For many decades, Sweden was seen as a model welfare state. Only with the onset of economic problems in the 1990s have successive governments felt compelled to curb social spending and abandon the goal of full employment. This book is about the changes introduced and the political, institutional and cultural resistance they encountered. Detailed accounts of changes to welfare services and benefits are included alongside specialist chapters devoted to areas where Sweden itself has claimed to be something of a leader - the care of the elderly, gender equality, employment issues and substance.

About the Author
ARTHUR GOULD is Reader in Swedish Social Policy at the Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University. He has published many articles on Swedish drug policy, the Swedish welfare state, long-term unemployment in Sweden and Swedish social policy and the EU. He is the author of Conflict and Control in Welfare Policy: the Swedish Experience (1988), Capitalist Welfare Systems: Japan, Britain and Sweden (1993), and co-author of Voices Within and Without: Responses to Long Term Unemployment in Germany, Sweden and Britain (1998).

Reviews

'...this unusually well-written, broad, and detailed examination of Swedish social policy is essential reading...' - Choice

'...Gould's book is - with is wealth of material and wide-ranging considerations - a substantial contribution to the ongoingdebate about Sweden as a uniqu and important case of a modern welfare state.' - Wolfgang Zank, Aalborg University, Journal of Contemporary European Studies

'...an extremely well-informed and creative analysis of Swedish social policy from the outside that produces many important reflections for students, scholars and not least Swedish politicians.' - Lennart Nygren, Professor of Social Work at Umea University, Sweden, Social Policy

Book Information
ISBN 9780333774502
Author A. Gould
Format Hardback
Page Count 225
Imprint Palgrave Macmillan
Publisher Palgrave Macmillan