Union Density in a Global Perspective
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The Swedish Model of Industrial Relations: Self-Regulation and Combined Centralisation-Decentralisation
The Swedish model of industrial relations is analyzed with respect to some closely related dimensions: collective agreements - legislation, cooperation - confrontation, self-regulation - state regulation and centralisation - decentralisation. Both the historical development and the present state of the model are discussed. In an analytical table the dimension self-regulation - state regulation is combined with the dimension centralisation - decentralisation. A distinction is made between self-regulation on the part of unions AND employers' associations (bipartite self-regulation) and on the other hand on the part of unions OR employers' associations (unilateral self-regulation). By that the four fields of the table are extended to six fields. The development in the last 10-15 years is described as a "new mix of self-regulation and state regulation and of centralisation and decentralisation".
Professional Unions, Public Sector Growth, and the Swedish Equality Policy
"Professionalism" and "unionization" have proved more compatible as organizational principles in recent practice than was thought possible a few decades ago. The organization of professionals to bargain collectively with employers has become less an issue of whether, and more one of how, in most Western countries during the last thirty years. In the United States, groups such as the American Association of University Professors and the American Medical Association have been adding collective bargaining to their other functions, while maintaining their organizational autonomy. In Britain, where earlier attempts to form a federation of white-collar and professional unions proved unsuccessful, teacher and other professional groups have come increasingly to affiliate with the Trades Union Congress, to which most of the manual unions also belong. The most coherent pattern is found in Scandinavia, where, in line with what some have labeled a social corporatist structure, the great majority of professionals are organized in their own federation, which is distinct from the federations of manual and white-collar workers. Sweden, which Joseph Schumpeter characterized as having produced a "relatively smaller supply of unemployable and exasperated intellectuals" than other European countries,1 led the way in professional unionization in the 1940s. The federation grew as it attracted professional groups most of whose members are employed in the public sector, earning good salaries but also paying high taxes. The development of that federation is the subject of this article.