The Constant Threat to the Swedish Welfare State

Our land as we know it was born in 1936. Before then we had been a vassal state, a warrior state and most recently a poor peasant state. It had been a few rough years since the socialists and liberals pushed through the law for every man and woman’s right to vote in 1921, but now was Sweden finally facing some political stability with a single party with majority in the parliament. The idea of “folkhemmet”, a place where every citizen was welcome and taken care for was for the first time presented to the masses by the new Swedish minister of state, Per Albin Hansson. The thought of a Swedish welfare state had been discussed among the socialists in Sweden since the beginning of the 20th century, but the economy and the political power of the Social democrats had been to weak. These politics could now be set in to action, and was carried out, even during World War II, until a dark day in September 1976 when Sd looses 1,3% of the votes and the parliament once again gets a right wing majority.

Oh, the pity. Later that year was the Swedish income tax lowered and the old agreement between the trade unions confederation (LO) and the employers confederation (SAF) from 1938 abruptly broken up. The set back in economy during the following 70s and 80s ended in a major economic crisis in the beginning of the 90s, and people even questioned if the old welfare-state was to blame.

But now, six years into the new millennium, after 12 years of the social democrats in power, things are finally looking bright again. Our fragile economy isn’t as dazzling as it once was in 1968, when