Liberals like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., frequently hold up Scandinavian countries as successful experiments in “democratic socialism.” A historian and native Swede, however, is speaking out against their failure to observe the clear capitalistic traits of Scandinavian markets.“Whatever you think about
Sweden and what we did, you have to realize that we had a great society first,” Johan Norberg, a Swedish historian, filmmaker, and Cato Institute senior fellow, said in a recent lecture titled “No, Bernie! Scandinavia Is Not Socialist!” “We were incredibly wealthy, we trusted each other socially, there was a decent life for everybody. That’s what made it possible to experiment with socialism; then it began to undermine many of those preconditions,” Norberg said during the June 20 event hosted by The Fund for
American Studies and the office of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. “That’s the one thing that it’s important for people to get, because if they just look at Sweden and think, ‘Oh look, they’re socialist and seem to be doing quite all right,’ then they’ve sort of missed the point,” Norberg added. It appears both Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have missed the point, according to the historian. In April, Sanders explained his views on democratic socialism to an audience gathered in Burlington, Iowa: