Sweden's Welfare State: Can the Bumblebee Keep Flying?

Sweden has long been viewed as epitomizing a particular approach to economic and social policy. To its advocates, the Swedish welfare state builds on a strong social consensus favoring extensive state intervention to ensure a high quality of life for all Swedes. To its critics, the Swedish system is marked by excessive government intervention and attendant inefficiencies. These contrasting views are captured in imagery used by Prime Minister Goran Persson: "think of a bumblebee. With its overly heavy body and little wings, supposedly it should not be able to fly- but its does." The Swedish welfare state is the bumblebee that has managed to fly. This book draws on many years of IMF surveillance and policy advice to understand how it has done so, to access the challenges that the "Swedish model" faces in the new century, and to draw lessons for the many other countries that face similar challenges from globalization and demographics.