Analysis of Welfare State Reform in Sweden --Why Sweden Could Reduce its Public Expenditure?

Sweden is one of the most successful countries during the European welfare state reform process. After 20 years of reform, Sweden successfully cut the public spending that linked with welfare state, with the higher economic growth rate than the European Union average and relatively low unemployment rate. This dissertation is going to analyze the reason through systematic study on the Swedish welfare state reform. This dissertation first tries to introduce the Swedish welfare state; it analyzes the development process, characteristics, achievements and problems of the Swedish welfare state. Then it comes to the details of main reform welfare projects of the Swedish welfare state. This part includes six parts: the Swedish pension reform, unemployment insurance system reform, medical insurance system reform, educational reform, housing reform and children welfare reform. The following is the analysis of the changes of the Swedish public expenditure related to welfare from 1995 to now, which are: the changes of the total government expenditure, housing and community amenity spending changes, health spending changes, education spending changes and social protection spending changes. Comparing with other European countries, this paper intends to figure out the reasons for the decline of Swedish government public expenditure. Furthermore, the motivate power, achievements, problems and prospects of the Swedish welfare state reform are also analyzed. This paper holds that the Swedish social policy adjustments not only did not change the basic structure of its welfare state, but also has realized the economic growth, while keeping a low unemployment rate. Its success is worth our study.