The political scientist: It is so common for Sweden to borrow policies from neighboring countries

According to Nicholas Aylott, Sweden has always drawn political inspiration from other countries.

Mainly from neighboring Norway, Denmark and Finland, where he believes there are many common problems and challenges. 

- The cultural similarity also plays a role, I think.

I think it is easier for a party in a country to receive and adopt and adapt policy proposals if they come from a country where the language is understandable and the conditions are relatively equal, he says. 

Ideas about security policy and gang crime  

Current at the moment is security policy, where Aylott believes that Sweden is inspired by the neighboring countries and vice versa.  

- Finland has exported the decision to apply for NATO membership to Sweden.

You can also rewind time to the 90s when people started talking about joining the EU.

Then it was Sweden that made a quick decision to apply for membership and Finland followed suit. 

Other areas where political ideas have been exchanged are solutions to segregation and gang crime, says Aylott.  

- It is interesting that large parts of Swedish party politics have long regarded Denmark as a terrible example, but now the Swedish Social Democracy has talked about similar trajectories as Denmark when it comes to breaking up segregation and tackling gang crime. 

"The right a little more inclined to look at alternatives abroad"  

Parties on the right, Aylott believes, are generally more likely to look abroad for inspiration.  

- The left side in Sweden, especially the Social Democrats, has had a very strong position of power in Swedish politics for many years, while the right side has ended up in opposition more often, which may have created a feeling among the bourgeois parties that they have more to learn from other countries.

You are a little more open to other people's ideas, says Aylott. 

He also sees several examples of when the Swedish right wing has exported its ideas.  

- I am thinking of the Alliance that was founded between the four bourgeois parties in Sweden in 2004, which was probably some kind of inspiration for a left-wing alliance in Norway just two years later.

It was a case of the Swedish right-wing establishment exporting an idea to a neighboring country.

Hear Nicholas Aylott, associate professor of political science, tell more in the clip above.