152 The Crisis is Over but Frugality Must Continue: Post-consolidation Fiscal Policy and the Dualisation of the Swedish Model  Simone Scarpa  Abstract Previous research has predominantly analysed the retrenchment of the Swedish wel- fare state from a long-term perspective, examining restructuring processes from the financial crisis of the early 1990s until recent years. This study instead takes a short- term perspective and focuses on welfare state developments in the post-consolida- tion phase, after the recovery from the crisis. The aim is to investigate how the fiscal policy reforms introduced during the recovery years forced subsequent governments to continue on the path of “frugality”. Specifically, the paper focuses on the effects of austerity politics on two policy domains: income redistribution through the benefit and tax system and the municipalities’ role as social service providers and employ- ers. The analysis indicates that the Swedish model is showing increasing signs of dualisation due to the gradual segmentation of prior universalistic welfare pro- grammes and to the worsening of working conditions in the social service sector. Keywords: austerity, dualisation, inequality, Sweden 1. Introduction Comparative social policy literature has traditionally portrayed the Swe- dish welfare state as institutionally designed to prevent the emergence of du- alisms in social protection and the creation of insider-outside divides in the labour market. The assumption is that the incorporation of all population cat- egories into the same universalistic welfare programmes generated a wide- spread support for the welfare state, reducing the scope for divergences in public spending preferences between interest groups (e.g. Esping-Andersen,  Articolo proposto: 15/12/2020. Articolo accettato: 07/01/2021.  Umeå University. E-mail: simone.scarpa@umu.se. Sociologia del lavoro, n. 159/2021. ISSN 0392-5048. ISSNe 1972-554X. DOI: 10.3280/SL2021-159008 Copyright © FrancoAngeli N.B: Copia ad uso personale. È vietata la riproduzione (totale o parziale) dell’opera con qualsiasi mezzo effettuata e la sua messa a disposizione di terzi, sia in forma gratuita sia a pagamento.