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I don't see how the Swedish king's opinion on this has any more weight than asking a random person on the street.

by ginko 6y ago

the_mitsuhiko 6y ago
Doesn’t matter insofar as that the opinion of the king appears to be shared among Swedes.
davrosthedalek 6y ago
I'm not defending Monarchy in any way, but it's his job to care about the Swedish populace. That he hasn't been elected to this position doesn't mean that he does not fulfill his job, so I would assume that at least he is better informed than the random person on the street.
- prox 6y ago
  He is technically the head of state, which means that he probably speaks for the government in some way or form.
  - robert_foss 6y ago
    Nah, he's detached from the Government and has no formal power at all. He is however a very public person, and pretty much never offers any dissenting views from the government.
  - gspr 6y ago
    > He is technically the head of state, which means that he probably speaks for the government in some way or form. That would be the job of the head of government, i.e. PM Löfven in this case.
    - prox 6y ago
      Ah ok! So they are politically separate.
RobertoG 6y ago
A king is normally the head of state (1), so it would be the equivalent to the president of a country denouncing the the strategy of the government (and with it criticizing the head of government). The main difference between a king and a president is that, with a president, if he/she is corrupt or incompetent you can remove it. With a monarch your are stuck for life. In my opinion, the greatest virtue of democracy is not the power to choose who govern you, but the power to remove it from power peacefully. Historically that is pretty remarkable. Of course, in the case of Sweden, the king has a very limited power. The point is, it's not a random person. (1) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Sweden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Sweden
tinus_hn 6y ago
A difference is that when asked loaded questions like this reported did, he can’t just not answer. ‘People died because of this policy’ what is he going to say? He’s not going to go into some statistics debate to show another point of view, he’s going to say that yes, that’s terrible.

I don't see how the Swedish king's opinion on this has any more weight than asking a random person on the street.

by ginko 6y ago

I don't see how the Swedish king's opinion on this has any more weight than asking a random person on the street.

the_mitsuhiko 6y ago

Doesn’t matter insofar as that the opinion of the king appears to be shared among Swedes.

davrosthedalek 6y ago

I'm not defending Monarchy in any way, but it's his job to care about the Swedish populace. That he hasn't been elected to this position doesn't mean that he does not fulfill his job, so I would assume that at least he is better informed than the random person on the street.

prox 6y ago
He is technically the head of state, which means that he probably speaks for the government in some way or form.
- robert_foss 6y ago
  Nah, he's detached from the Government and has no formal power at all. He is however a very public person, and pretty much never offers any dissenting views from the government.
- gspr 6y ago
  > He is technically the head of state, which means that he probably speaks for the government in some way or form. That would be the job of the head of government, i.e. PM Löfven in this case.
  - prox 6y ago
    Ah ok! So they are politically separate.

RobertoG 6y ago

A king is normally the head of state (1), so it would be the equivalent to the president of a country denouncing the the strategy of the government (and with it criticizing the head of government). The main difference between a king and a president is that, with a president, if he/she is corrupt or incompetent you can remove it. With a monarch your are stuck for life. In my opinion, the greatest virtue of democracy is not the power to choose who govern you, but the power to remove it from power peacefully. Historically that is pretty remarkable. Of course, in the case of Sweden, the king has a very limited power. The point is, it's not a random person. (1) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Sweden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Sweden

tinus_hn 6y ago

A difference is that when asked loaded questions like this reported did, he can’t just not answer. ‘People died because of this policy’ what is he going to say? He’s not going to go into some statistics debate to show another point of view, he’s going to say that yes, that’s terrible.