ABSTRACT
The Depression of the 1930s provided the catalyst for a rapid expansion of the Swedish government. This led, as it did in the United States, to extensive state intervention in the society's social and economic affairs. In contrast to the United States, however, Swedish governmental activities during the 1930s laid the foundation for what was to become in the next half century the Western world's most comprehensive welfare state. Typically, the coalitions were made with the Agrarian Party. The depression-fighting government measures of the early 1930s consisted of farm supports of various kinds, together with steeply progressive taxation, extensive public-works programs, especially the construction of new housing, and unemployment insurance. This condition provided the backdrop for a fascinating social and political debate within Swedish society, which was to have far-reaching consequences.
