Mauricio José Rojas Mullor (born June 28, 1950) is a Chilean-Swedish

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

and

political economist Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of status or resources. The branch of social science that studies poli ...

member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of the

Riksdag The Riksdag ( , ; also or , ) is the parliament and the parliamentary sovereignty, supreme decision-making body of the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral parliament with 349 members (), elected proportional rep ...

between 2002 and 2006. He served as Minister of Cultures, Arts and Heritage of Chile for four days, since August 10 2018 until August 13, under the presidency of

Sebastián Piñera Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique (; 1 December 1949 – 6 February 2024) was a Chilean businessman and politician who served as President of Chile from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2022. The son of a Christian Democratic Party (C ...

. Mauricio Rojas was born in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

, Chile. As an active

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

and member of

MIR ''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...

in his youth, he fled to Sweden in 1974 following the

military coup A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

and the subsequent persecution of leftist activists by the new

Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean military officer and politician who was the dictator of Chile from 1973 to 1990. From 1973 to 1981, he was the leader of the military junta, which i ...

regime. After coming to Sweden as a refugee he changed his political views and became a proponent for

liberalism Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...

. Rojas received a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

economic history Economic history is the study of history using methodological tools from economics or with a special attention to economic phenomena. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the Applied economics ...

from

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

in 1986 and became Docent (Associate Professor) of Economic History at Lund University in 1995. Rojas was a lecturer at Lund University from 1981 to 1999, when he became the Director of the Centre for Welfare Reform at the Stockholm-based think tank Timbro. Lately, he was both Vice President and President of Timbro. Rojas was elected as a Member of Parliament in 2002 for the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

, although he was not a party member at the time. He became a member of the Liberal People's Party in 2004 when he was appointed as the party's spokesperson on

refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

and

integration Integration may refer to: Biology *Multisensory integration *Path integration * Pre-integration complex, viral genetic material used to insert a viral genome into a host genome *DNA integration, by means of site-specific recombinase technology, ...

policy Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an or ...

. In 2006 he initiated a second period in Parliament. He is member of the Constitutional Committee of the Swedish Parliament. He has written several books in the field of

international economics International economics is concerned with the effects upon economic activity from international differences in productive resources and consumer preferences and the international institutions that affect them. It seeks to explain the patterns an ...

, immigration matters and on the Swedish model, many of them translated into several languages. Available in English are ''The Rise and Fall of the Swedish Model'' (London, 1998), ''Millennium Doom'' (London, 1999), ''Beyond the Welfare State'' (Stockholm, 2001) and ''The Sorrows of Carmencita: Argentina’s Crisis in a Historical Perspective'' (Stockholm, 2002). His latest published book is ''Reinventar el Estado del bienestar'' (Madrid, 2008).

External links

Riksdagen: Mauricio Rojas (fp)Mauricio Rojas - Folkpartiet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rojas, Mauricio 1950 births Academic staff of Lund University Chilean emigrants to Sweden Chilean former marxists Culture ministers of Chile Government ministers of Chile Living people Members of the Riksdag 2002–2006 Members of the Riksdag 2006–2010 Members of the Riksdag 2022–2026 Members of the Riksdag from the Liberals (Sweden) Politicians from Santiago, Chile Revolutionary Left Movement (Chile) politicians Swedish politicians of Chilean descent