Spreading the wealth: a step by step guide to the Swedish socialist model; what it is, what it does, and why America desperately needs it
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5380/rinc.v4i2.51612Keywords:
Democratic socialism, Swedish model, America, social programs, Welfare State.Abstract
The goal of the paper is to learn what democratic socialism is and to discuss the history of the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP), what their model is, and how it works. Despite the fears Americans have of socialism, Sweden is home to some of the happiest people in the world. This must mean the fears that Americans have of socialism are unfounded. The Swedish people benefit from a wide range of socialist programs – programs which, if instituted in America, would be very popular. Once a thorough understanding of democratic socialism has been achieved, this paper illustrate examples of its use in America. It explore the various ways America has already benefited from democratic socialism and how Americans can move away from capitalism and towards a model such as this. In the end, two points become clear; one, that democratic socialism works, and two, that democratic socialism has been an American ideal all along.
References
ARIELY, Dan. Americans Want to Live in a Much More Equal Country (They Just Don’t Realize it). The Atlantic, Boston, aug. 2012. Available at: <http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/americans-want-to-live-in-a-much-more-equal-country-they-just-dont-realize-it/260639/>.
BIDWELL, Allie. Report: Federal Education Funding Plummeting. U.S. News, [s.l.], jun. 2015. Avaiable on: <http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/06/24/report-federal-education-funding-cut-by-5-times-more-than-all-spending>.
DESILVER, Drew. U.S. Students Improving – Slowly – In Math and Science but Still Lagging Internationally. Pew Research Center, Washington, feb. 2015. Available on: <http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/02/02/u-s-students-improving-slowly-in-math-and-science-but-still-lagging-internationally/>.
DRISCOLL, Anne. 5 Tips for Sparking a Grassroots Movement Online. Mashable, [s.l.], aug. 2011. Available on: <http://mashable.com/2011/08/26/grassroots-online-tips/#JxEBSIkzXOqp>.
DUNBAR, John. The ‘Citizens united’ decision and why it matters, Non-profits or political parties? The Center for Public Integrity, Washington, oct. 2012. Avaiable on: <https://www.publicintegrity.org/2012/10/18/11527/citizens-united-decision-and-why-it-matters>.
GARECHT, Joe. 5 Secrets of Successful Grassroots Organizations. Local Victory, [s.l.]. Available on: <http://www.localvictory.com/grassroots/grassroots-organizations.html>.
GASPER, Phil; ZIMMER, Tyler. Socialism? You Mean Like in Sweden? Socialistworker.org, [s.l.] nov. 2015. Available on: <https://socialistworker.org/2015/11/24/you-mean-socialism-like-in-sweden>.
HATTERSLEY, Roy; HICKSON, Kevin (Eds.). The socialist way, social democracy in contemporary Britain. New York: I.B.Tauris, 2013.
HETTER, Katia. Where are the world’s happiest countries? CNN, [s.l.], mar. 2016. Available on: <http://cnn.com/2016/03/16/travel/world’s-happiest-countries-united-nations>.
HOLMES, Jack. President Obama, the “Hope and Change” Guy, Criticizes Slogans. Esquire, New York, nov. 2015. Available on: <http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a39393/president-obama-sloganeering/>.
JACKSON, Brooks. The Florida Recount of 2000. FactCheck.org, Philadelphia, jan. 2008. Available on: http://www.factcheck.org/2008/01/the-florida-recoun t-of-2000>.
JOSHI, Devin; NAVLAKHA, Neha. Social Democracy in Sweden. Economic & Political Weekly, Mumbai, vol. 45, n. 47, p. 73-78, nov. 2010. Available on: < http://www.jstor.org/stable/25764156>.
KLEVEN, Thomas. Equitable sharing, distributing the benefits and detriments of democratic society. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2014.
MILNE, Richard. Danish Election Hastens Demise of Scandinavia’s Social Democracy. Financial Times, London, jun. 2015. Available on: <http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7ab31dec-168e-11e5-b07f-00144feabdc0.html#axzz4Hj0bkrnf>.
MISGELD, Klaus et al. (Eds.). Creating Social Democracy: a century of the social democratic labor party in Sweden. Pennsylvania: Penn State Press, 1993.
MOSLEY, Walter; GOMES, Rae. 10 Things to Start a Movement. The Nation, New York, may 2011. Available on: <https://www.thenation.com/article/ten-things-start-movement/>.
NICHOLS, John. The ‘s’ word: a short history of an American tradition… Socialism. 2. ed. New York: Verso, 2015.
PFALLER, Alfred. European Social Democracy-In Need of Renewal, Nine Country Cases & Seven Policy Proposals. International Policy Analysis, Berlin, dec. 2009. Available on: <http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/id/ipa/06867.pdf>.
ROBINSON, Sara. 6 People You Need to Start A Revolution. Alternet, [s.l.], apr. 2012. Available on: <http://www.alternet.org/story/154968/6_people_you_need_to_start_a_revolution>.
ROTHSCHILD, Nathalie. Social Democracy is Dying-Even in Sweden. Spiked, London. Available on: <http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/9599#.V7YrfGViCSM>.
SALLES, Joaquim Moreira. The Wealth Gap Between Rich and Poor is The Widest Ever Recorded. Think Progress, Washington, dec. 2014. Available on: <http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/12/18/3605137/us-wealth-gap-at-its-widest-in-decades>.
SCHREIBER, Mark; FENDER, Elizabeth. The Will of the People and the Constitution: American Attitudes and Support. The Heritage Foundation, Washington, jan. 2016. Available on: <http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2016/01/the-will-of-the-people-and-the-constitution>.
STRAUSS, Valerie. America’s School Funding Problems State by State. The Washington Post, Washington, feb. 2014. Available on: <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/02/05/americas-school-funding-problems-state-by-state/>.
SWEDEN SVERIDGE. 10 fundamentals of religion in Sweden. Avaiable on: https://sweden.se/society/10-fundamentals-of-religion-in-sweden/>.
THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY. 4. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2011.
THE ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE. Did the Founding Fathers Support the Separation of Church and State? ProCon.org, Santa Monica. Available on: http://undergod.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001358>.
TYSON, Alec. Most Americans think the U.S. is great, but fewer say it’s the greatest. Pew Research Center, Washington, jul. 2014. Available at: <http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/07/02/most-americans-think-the-u-s-is-great-but-fewer-say-its-the-greatest/>.
WOLFF, Richard. Democracy at work, a cure for capitalism. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2012.
ZUESSE, Eric. Jimmy Carter is Correct that the U.S. is No Longer a Democracy. The Huffington Post, New York, aug. 2016. Available on: <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-zuesse/jimmy-carter-is-correct-t_b_7922788.html>.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish in this Journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the Journal of Constitutional Research the right of first publication with the article simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International which allows sharing the work with recognition of the authors and its initial publication in this Journal.
- Authors are able to take on additional contracts separately, for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the paper published in this Journal (eg.: publishing in institutional repository or as a book), with a recognition of its initial publication in this Journal.
- Authors are allowed and encouraged to publish their work online (eg.: in institutional repositories or on their personal website) at any point before or during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as increase the impact and the citation of the published work (see the Effect of Open Access).




















