The ugly face of Sweden
Sir: As a disillusioned Swedish citizen, I am a happy reader of Andrew Brown's accurate and clear-sighted reports (e.g. 3 October). It is symptomatic of the political climate in Sweden that such truthful accounts are rarely published there.
Sweden has many other ugly faces worth studying, e.g. the Swedish Immigration Board and almighty local councils. People become more and more dependent on the public sector which rules more and more according to Machiavellian laws. Democratic control of a public sector embracing 30 per cent of the labour force is impossible. Few people of insight dare publicise what they realise, as they are too vulnerable to some sort of informal persecution, while the majority of people seems to be naively ignorant yet. Totalitarianism inevitably burgeons in such a large public sector. The only way back to acceptable freedom and security from administrative arbitrariness is radical reduction of this undemocratic sector. In the long run, it is the sole means of safeguarding not only democracy, but also a social welfare society. It is a difficult task (since four out of five parties in the Parliament appear committed to strengthen state control), but probably not impossible.
P.A. Asiund St Anthony's College, Oxford
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