The Swedish Parliamentary Parties' Stance on Democratic Defence : Is Democracy Worth Defending and to What Extent Are They Prepared to Defend Taiwan's Democracy?

Abstract: This study has used the method of conversational interviews and content analysis to examine how the government and the Swedish parliamentary parties view the state of democracy and to what extent democracy should be defended when under attack. The paper has analysed the government's statement of foreign policies from 2012 to 2023 and interviewed at least one member of the Parliament from each parliamentary party to understand where the party stands on the issue of defending democracy. The study has addressed the following research question: “How do the Swedish parliament parties view the state of democracy around the world and what is the parliamentary parties' opinion on the case of Taiwanese democracy, should it be defended?” The results of the analysis show that the parliamentary parties support democracies around the world and contribute to defending democracies that are attacked, like in the case of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In the case of defending Taiwan, three parties stood out and are prepared to go the furthest to defend Taiwan in case of an invasion from China. The Liberal Party was prepared to go the furthest and suggested selling weapons to Taiwan and other democracies as well as deepening the bilateral cooperation with Taiwan. The Sweden Democrats, Center Party, Left Party, and Moderate Party want to deepen the relations with Taiwan and open a ’House of Sweden’ in Taipei. Still, all the parties and the statements of foreign policies express support to continue the ‘one-China’ policy whatsoever. The fact that all the parties answered that democracy is worth defending at any cost and we should help democracies that are under attack from non-democratic states showed that all parties agree to support and promote democracy is of the highest importance. However, there were ambiguous or unclear answers from most of the parties on the issue of supporting Taiwan, which is one of the most democratic countries in the world. Leaving me to the conclusion that democratic backsliding occurs when democracies do not support or recognize other democracies – allowing authoritarian states like China to influence Sweden's foreign policy.