Arbete åt alla: En analys av Socialdemokraternas konstruktion av den svenska arbetsmarknaden

This essay centres three research questions related to the Swedish Social Democrats’ positioning towards neoliberal principles in the labor market and how it’s expressed with regard to political role. This is done for the purpose of creating a nuanced understanding of the effect that neoliberal ideas have had on the formation and expression of the party narrative. For theory, critical realism and issue ownership/saliency is applied. Methodology is made up of a qualitative analysis based on a coding table containing indicators related to privatization, New Public Management and the social democratic welfare model. Material is made up of two party manifestos as well as the Swedish government's final accounts of the welfare system in the 90’s and the Swedish employment agency’s report on the labor market in spring 2025. Results in the essay show that the increase in market influence has meant a shift in political narrative for the Social Democrats. It further shows that the role as an opposition versus governing party has a significant effect on how language is used to communicate the state of the labor market.