Election Guide 2002 - Sweden.se

persons hesitate to start families. Many people’s lives
are darkened by discrimination and intolerance. There
are too many people in Sweden who are denied a share
of progress.
The efforts of Social Democracy since 1997 have
above all been concentrated on the fight against
unemployment. People’s work lays the foundations of
welfare. Full employment is our objective. Social
Democratic growth policy is based on the right to
meaningful employment. Social Democracy will always
be ready to combat rising unemployment.
Our economic policy has been aimed at creating an
economy which can cope with cyclic fluctuations
without people having to be affected by sudden spending
cuts devastating the domestic budget or the quality of
welfare. Today we can parry an international downturn
with a strong economy and without needing to pack
down on reforms already promised for greater justice
and security.
The task of strengthening welfare can – and must –
continue everywhere in the country. Although great
efforts have been made as unemployment has fallen and
common resources have grown, great deficiencies still
exist.
Social Democracy is a movement of social criticism.
Believing strongly in change, in the possibilities of
improvement, we are permanently opposed to social
injustice. It is inequalities and injustices that limit
people’s liberty, cut off their chances in life, stifling the
dreams and ambitions of hundreds of thousands of
individuals.
Injustice is incompatible with our basic vision. All
people are of equal worth. We all live here by the same
right. And so we must all live here on equal terms.
Nor is injustice compatible with a modern view of
development. If we shrink the opportunities available
to large parts of the population, we will be shrinking our
combined capacity to create a better Sweden.
We are living at a time when development is moving
faster than ever. We are living in a strongly internationalised
economic environment. In Sweden, just as elsewhere in
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