A constitutional constraint turned militaristic Sweden into a peaceful society

Evidence

For centuries, the Swedes plundered other nations. People prayed for protection: “Deliver us, O Lord, from the fury of the Norsemen.” After a prolonged war with Russia that exhausted their resources, the Swedish populace rose up and forced a constitutional change, with kings prohibited from initiating military adventures (Moerk, 1995). This political act transformed a militaristic society into a peaceful one. Sweden is now a mediator for peace among warring nations. In keeping with Sweden’s pacific ethos, there is little violence in society. Cultural diversity and rapid transformative societal change lend support to the view that the answer to human aggression lies more in ideology than in biology. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 177

Categorization

• SEED: Angle for an essay or talk opener: institutional design — a single constitutional rule prohibiting kings from initiating military adventures — recast an entire national character within generations.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 177
• XREF: connects to: A constitutional political act transformed a militaristic nation into a pacific one