"For years Sweden has represented a sort of nirvana for the left."

[pampango]

http://www.economist.com/node/17039151?story_id=17039151

Yet three deeper factors should give Social Democrats everywhere pause for thought. The first is that voters seem to value competent government above ideology. Mr Reinfeldt’s government, however, has been both united and competent. Carl Bildt, the foreign minister, has done an impressive job of raising Sweden’s profile and wielding influence. The finance minister, Anders Borg, has shown genuine skill in handling the financial crisis and its aftermath. Swedish GDP is growing strongly, and unemployment is falling. The biggest help for the government has been the economy. As an open place (half of GDP is linked in some way to foreign trade), Sweden was severely battered by the recession last year. The budget is heading into surplus next year. Sweden has just been promoted to second place in the World Economic Forum’s competitiveness rankings, ahead of America. The contrast with much of the rest of Europe is striking.

A second trend is growing dissatisfaction with the “Swedish model”. Swedes are not about to become Thatcherites or tea-party tax-haters. Even on the right, voters and politicians favour consensus, equality and expansive public services. Nobody is standing on a platform of slashing the top rates of income tax (almost 60%) or the size of the state. Yet the centre-right has made welfare payments less generous, cut taxes for the lower-paid and trimmed the numbers on sickness benefit. Voters seem to approve.

The third trend is a malaise in socialism, and not only in Scandinavia. Many had hoped that the financial crisis would lead to a renaissance of the left, because the perceived failure of free-market capitalism would pull voters back into supporting a bigger role for the state. And yet Sweden’s election will confirm that this is not happening. In Denmark and Finland (even, lately, in Norway) the left is falling back. Across much of Europe, with the exception of France, the crisis has so far seemed to help the right more than the left.

But what if the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats do so well as to hold the balance of power in the Riksdag? Both government and opposition insist they will not touch the far-right party. Mr Bildt suggests a minority government would be preferable. Nobody wants to go down the path of Denmark, where Pia Kjaersgaard’s far-right Danish People’s Party has manoeuvred itself into real influence.
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Nice to see that Sweden's economy is going strong because of, not in spite of, high taxes and a good social safety net. The bad news is that seems to be strengthening the chances of the center-right coalition in the upcoming election. It will be interesting to see if the far right Sweden Democrats ("We want our country back"?) poll the 4% needed to get representatives in the parliament. Hope they get beaten back like the British National Party got hammered in the last UK election.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. K & R. nt

[thereismore]

2. Swedes went from limb-hacking Vikings to socialists in less than 1000 years. Hope for us? nt