Simon Torracinta in Boston Review:
When Bernie Sanders was asked in a 2016 Democratic presidential debate what “democratic socialism” meant to him, he responded that we should “look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway.” Hillary Clinton was unequivocal in her reply: “We are not Denmark.” Yet Sanders kept the line, and his odes to the shining example of Nordic social democracy remained an exhaustive refrain throughout his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. The theme was unsurprising: ever since 1936, when Franklin Roosevelt hailed Sweden’s “middle way” between capitalism and communism, Scandinavia has been a fixture in the American left-liberal imaginary.
What’s not to like about Sweden? Its parents benefit from a total of 16 months leave for a newborn child, which they can divide among themselves, 13 months of which are paid at 80 percent of income. Income inequality, though rising, is moderate by international standards, and measurable gender inequalities are notably small. The country consistently scores near the top of global indexes of “happiness’” and “quality of life.” Union density stands at 69 percent, approximately seven times that of the United States and the second-highest rate anywhere in the world. In a continent in which left-of-center parties have been buffeted by populist and far-right upsurges and the once-flagship parties of the left like the French socialists are hollow shells of their former selves, the Swedish Social Democratic Workers’ Party (SAP) looks comparatively resilient. It has continued to command roughly 30 percent of the vote in elections over the last decade and has led the national government for half of the last twenty years.
Seen from another angle, however, the country looks very different.
More here,
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