In this chapter, we discuss how arguments of democracy and democratization have been used to justify the welfare state in the Nordic region and how these arguments have changed through history. We start by discussing the social democratic account of the welfare state, according to which a foundational period in the 1930s lay the groundwork for the golden period of welfare state expansion in the region during the three decades after the Second World War. The welfare state was perceived as a crucial stage in a gradual democratization of Nordic society from the political realm, through the expansion of social welfare, to the ultimate establishment of economic democracy. As the mobilization for further expansion of democracy came to an end with the defeat for wage-earner funds in Sweden in the 1980s, the welfare state was transformed into an end in itself, and became a central focus for both the right and the left in Nordic politics. As the social democrats lost their hegemony, the welfare state came also to be seen as either the result of longer traditions of institutionalized associational life, or as the outcome of a specific Nordic individualist culture. Today, the connection between the welfare state and democracy is challenged by three forces: (1) the changing power balance between unions and employers, (2) the transformation of public participation in civil society, and (3) the cultural backlash towards post-material and post-family values in society. If the Nordic universal welfare state model continues to exist in the future, it will look very different from how it was originally defined during its foundational or golden periods.