ABSTRACT
Swedish social security set a baseline standard for comparison with the advent of the world's first universal old-age pension program in 1913. All citizens were included in a savings-and-benefit system that was in no sense particularly generous. Compulsory occupational injury insurance in Sweden dates back to the 1910s and in most cases became more generous throughout the year. As the generosity of social benefits declines, the emerging system of social protection is accused of becoming nasty and stingy. All over the globe, the reform of social security—the kernel of the universal welfare state—is on the agenda. Since the 1960s, the Swedish welfare state has been known as the archetype of the universal welfare model. In the universal welfare state, targeting is in many ways a more complicated issue than in the residual welfare state. In Sweden, after several decades of the advancement of universal welfare policy, constraints are gradually being imposed on the universal approach to policy.
