Privatization is said to be fundamentally a neo-liberal idea and deregulation is one form of privatization. The Swedish railway sector has been deregulated gradually over the years. Some of the policy changes towards more deregulation have been done with the Swedish Social Democrats in government. This thesis analyzes the arguments for and against privatization on two occasions, 2000 and 2009 with the Social Democrats in government and opposition respectively, to see if the party’s argumentation has been influenced by neo-liberal ideas and if that change depending on whether they are in government or not. The analysis shows that there has been influence of neo-liberal ideas on arguments from the Social Democrats and that their view on privatization and deregulation differed depending on whether they were in government or in opposition.