infonet-economy

In Austria, the social democrats suffered major electoral losses in the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, and these losses translated primarily into gains for right-wing populism. In Sweden, by contrast, the social democrats have pretty much held their own in recent elections (except for 1991) and protest voting has assumed leftist as well as rightist forms. Commonly regarded as prototypical instances of 'corporatism', the two countries have also diverged with respect to union density, which fell precipitously in Austria while it rose in Sweden from 1970 to 1990. This dual divergence suggests that strong unions remain an important electoral asset for social-democratic parties. The divergent trajectories of trade-union membership are in turn related to differences between Austrian and Swedish corporatism.