The Swedish Version of Austerity: Institutions and Actors in Swedish Welfare Politics.  

Abstract: 

In recent decades, the Swedish welfare state has undergone a considerable transformation. For example, public spending as a share of GDP has decreased around ten percent, taxation has fallen about 8 percent, and social insurance offers significantly less coverage as compared to the early 1990s. An overlooked factor in this development is the Swedish budget rules and the incentives they produce for state as well as local governments. In this paper I describe the functioning of the Swedish fiscal regime focusing on (1) how politicians are primed to cutbacks by the design of the budget rules, (2) the interplay between state and local government that follows, and (3) how state and local politicians seek to avoid electoral punishment.