Sweden is a nation with the lowest poverty rates and the highest income equality in the world. It is used as an example that a big governement, investing in its people and providing many services, can lead to a strong economy. Unemployement is low and economic growth is decent.

On the other hand the right says that the economic growth is possible because of short periods of liberal reform governements in the beginning of the 70s and 90s. And that there is a lot of hidden unemployement because people are illegally on governement welfare. And that the difficulty to become more wealthy has bread a mentality of mediocreness.

Dutch socialists say the Netherlands should become more like Sweden, Swedish liberals say Sweden should become more like the Netherlands. What do you think?

Does Sweden give full citizenship rights to landed immigrants?

And twenty years ago before those 'reforms' Sweden was an economic basketcase.

It is helpful as a reminder to all to read some books/articles about the Japanese miricle written during the later 1980's (just before they entered a twenty year long recession).

I'm not suggesting that Sweden is going to crash into a recession, only that temporal cycles go up as well as down.

If you want praise from me, show me a consistent and prosperous record that spans 30 years plus. Anyone can point to a five year period where things went particularly well for any given country.

From the middle of the 1800's to the middle of the 1900's, Sweden had the second largest growth of the economy of the world. Only Japan was better. The main reason for this long period of growth was economic liberalisation and a peaceful transition into a modern democratic form of government. We were able to stay out of both world wars, which was beneficial for our economy.

However, a long time of social democratic governments from 1932 to 1976 destroyed much of the foundation for the Swedish economy. During the 1960's, the total taxation grew from about 40 % to over 50 %. When the notorious Prime Minister Olof Palme came into power in 1969, he started a policy of "harvesting", that is a policy where the working class would get the spoils from the corporations. This killed the remnants of the Swedish economic wonder.

After the leftish 1970's, even the Social Democrats have turned a bit to the right and the Swedish economic foundation is not in such a bad state as before.

If you want to borrow something from Sweden, borrow our constitutional rules on freedom of information in Chapter 2 of the Freedom of the Press Act. This is (as far as I know) the most far reaching act on the right of individuals to get access to government information and documents in the world. Sweden and Finland are the countries in the world who have the oldest tradition in this area, dating back to the 1700's.

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President Josiah Bartlet: Sweden has a 100% literacy rate. 100%! How do they do that?
Leo McGarry: Maybe they don't and they can't add.

Sweden is also taken as an example in France

You know, when a country is doing well, the opposition always has to find something to attack the gov. It is their job to find weaknesses of the gov to criticize them, it's not always easy when a gov is doing well... like Iceland for example.

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This was essentially what I was saying. Sweden may have it pretty good right now - but times have changed and will change in the future.

Even Italy has a period of post-WW2 prosperty where it looks like they are well-governed (as hard as that may be to believe).

Indeed, Spain is doing rather well these days - and yet 30 years ago, Spain was a basketcase country.

Btw, the highest rate of growth in the 19th century went to those countries in the western world that were the most industrially backwards - thus they had the largest 'growth' gains to make as they industrialized. Not to slag Sweden's achievements - for the most part, it has been a very well run and admirable country.

Btw, I've often said I'm half-British, half-American by birth. To be technical, I'm half-British, quarter-American and quarter-Swedish.

Sweden is a model .

It has a very small population though. And disciplined. I am not sure the model works in larger countries.

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______________________Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.”___________________Alexander Solzhenitsyn

I'm still curious if Sweden offers full citizenship rights to immigrants.

Any country that doesn't have to support a real military is clearly at an advantage.
Sweden is one of them.

Yes, Sweden does do that, but you would normally have to qualify for permanent residency first. To do that, you would have to show that you are a refugee, a EU-citizen (or citizen of Norway, Iceland, or Liechtenstein) and qualifies for residency under EU laws, or qualifies for residency because an employer needs your services. It is also possible to become a resident and/or citizen based upon family ties such as marriage or registered homosexual partnership.

The main basis for Swedish citizenship law is ius sanguinis (right of the blood), not ius soli (right of the land). That is, you become a citizen at birth if one or both of your parents are citizens, not because you are born on Swedish soil. This also means that if you are born abroad to a Swedish citizen, you automaticly become a Swedish citizen yourself.

If you are one quarter Swedish, it is possible that you can get Swedish citizenship based upon the Swedish citizenship of your parent or grand parent.

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President Josiah Bartlet: Sweden has a 100% literacy rate. 100%! How do they do that?
Leo McGarry: Maybe they don't and they can't add.

Sweden used to have a real military, but it was mostly dismantled during the 1990's. We still have a decent air force

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President Josiah Bartlet: Sweden has a 100% literacy rate. 100%! How do they do that?
Leo McGarry: Maybe they don't and they can't add.

Thanks for that reply. It is as I suspected.

Do you know of any country in Europe that actually gives full rights of citizenship to any immigrant (as has long been the custom in Canada).

Really? I didn't know that. My grandmother is was a Hagveist (or some ugly spelling variation of that) and born in Sweden. I'll have to check that out.

Sorry if I interfer, but what do you mean exactly with "full rights of citizenship" ? Do you mean "right away on request" ? I mean, I suspect that all countries in the world would naturalize immigrants after a number of years if they ask to ...

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______________________Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.”___________________Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Actually, it is quite rare for a country to grant full rights of citizenship to immigrants upon their request after a period of five years residency (for example). I don't know of many beyond USA, Canada and Australia for a fact that actually do this on any normative basis. I suspect there are more, but not many.

As DSG pointed out above, the 'blood' requirement of citizenship tends to interfere with this process.

Btw, Canada takes in more immigrants (per capita) than any other nation - roughly equal to 1% of our population per year.

In Sweden, if you have been a legal immigrant for a number of years, it is often easy to get a citizenship. I would not say you could get it just upon request, though. I do not think any European country does that.

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President Josiah Bartlet: Sweden has a 100% literacy rate. 100%! How do they do that?
Leo McGarry: Maybe they don't and they can't add.

Sweeden success in my eyes is that she has not been and still is not part of big politics of any sort. She was smart enought not to send own boys in Iraq or Aphganistan to fight for uncle. Sweeden, probably the most hi tech nation in the world,..well, Finland stepping on the hills (Ericsson "The Mighty", Nokia "The Champ') sweedish attitude is most benighn, peaceful, hi tech oriented, smart to the point that I wish I live there.