In 1982, when the Social Democrats returned to power, they had two goals. One was to increase the growth in the economy, another to decrease the public debt. This led to a new economic policy for the Social Democrats. The new economic policy was influenced by the neoliberal ideology that started to spread throughout the world from the late 1970s. The purpose of this study is to examine if the Social Democrats favoured economic growth over welfare, fair distribution and state ownership. The results of the study was analyzed with the use of Hiroto Tsukadas Welfare State Theory. The theory claims that politicians favour investments over welfare because welfare consumption decreases economic growth. The empirical analysis is based on parliament debates, party and union congresses, policy programs and memoirs. The results show that the arguments from leading social democrats were pro-growth and for investments over welfare spending and fair distribution policy.