In the twentieth century, Sweden became known as a country with an unusually egalitarian distribution of income and wealth, an encompassing welfare state, and an exceptionally strong Social Democracy. It is commonplace among historians and social scientists to consider these equal outcomes of the twentieth century as the logical end result of a much longer historical trajectory of egalitarianism, from early modern free peasant farmers or from a peculiar Swedish political culture, egalitarian and consensus-oriented. This essay questions this Swedish Sonderweg interpretation. In 1900, Sweden had some of the most unequal voting laws in Western Europe, and more severe economic inequality than the United States. This puts the purported continuity from early modern equality to Social Democratic equality in question. The roots of twentieth-century Swedish egalitarianism lie in exceptionally well organized popular movements after 1870, with a strong egalitarian counter-hegemonic culture and unusually broad popular participation in politics.

中文翻译：

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问题中的瑞典 Sonderweg：比较视角下的民主化和不平等，c.1750–1920*

在 20 世纪，瑞典以一个收入和财富分配异常平均的国家、一个全面的福利国家和一个异常强大的社会民主国家而闻名。历史学家和社会科学家普遍认为 20 世纪的这些平等结果是来自早期现代自由农民或特殊的瑞典政治文化、平等主义和以共识为导向的更长的平等主义历史轨迹的合乎逻辑的最终结果. 本文质疑瑞典 Sonderweg 的解释。1900 年，瑞典有一些西欧最不平等的投票法，经济不平等比美国更严重。这使得从早期现代平等到社会民主平等的所谓连续性受到质疑。