A N A LY S I S DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS DON‘T TRY THIS AT HOME Exporting Sweden´s neoliberal welfare experiment Lisa Pelling and Mia Laurén January 2025 Outsourcing, privatisations and the introduction of voucher systems have since the 1990s marketised welfare services to a larger extent in Sweden than in any other Eu­ropean country. This has transformed Sweden beyond recognition: what was once often portrayed as a social democratic ideal, is now more of a neoliberal showcase. This report describes some of the consequences of this de­velopment and maps efforts by Swedish for-profit welfare companies to expand their businesses and business mod­els abroad – particularly to Germany. This is a warning to German progressives: don’t try this at home. If you can avoid it.