The state has much to do, from improving education and welfare to re-regulating finance.

ECONOMIST: Germany��s Green party is flourishing

This will make life complicated for Mr Persson, who in his second term will be under pressure from employers to liberalise Sweden's labour market and to shift the welfare budget from direct transfers to spending on health care and education.

ECONOMIST: Sweden

Rather than advocating high levels of spending and redistribution to compensate the inequality caused by economic failure, it planned to promote education and training and transform the welfare state from a passive safety net to an active 'springboard' of opportunity (Annesley, 2001, 204).

BBC: Unit 4: Political issues

He is also committed to reducing the number of ministries from 21 to 12, slashing wasteful public works expenditure and improving social welfare and education.

CNN: MAN 'WITH A FACE'

In California during the 1990s, Latinos read the anti-immigrant rhetoric of Pete Wilson, a Republican governor, as racist and were outraged when voters passed a ballot measure (later ruled unconstitutional) to bar undocumented immigrants from non-emergency public health care, welfare and education.

ECONOMIST: Latinos and American politics