The discourse on universal basic income varies widely across countries. In Sweden, public opinion is generally negative even in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is barely discussed on the public policy table. On the other hand, in South Korea, public opinion is not as negative as in Sweden, and basic income is actively raised as policy agenda. Our study based on survey results reaffirmed the contrasting attitudes of the Swedish and Suth Korean people regarding basic income and related tax increase. The basic income could appeal to the people in South Korea. On the contrary, there is little room for the introduction of basic income in Sweden. The analysis also revealed similarities within the difference. Those with high income, political-right orientation, high protection against income loss, and high tax burden would be more unfavourable toward introduction of basic income no matter which country they live in.

The nature of the Swedish model was scrutinized and explored to search for implication for reforming the Korean politics or any similar states confronting with social conflicts, disharmony, and political inefficiency. Coprehensive reform packages including creative destruction is argued to be nessarsary for any country suffering from political stalemate and unrest to overcome.  

The Swedish elections in 2022 made international headlines first because of the breakthrough of the Swedish Democrat. This far-right populist party is now the second largest party, but also because of the 3 per cent drop in the 2022 elections compared to the previous parliamentary election of 2018. Voter turnout is a strong indicator of functional democracy and essential for the legitimacy of the democratic system. Therefore, from a normative perspective, a small drop should be the cause of concern. The article, therefore, aims to explain this surprising drop. By relying on descriptive and exploratory statistics, our preliminary analysis confirms in times of crises, turnout became lower because of the negative impact of uncertainty and degenerated life conditions.

2022년 스웨덴 총선은 우선 스웨덴 민주당(Sweden Democrat)의 약진으로 인해 국제 뉴스의 헤드라인을 장식했다. 이 극우 포퓰리즘 정당은 현재 스웨덴에서 두 번째로 큰 정당이다. 이번 선거는 또한 지난 2018년 총선에 비해 투표율이 3 퍼센트 하락한 사실로 인해 큰 주목을 받았다. 유권자 투표율은 원활하게 기능하는 민주주의의 강한 지표이며, 민주주의 시스템의 정당성을 위해서도 본질적으로 중요하다. 그러므로 규범적 관점에서 볼 때 작은 투표율 하락도 근심의 원인이 되어야 한다. 이 논문은 이런 맥락에서 이번 스웨덴 총선의 갑작스러운 투표율 하락을 설명하고자 한다. 묘사적(descriptive) 및 설명적 통계를 바탕으로 한 우리의 예비적 분석은 위기의 시대 속 불확실성과 후퇴하는 삶의 조건 때문에 투표율이 낮아졌음을 확인한다.

Synen på lobbyism är kluven mellan olika samhällsgrupper. Artikelns huvudhypotes om att de högutbildade skulle vara mer positiva till lobbyismen är grundad på Immanuel Kants och moderniseringsskolans definition av upplysning. Denna studie använder sig av frågor avsedda för mätning av inställning till lobbyism. Analysen stödjer hypotesen om sambandet mellan utbildningoch lobbyism. Moderniseringsskolans hypotes om utbildningens positiva effekt på inställning till lobbyism får därmed stöd av resultaten. Studien visar att den positiva synen på lobbyism är vanligare hos personer med hög utbildning än den motsatta gruppen, men skillnaden är dock intesubstantiell. Tidigare forskning som påstår att det föreligger ett negativt samband mellan förtroende för lobbyister och utbildningsnivå måste ifrågasättas. Moderniseringsskolans tes är avsedd för inställning till lobbyism som kommunikationskanal och inte för förtroende för professionella lobbyister som en yrkesgrupp. Mer teoretiskt och metodologiskt förankradforskning kan ge oss mer fördjupade förståelser av lobbyismens roll och dess betydelse i ett pluralistiskt samhälle. Moderniseringsskolans- och Kants begrepp om förstånd och upplysning bör omprövas med nya empiriska material av ex-politikers lobbyistverksamheter och deras moral för demokratins funktionssätt.  

Trust in the Swedish election management body (EMB) was explored in the article. Popular trust for the EMB has been stabilized and placed at top level during the recent years. This study confirms that the the high level of trust has played one of the key roles in maintaing the high quality of democratic standards in Sweden.

Free and fair election is one of the key democratic institutions for building and maintaining legitimacy of the representative democracy. Despite its theoretical and methodological significance in explaining democratic performance of the representative democracies, scholarly research on the free and fair election as well as functions of the electoral management bodies has seldom drawn attentions for comparative studies. Malfunctions and technical errors detected in the process of voting and counting in the US Presidential election in 2000 triggered both political and academic interests in the study of fair electoral management. Korea is no exception. The political discord and party strife surrounding the involvement of the National Intelligence Service and Defence Security Command have drawn academic attention on the study of free and fair election and the role of the electoral management bodies. Despite magnified quantity and attention internationally and locally, both the scope of and depth in comparative research have been extremely restricted arguably due to the lack of clear conceptualization and methodological tools in the measurement of free and fair election as well as the role of electoral management bodies. This study attempts to fill this gap. Defining and measuring tool of the 11-steps free and fair election as well as the role of election management bodies can be regarded as a proper indicator for assessing the quality of election which is believed to have a useful role in the study of measuring performance of the democratic function. Broader research with national and international empirical data based on interviews with not only experts and voters but also polling workers, party candidates, party workers and journalists seems to be of great use for further development of methodological tool to enhance the theoretical capacity of the role of the electoral management bodies as a necessary and sufficient condition for achieving high performance of the procedural and electoral democracies.

This study identifies critical evidences of condition for good society containing common characteristics of low level of conflict, high level of quality of life and social inclusion. The Swedish experience in prevention and resolution of social conflicts provides a good example for modeling explanatory variables and patterns of consensus building as a precedent variable is argued to be relevant for explaining patterns of good society. The model is broadly approved by correlation and OLS regression study. The premise on social conflict and cohesion as proxy variable of good society seems to be clarified by empirical data.

The nature of social cleavages were explored in the book as a comparative study of three nations. The patterns of social cleavage were used as explanatory variables for salience of political party system in Korea, Japan and the United Kingdom. 

Conditions for measuring free and fair elections were explored. This article was based on a doctoral dissertation of Yonhyok Choe titled "How to Manage Free and Fair Elections: A comparison of Korea, Sweden and the United Kingdom". Electoral irregularities that occur during three election stages e.g. pre-election, mid-election and post-election period were treated as indicators for measuring free and fair elections.