Abstract
The economic crisis in Western Europe since 1974 has created an unfavourable environment for the pursuit of social democratic politics. This paper contrasts the nature of political responses to the crisis ‐ especially to the threat of mass unemployment ‐ in West Germany and Sweden. The difference in ‘crisis‐management’ policies pursued in the two states is traced to the greater strength of social democratic values and the social democratic movement in Sweden ‐ which is, in turn, attributable to the absence of a confessional division in the Swedish labour movement and to Sweden's (historically determined) higher level of trade union organisation.

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