Friday, July 08, 2005
Stateism or regionalism
One of Sweden’s more well-known bloggers Dick Erixon does not appear to be a friend of regional identities and regional self-rule as a solution for Sweden. In one of his entries in his blog he says “No thank you” to political and administrative regionalisation of Sweden. He uses Skåne and Västra Götaland as examples and calls the present political set-up in Västra Götaland a “catastrophe”. He also claims that there are no regional identities in Sweden, except perhaps in Skåne. But, just because nobody talks about something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exists. By that statement Mr Erixon is demonstrating that he is basically just another centralist who denies basic facts about history – the history of how Sweden came about during Svealand’s expansionist era when new territories were added, either by military or colonial means.
He ends his blog as follows: “The regional and local development, which I naturally am very positive to, is best achieved by liquidating the Big State in Stockholm and make the citizens free so that they may, in voluntariness, develop the society in this global times. Regional political colossuses? No thank you!”
Mr Erixon’s arguments reminds me of a party which is balancing very near the percentage limit of being expelled from the state parliament – Centerpartiet (the Centre Party). On the one hand it advocates for “federalism” in Sweden, but it is very unclear of what they mean.
The party leader, Maud Olofsson, tried to make her analysis of her party’s definition of federalism - a Swedish variation. Her hope is that the wishes of the grass roots should somehow influence the state parliamentarians in a more pronounced way. But she failed to explain how this will come about.
Mr Erixon’s fuzzy proposal doesn’t help. How can people, without political representation, develop the society in any direction? True, the present regional set-up is not the best, but it is all we have at the moment. As a political advocate, he should strive for making it better instead of abolish it altogether.
The Centerparty may call it “federalism”. I call it fuzzy. The Centerparty’s political storytelling does not hold together. The voters are, wisely enough, seeing through the party’s muddled political message. And as long as the Centerparty’s fuzzy story does not hold together, the party must accept the faith of a continued balancing act on the verge of being expelled from the state parliament. The party is almost totally eradicated in the City Hall in Malmö and is the second smallest party in the regional parliament in Skåne. That should tell Mr Dixon and the leadership of the Centre Party something.
“The time is up for the European state” is the headline of an article the undersigned had published a few weeks ago in a Centerparty publication “Rådslag”. You will find it here (in Swedish only). Another analysis for inspiration is perhaps this article: “Regionalism is the future!" (in Swedish).
He ends his blog as follows: “The regional and local development, which I naturally am very positive to, is best achieved by liquidating the Big State in Stockholm and make the citizens free so that they may, in voluntariness, develop the society in this global times. Regional political colossuses? No thank you!”
Mr Erixon’s arguments reminds me of a party which is balancing very near the percentage limit of being expelled from the state parliament – Centerpartiet (the Centre Party). On the one hand it advocates for “federalism” in Sweden, but it is very unclear of what they mean.
The party leader, Maud Olofsson, tried to make her analysis of her party’s definition of federalism - a Swedish variation. Her hope is that the wishes of the grass roots should somehow influence the state parliamentarians in a more pronounced way. But she failed to explain how this will come about.
Mr Erixon’s fuzzy proposal doesn’t help. How can people, without political representation, develop the society in any direction? True, the present regional set-up is not the best, but it is all we have at the moment. As a political advocate, he should strive for making it better instead of abolish it altogether.
The Centerparty may call it “federalism”. I call it fuzzy. The Centerparty’s political storytelling does not hold together. The voters are, wisely enough, seeing through the party’s muddled political message. And as long as the Centerparty’s fuzzy story does not hold together, the party must accept the faith of a continued balancing act on the verge of being expelled from the state parliament. The party is almost totally eradicated in the City Hall in Malmö and is the second smallest party in the regional parliament in Skåne. That should tell Mr Dixon and the leadership of the Centre Party something.
“The time is up for the European state” is the headline of an article the undersigned had published a few weeks ago in a Centerparty publication “Rådslag”. You will find it here (in Swedish only). Another analysis for inspiration is perhaps this article: “Regionalism is the future!" (in Swedish).
