Sri Lanka, May 10 -- by M. Rizwan Muzzammil
Introduction
Both Sweden and Sri Lanka profess to follow Democratic Socialism. But Sweden has seemingly produced a more successful economy. This has led to the popularly held belief that Sweden is an example of Democratic Socialism done right. In this article a brief economic history of Sweden is provided (as published in "The Power of Capitalism" by Rainer Zitelmann). The details show that this popular belief is in fact incorrect.
100 years of growth
In the early 19th century Sweden was a very poor country. This was due to the existence of guilds which hindered the freedom of trade and imposed price controls. However, in 1846 the guilds were abolished, and in 1865 complete freedom of trade re...