Ths talk will be based on Steinmo’s forthcoming book THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN STATE. The book is an examination of the ways Sweden, Germany, Japan and the US have responded and adapted to the pressures of globalization, demographic change and the decline of public trust. In the talk, Steinmo will also introduce insights drawn from evolutionary theory and suggest that there is much to gain from this approach to improve our understandings of political and institutional change. This talk will focus on the case of Sweden.