ABSTRACT
Among social science analysts of large-scale change, 1989 to 1991 marks the end of history, or at least a great divide differentiating the twentieth century from the next to come (Fukuyama, 1989, 1992; Hobsbawm, 1994). The 1990s indicate the starting-point of a new era, a run-up to the future of the new millennium. This scenario also applies to Sweden and its welfare state, which had been seen as a model of social policy during most of the postwar period. Until the fall of the Berlin wall, the trajectory of the Swedish welfare state was often described as advancing from civil and political citizenship rights to social rights. Over the last decade things have changed dramatically. The possibility of a rupture or dismantling of the comprehensive welfare state, came to be seen as a viable option by some foreign and local experts (Castels, 1997; Lindbeck et al., 1994).
