Micro Parties of Sweden - Self-defense and national security Policies
A couple of days ago I made a little article on where the different mainstream parties stand in regard to national defense and I wanted to make another one on the, for me, most interesting of Sweden's micro parties: Feminist Initiative, the Pirate Party, Citizens Coalition and the Classical Liberal Party.
What I did was checking on resources on the web in form of debate-articles and the different parties programs in order to figure out where they stand on three things:
1. National defense of Sweden. More specifically, if they are for a smaller or larger army. Is their ideal army voluntary or conscripted?
2. Is the party interested in a NATO membership? You can read a short article here on why I'm not a big fan of the organisation.
3. What is the policy on self-defense and weapon-ownership? This is heavily restricted right now in Sweden and any party that wants to make it less so is interesting to me.
With these three things in mind, lets take a look:
Feminist Initiative - "There is no doubt that violence is a security problem."
The Pink party's security politics is all about breaking down norms and the traditional thinking when it comes to defense, which is an interesting twist on how to start walking towards a more peaceful world. Reading the party program of Feminist Initiative is exciting because of their approach, that breaks the mold. The message is a little diluted in the language form used, which is very dogmatic and tries too hard to underline the feminist aspects - If you are part of the in-group I'm sure its strengthening. As an outsider I think the message gets lost a little, which is a shame because the aspect of putting individuals before nation states is a refreshing sight after reading other parties stance on defense and military spending.
Feminist Initiative is against a NATO membership. They do not have a point in their program for private security and self-defense, a hole that is a missed opportunity in my opinion - Feminist Initiative isn't as radical thinking when it comes to that aspect and relies more on changing small parts of the focus in how law and order from the state should handle disputes.
Pirate Party - "Internet, man."
For the purpose of this article, the Pirate Party is the easiest and simultaneously the hardest to analyse. The Pirates are for government transparency and direct democracy, so their own political program isn't as fleshed out as the other parties on this list - They rather rely on creating a better system that frames society so we can figure out the rest as we go. Sort of. I think. Its a hard party to pin down really.
They have no explicit stance on NATO, other than that any future membership should first be voted through by the people and not decided by the political elite - Something I think is a sober view on the subject. They both want the Swedish national defense to be upgraded into more modern times and a de-militarization, I have no idea how these two conflicting ideas work together.
There is nothing about personal security in the Pirate Party program other than the need for everyone's cyber security to be better (and something that should be taught in state schools). Why they haven't fleshed out their view in the digital to the physical as well is still a mystery to me.
The Classical Liberal Party- "To Protect the individual is the main task of the Government"
Sticking out in the political jungle of Sweden as the(only?) minarchist party, opting to shrink down the state to a bare minimum and let the free market take over the rest. Their program has the radical inclusion of giving private citizens back their right to be able to arm themselves without interference from the state in the form of licenses (with exceptions if you have a violent criminal background or if you are psychologically unstable). This line of thinking about personal defense is very, very radical in Sweden of today.
the Liberal Party is against conscription and want a volunteer army, being one of the few pillars left in the slimmed down government of the Classical Liberal Party ideal. They do not have a policy on NATO, but the party leader is pro-membership.
Citizens Coalition - "More Government Guns"
This party want to bump up Swedish military spending to 2.5% of GDP, with a long term gain of 250k Swedish soldiers. That is quite the jump from the current 50,000 soldiers (of which about half is of the national guard). They also want to join NATO and strengthen the numbers of police officers.
On the upside, they are a little forthcoming on the issue of private security: They want to ease up on gun-ownership laws. A little bit. For some. The Citizens Coalition also want to expand on the laws regarding self-defense in favor of the one defending him/her self, which is an upside.
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I Personally align the best with the Classical Liberal Party, which is the party I voted for this coming election - Which is on Sunday! Exciting time. Preliminary, it looks like its going to work out swell for Feminist Initiative. Lets see how it goes for the rest of the gang 😎
---- Alex Utopium ----
'People following Alex Utopium has a slightly better life on average than others'
Great text about these forgotten parties.
I personally like medborgerlig samling but didn't vote for them in this election since I don't see any value in them if you want to see a new government in place after tomorrow.
Long term there is, but they need to win on a local level first - That has been the problem with micro parties in the past, they focus to big when they need to go local first.