Greening the (welfare) state: Rethinking Reflexivity in Swedish Sustainability Governance

Abstract: Contemporary developments in sustainability governance have enhanced environmental policy and induced comprehensive institutional reforms in several countries. Theoretically, this has also induces a debate on the role of the state for reflexive and ecological sustainability governance. Informed by Eckersley's political theory of the green state, this thesis offer an analysis of the prospects for a (social democratic) welfare state to transform into a green(er) state. The regulatory ideals of a green state - as an ecological steward and a facilitator of ecological democracy to enhance more reflexive ecological modernization - is contrasted with the political-institutional practices of contemporary institutional reforms for sustainability in Sweden. In a case study of the Swedish strategy for sustainability in general, and of the Environmental Quality Objectives and the Environmental Code in particluar, the prospects for reflexive governance are analysed. The implication is, that welfare states may become more reflexive, and hence more 'ecological' or 'green', but not necessarily in ways assumed by green political theorists.