It is impossible to predict what this means in concrete terms. When the globalisation wave culminated by the end of the nineteenth-century, nobody expected a world war, protectionism and a shrinking global economy. A slow-down in globalisation or a back down from today’s globalisation level would mean a development deceleration towards the global improvement in standards of living. The question is what this means to Swedish politics?
We can learn from Sweden’s rapid transformation from being one of the poorest countries in Europe in the mid-nineteenth-century to a modern industrial country 100 years later. These experiences are relevant to other countries as well as to the current globalisation process. To begin with, there was a very distinct free trade policy. Secondly, Sweden’s transformation was a result of substantial changes in the legal framework increasing competition and freedom of trade. Thirdly, globalisation profits gradually benefitted losers in the Swedish welfare state development. For example, general educational contributions, eventually completed by further training, special unemployment insurance, endorsements for increased national individual mobility as well as for corporate global expansion.
When Sweden’s wealth cut forward 100 years ago, it was based on new global companies and new industries; telecommunication, cars, engineering products, white goods, etc. To improve opportunities for small companies to grow, for successful entrepreneurship and for increased innovation commercialisation, we need structural reforms. Politics control to what extent companies expand and where they locate future production. Today, there are few signs of companies and industries securing employment for future generations.