INTERNATIONAL POLICY ANALYSIS The Swedish Model Conflict or Consensus? HÅKAN A BENGTSSON November 2013  The riots in the Stockholm suburb of Husby and a number of other suburban areas in Sweden in the spring of 2013 have sparked a critical public debate in Sweden regarding the increasing rifts between poor and rich in Swedish society but also about the increasing pressure the Swedish Model of the welfare state is facing from several sides.  Arbetslinjen, the new work-incentive policy passed by the conservative government after the 2006 election lead to reduced levels of compensation in the social insurance system while exacerbating the existing rifts and increasing the polarisation between those who have a strong position in the labour market and those who do not.  After the introduction of free competition and customer choice models between 1991 and 1994, the privatisation process has been strengthened under the non­socialist government since 2006. This has been changing the Swedish welfare model to a market structure exposed to growing criticism regarding the quality of welfare services and the possibility of private profits in this publicly funded sector.  The relatively high level of unemployment is questioning the previous fiscal conserva­tism followed after the crisis of the 1990s and could lead to a change regarding the economic policy to a more expansive one suggesting a renaissance for the Keynesian perspective.  The Swedish Model is still very much associated with social democracy and the labour movement which shaped Swedish society for much of the 20th century. In recent years, the conservative coalition(or Alliansen) also started to lay claim to the concept of the Swedish Model causing a conflict about its meaning as well as spe­cific policies and the way in which public welfare institutions should be constructed.