Carlsson, Ingvar Gösta

Carlsson, Ingvar Gösta (1934- ), Swedish Social Democratic Labour Party politician and Prime Minister of Sweden (1986-1991 and 1994-1996). Born in Borås, Sweden, into a family in poor circumstances, Carlsson was educated locally and at Lund University, Sweden, and Northwestern University in the United States. After joining the Social Democratic Labour Party, he became secretary in the Prime Minister's Office (1958-1960) and President of the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League (1961-1967). He was elected to the Riksdag (Swedish parliament) in 1964, becoming Under-Secretary of State at the Cabinet Office (1967-1969). Though by nature quiet and retiring, Carlsson brought to politics a personal experience of social injustice frequently expressed in an agitatory style. He joined the Cabinet as Minister of Education (1969-1973), succeeding his close friend Olof Palme, later becoming Minister of Housing and Physical Planning (1973-1976). As Minister of Education, he was responsible with Palme for the radical reform of the Swedish education system, introducing state allowances for upper secondary school pupils, widening the basis of university recruitment, and expanding vocational training within the school system. As Palme's deputy in 1982-1986, Carlsson proved an able administrator with a talent for conciliation in the Cabinet, leaving Palme free to conduct foreign policy. During his tenure as Deputy Prime Minister, Carlsson became Minister for the Environment (1985-1986). At the time of Palme's assassination in 1986, Carlsson had apparently given up all thought of succeeding to the leadership, and seemed ready to retire from active politics when Palme himself went in due course. Palme's death catapulted him into a position for which he had no evident appetite, but his chairmanly talents stood him in good stead, and he weathered a series of crises over economic and social policies, culminating in the dramatic resignation of his Finance Minister Kjell-Olof Feldt in 1990.

As Prime Minister, Carlsson pursued a traditional Social Democratic line, but was at first slow, in the later 1980s, to respond to the handicapping of the economy by high levels of welfare provision. He filed the Swedish application for membership of the European Union in 1991, his action prompted as much by economic imperatives as by the opportunity offered to neutral Sweden by the collapse of the Soviet Union. Serious erosion of public support lost him the 1991 election. He returned to office, however, in 1994, and broke new ground by appointing women to half his Cabinet posts. In August 1995 he gave notice of his intention to stand down, and he was replaced as Prime Minister in March, 1996, by his more forceful Finance Minister, Göran Persson.