[ By: Ahrvid Engholm and Antti Lahelma ]

7.2.1 Geography, climate, vegetation

Sweden occupies the Eastern part of the Scandinavian peninsula. It's a long
(1572 kilometers) and rather narrow country, and the largest of the Nordic
countries. It shares a long border with Norway to the west and a shorter
border with Finland in the east; Denmark lies to the south across the Danish
straits, over one of which (Öresund) a huge bridge is being built. The
Baltic Sea islands of Gotland and Öland are integral parts of Sweden.

Northwestern Sweden is crossed by an ancient mountain chain; the remainder
of the north is a southeast-sloping plateau that rises to between 200 and
500 meters. South of the Norrland, forming the region of Svealand in central
Sweden and Götaland farther south, is a varied region of plains and rift
valleys. (The region Götaland should strictly speeking not be used for more
than the provinces Dalsland, Västergötland and Östergötland, but most often
also Bohuslän, Halland, Småland, Skåne and Bleking are understood as
provinces of Götaland, as they are incorporated in the Swedish realm after
being captured in the 17th century.) To the north of the highlands is the
Central Swedish Depression, a down-faulted, lake-strewn lowland extending
across the peninsula from near Göteborg to east of Stockholm and Uppsala. To
the south is Skåne, a low-lying, predominantly agricultural area.

Because of it's large area and latitudinal extent, Sweden has a number of
climate regimes. A cold, maritime climate dominates the country's west
coast. The northern two-thirds of the country has a continental climate
marked by severe winters. The south central areas experience the long,
rather cold winters of the north, but they enjoy milder summers. The
mountain regions remain cool in summer. In January temperatures average
-0.8°C at Lund in the south), -2.8°C at Stockholm, and -13.7°C at Jokkmokk
north of the the Arctic Circle. In July, the temperature variation is lower
because of the sun shines the longer the further north one goes: 15°C at
Jokkmokk, 18°C at Stockholm, and only 17°C at Lund. Snow remains on the
ground for 40 days in southernmost Sweden, 100 days in the Stockholm area,
and 250 days in the northwest mountains.

Forest covers ca. 64% of the land area. It consists of a summer-green forest
of beeches, oaks, and other deciduous trees in the south, a mixed forest of
deciduous and coniferous trees in central Sweden, and a predominantly
coniferous forest of mainly pines and spruce in the north. Mountain birch
and dwarf birch grow in colder upland areas, and tundra covers the highest
elevations. Treeless moors (peat moss and marshland) cover more than 14% of
all Sweden and as much as 40% in western areas of the south and parts of
Norrland. Bears, wolves and lynxes are now found only in isolated woodlands,
elk and deer are the common large animals found elsewhere.



7.2.2 Economy

Sweden's most valuable assets are forests, mines (especially iron, but
copper has also been important), and in modern days hydroelectric power. The
metallurgic industry was started in the 16th and 17th centuries, and through
the ages Sweden has been known as one of the biggest iron exporters in the
world. A mechanical industry came with the industrial revolution in the 19th
Century, and Swedish products such as steel (Sandvik), paper (SCA and
others), cars (Volvo and Saab), ball bearings (SKF), electrical equipment
(ASEA, now ABB), telephone equipment (Ericsson) have become well known.



7.2.3 Government

Sweden is a constitutional Monarchy, but the monarch only acts as a
ceremonial head of state. A parliament (Riksdag) composed of 349 members is
elected every four years; it elects the prime minister, passes laws, decides
on taxes and approves the state budget. The cabinet holds office only as
long as it retains the support of a majority in the Riksdag. The state
authorities are comparably independent of the cabinet: their highest
officials being appointed by the cabinet for six years, and usually the term
is extended unless serious problems occurred in the contact between the
authority and the ministry. There are four laws protected as constitutions:
Instrument of Government, Parliament Act, Succession Act, and the Freedom of
the Press Act.

The 286 municipalities are obliged to fulfill services to its inhabitants as
stipulated by law, but are independent to decide the means without
interference from state authorities. Municipalities are mainly responsible
for education and social service. Additionally there are likewisely
independent province councils responsible mainly for hospitals, medical
practioners and other health care.

The democratic councils for municipalities and provinces are elected by the
residents, regardless of citizenship, which in the most extreme cases means
that nearly 20% of them eligible to vote are aliens.

After the era of the Kalmar Union between Denmark and Sweden, king Gustaf
Vasa created a more modern nation and made Sweden Lutheran. After the losses
of territories 1718 and 1809 democratic reforms where made, but it lasted to
1921 until all adult citizens had the right to vote (for men: 1907), and
first 1971 the constitution was changed to reflect the long-time practice of
parliamentarism.

During the 1990:ies the state church is in the process of liberating itself
from the state, or maybe more accurate: the state is giving up its power
over the church, and the church will lose some of the authority connected to
its status as state church. A decreased number of members is to expect.

Sweden has not been involved in a war since 1814, mainly due to luck and a
strong policy of neutrality. This policy may shift as Sweden in January 1995
joined the European Union (but the future isn't very clear yet).

There are old proto-democratic traditions in Sweden. In the middle ages the
kings were elected for life by representatives of the different "landskaps".
Even when the monarchy was made hereditary after the Kalmar Union, the
elected estates at the Riksdag retained substantial power (though the king
sometimes managed to push this power back). These traditions played an
important role as modern democracy gradually took over in the 19th and early
20th centuries.

Two important political concepts emerge from Sweden: the ombudsman, a
representative elected by the parliament to watch public administrations and
with the power to prosecute, and the constitutional principle of official
documents ("offentlighetsprincipen" constituting a part of the Freedom of
the Press Act), which says that all governmental documents are a priori
public (unless declared secret under special laws).

Political forces

The principal political parties are

   * the Social Democratic party (led by the prime minister Göran Persson),
   * the "Moderata Samlingspartiet" (the rightest party with liberal policy
     but a conservative heritage; led by former prime minister Carl Bildt),
   * the Center party (with agrarian dominance and subsequently
     diminishing),
   * the (social) Liberal party "Folkpartiet",
   * the Christian Democratic party,
   * the Environmentalists The Green,
   * the Left (formerly the Communist) party, and
   * the populist "Ny Demokrati" (New Democracy - now committing suicide).

Beginning in the 1930s, the Social Democrats were the dominant party, their
position secured by economic prosperity and a broad program of social
welfare. In the 1970s and 1980s, however, dissatisfaction grew among the
voters over high taxes and a lagging economy. An anti-socialist coalition
governed from 1976 to 1982, and another one under Carl Bildt from 1991 to
1994, when Social Democrats under Carlsson again came to power. When in
trouble, as for the moment, the social democrats have a tradition to lean
against the Center party, with regular negotiations and agreements, but
without forming coalition cabinets.

In the last elections the results has been as follows:

          1973   1976   1979   1982   1985   1988   1991   1994
          -----------------------------------------------------
Left       5,3    4,8    5,6    5,6    5,4    5,8    4,5    6,2
Green                          (1,7)  (1,5)   5,5   (3,4)   5,0
Soc.dem.  43,6   42,7   43,2   45,6   44,7   43,2   37,7   45,3

soc.lib.   9,4   11,1   10,6    5,9   14,2   12,2    9,1    7,2
center    25,1   24,1   18,1   15,5   12,4   11,3    8,5    7,7
christ.                        (1,9)         (2,9)   7,1    4,1
Right     14,3   15,6   20,3   23,6   21,3   18,3   21,9   22,4
popul.                                               6,7   (1,2)
          -----------------------------------------------------
Blocks:
  left    48,9   47,5   48,8   51,2   50,1   54,5   42,2   56,5
  right   48,8   50,8   49,0   45,0   47,9   41,8   53,1   41,4

In parentheses: results below the 4,0% limit for representation.

Maybe due to the dominant position of the Social Democrats the politic life
in Sweden has been characterized by semi-rigid right and left blocks defined
as oppositional or supporters of the Social Democrats. During some periods
the Social Democrats have succeeded to cooperate with one of the right block
parties, as during 1996 with the Center Party, which the other parties have
seen as weakening of the opposition.

Account over municipal responsibilities

Approximately 50% of the municipal services are financed through direct
taxes, only 15% by direct fees, and about 20% as state contributions. (Don't
ask about the remaining 15% - the municipal trolls might change their
minds.) Totally 350 milliards SEK are used for municipal activities, and 170
milliards SEK for the province councils, of which nearly all goes to the
health care sector.

The main municipal expenditures are:

   * Primary and secondary education (21%),
   * caring for elderly (17%),
   * caring for children (11%),
   * support of disabled and poor (8%),
   * supply of ground and housing (10%),
   * supply of water, energy and garbage disposal (7%),
   * public transportations (4%), and
   * sport and leisure (4%).

[ Figures above for year 1993 ]

Account over state revenue

Approximately 550 milliards SEK are distributed by the state budget, of
which 75 milliards go straight to the municipalities and provinces as
subsidizes.

The rest is distributed on:
(memorizeable figures, in the range +/- 10% of exact figures)

   * 100 mill. National debt interest
   * 75 mill. pensions to aged and disabled
   * 75 mill. state consumption (defence, police, universities etc)
   * 75 mill. transfers to families, unemployed, diseased and others
   * 45 mill. transfers to private corporations
   * 30 mill. transfers to state enterprises
   * 15 mill. foreign aid

[ Figures above for the fiscal year 1993/94 ]



7.2.4 Population

The nation has its roots in the different kingdoms of the Viking Age, and is
said to have been created when the King of the Svenonians ("Svearna")
assumed kingship over Goths ("Götarna") as well in early middle ages. The
word Sweden ("Sverige" short for "Svea rike" in Swedish) comes from the
Svenonians ("Svearna"); "Sverige" means the realm of the Svenonians. The
English form of the name is probably derived from an old Germanic form,
Svetheod, meaning the Swedish people. In medieval times the Swedes also
pushed north to colonize the province now known as Norrland, and over the
Baltic Sea to conquer Finland.

Sweden has a relatively homogeneous population in ethnic stock, language,
and religion.

Because of the country's isolation only few non-Swedes have intermixed with
the Swedes before very recent times; the major groups that have done so were
Finns 1580-1660 and Walloons from present-day Belgium, who settled in the
Bergslagen area in the 1620s.

Groups that maintain their distinct ethnic identity today include a Finnish
minority on the border to Finland, about 15,000 Saami, and recent
immigrants.

Since 1987 the Tornedalen-Finnish, Saami languages and Romani have special
status as minority languages, and since 1993 the Saami minority elects a
representative assembly, the Saami Parliament, which however has limited
power. Constitutionally this assembly, despite its name, is less more than a
lobby organization with authority to distribute the funds the Swedish
government let it dispose.

In the furtest north geographical names make the Lappish heritage obvious.
The following words in Saami languages are usual:

 tjuolma= land between rivers,
 luokta = bay,
 jaure  = sea,
 jokk   = small river,
 kaise  = steep peak,
 tjåkkå = blunt peak,
 vare   = fjeld mountain,
 tuottar= fjeld plain (without trees).

12% of the population are 1:st generation immigrants:
from the Baltic countries (1944); Hungary (1956); Yugoslavia, Greece, and
Turkey (in the 1960s and '70s), Czechoslovakia (1968), Chile (1973), Iran
and Iraq (in the 1980s), Palestina/Lebanon, and recently arrived refugees
from the civil wars in Yugoslavia. A third of the immigrants (4,4%) has
arrived from the neighboring countries Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany and
Poland.

Today about half of the immigrants have Swedish citizenship.



7.2.5 The Swedish language

Swedish is a Germanic language, very closely related to Danish and Norwegian
(most Swedes can understand Danish and Norwegian), and somewhat less close
to Icelandic, German, Dutch and English. There are many words borrowed from
German, French (18th Century) and English (later). Except for in Sweden,
Swedish is spoken by a native minority in Finland, and a nowadays very small
minority at the Estonian coast and islands.

Peculiar with the Swedish language is that there exist not only one, but at
least four hight status dialects (and sociolects): One southern, connected
with Scania and the University in Lund, one western spoken by affluent
people in and around Gothenburg/Göteborg, one eastern valid in Finland (for
instance on stage in Helsinki/Helsingfors), and finally the sociolect spoken
by higher officials, actors and others in the capital, which serves as high
status standard for the rest of Sweden, connected with the University in
Uppsala. Besides there exist at least a dozen of still distinguishable
dialects, or dialect groups, but after the breakthrough for radio and TV
these dialects have been heavily influented by the equalizing effect of the
broadcasting media. (A recent unsolved dispute in the newsgroup was whether
the Scanian dialects rightfully is to classify as East-Danish together with
the dialect on Bornholm, or with the dialects of Götaland i.e. in Göteborg,
Småland and Östergötland.)

For non-Nordics who attempt to learn the Swedish language, the pronunciation
might seem rather difficult, since Swedish (at least the "standard" variety
of it spoken in Sweden) has several unusual vowels and consonants, e.g.
retroflexed dentals and the "sj"-sound in sjuk "sick" which are not found in
other European languages. Distinct word tones also characterize certain
elements of its vocabulary, for which reason acquisition of a good Swedish
pronunciation requires a considerable amount of commitment and work. The
serious student of Swedish also has to learn to deal with regional varieties
such as Scanian and Finland-Swedish, both of which differ sharply in
pronunciation from the Stockholm-area oriented standard "broadcast" Swedish.

Erland Sommarskog <sommar@algonet.se> replies:
To be fair, dialects of Swedish are not worse than say of Italian.
- Or for that matter, English.

You don't need to bother about the "sj" in "sjuk". While as noted above,
this is a strange creature, it is also subject to huge variation, and if you
get in conversation with some Swedes you might find that every one is
pronouncing the sound differently - even that the same person is chosing
different realiasations on different occassions. Phonemically you would
write them all /S/, you can use the sound for "sh" in "shoe" without being
particularly wrong. You will then have to learn to distinguish this alevoar
fricative from the palatal fricative in "tjuv" - then again, there are
Swedes who don't.

From my experience the retroflexes does not cause much problems either. Odd
as they are, foreigners seem to pick them up quite easily. And, again, it is
possible to avoid them. They arise when 'r' is followed by 's', 'n', 'd',
't' and 'l', but several dialects pronounce them separately. And while in
Sweden this is dialects have an uvular or velar 'r', I know people who speak
with a front 'r' and yet do not use retroflexes without having any
Finland-Swedish ancestry at all. How this has come about I don't know, but
I'm suspecting these individuals to have abandoned their original dialect
for an over-correct standard Swedish.

There are nevertheless some difficult sound in Swedish. 'u' as in "kul" is a
rounded semi-high front vowel which has few equals. To a foreigner it might
seem close to 'y' which is a rounded high front vowel, but I can assure you
to a Swede they are most definitely not.

Then again, I once spoke with a British gentleman who said "Sturegatan". His
'u' was perfect, but the first 'a' in "gatan" revealed him directly. To wit,
the 'a' is the same as in "father" but with slightly different colour.

Anyway, Swedish pronouciation is probably difficult because it is so
irregular. Not so bad as English, but bad enough. One thing we are
particularly fond of are homographs, that is words with the same spelling
but different pronounciation: "vän", "kort", "hov", "vits", "hänger".



7.2.6 Culture

Swedes work hard, pay high taxes, try to be open minded to other cultures
(there is much immigration, which most people seem to accept), enjoy their
traditions (around Christmas and Midsummer, for instance), but it is not
true we should be among the heaviest drinkers in the world. Statistics in
the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet January 7th 1995 shows Swedish alcohol
consumption to be on only 21st place among a selection of the industrialized
nations, with 6.1 (100% pure) liters of alcohol/year (after most Western
European countries and USA). On the other hand we do (most of us do) still
follow our old custom to drink only occasionally, but then with the goal to
get drunk. [ For further information, see the article in part 2 about Nordic
alcohol customs. ]

Swedes take pride in making the society friendly to children and their
parents including long government-paid maternal leaves, subsidized
pre-schools and municipal investments for sport and leisure-time activities.
Swedish women have one of the highest fertility rates in the industrialized
world, giving birth to 1.97 child each, and the highest rate of breast
feeding.

In the same intention to make the society friendly and to lighten the lives
of its members, Sweden has also put certain effort into making public
buildings, and also ordinary tenement houses, available for wheel chairs.

The nature, the big woods and the mountains, have a particular place in the
hearts of the Swedes. The General Right to Public Access ("Allemansrätten")
is unique for the Scandinavian countries, and the most important base for
outdoor recreation, providing the possibility for each and everyone to visit
non-cultivated land, to take a bath in seas, and to pick the wild flowers,
berries and mushrooms.

The religious rites as baptizing, confirmation, marriage and funeral are
deeply rooted in the culture, although only a small minority participate in
ordinary mass. Despite the fact that the Swedes have honored the old
Germanic tradition that the people follow the religion of the king, and
subsequently all Swedes were obliged to communion long into the 19:th
century and to membership in the state church long into the 20:th century,
it can also be noted that Swedes belong to the most secularized people in
the world.

The church, and its services, are felt more as a cultural heritage, than as
a religious. As for instance at 1:st Sunday in Advent and at Christmas Eve -
the two days at the year when the churches are filled.

Science and technology also play an important role in the modern Swedish
society. Private companies fund substantial research and development, and
also the government funds research at the universities. Examples are the JAS
Gripen fighter project, and the information technology strategies put forth
by the Bildt (1991-1994) government. (The following cabinets, led by Ingvar
Carlsson and Göran Persson have been less enthusiastic about these
projects.)

Leading cultural institutions (in Stockholm) are the Swedish Royal Opera;
the Royal Dramatic Theater; the National Touring Theater; and the Swedish
Academy, which awards the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Literature is important in Swedish culture. Authors like August Strindberg
(1849-1912), Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) who wrote Gösta Berlings Saga
(awarded with the Nobel Prize) and Astrid Lindgren (1907-) are among the
best known. At the previous century shift public libraries were organized by
different organizations in nearby every village with a church or a school.
Most of them still remain, but now run by the municipalities. A curious
detail is that most Swedes probably would not count authors as Edith
Södergran and Tove Jansson as Swedish authors, despite the fact that they
have written in Swedish - their mother tongue.

There aren't many internationally known Swedish composers, but Swedes have
an ancient fondness for ballads and troubadours (Carl Michael Bellman
(1740-1795) is dearly loved by Swedes), and in the later days Swedish pop
and rock groups have reached international fame (e.g ABBA, Army of Lovers,
Roxette, Ace of Base, etc).

Of the many immigrants very few have yet become popular cultural
personalities. Maybe with exception of the poet Theodor Kalifatides and
Finland-Swedish actors, as Stina Ekblad, Jörn Donner, Birgitta Ulfsson and
Lasse Pöisti. Promising is however how a lot of new Swedish rock bands come
from suburbs with immigrant majorities, and how some of the most popular
rock and pop artists are immigrants, as for instance dr. Alban.

Sweden also has a strong movie tradition, already from the days of the
silent movies, people such as Victor Sjöström (1879-1960), known in the
United States as Victor Seastrom, and Mauritz Stiller (1883-1928). The
director Ingmar Bergman (1918-) is world-famous and actors like Ingrid
Bergman (1915-1982) and Greta Garbo (1905-1990) have played in several of
the classics of the movie history.

Various sports are popular in Sweden, especially team sports like soccer and
ice hockey, but also for example tennis and table-tennis, outdoor activities
like skiing and orienteering.



7.2.7 local democratic traditions

If Swedes aren't proud of the violent past with vikings, wars and conquers
then instead the long and strong democratic tradition is a very important
part of the cultural heritage.

To trace this tradition is almost impossible, since already in the first
written laws (from the 1220:ies) it seems obvious that the customs are
timehonored. Villages had had time at least since the Iron age to develop
traditions. To distinguish Sweden's conditions compared to Finland, Denmark
or the European continent is also hard but a few differences are obvious.

While solitarily living families have been more important in parts of
Finland, villages and works are the most prominent communities in Sweden.
The Danish tradition is influenced by feudalism and the absence of woods and
works. Fishing villages have been of the greatest importance on the long
Norwegian coast and on the many Danish islands. These societal differences
are usable when one tries to analyze the differences between "national
characters" - still one must remember the resemblance is more prominent than
the differences.

Scandinavia and Finland has had only a rudimentary feudal system. Most land
has been owned by commoners paying taxes to the king and without being
directs subordinates to any lords. The great forests has made it hard for
the lords to pester and punish the commoners.

In Sweden the villages were left to rule themselves without any superior to
interfere. Each villages had, until the 19:th century, one fenced field
precisely marked in shares for each property. (On the rich plains some
villages had two or even three fenced fields where the crops were changed
systematically, but in these cases each farm had property on each field.)

Outside of the fence the cattle had to graze between sowing and harvest. The
farmers were responsible for one part each of the fence. The fence was the
most important subject the villagers had to cooperate about, but as the
field was organized it was also practically and often necessary to do the
work coordinated on the same days. The village meeting had to discuss and
decide about this, but also about the use of woods, fishing water, common
roads, boats and herding.

The village meeting was however not for crofters or other poor. Instead it
often regulated how many lodgers the village could feed, forcing people to
move.

The main rule was, that changes in the statues for a villages were to be
accepted by all farmers unanimous. The statues could however stipulate that
other decisions were to be made by a majority. Unanimity was however the
basic rule for how decisions were to be made at meetings in villages and
parishes.

This tradition of unanimous decisions must have contributed to the Swedish
custom of adjustment of ones attitudes to the perceived majority. Unanimous
decisions demand a high degree of compromises from the individuals.

The pre-Christian culture was a tribe culture like many other of the
pre-Christian cultures among the indo-Europeans. The members of a tribe were
obliged to avenge injuries against their dead and mutilated relatives. A
balancing structure is necessary to hinder tribe fights to lead to society
destructing anarchy. In the North-Germanic cultures the balancing
institution was the Thing ("ting"). The thing was the assembly of the free
men in an area, as in a hundred ("härad") or in a province / county
("landskap"), at which disputes were solved and political decisions were
made. Before Christianity chieftains where at the same time political and
religious leaders, with the main purpose to bring the people good times
("fred" - nowadays actually the word for peace). The place for the Thing
("tingsplats") was often also the place for public religious rites, and
sometimes the place for commerce.

In case of bad times the people could sacrifice their leader (literally!),
or maybe less violently select another leader. As the Christian missionaries
then convinced the most respected among the viking magnates, an abyss opened
between the ordinary agrarian people an their converted magnates; and the
old order was disrupted.

Free peasants who were used to participate in the decision making in the
village, in the province and in the realm did not easily accept to be left
unquestioned when the Svea kingdom expanded.

The Engelbrecht rebellion is probably the best picture we can get of how
kings had been elected in older times. Engelbrecht was elected to captain
for Dalarna where he and the people had promised each other allegiance, then
he went to Västmanland, where the people summoned to the "tingsplats"
expressed their support and allegiance, then to Uppland where Engelbrecht
and the people promised each other allegiance, then to Östergötland, where
the procedure was repeated, and then to Västergötland where he was honored
by the people, then to Halland (the part which at that time was identified
with Götaland and Sweden). All this occurred in the end of the summer 1434.
In January 1435 a diet appointed Engelbrecht as captain for the Swedish
realm, and as such he that year negotiated with the union-king - with poor
result. In response to demands from the country a new diet was summoned in
1436 where Engelbrecht was elected king. As king he requested the people in
Stockholm to swear allegiance. The Stockholmians had to choose between a
battle and a new king, and accepted the new king.

During the 16th century a lot of land was taken by the state from parishes
and convents. These lands were then often transferred to the nobility,
particularly from 1567 to 1680, which had important consequences for the
peasants. Tenant farmers on state property could be forced to do extra work
in addition to the law-regulated taxes, which was a less favorable situation
than for farmers owning their own land, but farmers on land sold/given to
nobel masters had additionally lost their right to participation in the
elections of peasant representatives at the diets.

Works (bruksorter) is the contrasting element, organized in much as a
manorial estate, where the owner had the duty to act as a good master in a
strictly hierarchical household. The works was a closed society, taking
responsibility for the people living there from the cradle to the grave.
United the people could express their wishes and propositions, and a wise
master would not act against the best of the people. But the power was his.

The rules of order at democratic meetings got changed in the 19:th century.
The villages were split, many farmers' houses were moved away from the
village, each farm got it's field separated from the others, and the village
meeting became obsolete. The traditions from the higher assemblies, where
the majority ruled, were found fit for the parishes also, particularly when
these came to grow due to the urbanization. With the Free Churches, the
Temperance movement and the workers unions foreign influences were added to
the old traditions.

Today fairness and equality are important parts of the order at a meeting.
The word is given to speakers in the order they have asked for it, no-one is
to be unfairly favored. The assembly and the chair are not supposed to
interrupt the speaker, unless he/she breaks any decided rules (as a time
limit) or humiliates others. All who wish to speak are entitled to do so
prior to the voting, all are entitled to put propositions forward, all
propositions are to be equally handled (almost!), and in case of the
majority taking a position one feel impossible to take responsibility for,
then all are entitled to get ones dissentient opinions taken to the records.

But still traces of the unanimity tradition is visible in the attitude that
people who suspect they belong to a minority should better not utter their
opinion - to the best of all - in order to reinforce the feeling of unity
and unanimity. ...and after a decision all participants are expected to
advocate the opinion of the majority - whatever they thought before.

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