ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a thematic look at the continuities and discontinuities in Swedish civil society history. Social movements and interest organizations have played an important role in Sweden since they emerged in the 1800s. The new confronted the old in the late 1800s and early decades of the 1900s and changed Sweden significantly. The key developments at the time Sweden approached the twentieth century are summarized in the terms democratization, internationalization, individualization, and industrialization. Swedish blue-collar unions were created in the industrial revolution and define their demands in terms of class conflict, which has deemphasized the importance of gender and ethnic identities as well as postmaterial concerns. The social movements which emerged as Sweden’s modern civil society took form are more similar to self-interest collective action organizations. Swedish networks have traditionally involved stable contacts between collective action organizations and government. Swedish laws and legal practices have generally integrated collective action organizations in the political process.
