Attitudes towards the Swedish welfare state : Class and competitive explanatory models during the 2010s

Between the years of 2000 and 2010 attitudes towards the welfare state have seen a rapid decline in class dependence in Sweden. But from 2010 to today the research on the topic are non-existent. This study will examine how class attitudes towards the welfare state has changed in Sweden from 2010 to 2017 and if explanations other than class can be identified. By using survey data from the SOM-institute’s The National SOM surveys 2017 OLS regressions is applied to test the predictive power of class and two other hypotheses on welfare state attitudes. The two other hypotheses are Inglehart and Flanagan’s theory of a value change in industrial societies and Sennetts theory proclaiming a new capitalist culture. The attitudes tested were towards privatization of schools, healthcare and level of unemployment benefits. The findings indicate that class dependence on welfare state attitudes in the last decade continue to decline. The middle class have now embraced the state driven welfare and are now just as positive as the working class. Selfemployed and higher officials stand out with lower support of the state driven welfare but are still more supportive than not. Since the continuing rise of the support in state driven welfare class differences are virtually disappearing. In finding a new explanation I find low support for Sennetts theory which focuses on self-interest, trust against others and decline in political interest. Neither did this essay find support for political values organized in postmodern versus collectivist to predict welfare state attitudes. The three hypotheses did predict a small part each, but neither were strong enough to be proclaimed as a new explanation of welfare attitudes. The main finding in this essay is thus that class no longer can predict welfare attitudes in Sweden, a country that for long was politically defined by class conflict.