AS AN ITALIAN living in Sweden, I am accustomed to being surprised by the many ways that Sweden is different-not just from Italy, but from its own reputation as an exceptionally virtuous country and a model society. This double estrangement is especially dismaying during this public health crisis.
By letting its citizens live their lives mostly as usual, the Swedish government’s soft, noninterventionist approach to the pandemic has challenged the paths undertaken by other countries and the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). Sweden has decided to go lagom-a Swedish word that means “just right,” neither too much nor too little. Few restrictions have been imposed; people are mostly asked to keep clean and physically distant. Sweden has also decided not to track the disease’s spread, and its testing lags far behind other countries. This may be a realistic choice in anticipation of a lockdown that would be unsustainable for people and for the economy, but it still feels odd. The “right” response to the pandemic has been elusive, but different local approaches do say something about our conceptions of politics and society-about our ideas of life and attachments and the links between private values and public choices.
Despite the disagreement among analysts and foreign media on its appropriateness, both explain Sweden’s soft way of managing COVID-19 as a reflection of Nordic individualism, as well as trust in institutions and in fellow citizens. People will do the right thing out of a sense of responsibility, it is thought. They do not need to be coerced into a lockdown because they can be trusted to act properly. Yet crowded streets and bustling play parks may tell a different story.