The world’s first state-run eugenics institute wasn’t created in Adolf Hitler’s Germany but in Uppsala, Sweden. Headed by physician Herman Lundborg, who soon became a Nazi sympathizer, the State Institute for Racial Biology was established in 1921. The institute helped to reinforce ideas about Nordic superiority by conducting bizarre racial classification studies. And although Lundborg — and the research institute under his control — was markedly right-wing, Sweden’s extensive eugenics program was largely a product of the country’s Social Democrats.

For much of the twentieth century, and despite decades of uninterrupted left-wing rule, Sweden was among the most enthusiastic practitioners of eugenics in all of Europe. Both the nation’s public authorities and its scientists sought to manage and control the population through social engineering and sterilization programs — efforts that became deeply intertwined with the broader ideals of the Swedish welfare state (known as the People’s Home).

Scandinavian welfare models have long showcased state intervention as a means of achieving social justice and economic stability. These models are rightly credited with creating some of the most egalitarian societies in history. However, they also serve as examples of how state interventionism in the name of human progress, when left unchecked by universal rights, risks overstepping its bounds, raising important questions about the balance between collective well-being and individual autonomy.