SGI 2024 | Sweden | Executive Summary

Executive Summary

Recent Governments Experts

SGI experts on Sweden

Evangelia Petridou

Evangelia Petridou is Associate Professor in Political Science, affiliated with the Risk and Crisis Research Center at Mid Sweden University. Petridou’s research focuses on policy studies, with a specific theoretical interest in theories of the policy process, networks and entrepreneurial agency, while her empirical interests center on crisis and emergency management. She has published in journals such as Policy Studies Journal, European Policy Analysis, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, Politics and Policy, and Policy and Society. Petridou is co-editor of International Review of Public Policy (IRPP).

Jörgen Sparf

Jörgen Sparf is Associate Professor in sociology, a founding member of the Risk and Crisis Research Center (RCR) at Mid Sweden University and Senior Researcher at NTNU Social Research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He holds the position of director of the immersive simulation environment RCR Simulation Lab. Jörgen’s research revolves primarily around theoretical advancements in relational aspects of societal resilience at organisational level. The empirical fields are mainly: (i) crisis preparedness and management and social resilience, and (ii) policy processes and organisational relations. In recent years Jörgen has mainly published on governmental responses and policy-change related to the COVID-19 pandemic. These publications include articles in European Policy Analysis, Policy Studies, and Politics & Policy, and as co-editor (with Nikolaos Zahariadis, Evangelia Petridou, and Theofanis Exadaktylos) of Policy Styles and Trust in the Age of Pandemics: Global Threat, National Responses on Routledge.

Sven Jochem

Sven Jochem is professor of political science at the University of Konstanz (Germany). His main areas of research include empirical as well as normative theories of democracy, comparative welfare state research and the comparative dynamics of Nordic democracies. His most recent book is Die Politischen Systeme Skandinaviens (The Political Systems of Scandinavia), Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 2012.

Mi Ah Schøyen (Coordinator)

Mi Ah Schoyen is Senior Researcher at NOVA Norwegian Social Research. She holds a PhD in political and social sciences from the European University Institute and works mainly in the field of comparative welfare state research. Her interests include the welfare mix, the politics and social consequences of welfare state reforms, intergenerational solidarity and the interplay between climate and social policy. She has published on topics such as the Nordic welfare state model, the eco-social agenda in Europe and cross-national comparisons of consequences of early job insecurity. She has experience from several large collaborative international research projects.

The years 2022 and 2023 have been a period of dynamic change for Sweden, with sharp political shifts occurring against the backdrop of the armed conflict in Europe between Russia and Ukraine. This war severely upset the balance of the Nordic-Baltic region, leading to far-reaching consequences. As a direct result of the conflict, Sweden, seemingly overnight, overturned a policy of neutrality that had been in place since the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1814) and sought NATO membership, effective March 2024. The process was fraught with realpolitik, with leaders from Türkiye and Hungary trying to elicit concessions from Sweden to avoid a veto. Both the Social Democratic bloc and the center-right minority government were in agreement on the NATO membership issue.

The 2022 elections resulted in the Social Democratic bloc losing power. The radical right-wing populist Sweden Democrats came in second with 73 seats, compared to the Social Democrats’ 107 and the Moderate Party’s 68. After the election, the cordon sanitaire against the Sweden Democrats finally fell, and the parties in the right-wing camp entered into negotiations with the Sweden Democrats. These negotiations to form a new government took 37 days. Although the Sweden Democrats do not hold cabinet positions, their influence became evident in the Tidöavtalet – the compromise that led to the government formation – which includes punitive measures against crime that also undermine civil rights. As the largest party in the right-wing bloc, the Sweden Democrats also exerted significant influence in the day-to-day process of governing as a supporting party of a minority government consisting of Moderates, Liberals, and Christian Democrats. Researchers are focusing on the conduct of elections within the broader climate of misinformation and disinformation, while political parties in general continue to lose membership.

Freedom of speech and information transparency remain robust. The public debate surrounding the Quran burnings during the NATO membership negotiations centered on the tensions between free speech and hate speech. In the end, these burnings were ruled as free speech, though a constitutional amendment limits the freedom to associate if this association is connected to, for example, terrorist activities.

The post-COVID period saw inflation spike to 10%, then fall to about 3.5% in 2022. The economy is forecast to recover, and the trend of an inclusive labor market with increased employment rates for foreign-born people persists, even as the de facto segregation of certain areas and increased violence from organized crime also persists.

Sweden remains a forerunner in environmental protection, with an articulated goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2045 and a detailed, albeit non-binding, plan to achieve this target. However, recent actions by the current center-right minority government, such as lowering fuel taxes, suggest a prioritization of economic benefits over environmental protection. Additionally, the government is working to expand nuclear energy for electricity generation.

This period also marked the proposition to radically reorganize the research funding structure in the country. A relevant commission of inquiry suggested abolishing the existing four funding agencies, which focused broadly on innovation, sustainability, working life, and high-quality research. Additionally, it recommended discontinuing the research budget for the Swedish Energy Agency. Instead, it proposed forming three large funding agencies. This change is framed as an effort to modernize the research funding structure. Such framing – “getting with the times” – was also used when the government announced large cuts to Swedish Radio.

Recent developments have led to reactive shifts in public policy and reinforced the stronghold of a radical right-wing populist party, even in Sweden. These changes underscore a trend: Swedish democracy is becoming less unique and more similar to other European countries.