Sweden is important because so many people believe it to be an example of how you can have everything: a huge state sector, high taxes, the ultimate in a welfare state and yet also prosperity and good, well-educated citizens.
Previously I have written about how women who work do relatively badly in Sweden because of the legal rights they have been given. In The Welfare State We're In, I looked at the modest rate of economic growth in Sweden. I have now come across a French website called Liberte (forgive me for not knowing how to put an acute accent on the final 'e') which has a long posting about Sweden.
If my limited French does not deceive me, the posting says that there was a crisis in Sweden in 1990-93 during which the state came to account for 67 per cent of GDP, the government budget deficit reached 12 per cent and unemployment reached 12 per cent, too. As a result of this crisis, Sweden reduced the scope of the state and it has now come down to a few points above 50 per cent of economic activity.
The site suggests that modern Sweden - partly because of the pullback in the state's role no doubt - is not quite as Socialist as is widely thought. The railways have been fully and successfully privatised.
There are private postal services. In education, the money follows the student, so that there is competition among schools. Electricity production is largely privatised.
There is also some private provision of healthcare (see some details of 'the Stockholm experiment' in the chapter on the NHS in The Welfare State We're In)
So there are two strands here:
1. Sweden is not quite as socialist as people think.
2. Sweden is not as successful as people think.
One other element of the latter is that crime rose very substantially in Sweden after it became a socialist paradise.
Sweden was once an outstandingly law-abiding place. It has witnessed "a widespread increase in law-breaking". Also, "in 1987, the underground economy was estimated to make up 20 per cent of Sweden's gross national product". There has also been an "enormous increase in juvenile delinquency". These quotations are from Disturbing the Nest, by David Popenoe, an excellent book mainly about family breakdown but with a special emphasis on the Swedish example. (If you are interested to buy it, try Abebooks.com. Unfortunately Amazon.co.uk does not have it at a good price.)
Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in General
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thank you for your interest and for the quote !
vincent
Posted by: Vincent at May 24, 2005 04:27 PM