ABSTRACT
Sweden is the third largest country in what was before 1989 called Western Europe. Two general observations can be made from the overview of Sweden's environmental policy. First of all, policy content is being pushed from an earlier focus on pollution clean-up and restoration to a more comprehensive and integrative view, where precautionary concern for the sustainability of eco-systems is expected to influence decision-making at all levels and in all sectors of society. Second, the policy organisation is still very much built upon the sectorally organised administrative structure in Sweden. Prime Minister Persson's vision puts a strong emphasis on ecological sustainability as the fourth step in building the folkhemmet, the 'people's home', which is one of the most revered symbols in Swedish politics ever since the 1930s. In his April 1997 speech to the Social Democratic Youth and the Construction Workers' Union, the Social Democratic Prime Minister uses what Maarten Hajer has labelled 'ecological modernisation' arguments.
