Central Intelligence Agency

“ The workers on occasion have tried to highlight their grievances by resorting to brief strikes, gathering petitions, engaging in slowdowns, and passively resisting exhortations for more production. While not a threat to the regime in themselves, these grievances are taken seriously by the leadership. The Polish riots of December 1970 are a vivid reminder of what happens when the government and party lose touch with the workers. ”

“ Despite the existence of a parliamentary committee of foreign affairs, there is no true foreign policy debate in the Western sense, nor does the governmental apparatus as a whole play a role in the formulation of policy. As a result, the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs in Poland has been intrinsically no more important than is the case in most other Communist countries. Whatever prestige has accrued to the incumbent at any one time has generally been the result of his being simultaneously a member of the party Politburo rather than from his ministerial portfolio. ”

“ High taxes and inflation have plagued the Palme government, but thus far it has avoided a crisis by accepting the support of the Communist Party, in order to muster a majority over the bourgeois opposition.
Like its neighbors, with whom, in the Nordic Council, it has totally integrated its social policy. Sweden is committed to creating a social democracy in order to redistribute the national wealth and achieve social and economic security for all its citizens. An all pervasive welfare system has virtually eliminated individual privation. ”

“ The question of race relations in the United States also continues to pique the interest of the moralistic but remarkably homogenous Danish society. Like their Swedish neighbors, they are prone to compare their own limited, but honorable and compassionate historic treatment of negroes with the continuing problems in US race relations. The black population of Denmark is so infinitesimal that it defies measurement as a proportion, but every Danish schoolchild learns with pride that Denmark, in 1792, was "the first country in the world to forbid slave trading." ”

“ Throughout the fifties, the will to resist by segments of the population had been undermined by the regime's coercive tactics, the threat of Soviet intervention to crush any uprising, the flight of potential resistance leaders to the West, and a sense of abandonment by the West which had remained aloof during the East Berlin riots in 1953 and the erection of the Wall in 1961.
The passing of the years and the maturation of a generation born under Communist rule is a major factor in the accommodation of the population to the demands of the regime ”

“ While the ever mounting taxes are hardest on the large middle class, they are needed to finance the comprehensive but still expanding social welfare system. Already one of the most pervasive and generous in the world, and social policy of the government ranges over a broad field, including social insurance, comprehensive health care programs, family and child welfare, public relief, and labor placement and protection. ”

“ Traditional Polish nationalism reappeared everywhere, although with less romanticism and tempered with the realization of postwar Poland's vulnerable geopolitical position; Polish Catholicism revealed itself to have been strengthened by persecution; the individualism of the Polish peasant reasserted itself with a new determination born of his experience with collectivization; the social democratic bent of the workers and the intellectuals appeared reinforced by the years of disillusionment with Communism's "dictatorship of the proletariat" ”

“ The Danish Government is a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy that scrupulously respects the citizen's personal rights and liberties. The Kingdom of Denmark is in fact governed by a Prime Minister and his Cabinet, who are responsible to a unicameral parliament, the Folketing. ”

“ The greater prosperity and stability of West German remained an obsessive attraction to the East Germans - particularly the trained and the educated - who continued to flee to the West in large numbers. By the early 1960s it had become apparent to the leadership that it could not consolidate control over the political and economic system as long as some of the nation's most valuable workers "voted with their feet" and moved west. ”

“ In order to control inflation, while trying to achieve virtually full employment, the government continues to emphasize industrial expansion. Although the private sector still accounts for over 90% of the industrial output, government planners make their influence felt by channeling public investment into areas which contribute directly to achieving the national goals of full employment and industrial growth - construction, transportation, communications, and the development of hydroelectric and nuclear power facilities. ”

“ Thus, the basic principles of Polish national policies in the early 1970s reflect considerable - in most instances total - autonomy in domestic affairs, guided by pragmatic considerations, and a strong commitment to the Polish-Soviet alliance in terms of mutual support for common foreign policy objectives. It is clear that in their general nature, these policy principles are close to, if not identical with, those prevailing during the Gomulka era. But, as Gierek's reforms already suggest, he is intent on fully utilizing the room for maneuver which these principles furnish. ”

“ Europe In the post-World War II period the Danes have shown some ambivalence in their relationship to their fellow Europeans. A politically and economically unified Europe is an enticing prospect, and yet for small, proud, prosperous Denmark the practical consequences of being part of such a Goliath are a cause for some doubt. For the Danes European economic integration is more attractive than political union, for Denmark must trade to live. ”

“ The public, insured to viewing the Communist electoral process in this light, thus considers participation in the process as a perfunctory fulfillment of a civic duty and not as a means of making known its opinions on the issues facing the country or electing its leaders accordingly. ”

“ Although the Constitution contains no formal bill of rights, traditional Swedish respect for individual rights and liberty is given effective expression in ordinary law and practice. The Constitution guarantees due process of law, the protection of private property, the inviolability of the home, and freedom of conscience and religion. The right of petition and freedom of speech and organization are not explicitly defined in the fundamental laws or in single pieces of legislation, but these principles are consistently observed in practice. ”

“ The revolution imposed by the Communists has restratified the society and abolished or brought under Communist control all traditional German institutions capable of commanding a separate loyalty from East Germans or linking them with their countrymen in the West. Using the Soviet Union as their model, East Germany's Communist leaders have established a political and social order which has its primary goals the perpetuation of one-party rule by the Communists and the establishment of even closer links with the Soviet Union, the principal guarantor of the GDR's durability and stability. ”

“ Even the bourgeois parties, when in power, have felt the need to maintain a forward thrust on all sections of the domestic front, tailoring their foreign concerns to the maintenance of economic progress at home. By the early 1970s, however, such continued momentum was becoming difficult to sustain. The essential long term balance between socialization and the continued stimulation of private economic initiative - a balance which most observers of the scene consider the cornerstone of the markedly successful Scandinavian development - seemed in mid-1973 to be in some jeopardy. ”

“ Sweden is a constitutional monarchy with a democratic, responsible, parliamentary system of centralized government, based on universal suffrage. Although the focus of power is in the unicameral legislative branch, the executive, i.e., the Council of State acting in the King's name, retains more authority than is usual in such systems. The judiciary is free and independent, but its authority is less important than that of the other branches, primarily because it lacks the right of judicial review of legislation. ”