The Swedish Model: From the Cradle to the Grave?

The term “Swedish model” was already coined in the 1930s ¹ in Marquis Childs’s sense of Sweden as the land of the middle way between the Soviet command economy and the unregulated market capitalism of the United States. Since then the expression has been used almost like a mantra when discussing modern Sweden. There are many definitions of what constitutes the Swedish model and much depends on whether one takes a narrow or a broad view of Swedish society, or on one’s ideology and values. Some focus on its mixed economy, others on its unique labor relations system and active labor market economy, while still others focus on its corporatist compromises, its advanced welfare programs, or its social democratic goals of solidarity and equality. ² Using the broadest possible view, Rojas ³ settles for nothing less than defining it as synonymous with the entire social fabric of contemporary Sweden.