ABSTRACT
In many states, federalism is considered self-evident as a constitutional principle. Many unitary European states, which were formerly strongly unified, are now opening up to variants of federal thinking. Federal ideas and institutional principles are also pivotal to the debate on how to shape and reshape the European Union (EU). Some would even argue that the experimentation with different forms of multi-level governance, which is prevalent in most European countries today, emanates from the multitude of opportunities and cross-pressures inherent in European integration. In Sweden, the constitutional two-tier format with a strong central government and autonomous local governments remained undisputed since the inception of democracy in the 1920s. For centuries, governments and other leading political forces in the country held predominantly instrumental views of political institutions, favouring a strong central power and uniform statehood. Since the 1990s, however, federal ideas have gained some support among political parties as well as among independent debaters. Despite Sweden seemingly being the least likely case for federalism, this chapter aims at investigating how significant this support is and how likely it is that Sweden would move in a federalist direction.
