Sweden's educational saga: the entrenchment of school choice

Chapter 4 tells the story of Sweden’s education saga, or how a reform in the early 1990s transformed the Swedish school system from a near-entirely public, bureaucratically operated system with very little room for parental choice, to one of the world’s most deregulated public education systems. Throughout its 25+ year existence, key political advocates (and opponents) have come and gone, administrative authorities have been created and divided, education has cemented itself as a key policy concern for citizens, and the sector as a whole bears little resemblance to that which came before. Despite its seemingly innocuous origins, this reform has drastically transformed the landscape of Sweden’s education system and will likely continue to do so in the years to come. This chapter tells the story of how and why this reform has become so embedded within the broader educational landscape by drawing on the insights emerging from Chapter 3’s comparative analysis. Specifically, it examines the changes in coalitional patterns and interest group activity, the breadth and depth of political support, the adaptive efforts of administrative authorities, as well as the role of constituency support in institutionalising the reform. The chapter ends with a discussion on additional factors that can help to explain the endurance of Sweden’s freedom of choice reform.