When it comes to welfare in general, Sweden’s legislation is certainly one of the most comprehensive in the world. Living up to the ideal of supporting its citizens and residents from the cradle to the grave, this Scandinavian country has expanded its laws exponentially in the last century to cover all aspects of individuals’ and families’ lives. Thus, it comes, then, as a particular surprise to discover that the notion of basic income has been - and still is - almost completely absent from the Swedish political debate (and has consequently remained off the agenda of the Swedish legislative bodies), while being one of the hottest topics around the European continent. The purpose of this article is to investigate the possible reasons why the idea of basic income is missing from Swedish legislative agenda and to draw some brief general conclusions that may be valid for all legislative actors operating in advanced capitalistic societies.

就整体福利而言，瑞典的立法无疑是世界上最全面的立法之一。实现从摇篮到坟墓支持其公民和居民的理想，这个斯堪的纳维亚国家在上个世纪成倍地扩展了其法律，以涵盖个人和家庭生活的方方面面。因此，令人特别惊讶的是，基本收入的概念已经——而且仍然——几乎完全没有出现在瑞典的政治辩论中（因此一直不在瑞典立法机构的议程之外），而成为欧洲大陆最热门的话题之一。