Ernst Wigforss

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ernst Wigforss

Ernst Johannes Wigforss (January 24, 1881–2 January 1977) was a Swedish linguist (dialectologist), mostly known as a prominent member of the Social Democratic Workers' Party and Swedish Minister of Finance. Wigforss became one of the main theoreticians in the development of the Swedish Social Democratic movement’s revision of Marxism, from a revolutionary to a reformist organization.

Born in the town of Halmstad in Halland in south-western Sweden, Wigforss studied at Lund University from 1899 and completed a doctorate in 1913 with a dissertation on the dialect of south Halland, becoming docent in Scandinavian languages at the university the same year. He taught at the gymnasium in Lund (Lunds högre allmänna läroverk) 1911-1914 and as lecturer of German and Swedish at the Latin gymnasium in Gothenburg from 1914.

Wigforss had published on political issues before completing his dissertation work and was in 1919 elected a social democratic member of the First Chamber of the Swedish Parliament, representing Gothenburg, where he became member of various committees. He was appointed member of the third cabinet of Hjalmar Branting in 1924, after Branting's resignation in January 1925 that of Rickard Sandler, and was made temporary Minister of Finance on 24 January, 1925 when Fredrik Thorsson fell ill, succeeding Thorsson on 8 May of the same year, following his death. The Sandler cabinet resigned on June 7, 1926.

He was again Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Per Albin Hansson 1932–1936 and in the cabinet of Hansson and (from the former's death in 1946) Tage Erlander 1936–1949.

Wigforss' economic policies were strongly influenced by John Maynard Keynes, though some argue that he anticipated Keynes, as he proposed counter-cyclical economic policy before becoming minister of finance from 1932 until 1949. In his pamphlet Har vi råd att arbeta? (can we afford working?), widely believed to have won the 1932 elections for the Social Democrats, he made fun of the Liberal theory that cuts is the proper remedy of economic downturns. Although he is considered as the creator of the Swedish high-tax economy, controversies with Minister for Social Affairs Gustav Möller (who would have preferred taxing to have been even higher) prevented both from being elected party chairman and Prime Minister at the death of Hansson.

After his resignation, Wigforss continued until his death to write and speak of political issues and was considered as one of the most innovative and daring Social Democrat politicians. For example he supported the anti-nuclear movement of the fifties and contributed to the discontinuation of the Swedish nuclear arms programme in 1962.