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Sweden, as many other prosperous nations, is presently reassessing its national goals, political culture and collective identity. Newer groups in society are demanding equal treatment, and others whose struggles for recognition are older and unwon, are successfully mobilizing support for political change. Social democratic political hegemony has been eroded and other new political forces are now reinterpreting past political ideas and methods of action and a need for historical perspective. This book analyses the history of Swedish civil society. Social movements and interest organizations have played crucial roles in Sweden. Their history is also Swedish history and concerns struggles for political recognition and welfare state development and cutbacks. Theoretical developments within sociology, social psychology, public choice and political science are combined to enrich the analysis. Some of the theoretical elements used in this book are organizational waves of development, organizational life cycles, political opportunity structure, and topologies of collective action organizations. The book analyzes Swedish civil society history from the Midas to the 1990s. Swedish civil society history is divided into six periods. The role played by collective action organizations in the important developments in politics, society and economy in this one hundred and fifty year period are described, compared and analyzed. The primary focus is the impact of change brought about by these developments on collective action organizations.

- This article investigates how and why a growing number of civil society actors increasingly turn to the market as a complement to, or replacement of, traditional tools of political participation. After a discussion about its historical antecedents, the paper focuses on the present features of political consumerism. A section dedicated to theoretical issues introduces the concept of individualized responsibilitytaking to explain why societal roles as consumers should be considered as political agents with responsibilities for others. Two more sections aree also devoted to an investigation of political consumerism. The first section distinguishes eight broad issue areas where political consumerism is to be found, and identifies the role played by civic groups in prompting consumer action. The second section reports on a number of research findings on how civic groups inform and sensitize consumers about the public orientation of their consumption practices. The article ends with a few evaluative comments on the significance of the consumer turn in politics.Keywords: Political Consumerism, Individualized Responsibility-Taking, Market-Based Action Repertoire, Taming of Consumption, Sustainable Citizenship.

Consumers have the possibility of expressing political opinion by changing their consumption patterns. Political consumerism, a politically motivated consumer choice of producers & products, is an old phenomenon. Historically, consumerism has mainly been a negative choice in form of boycotts, whereas positive boycotts & global concerns are becoming more dominant today. Consumerism is particularly important as channel for women's political engagement. Relevant distinctions are introduced. 1 Figure, 77 References. Adapted from the source document.

This paper offers a discussion on how to assess government in the Nordic countries. It shows that an answer to the question of whether big government is ending in the Nordic countries depends on how the words 'big' and 'government' are defined. 'Bigness' can be defined in terms of size or largeness (i.e., number of employees, relative costs, and spheres of involvement). It can also be defined in terms of its importance in society, which concerns the quality of government service (i.e., output and outcome of governmental effort), representation of the will of the people, and social representation. An understanding of the term government also influences how the question of the end of big government is formulated. Classical definitions focus on the need for government to be in control of its territory and in command of the tasks in its sphere of responsibility. Government ability to control and command are now being challenged by unclear horizontal and vertical separation of powers, regionalization and globalization, decentralization and devolution, and involvement of nongovernmental units in the policy steering process (i.e., governance). The general conclusions offered in the paper are that there are trends toward the end of large‐size Nordic government at the central level but not at the other government levels. Government is even becoming larger at the lower levels. Also, the European level is becoming bigger in terms of certain measures of size. A different answer isgiven for government importance. All layers of government still show high levels of efficiency and effectiveness and education levels for civil servants, good reflection of the will of the people as well as improving social representation of women. Social representation is more problematic for other marginalized groups in society. Government control and command is impacted at all levels by the trends mentioned above. Nordic government is more porous, and this is changing the prerequisites for Nordic big government. The results of the study should not be interpreted to mean that the extensive welfare states in the Nordic area are without problems. There are problems with citizen efficacy and public trust.

Soziale Bewegungen spielten eine zentrale Rolle in der Entwicklung Schwedens zu einer modernen Demokratie. Sie sind die Basis für den bisherigen korporatistischen Entscheidungsfindungsprozeß, der als einer der Bestandteile des Schwedischen Modells gilt. Mit der These, daß die Zukunft des Schwedischen Modells von der Erneuerung und Anpassung der etablierten Organisationen an neue Herausforderungen abhängt, analysiert der Beitrag die Anpassungsleistungen der korporatistisch verflochtenen Interessenorganisationen und sozialen Bewegungen hinsichtlich veränderter politischer Ausgangsbedingungen, die mit Postmaterialismus, Postmodernismus, Internationalismus, "new politics" und dem Aufkommen neuer sozialer Bewegungen benannt werden. (AuD-Ber)