What Rocked the Welfare Boat?, A Qualitative Case Study of Implementation Process of Dementia Policy in Sweden

Sammanfattning: This research has tried to resolve the ongoing debate among the Swedish elites and politicians regarding why the adopted policy has failed to address the needs of patients with dementia in Sweden. It is argued that the origin of the debate lies between the policy formulation and how it is being implemented. Therefore, there is much concern about lack of coordination and stakeholder’s involvement during policy formulation, as policies made without the inputs of these stakeholders have shown to be difficult to be implemented due to lack of policy goals awareness by implementers. Seeing that street-level bureaucrats have much tendency to deviate from the policy makers’ objective once they experience interpretative gap, this study therefore follows a qualitative approach by using process tracing to analyze various documents gathered through reliable websites and other media platforms in order to unearth these factors. The findings of the research show that policy without public engagement, political factors and lack of collaboration among the implementing agencies are factors instigating policy failures