Not all Crises are Detrimental for the Government: The Global Economic Crisis and the Swedish Case

Abstract

Not all crises have the same impact. In this article the argument is made that we should make a distinction between a “homemade” and an “externally” caused crisis when analyzing the implications of an economic downturn. The case is Sweden and the analyses include both citizens’ and MPs’ attitudes towards democracy before and after the economic crisis of 2008. The article also makes an effort to compare the economic crisis of 2008 to a previous economic crisis that occurred at the beginning of the 1990s. Both crises were related to international turmoil, and they had a clearly negative impact on the Swedish economy. Yet, the crises were also very different. In the crisis of the 1990s, Sweden was seen as one of the countries that suffered the most, while in the aftermath of the economic crisis 2008, Sweden was seen as one of the most successful countries in handling the crisis. By comparing the two crises, we can get a better understanding of the extent to which attribution of responsibility depends on the context of the crisis