the Philosopher, Karl Popper, published in 1945 ”The open society and its enemies”. It was a strong defense of liberal democracy against nazism and communism. The open society is characterised by free thought, free politics and free institutions.
It is based, as Michael Ignatieff writes in the introduction to a recent research anthology, ”Rethinking the Open Society”, in a kind of moral individualism, that each one is given the opportunity to make the important choices in life. In a country like Sweden, this may seem so obvious that we don’t even think that we have the opportunity. Those who have lived in unfreedom is more aware of what freedom means.
One should not ignore that it can also be demanding to live in an open society. In it, we must show respect for other people’s dignity, also their whose values we do not share. It offers no easy solutions or ready-made recipe for a better world. We are assumed together to think through the decisions that need to be made, often under great uncertainty. In the open society is the possibility to predict the future is limited, which may contribute to the uncertainty. But, as Popper put it, it is better to live with the uncertainty than with an oppressive certainty.
a symbol of communism’s decline and the open society boost. Between 1990 and 2005 increased the number of liberal democracies from 76 to 119. Since then, it has fluctuated. 2018 was the thirteenth year in a row that the freedom according to the independent think tank Freedom House declined in more countries than it increased.
What is today the open society’s enemies? There is still communism, mainly represented by China. But also, says Ignatieff, illiberala regimes in Central europe and national populist parties and politicians in Western europe and the united states.
The main examples of illiberala regimes of Poland and Hungary. They are particularly interesting in a Swedish context, because The sweden democrats are highlighting them as role models. In riksdagsdebatter has its representatives praised the Hungarian prime minister Orbán that the right now the foremost statsledaren in the world and entered the transition in Poland as an example of what should happen also in Sweden.
What is it that happens there? The two countries are not closed societies in the classical sense. They are in NATO and the EU, they have nothing against their citizens going to the west to work and the conduct of democratic elections. But the governments do not destroy important institutions in the open society: the freedom of the media and föreningslivets freedom is restricted, domstolsväsendena politicised. And free research prevented. The university, Central European University, where Ignatieff is the president, forced to leave Hungary because it teaches and conducts research in a liberal democracy. It is such changes that will have the Orbán himself to characterize his country as an illiberal democracy.
they and their sister parties in the west during the later period of time gained a growing support. What can be behind? The british scientists Roger Eatwell and Matthew Goodwin looks at the ”National Populism-The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy” as a result of a development that has been going on for a long time. They highlight four explanations, ”the four D’s”.
• An increase in economic inequality, which means a relative deterioration for large groups (Deprivation).
• An increased distrust of established politicians (Distrust). the
• A reduction in the connection of citizens to established political parties (De-alignment).
• A perceived threat from immigrants and in particular muslims against their own culture and their own living conditions (Destruction).
the Globalisation of the economy has contributed to extreme poverty in the world has decreased, but at the same time has led to increased inequalities in many countries, even in Sweden. Incomes have increased for most, but many have relatively lagged behind. Those who make it may experience that the established politicians are listening more to the rich. It promises nationalpopulisterna to change.
the Gap between politicians and voters has increased. In Sweden, is a statement that the number of elected officials has decreased. With the same proportion as in 1950, Sweden would today have 300 000 of such. In fact, it is only a little over one-tenth as many. The parties have evolved from the broad member parties to elitpartier, which greatly living on public grants. The national populist parties emerge as the anti-etablissemangspartier and say they better be able to represent the common people.
There are also fewer people today who are loyal to any party. The proportion of partibytare in elections has increased substantially since the 1980s. In the beginning of the 1980s was one of seven swedes with a political party, today is just one of the 40.
have created space for national populist parties and politicians. The established parties have a lesson to do. There is an urgent need to reduce economic disparities and create conditions for a more participatory democracy. There is no easy challenges, but they can still be perceived as the political project of the traditional kind.
by far The most important factor behind their continued growth, however, is, according to Eatwell and Goodwin, their opposition to immigration and islam. It is significantly more difficult to handle for the established parties. In some countries there has been significant muslim immigration to Sweden, but it is usually sufficient that it be painted out as a potential threat. The issue played a big role in the recent Polish election campaign despite the fact that the muslim immigrants in the country can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
The fear that nationalpopulisterna manage to spread derives its nourishment from both the muslim regimes brutal actions as events in the west.
Iran and saudi Arabia are oppressive theocracies. The imposing, after China, the highest number of death in the world. The Swedish doctor Ahmadreza Djalalis sitting for the past three years imprisoned in Iran with a death sentence hanging over them. The saudi oppression of women symbolized by the young woman Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, who recently dropped out of during a visit in Thailand in order to avoid being married off.
fundamentalists, through a number of acts of terrorism contributed to the fear. On 11 september in New York has been followed by more. Between 2014 and 2017 were killed, according to Eatwell and Goodwin, 424 people in islamist attacks in the west and 2 000 injured. One of them took place on Drottninggatan in Stockholm on 7 april 2017, when five people lost their lives. There is also a radicalisation among young muslims in the west, which for several years has been manifested in a large-scale recruitment to the ICE, also from Sweden.
Cheko Pekgul, who lives in Tensta, outside Stockholm, wrote already several years ago: ”(I) have seen how a number of mosques and religious associations want to isolate the members to protect them from the secular society. … That some of the mosques and religious associations reinforces the muslims ‘ exclusion in the Swedish society is a big problem. In addition, the risk that is always associated with closed groups, namely that they can be the basis for different kinds of extremism.” The trends are also in the other direction. In such environments, for example, is violence in common.
Nationalpopulister focuses on such phenomena and argue that they are representative of all muslims in the west. They want to bring us to every muslim see a potential terrorist.
several examples. Orbán in Hungary have warned against a muslim invasion. Le Pen in France has compared muslims who pray in the streets with the nazi occupation during the second world war. Strache in Austria mean that if we don’t run out of islamisation, so europeans will go on to destruction and Wilders in the Netherlands, that Europe will cease to exist unless islam is stopped. Salvani in Italy say that the centuries of european history, risks being lost if the islamisation may continue. And in Sweden we have heard Jimmie Åkesson warn that islam is the greatest foreign threat to Sweden.
The phenomena they focus on are thus not fictional, but they are also not representative of all muslims in the west. Most of them have fled from oppression in their old home countries. They now want most of all to live in peace. They realize that only the secular state can offer true freedom of religion. They adapt in the rule värderingsmässigt to their new home countries. They are indications that young muslim women in Sweden is more gender equality than young men born in. Attitudes are often more of the place that they have come to than that they have come from. The Swedish researcher Klas Borell has shown that the majority of muslim congregations in Sweden works well and interact with the surrounding society.
out of this complicated reality to be able to create a balanced image, and policy. On the one hand, on the opposite to what nationalpopulisterna do, to highlight that the vast majority of muslims are peaceful and well integrated into our western societies, on the other hand, it should of course not turn a blind eye to the problems of terrorism, the promptings of the spirit to the exclusion and radikaliseringstendenser.
there is a significant Risk that the established politicians find this balancing act too difficult and surrendering to nationalpopulisternas worldview. If they should manage to resist, I personally believe that it is of the utmost importance that more representatives of the peaceful and well-integrated muslim majority rises up in a clearer way, and harshly takes away from the extremist minority.
