Debate: Covid-19 and Sweden’s exceptionalism—a spotlight on the cracks in the social fabric of a mature welfare state

Sweden is often perceived as an exceptional welfare state and among the most advanced nations in terms of welfare service delivery and quality of welfare production and organization. The Swedish welfare state has been characterized by tax-financed and equally distributed healthcare, high-quality and free public education and ambitious social security systems. However, restructuring reforms have resulted in an equally ambitious but highly decentralized, deregulated and liberalized welfare state. 

(Image removed) Despite evidence of a decline in Swedish welfare exceptionalism, Sweden’s exceptionalism has resurfaced in a slightly different manner in its response to Covid-19. The Swedish Covid-19 policy has been scrutinized in international media and research due to Sweden’s high per capita death rate and international comparisons have considered Sweden’s response as less successful.

In a debate piece in the journal Public Money & Management, CNDS fellow Mikael Granberg and colleagues take a look at Sweden as a critical case to query what the spotlight of Covid-19 can tell us about vulnerabilities inherent in the organizational structures of this mature welfare state after years of reform.