IF POLICIES were commodities, Sweden would have a large surplus on its trade balance. This small nation of 9m people has already exported to Britain active labour market policies, a model for universal childcare, and a merged prison and probation service. A ban on smacking children, pioneered by the Swedes in 1979 and successfully sold to 11 other European countries, was, after a struggle, voted down by the House of Lords in July. None of these policies, though, is being marketed so aggressively as Sweden's policy of outlawing the purchase of sex.
That Sweden should have developed Europe's toughest prostitution policies is odd, because the country used to be known for its liberal attitude to abortion, co-habitation and sex education. The law was changed in 1999, after ministers became convinced that the sex trade was upsetting the balance of power between the sexes. As Lise Bergh, state secretary for gender equality, explains: “We have come to see men's purchasing of women as a form of violence. It has nothing to do with sexuality.â€
