Do not be mistaken - we live in a democratorship
The general picture in Sweden is that we live in a democracy.
But after the crazy display in recent months to form a government, in combination with the media's unilateral reporting, I am very hesitant.
I believe that we live in a democratorship.
In previous blog posts during this fall, I have been writing about how wrong I think it is that our politicians do more or less anything to remain in power or to get a chance for increased power. The latest government formation is an excellent proof of this.
To emphasize my thesis that we Swedes live in democratorship, here is an explanation of the word translated from Swedish Wikipedia:
“Democratorship is a concept in which modern democracies are criticized for hypocritical democracy and lack of power distribution, where more protection is requested against tyranny of the majority.
The origin of the word is unclear. The term is often attributed to the French sociologist Gerard Mermet, but has been used previously by other people.
For example, author Vilhelm Moberg used the word in a debate article in Dagens Nyheter on December 14, 1965, where he criticised a government proposal for press support."
This is how Vilhelm Moberg's definition of democratorship reads:
"In a democratorship, there are general and free elections and there is formally a freedom of opinion, but politics and the mass media are dominated by an establishment that believes only certain expressions of opinion should be publicised. The consequence is that citizens live in a notion that they convey an objective and comprehensive picture of reality. The oppression of thought is well hidden, the free debate is silenced. However, it should be added that in the definition of democratorship, the fact of the matter is that the majority of people in this social state do not perceive themselves as living in a democratorship.”
This is exactly how it is in Sweden at the moment. We live in a democratorship while the majority of us believe that it is a democracy.