Look to America every once in a while
Swedes are very often proud to be Swedish. I guess that's all right, except when the pride is backed up with a certain contempt for those (read: not the least Americans) who are less accomplished than "us." Who are, indeed, loud, boisterous, and, all too often, ill behaved. In other words: The opinion in Sweden is that Sweden is the best.
These thoughts came to me when I happened to be in the old country and the Juholt affair exploded. First, let me give you the facts:
Recently one Håkan Juholt was made chairman of the Social Democratic party (and thus potential Prime Minister). Neither the party members nor the wider public had any say in the nomination. It was driven through by insiders, who were almost certainly more interested in blocking each other than finding the right man (or woman) for the job. Juholt might have seamed the ideal candidate—a big burly guy right out of the boondocks in Småland. He spoke well (if often with a forked tongue!) and seamed folksy and accommodating.
But also more than a bit wishy-washy. It seamed impossible to pin him down. He clearly wanted to be all things to all men and, as often happens with guys of that kind, people turned away from him. After several months of bad reviews—and more and more disastrous polls—he was forced to resign. All hell broke out in the media, but nearly everybody seemed to miss the most important point: Juholt was not—repeat not!—democratically elected. He was sneaked in by the insiders who thought more of themselves and less of the party. The result: all kinds of, often dirty infighting, splits here and splits there, chaos indeed. It all bodes very badly for the upcoming election. The Social Democratic party has probably never been worse off and will—in my opinion—lose heavily.
Now over to you, the Americans, and what do we see?
We see Barack Obama sailing smoothly to the Democratic nomination and a lot of Republicans engaged in a battle royal for the nomination. They fight, sometimes according to the rules, now and then a bit dirty, but—and I stress this!—always in the open. People have each and every chance to listen to the arguments (or lack of same) and study the body language of the candidates. Is Mitt reliable? What of Newt's many wives? Who is Ron Paul? And so on.
American presidential candidates are not sneaked in on the people. They are forced to present themselves, their close advisers and their ideas to whomsoever is interested. I say again: Everything (well, almost) is in the open. The voters are perceived as what they are: grown up, responsible people. Media follows the campaign very, very closely and the possibility that someone could sneak into the White House without being thoroughly scrutinized is nil.
So all I can say (and I have lived almost as long in the United States as in Sweden or France), is that when it comes to real democracy, Swedish politicians (and we, the media and many others) could do much worse than looking across the Atlantic for inspiration and guidance.
(P.S. I know many Swedes will brand me as mad and misguided, but, OK, so be it.)
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World Reporter
Ulf Nilson, World reporter since his first assignments to Hungary in 1956. Correspondent and Sweden’s man in America for 20 years, Ulf Nilson is still a regular columnist in Sweden’s daily Expressen, and regular contributor in Nordstjernan. He has authored or co-authored over fifty books. He lives in southern France or at his beloved Värmdö, just 30 minutes north of Stockholm. He
• covered the US, including Vietnam during the war years
• marched in the civil rights marches
• interviewed Martin Luther King
• met presidents Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and George H. W. Bush
• and, as one of Sweden’s most well-known journalists, also met with every politician, industry leader or cultural personality—all the movers and shakers of Sweden through five decades of a proliferate professional life.
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