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In 1516 Thomas More reported to the world the fictitious travels of Raphael Hythlodaeus who ventured through many lands to Utopia. From then on traveller's tales -- real & imagined -- have been a staple of social analysts & advocates. Many Australian policy analysts & advocates in the 1970s & 1980s were likewise inspired by reports from distant Sweden. They spoke of the Swedish Model & found in it the basis for a critique of Australian society & also the blueprint for a better alternative. The Swedish Model showed Australian faults to the analysts & offered a path to follow to the advocates. They had what Karl Mannheim calls a utopian mentality that captured but also distorted Swedish reality. Yet Swedish reality is more complicated than any model & it was left aside by the champions of the Swedish Model. These Swedophiles may be examples of the theoretical man of whom Alexis de Tocqueville, himself a traveller to a distant land seeking knowledge, spoke; theorists are unable to accept that reality seldom bends to a plan. References. Adapted from the source document.