| dc.description.abstract | This thesis is a comparative case-study of development trajectories of industrial relations and collective wage bargaining models in Sweden and Norway since around the turn of the millennium up until the present. I compare development trajectories in the two countries’ institutional frameworks in relevant areas in order to address three research questions: i) Are Swedish and Norwegian industrial relations and collective bargaining models displaying converging or diverging trajectories in the two first decades of the 21st century? ii) What roles have organised employers in different sectors played in industrial relations and bargaining model change in Sweden and Norway since 2000, and can properties in the countries’ organised actors explain outcomes in IR and bargaining model change? iii) Does change in one or both countries’ industrial relations and bargaining models conform to a description of ‘neoliberal’ transformations or trajectories in industrial relations, or is this concept unfit to describe the overall trajectory of Swedish and/or Norwegian industrial relations and bargaining models since 2000? The thesis relates to the research fields of comparative political economy and industrial relations studies. The conceptual framework applied for investigating and comparing the substantive areas of Swedish and Norwegian industrial relations is adopted from contributions and discussions within these fields. Of particular relevance are discussions of organised employers’ role in industrial relations change. Further, recent discussions in comparative political economy and industrial relations studies about trajectories of liberalisation provide an important conceptual backdrop. These discussions revolve around whether liberalising development trajectories in Western and European political economies and industrial relations best can be conceptualised as ‘varied liberalisation’ of sustained divergence in political-economical and industrial relations institutions, or if a common ‘neoliberal trajectory’ pointing towards convergence can be observed across most or all countries. In my substantive case treatment of Sweden and Norway, I outline how industrial relations and bargaining models have evolved since the turn of the millennium. These decades were a period in which both countries had recently reconstructed models for coordinated bargaining and adjoining industrial relations frameworks, following a period of turbulence, partial break-down and major revisions of post-war models of centralised bargaining. I map how landscapes of organisational and collective agreement coverage and agreement types have evolved, and also consider developments in employment forms. In addition, I look at main characteristics of tripartite institutions and state-involvement in industrial relations and bargaining, and how these have fared in responding to new pressures as a result of EU and single market integration. In mapping such characteristics and developments across my two cases, I am particularly attentive to different groups of private sector organised employers. The cases are investigated through a variety of data sources. Most important is existing scholarly secondary literature within the fields of comparative political economy and industrial relations studies dealing concretely with Sweden and Norway in relevant areas. Reports and statistics databases related to labour market characteristics are also applied. In much of the general conceptual and theory-generating literature, Norway is ‘under-theorised’ in comparison to the Swedish case, which is often treated as a paragon case of ‘Nordic’ industrial relations. Therefore, primary data collection is limited to Norway, and consists of interviews with central actors in employer organisations and institutions within the industrial relations sphere. After mapping case-properties in relevant areas, the thesis concludes with a comparative analysis. Here, I discuss and compare findings with the aid of conceptual frameworks from comparative political economy and industrial relations studies to address the three research questions of diverging/converging national trajectories, employer influence on industrial relations change and whether or not ‘neoliberalism’ is a useful concept for describing development trajectories. I argue that procedures for manufacturing-leadership in bargaining models point towards convergence, but that the cases diverge in regard to other important industrial relations characteristics such as state-involvement in wage regulation. I find that cross-class alliances in manufacturing are still dominant in both countries, but has faced more opposition in Sweden than in Norway. Lastly, I conclude that both countries are experiencing liberalising pressures, but that states and labour market parties have acted to ensure a continuation of IR and bargaining routines that preserves coordination and social solidarity. This makes neoliberalisation a poor overall characterisation of Swedish and Norwegian industrial relations and bargaining models’ development trajectories in the early 21st century. | eng |