For the better part of the 20th Century, Sweden has successfully combined capitalism and a strong social democratic welfare-state. Its trade politics have traditionally been open and anti- protectionist. Sweden has also been pragmatic and efficient in importing and making use of technical innovations and new cultural trends, not least from the USA. Swedes, however, have been much more wary of international influences which could challenge the existing welfare-state model. The purpose is to critically analyse how Swedish education politics responds to and acts towards tendencies of globalisation and europeanisation in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries. How does Sweden receive and/or close itself to the new European and global spaces and ideas of education policy and governance? Which aspects of Europeanisation and globalisation of education policy are recognised as thinkable and beneficial? Which aspects are controversial and give rise to debate and conflicts, and where are the silences and absences of arguments? In order to understand the particular historical and cultural context of educational change in Sweden, its welfare and education policies from the 1970s and onwards are initially briefly outlined.