Corporate State

This corporatist approach is characteristic of the Swedish Model. It started with the parliament commissions inviting in the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) of the day. But then developed these into an alternative path for representative democracy...a sort of trade parliaments of interest organisations alongside the official elected parliament which represented 'locality' instead of 'interests'...a crucial distinction that H.J. Mackinder saw as a crucial difference between 'landsmen' and 'seamen' points of view in 'Democratic Ideals and Reality'.

In the golden age of the Swedish Model, decisions were made behind closed doors...nods and winks inside a very small group of representatives for the relevant interests. At best the government would play the part of ringleader and ensure that all the right parties were in the ring and part of the consensus. At worst it was Kafka and Orwell rolled into one.

It is perhaps no wonder that it is the inheritors of these interest groups that are overwhelmingly in favour of the Maastricht Treaty. Writ large the EU is the Swedish Corporate Decision Making Model. Few realise that the 'writ large' is the whole problem ensuring that the cosy little cabals the Swedish elite are so used to will exclude them. It may take awhile, but they will find out.