För några veckor sedan citerade jag vad Bernard Porter skrev i London Review of Books om det svenska valet. Nu kommer samme författare under rubriken Why Sweden matters tillbaka med ytterligare reflektioner kring det Sverige han beundrade på 1970-talet, som han senare kommit att stifta närmare bekantskap med och som han nu analyserar i ljuset av det som hänt de senaste veckorna:

I come from the generation, and the political tendency, that used to admire Sweden enormously in the 1970s, as our great political model; the proof that equality, social justice and, yes, solidarity were compatible with prosperity, and could liberate people in a way that unrestrained capitalism didn’t. A Guardian leader recently described Stockholm as our ‘Shining City upon a Hill’; the opposite pole to the more famous American one. That’s how it was to me. Coming here in the mid-1990s, I of course found that not everything was as shining as I had hoped it would be – far from it – but it was still pretty remarkable: wealth spread widely, high taxation accepted as the price of a civilised society, very little poverty or crime by British standards, good and free education, friendly communal interaction, enlightened asylum and immigration policies, very little racism compared to (say) Denmark, and a degree of gender equality – this especially – that I’d never have thought possible.

Stockholm – shining city on the water

”Den svenska modellen” har enligt Porter alltid varit störande för nyliberala ideologer. I slutet av 90-talet kunde man i amerikansk press läsa om vilka problem Sverige hade. Några försökte till och med hävda att brottsligheten i landet var större än i Chicago. Den tron har i och för sig förstärkts av alla som trängt in i Kurt Wallanders eller Lisbeth Salanders våldsamma värld men så är det ju knappast i verkligheten. Deckarundret speglar svensk kriminalitet lika litet som Midsomer Murders speglar brittisk.

Det senaste valet har ändå gett kritikerna vatten på sina kvarnar:

There we go, the right is saying: socialism doesn’t work. But the fact is that for many years it did, or a form of it did; and still does, to a degree. That was Sweden’s value for the rest of us. It proved to the world that there is a practical alternative to the neoliberal orthodoxy. It’s not just a woolly dream, a shining city, an aspiration, an abstract phrase – ‘the Swedish model’. Social democracy exists. It’s still here – just. It might not last much longer, if Socialdemokraterna (the party) don’t pull their socks up. In the meantime, however, it could still be an example for the rest of us. Come over and see it if you don’t believe me. ‘Red Ed’ might be impressed. I’d be happy to show him around.