Abstract

In the international debate "Swedish model" is usually referred either to the set of social and economic institutions characterising the development of Sweden since the late 1950s, or to the Welfare State, or furthermore to the main actor of the Swedish political life, the Social Democratic Party. This article analyses the historiographical debate around the Swedish model originated in the early 1990s during the crisis of the model itself. The essay recalls the ambivalent role of it (both utopia and dystopia) in the international debate from the 1930s onwards and then focuses on the historical roots of the Social Democratic movement and the peculiar relationship between State and civil society.