In this article, we will undertake a long-term analysis of the evolution of the Swedish welfare state, seeking to explain that evolution through the use of a systemic approach. That is, our approach will consider the interrelations between economic growth (EG), the sociopolitical institutional framework (IF), and the welfare state (WS)-understood as a set of institutions embracing the labor market and its regulation, the tax system, and the so-called social wage-in order to find the main variables that elucidate its evolution. We will show that the expansive phase of the Swedish welfare state can be explained by the symbiotic relationships developed in the WS-EG-IF interaction, whereas the period of welfare state retrenchment is one result of changes operating within the sociopolitical IF and EG bases.