ASSESSING SAPS ECONOMIC-POLICY IN THE 1980S - THE 3RD WAY, THE SWEDISH MODEL AND THE TRANSITION FROM FORDISM TO POST-FORDISM

This paper applies a historical structural, regulation-theoretical app roach to interpret Swedish economic policy in the 1980s. It is argued that the market-oriented long-term assumptions of the 'third way' were flawed, and constituted an inadequate response to the crisis of the S wedish (Rehn-Meidner) Model. It violated the already increasingly brit tle terms of legitimation of the 'moral economy' of solidaristic wage policy. Although such a violation was reasonable, necessary (and accep ted by the trade unions) in the short run, the failure of the policy t o achieve a progressive trajectory in the transformation from Fordism to post-Fordism made it impossible to reproduce the conditions of the 'moral economy'. The paper is especially critical of the use of a 'nor ms-based' monetary policy, and the marginalization of collective capit al formation policy and active industrial policy.