When politicians face crises and threats, the solution almost always tends to be the same: a tougher stance, expanding executive power, and hastily enacted symbolic laws. But what happens when the state’s massive crackdown actually creates more insecurity and erodes the rule of law?
In this episode, Torbjörn is joined by liberal author and writer Mattias Svensson, who is currently working on the book *The World After September 11*.
Together, they analyze how authoritarian regimes deal with resistance and why democracies repeatedly fall into the trap of overreacting:

• The Paradox of Censorship: Why Chinese censorship must ban everything from Winnie the Pooh to rubber ducks—and how the bans themselves reveal the regime’s weaknesses.
• Hidden Public Opinion: What Underground Surveys in Iran and the Former Eastern Bloc’s Old Censorship Lists Teach Us About the Regime’s Actual Legitimacy.
• The False Trade-off Between Freedom and Security: How the War on Terror, Collaboration on Torture, and Military Interventions Undermined the Credibility of Liberalism—and Why the Afghanistan Mission Changed the Threat Landscape for Sweden.
• Criminal Policy Beyond "Zero Tolerance": Why harsher penalties rarely break up gangs, and how deregulation or legalization may be a more effective way to curb the black market than constantly expanding the scope of the law.

An in-depth conversation about the importance of institutional balance and trust, and why the solution to complex problems is sometimes for the government to do less—but to do it right.