Organizational Inertia and Vulnerability – Alcoholics Anonymous in the Swedish Welfare State

Abstract

The first stable AA group in Sweden was founded in 1953. For many years Swedish AA lived in the shadow of a successful dissident movement, the Links. Thereby thousands of alcoholics got acquainted with the disease concept and with other parts of the AA ideology. The introduction of the Minnesota Model for alcohol treatment in the 1980s coincided with a general transition towards a market economy and the demands for professionalism in treatment. The impact of these changes on the Swedish AA should not be underestimated. The development had a turbo effect on it. This time the changes outside of AA worked in favour of the movement. Instead of vanishing in the shadow of the Links, AA was triumphantly revived by way of the Minnesota Model for treatment.

The peculiar organizational characteristics of AA are central to the discussion in this article. It suggests that the organizational form of AA (the cell structure) and the genetic code (the Traditions) imply that AA will always be vulnerable to external circumstances. AA cannot act to protect itself. That is to say, the organizational form of AA inhibited, in Sweden, its defence against the growth of hybrid movements such as the Links. The mere existence of the Links delayed the development of AA in such a way that Swedish AA became closely connected to the professional 12-step treatment, a fact which in itself might have strongly influenced the character of the Swedish AA movement.