Preconditions for Increased Workers' Influence

With the introduction of a series of legislative acts and pending proposals, the seventies and early eighties in Sweden have been marked by an increasing interest in worker influence or participation in decision making. This emphasis is seen both on the level of industrial democracy and economic democracy. The following article outlines these moves, concentrating on the Act on Employee Participation in Decision Making (MBL) and the Meidner proposal for Wage-Earners' Investment Funds. Relying on interview data from representatives of major Swedish political and economic organizations, journalists, and alternative groups, an attempt is made to explain the rise in participatory demands that surfaced in Sweden in the late sixties and has permeated the seventies and early eighties. Contrary to postindustrial theorists' contention that participatory demands rise out of the positive effects of industrial development, findings suggest that a more common perspective of Swedish interview respondents is that the increased interest in participation has risen from a negative reaction to the effects of industrialization.