16 Karl Magnus Johansson Sweden: another awkward partner? Introduction: reluctant yet faithful Scholars of the European Union must lift the lid off the ‘black box’ of domestic politics to understand the behaviour of Member States in the integration processes. In this chapter, we will move inside the Swedish polity by analysing domestic constraints and institutional characteristics. The overarching aim is to capture the fundamentals of Sweden as an EU member, thereby identifying the primary actors involved in the policy- cycle. Joining late, Sweden has faced strong pressures of adaptation both at the state and societal levels. As the Union has advanced and become an increasingly complex organisation, countries seeking membership and new Member States are faced with a more difficult and steeper learning curve than the founding members. At the same time, latecomers are in a position to learn from the experiences of others. Sweden joined the Union in January 1995. The decision to seek membership can be seen as a logical consequence of the interdependence between the strongly export-reliant Swedish economy and the West European economies. 1 Although officially neutral, Sweden has since long been strongly associated with West Europe, both economically and polit- ically. 2 Swedish economic forces actually joined the Common Market before membership was formally and politically approved. Just like in Britain and Denmark, membership has been justified primarily by the political elites on economic grounds, which provided the rationale for requesting membership in the first place and provoked unrealistic expec- tations of economic benefits and thereby continued to haunt the elites, broadly in favour of membership. It is also important to emphasise that Sweden entered the Union at a time of economic recession. At the same time, however, there clearly were political determinants behind the decision to apply for membership. The argument of increasing political influence was often employed by political leaders when arguing the case of joining the Union. 3 Leading social democrats pointed out that Karl Magnus Johansson - 9781526137364 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 01/23/2022 02:01:03AM via free access