Already during his doctoral studies in Berkeley, Lars Trägårdh began writing about a paradox he had been reflecting on since the 1970s, when he was an undergraduate at Pomona College in Southern California. Like most people, he had been taught that Americans were “rugged individualists,” while Swedes were some kind of quasi-socialists or at least collectivists, guided by ideals such as the Folkhem (the “People’s Home”), equality, solidarity, and security. In some respects, this image was accurate: Americans were certainly not fond of the State with a capital “S,” and Swedes were undeniably skilled at building their welfare state.

At the same time, however, he realized that Americans as individuals were deeply embedded in and dependent on other forms of collective communities, such as family, congregations, and charitable organizations. From this perspective, Swedes instead appeared—despite, or rather thanks to, their close relationship with the state—to be significantly more individualistic in their relative independence and greater equality in relation to others. Behind this emphasis on individual independence, he argued, lay a particular moral logic—a specifically Swedish view of the ideal relationship between people.

He began developing these ideas in writing, first in an article on the Nordic model published in 1990 in the journal Critical Review, then in a number of articles in the now-defunct journal Smedjan, and a few years later—in 1997—in a book chapter where he first coined the concepts “statist individualism” and “a Swedish theory of love.” Shortly thereafter, together with his friend and fellow historian Henrik Berggren, he received funding from the then HSFR (the Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences) to more systematically develop these ideas about Swedes’ positive view of the state and why it is more important for a Swede to be free and independent than to be subordinate to the nuclear family. The result was the critically acclaimed and widely debated book Är svensken människa? (2006; paperback 2009), in which Trägårdh and Berggren analyze the moral logic and historical roots of the Swedish social contract.

The book was widely reviewed upon publication and also received international attention, but it has gained even greater recognition over time—especially after a shorter English text, “Social Trust and Radical Individualism,” was published ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2011. The text attracted significant attention both in the Nordic countries and internationally and was translated into numerous languages. How the ideas from Är svensken människa? and the Davos text were later taken up by Per Schlingmann and the Moderaterna was discussed in an article in the magazine Fokus, “Propagandaministerns plan,” by Claes Lönegård (2011), and again by Per Svensson in the magazine Arena (2013).

The ideas also spread internationally, partly through mentions in the media—such as in the section “The secret of their success” in the widely circulated special report The Nordic countries published by The Economist in early 2013—and partly through articles written by Trägårdh himself.