Swedish Social Democratic Party
The Swedish Social Democratic Party is a major
political party in
Sweden. The party was founded in 1888. .
The party's ideology is
social democracy . Its base primarily consists of blue-collar workers, public sector employees, unemployed, intellectuals and immigrants. It derives much of its power from strong links with the
Swedish Trade Union Confederation , which represents around 90 percent of Sweden's blue-collar workers. The party is a member of
Socialist International, the
Party of European Socialists and SAMAK.
Currently, the Social Democratic Party has about 125,000 members, with about 2540 local party associations and 500 workplace associations.
Encyclopedia
The
Swedish Social Democratic Party is a major
political party in
Sweden. The party was founded in 1888. .
The party's ideology is
social democracy . Its base primarily consists of blue-collar workers, public sector employees, unemployed, intellectuals and immigrants. It derives much of its power from strong links with the
Swedish Trade Union Confederation , which represents around 90 percent of Sweden's blue-collar workers. The party is a member of
Socialist International, the
Party of European Socialists and SAMAK.
Currently, the Social Democratic Party has about 125,000 members, with about 2540 local party associations and 500 workplace associations.
There are a number of organisations within the Swedish social democratic movement:
- The National Federation of Social Democratic Women in Sweden organizes women.
- The Swedish Social Democratic Youth League organizes youth.
- The Social Democratic Students of Sweden organizes university students.
- The Christian Brotherhood organizes Christians.
The symbol of the party is traditionally a red rose, which is believed to have been
Fredrik Ström's idea. The design of the rose logo has changed over the years.
Voter base
The Swedish Social Democratic Party got between 40%-50% of the votes in all elections of between 1940 and 1988 making it one of the most successful political parties in the world. Being so dominating, its voters come from many different backgrounds. However, a few important groups can be identified, notably immigrants and blue-collar workers. People employed in the public sector also tend to vote for the Social Democrats. Quite a few leftist intellectuals vote for the party as well.
Ideology and policies
The Social Democratic Party's position is in theory a revision of
Marxism. Its party program calls their ideology democratic socialism, or social democracy. Their intention is to fund a general welfare policy based on solidaric taxes.
The party is the main architect behind the build-up of the Swedish welfare state that formed after
World War II. Swedish society as it is generally depicted abroad was a result of this policy. Despite the successful social policies, the change in per capita GDP over a period of years portrays the policies in a somewhat less favourable light: in 1970, Sweden had the second biggest GDP per capita , only behind that of the US, but by 1993, a time when the economy was in deep crisis, Sweden had lost its position. This recession was attributed to irresponsible monetary policies by the successive Social Democrat governments during the previous decades.
After economic recessions in the 1970s, the party continued to cover up deficits in the economy by supporting purchases of the
Swedish currency and borrowing money abroad. When this stopped working in the early
1990s, the party was blamed for irresponsibility and between 1991-1994 lost its place as the governing party of Sweden. However, the moderate coalition government was not able to improve the financial situation and served only one term in office.
Since 1996, the working-class profile of the Party has weakened. They have privatized many state companies, such as the phone, postal service and hospitals, to allow for greater competition. They still claim to be working on behalf of a welfare state, however. The Swedish government does remain the majority owner in all of these cases.
In recent times they have become strong supporters of
feminism , equality of all kinds, and in strong opposition to all forms of discrimination and racism.
Under Social Democrats' administration, Sweden has retained neutrality as a foreign policy guideline, both during the Cold War and after. Under the leadership of
Olof Palme, who had participated in anti-Vietnam War protests as a Minister of Education, Sweden condemned the US participation in the Vietnam conflict, as well as Latin American right-wing dictatorships. Palme's governement also supported the
PLO,
Fidel Castro and the ANC. While the Swedish right-wing opposition supported Baltic national liberation movements, Palme accused the members of the
Moderate Party of "returning to that crusading spirit aiming to 'liberate' Eastern Europe that prevailed in conservative groups in the West during the Cold War" and also accused the Moderates of creating "danger to the safety of the Swedish security policy." .
Also, in his book published in 1983, the future PM of Sweden, Ingvar Carlsson has written: "The
Soviet Union as well as the other Eastern European countries has accomplished a rapid industrialisation and has a high GNP. There are many objections against the system in these countries but they do prove that capitalism is not the only system that is able to produce material wealth."
The 2006 election result is historic in being the worst result for the Social Democrats ever in a general election with universal suffrage; according to estimations, a four party non-socialist government will be formed.
Leadership election, March 2007
Since Göran Persson announced on 17 September 2006 that he will be standing down from the leadership of the party several people have been cited as possible candidates to replace him:
Margot Wallström, a European Commissioner, who had previously been seen as one of the favourite potential candidates, announced in a press release on 21 September that she would decline any potential nomination for the leadership of the party.
Social Democrat Prime Ministers
Other key members
- August Palm
- Zeth Höglund
- Alva Myrdal and Gunnar Myrdal
- Peter Hultqvist
Former ministers
See also
References
External links
