Sheri Berman, a professor of Political Science at Columbia University who has studied and written extensively on Swedish society since the 1980s, says that the Nordic country is currently experiencing a societal transformation the likes of which the world has never seen before.

During a recent appearance at the Gothenburg Book Fair, Berman told reporters from Svenska Dagbladet, “Today, Swedish society looks dramatically different. It is now not the same country. The demographic change that Sweden has undergone in recent years is quite incredible.”

“To think that this kind of change could happen without any problems is unhistorical. It is a demographic experiment of historical dimensions,” Berman added.

For Berman, the utter destruction of Swedish cultural and ethnic homogeneity could very well threaten democracy, as a size-able portion of native Swedes will inevitably struggle to preserve their cultural and ethnic identity. It’s clear that this is already beginning to take place in this society today.

“There is no question that the more homogeneous a society is, the easier it will be to cooperate and keep cohesion. The groups are fewer and the gaps are closer, and it is easier to create a sense of social solidarity,” she said.

“It’s hard to compromise on identity, and it makes people more intolerant because it puts them in a defensive position. Identity politics is not good for the left, and it is not good for democracy.”

“The French Revolution may be regarded as the starting point for democracy in Europe, but it took 150 years for it to actually arrive. Most people forget how long and difficult that journey was, and how many democracies have fallen along the way.”

Sheri Berman, in her scholarship, deals with issues like democracy, populism, the history of the left, and European politics for both scholarly and non-scholarly publications. It should be known that she has a clear leftist bias.

Source:  voiceofeurope.com