Lika för alla?

Abstract

[Equal for all?] Ahead of the Swedish general election in 2018, the right-wing Moderate Party unveiled their campaign slogan “Equal for all”, which surprised many, even within their own party, because of its evocation of social equality – an idea more often associated with the political left. However, in this article, Christian Gerdov shows how it soon became evident that social equality was not what they had in mind, but rather the liberal notion of equality in freedom, and equality before the law. Moreover, the emphasis lay in duties – above all the duty to work. Social rights, which came to the fore after the Second World War, have been substituted by the neoliberal notion of freedom of choice, where the citizen is transformed into a self-realizing entrepreneur. Furthermore, the universal subject in the slogan refers to a specific citizen subject, which emphasizes Swedishness in contrast to the Other and their threatening otherness. The slogan is therefore reminiscent of Orwellian newspeak where all are proclaimed as equals, but some are more equal than others. Publication history: Published original. (Published 28 May 2019) Citation: Gerdov, Christian (2019) “Lika för alla?”, in Arkiv. Tidskrift för samhällsanalys , issue 10, pp. 71–86. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13068/2000-6217.10.3