Abstract
Very surprisingly, crisis communication patterns in Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic initially developed differently from most other countries in the Western world, specifically in comparison to the otherwise very similar neighboring Nordic countries. Even if some international observations of relaxation and normality have been exaggerated, it is an indisputable fact that Sweden imposed softer restrictions than most other countries and that the government initially—by its own choice—became a second-order communication actor in relation to expert authorities. The government has tried to regain the initiative in later phases of the pandemic, more or less successfully. This chapter discusses possible explanations for this development of crisis communication patterns in Sweden, addressing the relative importance of existing governmental organizational structures, previous experiences of government communication shortcomings during the crisis, and political actor’s strategies and rationales when dealing with the crisis.
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Nord, L. (2022). No Lockdown Please, We Are Swedish: How the Middle Way Country Became an Extreme Case of Government Communication. In: Maarek, P.J. (eds) Manufacturing Government Communication on Covid-19 . Springer Studies in Media and Political Communication. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09230-5_6
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