. Nevertheless, because of Sweden’s extensive trade with other EU countries, its recently bright economic prospects dimmed somewhat in response to the euro-zone debt crisis that afflicted Greece, Portugal, and Ireland (as well as European states with larger economies, such as Spain and Italy).