Social democracy and the fate of the swedish model

Sweden attracted much attention as an interesting socioeconomic role model already in the 1930s, especially after Marquis Childs published his famous and influential book, The Swedish Middle Way (1936). Childs’ main argument was that the “Swedish model” was a successful “socialist” policy with a growing cooperative sector-as a counterbalance to the private sector-and effective crisis management. Of special interest to him was the building of cheap homes for the working class undertaken by the common good (public and cooperative sector). This was accomplished through strong and decisive government intervention in economic life, especially to fight mass unemployment with Keynesian-style policy tools