THE END OF CLASS-POLITICS - STRUCTURAL CLEAVAGES AND ATTITUDES TO SWEDISH WELFARE POLICIES

Sweden, by many regarded as the archetypal welfare state, has recently experienced severe problems of weak economic performance, sharply ris ing unemployment and cutbacks in social policies. In this paper, data from national surveys over the last decade are analysed in order to as sess whether recent changes in the political arena point to more long- term problems of legitimacy for Swedish welfare policies. The purposes are (a) to track the overall attitudes to various aspects of Swedish welfare policies in order to assess which, if any, parts and aspects o f the welfare state have experienced a fall in public support, and (b) to analyse what changes have taken place in how various structural cl eavages are linked to attitudes. It has been argued, from a variety of theoretical perspectives, that the former class-based conflicts aroun d welfare policies are increasingly diluted, or superseded, by other c onflicts emanating from gender, sector employment, client status, hous ing conditions or other possible sources of identity and interests. Th e results in this paper indicate that such claims are exaggerated, and that stability, in aggregate responses, attitudinal patterns and soci al cleavages, characterizes attitudes to Swedish welfare policies.