L'alliance de centre-droit a gagné les élections législatives en Suède. Les électeurs semblent s'être lassés des maux qui minent leur bel Etat-Providence:
The centre-right four-party Alliance won the elections in Sweden this Sunday, ending 12 years of Social Democrat rule. The Alliance promised to do stepwise market-oriented reforms, as opposed to the Social Democrats promise to do nothing. (...)
Sweden became internationally known as the country that went from rags to riches with the second highest growth rate in the world between 1890 and 1950. Then, economic policy took a more socialist turn and it became a prime example of a society with a big state taking care of people from the cradle to the grave - using their own money. And in the 1990s, there was quite a lot of attention around the Swedish market-oriented reforms.
The summary of Swedish success and failure is a story of markets against the state. Every time Sweden has taken a step towards freer markets, it has been very successful. And every time it has increased the size and power of the state, success has sooner or later faded away. (...)
The labour market is probably the best example of Sweden's problems. McKinsey estimated the total unemployment rate to be 15 per cent. Sweden has decreased the size of the labour force more than any other European country during the last 15 years, shuffling away hundreds of thousands of people from being called "unemployed" to "early retired". (...)
The labour market is regulated concerning hiring and firing, it is very unionised and, in terms of wage bargaining, thus very collectivised. On top of that, the total tax level on labour is one of the highest in Europe and the biggest parts of the service sector - health care, education, elderly care, social insurance - are within the public monopolies. This is where Sweden is still plagued by socialism and where the need for reform is great. (...)
|