Dismantling Employeesʼ Power Resources in the Swedish Labour Market<subtitle>An Ideological Theoretical Approach</subtitle>

Abstract

This article examines the changes in power resources in the Swedish labour market since the 1990s and investigates the factors that have caused these changes by utilising an ideological theoretical approach. Specifically, it explores the impact of ideological changes on power resources, such as the level of unemployment, the strength of trade unions, and institutional power resources. The ideological approach is used as the analytical tool to analyse the interaction between ideas and the material world. The article analyses 24 government policy documents and how they relate to the context where the ideas arise. First, I provide a contextual description in which the changing of power resources has occurred, then government bills related to the changing of power resources are analysed. I argue that the changes were motivated by the need to adapt to a globalised and flexible economy to create growth. The reduction in employeesʼ power resources can be seen as an outcome of a dialectical spiral between ideas and the context in which they exist, and I suggest that promoting employee interests rather than growth could have led to a different outcome.

Keywords

• ideological theory
• power resources theory
• Swedish labour market
• employment protection
• Walter Korpi