Volume 27, Number 19 · December 4, 1980
The Swedish Promise
By Robert L. Heilbroner
The Swedes, all of whom seem to love their country dearly, often complain that it is dull—'just a suburb of New York,' a Swedish sociologist told me last spring. Yet it is here that a social experiment of truly historical significance is taking place: a test of the limits, or the capacity for further evolution, of Sweden's famous 'middle way'—to use the phrase applied to the Swedish system by the journalist Marquis Childs in the mid-1930s. Whether this experiment will be a success, as the Social Democrats hope, or a sham, as the Marxists believe, or a shambles, as the Conservatives predict, the prospects for Western capitalism will have been deeply, perhaps unalterably, affected by the effort itself.
Feature, 4474 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |