SVERIGE
— Officially: Konungariket Sverige.
— English: Sweden.
— Seat of government: Stockholm.
— Status: Democratic.
— Structure: The parliament (riksdagen) is elected in geographical constituencies, modified by party-list proportional representation, and chooses the prime minister (statsminister).
— Governing party: Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Arbetareparti.
— Head of government: Magdalena Andersson, statsminister (since 2021).
— Other parliamentary parties: Alliansen (originally “Allians för Sverige”, comprising Moderata Samlingspartiet, Centerpartiet, Liberalerna, and Kristdemokraterna), Sverigedemokraterna, Vänsterpartiet, Miljöpartiet de Gröna.
— Assessment: Historically liberal state. The long rule of socialists (1936-76, 1982-91, 1994-2006, 2014-) has produced a strong social consensus for a welfare state, which the recent right-of-center government under Fredrik Reinfeldt (2006-14) of the MSP therefore changed only slightly. In 2014, the socialists won a plurality and formed a minority government under Stefan Löfven (2014-21) with Miljöpartiet, but the parliment rejected the government’s budget, and new elections were called; this was averted by a later deal among the government and Alliansen parties not to vote down a budget for eight years. In the 2018 election, both governing parties as well as the MSP saw sharp drops, while the SD and smaller parties saw compensatory increases; the government then depended on the CP and Liberalerna for support on confidence votes. Löfven stepped down in 2021, succeeded by Andersson, after a parliamentary vote in favor of the opposition’s budget prompted Miljöpartiet to withdraw from the government. In 2022, following the invasion of Україна « Ukrajína » by Россия « Rossija », the government applied to join NATO.
— FH: 1-1, free. Econ: 9.73 (2), full democracy.
— Updated: 2022 July 7.
O.T. FORD