Abstract: Shows that the conditions for a control trade-off were in fact met during the period of stagflation, which lasted from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. It examines the need for wage restraint, the impact of corporatism and centralized wage bargaining on unemployment and inflation, and the effect of co-determination in Germany, the Meidner plan in Sweden, and other efforts to incrementally increase workers’ control. The chapter also shows that a trade-off would be feasible even if workers were solely concerned with their material well-being and suggests that increasing workers’ control through pension and other investment funds is a particularly promising strategy in such a period.

Keywords: co-determination, corporatism, Germany, inflation, Rudolf Meidner, pension funds, stagflation, Sweden, unemployment, wage bargaining,