This article analyses the background, activities and reception of the Swedish power investigation (1985–1990). It argues that the power investigation had to navigate between two distinct expectations: on the one hand, the investigation was to expose private power in the interest of equality and justice; on the other hand, it was to improve the exercise of public power in the interest of democracy and efficiency. Because of this two-fold objective, the power investigation was criticised for having neither disclosed private power openly enough, nor pointed out possible ways of adequately rejuvenating welfare state policies clearly. However, the article concludes that one may also assess the power investigation insofar as it served to reconceptualise the socio-political language of welfare state politics in general, as a result of the power inherent in the right to investigate power.