Rudolf Alfred Meidner (23 June 1914 – 9 December 2005) was a Swedish
economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
and
socialist
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
.
Biography
Son of Alfred Meidner and Elise Bandmann, Meidner was born on 23 June 1914 in
Breslau,
Silesia
Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...
. Being
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
and a
socialist
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
, he was forced to flee
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
after the
Reichstag fire
The Reichstag fire (, ) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday, 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Marinus van der Lubbe, ...
in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
in1933.
In 1937, Meidner married Ella Jörgenssen and he became a
Swedish citizen in 1943.
Meidner was an
economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
and the developer of the
employee funds plan proposed by the
Swedish Trade Union Confederation in the 1970s. He studied under the economist and
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...
laureate
Gunnar Myrdal
Karl Gunnar Myrdal ( ; ; 6 December 1898 – 17 May 1987) was a Swedish economist and sociologist. In 1974, he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences along with Friedrich Hayek for "their pioneering work in the theory of money an ...
. He got his
Doctor of Philosophy
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...
degree in 1954 with a dissertation labeled ''Swedish Labour Market at Full Employment''. He spent most of his work life at the
Swedish Trade Union Confederation as a researcher.
Meidner was awarded the
Illis quorum by the Swedish government in 1997.
Meidner died on 9 December 2005 in
Lidingö
Lidingö (), also known in its definite form Lidingön and as Lidingölandet, is an island in the inner Stockholm archipelago, northeast of Stockholm, Sweden. In 2023, the population of the Lidingö urban area on the island was 48,162. It is the ...
, aged 91.
Rehn–Meidner model
Meidner and the Swedish economist
Gösta Rehn were responsible for the
Rehn–Meidner model for economic growth as promulgated by the
Swedish Social Democratic Party
The Swedish Social Democratic Party, formally the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party ( , S or SAP), usually referred to as The Social Democrats ( ), is a social democratic political party in Sweden. The party is member of the Progressiv ...
and the
LO, the blue-collar trade union. The Rehn–Meidner model was first proposed in 1951 and for over the next twenty-five years was the basis for the low-inequality, high-tech oriented, rapid-innovation Swedish economy which also was exposed to international trade and became export oriented. In response to the increasing demand on the part of workers, communities and women for a share of the excess profits (permitted by a capital-labor-state wage suppression agreement) accumulated in an increasingly powerful capitalist sector, Meidner created a proposal in 1976, published by the LO, that called for requiring all companies above a certain size to issue new stock shares to workers so that within twenty years the workers would control 52 per cent of the companies they worked in. This policy followed in Meidner's career-long efforts to build a step-wise, peaceful, institutionally supported transition to a socialist society, whose carefully crafted incentive structure and culture would allow each member of society to work and contribute according to her or his capacity and receive social support according to her or his needs.
Supported by important Swedish policy designer Walter Korpi, Meidner's work was opposed by pro-capitalist Social Democrats, including the aggressively conservative Finance Minister
Kjell-Olof Feldt as well as Gösta Rehn (proponent of
active labour market policies
Active labour market policies (ALMPs) are government programmes that intervene in the labour market to help the unemployment, unemployed find work, but also for the Underemployed workers, underemployed and employees looking for better jobs. In cont ...
) and
Olof Palme
Sven Olof Joachim Palme (; ; 30 January 1927 – 28 February 1986) was a Swedish politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1969 to 1976 and 1982 to 1986. Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 until as ...
. The increasing ambitions and occasional militancy of the Swedish working class in conjunction with Meidner's careful, progressive socialist institutional planning politicized the Swedish capitalist class via the
Swedish Employers Association (SAF), who joined other countries' capitalist classes ramping up their political efforts to destroy working class organizational bases and to promote the capital deregulation and mobility that began to come to crisis in the 2000s. The SAF's response was to model their political and policy strategies after the New Zealand capitalist class' campaign which had successfully destroyed a labor movement of similar strength to the Swedish labor movement.
The Rehn–Meidner model resulted in Sweden having a very egalitarian wage system so that wage differentials between professions was very low, fortifying a low
Gini coefficient
In economics, the Gini coefficient ( ), also known as the Gini index or Gini ratio, is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income distribution, income inequality, the wealth distribution, wealth inequality, or the ...
. However, in the absence of the socialist steps urged by Meidner in the 1970s the economic model resulted in capital concentration (despite a very active social policy, Sweden has one of the highest percentages of private ownership of capital in the world) to the point where in the late 1970s 25 per cent of share capital was held by the top 0.1 per cent of shareholders and 75 per cent by the top 10 per cent. For the time being, the progressive taxation and pro-middle class state institutions promoted by the model extensively ameliorate this capital concentration as can be seen in comparatively successful, egalitarian outcomes.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Meidner, Rudolf
1914 births
2005 deaths
20th-century Swedish economists
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Sweden
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences
Silesian Jews
Swedish anti-capitalists
category:Swedish socialists
Recipients of the Illis quorum