Election Guide 2002 - Sweden.se

has about 24,000 members and organisationally consists
of 27 party districts and 359 local branches. In the 1994
election the party returned 15 MPs, 58 county
councillors and 425 municipal councillors.
Party Chairman: Alf Svensson, Gränna
First Deputy Chairman: Inger Davidson, Nacka
Second Deputy Chairman: Anders Andersson, Järnforsen
Secretary-General: Sven Gunnar Persson, Kumla
Parliamentary Group Leader: Göran Hägglund, Bankeryd
The Party Board has 18 permanent members.
A party of values and ideas
The Christian Democrats are a party of values and ideas.
The value-oriented vision of society can be described
as follows: a realistic and sustainable view of humanity,
subscribed to by members of society, creates the best
possible chances of achieving a good society.
The Christian Democrats represent a personalistic
view of humanity, inspired above all by the cultural
tradition of Christianity. Man’s personal dignity is
founded on belief in the inviolability of human life, in
the equal worth of all human beings and in each individual
as a unique being having a unique value. Fellow human
beings, therefore, cannot be treated merely as objects of
different kinds of intervention.
The realisation of man’s imperfection has a number
of political effects. These include the need for power
sharing in society, humility regarding one’s own political
achievement and, accordingly, understanding for other
political parties. Compromise is regarded as a part of
everyday politics, the direction of political work is based
on the philosophy of small steps, and the direction of
movement is important. Most important, perhaps, is the
conclusion that there will never be any such thing as
perfect societies or perfect political systems. We reject
utopianism.
Fundamental to Christian Democrats is the vision
of small communities. It is in the small communities that
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