Perceptions of Sweden’s Welfare State: Cause for Concern?

This article critically explores perceptions of the Swedish welfare state, three decades after the much-documented Choice Revolution fundamentally altered the traditional model. This research examines qualitative data from focus group interviews conducted in Sweden in 2021 and 2022. This paper investigates the current status of folkhemmet (the people’s home) according to those who experience it. From its peak in the decades following the Second World War to the introduction of privatisation in the 1990s, this article will investigate if Sweden’s welfare state is undergoing another transformation. Themes constructed from focus groups delineate a welfare state that, while still comparatively stronger than many others, is being hollowed out from within. It is a welfare system that produces isolation as an unintended consequence of the individual liberation it promises. It is a system deeply connected to national identity and tested by recent patterns of migration. Perceptions of the welfare state are important for its legitimacy. This qualitative study allows for deep contextual insight into what it feels like to participate in Sweden’s famed welfare state in the 21st century.

Keywords: Constitutional culture; Democracy; Welfare