Request for an analysis of the Swedish system

Robert Sundstrom · January 6, 2013

I remember listening to a call-in show a while ago where a guy, who previously had been living in Sweden, talked about his perceptions of the country. Stefan did a short citation from an old paper about Sweden (from Mises.org) and the guy requested an analysis of the Swedish ystem.

This analysis is something I'm very much in favor of.

As an enlightened Swede, I'm genuinely concerned about the state of things in the area - the state, political system. I would therefore appreciate a overall analysis made by an outlander voluntaryist perspective.

I therefore suggest some sources that I find worth looking at, or at least knowing that they exist. (Some in Swedish, Google Translate might be useful to some extent)

But first, here are some points worth mentioning about the state of the current political discussion in Sweden:

Established political parties have been aggresively covering-up failed immigration policy since the populist Sweden Democrats entered the Riksdag (the parliament).
Silenced critique about free speech as the established press spread ignorance. They set the agenda for discussions.
The Assange case (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assange_v_Swedish_Prosecution_Authority)

There are some official government-runned sources for information.

http://www.sweden.se/ (Official portal - About how it works in Sweden)
http://www.government.se/
http://www.riksdagen.se/en/ (Parliament)
http://www.riksbank.se/en/ (Central bank)
http://www.scb.se/default____2154.aspx (SCB: Statistics Sweden - Government owned)

Swedish news in English:

http://www.thelocal.se/

Most popular televison channels. News programs sorted under:

http://www.svt.se/ (government-owned)
- http://www.svt.se/rapport/
- http://www.svt.se/aktuellt/ (in-depth)
http://www.tv4.se/ (first private TV channel, founded in 1990, when the TV monopoly ended)
- http://www.tv4.se/nyheterna

Biggest news papers (in Swedish):

Places for debating, publishing articles (in Swedish):

http://www.newsmill.se/ (maybe the most pupular one)
http://debatt.svt.se/ (government-owned TV)

This is a publication that I find interesting. It brings some critique about the welfare tax system from a historical perspective.

http://www.libera.fi/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Libera_The-Swedish-model.pdf (Recommendation at Mises.org http://archive.mises.org/18688/why-sweden-is-not-a-wreck/)

Some Wikipedia articles about Sweden and the system:

Largest opposing political parties:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Social_Democratic_Worker%27s_Party (Ruled Sweden fo 90 years on and off (just a few times), controlled the State apparatus)
- Former coalition formed in response to The Alliance (never got power): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-green_alliance_(Sweden)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moderate_Party
- Government coalition (current since 2006): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_Sweden
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_Democrats (Black sheep, dubbed "Threat to Sweden") Own block.

About Free Speech and Free press:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_by_country#Sweden
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Sweden
http://www.freedominfo.org/regions/europe/sweden/ (I did not really check this)

Reason.com has published some articles and videos about Sweden:

http://reason.com/blog/2010/03/08/so-why-is-the-swedish-welfare ("So Why Is the Swedish Welfare State So Successful?".)
(Sweden's March Towards Capitalism: Economist Andreas Bergh on the "Capitalist Welfare State")
(Johan Norberg - Swedish Myths and Realities)
(Sweden: A Supermodel for America?)