Swedish politics
John, John and I went to a politcal debate at Stadsbiblioteket to investigate Swedish politics. Afterall, the other John might be allowed to vote since he's being processed for his Swedish citizenship.
The discussion is similar to Norway's political debate, I'd say, though the different dudes have different opinions. Surprisingly the "money to the parent staying at home with the kids" had no reference to integration policy, and the Center Party is pro EU. Similar are the issues on health for the elderly, the crappy conditions in schools, and teaching immigrants Swedish.
We also discovered that from left to right there's also a move from female to male. I bet this isn't true for the whole party though.
Also some animal right's dudes invaded the stage with loud messages of Swedish animal cruelty. While the right part loudly declared this intrusion as "undemocratic", the left didn't mention that. Hmm.
Anyways, here's the movie. I'd better go to bed.
posted by Benjamin @ 23:26
4 Comments:
'While the right part loudly declared this intrusion as "undemocratic", the left didn't mention that.'
Heh, I think of that as similar to walking past somebody in a line, or playing music loudly on the bus. Rude? Yes. Illegal? Not really, but there might be border cases. Undemocratic? Uhh, no.
I do think it's undemocratic, since the parliament parties represented on stage were chosen as part of a democratic process, while the intrusion has no democratic basis and steals time/attention from the debate. But I suppose the activists could just as well argue that there are imbalances in power that distort the democratic process, so who's to say what's democratic.
Anyway, I was most impressed with the reaction of the panel. Aside from two people in the audience shouting "Ut! Ut!", none of the panel participants or the moderator said anything during the demonstration. It is as if they were just waiting for a storm to pass.
People who don't otherwise get heard become militant.
At some point some things should be said and heard, even if the means are not democratic (?).
This event disrupted the democratic _process_ in the shape it has taken in Sweden, but I don't think it's inherently undemocratic.
I was curious about the reaction as well. In a sense I think it was because nobody expected anything violent.
I'm nor sure the intrusion lacks a democratic basis, but on the other hand I'm not sure what that means anyway :).
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