Social democracy and the decline of strikes
Molinder, Jakob LU ; Karlsson, Tobias LU and Enflo, Kerstin LU
(2022)
In Explorations in Economic History
83.
- Abstract
- This paper tests if a strong labor movement leads to fewer industrial conflicts. The focus is on Sweden between the first general election in 1919 and the famous Saltsjöbaden Agreement in 1938, a formative period when the country transitioned from fierce labor conflicts to a state of industrial peace. We use panel data techniques to analyze more than 2000 strikes in 103 Swedish towns. We find that a shift of political majority towards the Social Democrats led to a significant decline in strikes, but only in towns where union presence was strong. The strike-reducing mechanism is related to corporatist explanations rather than increased social spending in municipal budgets.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/5d2ab792-aeea-4c1e-8dbb-5961308708bb
- author
- Molinder, Jakob
LU
; Karlsson, Tobias
LU
and Enflo, Kerstin
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2022-01-13
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Power resource theory, Industrial conflicts, Strikes, Labor markets, Local politics, N34, N44, H53, J51
- in
- Explorations in Economic History
- volume
- 83
- publisher
- Academic Press
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85112830747
- ISSN
- 0014-4983
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.eeh.2021.101420
- project
- From Sundsvall to Saltsjöbaden: A regional perspective on strikes at the Swedish labor market
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 5d2ab792-aeea-4c1e-8dbb-5961308708bb
- date added to LUP
- 2021-09-01 13:07:18
- date last changed
- 2025-10-14 09:20:49
@article{5d2ab792-aeea-4c1e-8dbb-5961308708bb,
abstract = {{This paper tests if a strong labor movement leads to fewer industrial conflicts. The focus is on Sweden between the first general election in 1919 and the famous Saltsjöbaden Agreement in 1938, a formative period when the country transitioned from fierce labor conflicts to a state of industrial peace. We use panel data techniques to analyze more than 2000 strikes in 103 Swedish towns. We find that a shift of political majority towards the Social Democrats led to a significant decline in strikes, but only in towns where union presence was strong. The strike-reducing mechanism is related to corporatist explanations rather than increased social spending in municipal budgets.}},
author = {{Molinder, Jakob and Karlsson, Tobias and Enflo, Kerstin}},
issn = {{0014-4983}},
keywords = {{Power resource theory; Industrial conflicts; Strikes; Labor markets; Local politics; N34; N44; H53; J51}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{01}},
publisher = {{Academic Press}},
series = {{Explorations in Economic History}},
title = {{Social democracy and the decline of strikes}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2021.101420}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.eeh.2021.101420}},
volume = {{83}},
year = {{2022}},
}