A visionary pragmatist: Rudolf Meidner, 1914 – 2005

The late Rudolf Meidnert, who passed away just last December, was known as one of the fathers of the "Swedish model". With his economist colleagues he developed a model based on centralised wage negotiations and a solidarity wage system, which enabled them simultaneously achieve both high employment level and low inflation. Meidner's most foresighted idea was the program of gradually transferring corporate shares to employees, but not even the social democratic government was ready.