Søren Toft Hansen
The increasing cake.
Economic growth and productivism in Denmark 1920 - 1947.

The first notions of productivism in Danish economic and political thought have to be sought among the economists in the twenties. The law of increasing returns appeared in the theoretical economic periodicals of the time, and it revealed the connections and contradictions between mass production, employment, wages and economic growth in both society and individual businesses. The productivist ideas spread to the political parties, to the unions, and to the employers' association. Productivism and Fordism promised economic growth and prosperity for all, but workers and employers contentiously accused each other of enriching one side on account of the other. There was a movement towards consensus about productivism in the late twenties, and productivism was adopted in the party program of the Social Democracy in 1927. The onset of economic world crisis buried further debate, but in 1943 - 45 the idea of productivism was broadly accepted by all the political parties. Due to the so called Danish Model, the labour market was regulated without participation of the state. Therefore the political ideas of productivism could not succeed without a labour market compromise. This compromise was achieved by the creation of Shop Committees (Samarbejdsudvalg) in 1946/47, where rationalization and cost reductions could be discussed. The transparencies of the rationalization process were thought to reduce the distrust and create a situation in which both employers and employees could reap the benefit of rationalization.