Anti-democratic forces around the world lead by a rising China have been quick to point to the European debt crisis as the inevitable result of parliamentary democracy. The argument is that your average voter, unable to understand the complexities of fiscal policy will inevitably vote for candidates supporting low taxes and high public spending. Looking at much of the industrialized world this appears to be true. Yet there are exceptions. The Swedish electorate appears to have learned from the Scandinavian crisis of the 1990's, since then consistently supporting parties committed to balanced budgets. Resulting in such absurd behavior as the government insisting on running a budget surplus during the worst period of the Financial Crisis of 2008 in order to avoid any charges of fiscal recklessness.
It might be that it takes a debt crisis like the one Sweden experienced in the early 90's and much of the rest of Europe is currently struggling with for the electorate to learn the importance of fiscal prudence.
Maybe more worryingly seeing the latest election results in Greece and to a lesser degree France one can question the willingness of the electorate to support the painful measures necessary to combat the crisis and restore fiscal health. It is no coincidence that it has been left to unelected technocrats to implement necessary but unpopular reforms in both Greece and Italy.
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