Abstract
This study interprets the ongoing changes in the state's attitude toward civil society through an understanding of the changing social environment surrounding civil society organizations (CSOs) in Sweden, the corresponding government civil society policies, and the dilemmas that have arisen. As a method, policy documents published by Swedish government agencies were analyzed and the results of the author’s interviews with Swedish CSOs and related institutions were used.
The results revealed the following: (1) Swedish legislation and requirements for government subsidies of CSOs
are very loose. (2) In recent years, ( i ) immigration has increased, and (ii) in the face of a political shift to the
right, a fictitious storyline of “anti-democratic Muslims committing injustice” has been created. (3) The
government has begun to change its traditional tolerant civil society policy and tighten regulations, including
imposing democratic requirements. In 2023, the right-wing government is proposing even more draconian
measures, and a backlash from CSOs is inevitable. This paper argues that these developments show that the
Swedish state is no longer a neo-Hegelian “Ethical State.”
https://ror.org/0364c8r59 
