Swedish Social Democratic Workers Party

Swedish party .​ Since its founding in 1889 , it is the oldest party in Sweden, the largest and longest party. During the reign, he led the institutionalization of the ' people's house ' universal welfare system , which is typical of the Nordic welfare state model, and contributed greatly to making today's welfare -state Sweden.

It is widely gaining popularity from the Swedish people with high support for politics and social democracy . Thanks to this support , he has never missed the first party's status in the parliamentary elections for more than 100 years since the September 1914 general election . However, multi -party Due to the characteristics of the parliamentary system , there was not much securing a majority of the alone, and because of the establishment of a coalition government , the single party continued to maintain the first party, but failed to take power and had been an opposition party.

Socialist International and Progressive Alliance . The official name is the Swedish Social Democratic Labor Party , but in Korea, it is just called the Swedish Social Democratic Party , and the abbreviation is used as the Swedish Social Democratic Party .

It advocates social democracy . And by introducing a welfare policy called ' Volkhemmet (People's House)', he contributed to making Sweden into the world's highest welfare state today. See also Sweden/welfare document.

Compared to the political parties of other countries in other countries, progressive colors are clear.[8] In social policy, progressive colors are well revealed , and they actively promote feminism and emphasize the community of compromise and solidarity. It is also sympathetic for refugees .[9]

In the period of former Prime Minister Olof Palme , he was able to see a radical policy route and was a leftist party with democratic socialism. Thanks to this, in the 2020s, democratic socialists, the hard -line leftists in the US Democratic Party, are so moderate that they are similar to the left party . #

He ruled in Sweden from the 1920s onwards for most of the 20th century. He first came to power from 1917 to 1926 under democratic elections.[10] , ruled for 44 years from 1932 to 1976.[11] During this period, the famous Swedish welfare system was established. He lost power in the 1976 general election, but returned to power in the 1982 general election , and lost power in the 1991 general election due to the economic recession of the late 1980s and early 1990s . However, it was not long before he returned to power in the 1994 general election and remained in power again for a long period of time until 2006. He was defeated by the right-wing coalition in the 2006 general election, but returned to power again in the 2014 general election and remained in power until 2022 . As can be seen just by looking at the period and number of times it was in power, it had an overwhelming influence in Sweden compared to other political parties. And even when it lost the election (failed to secure a majority) and took power over to the right, it has never lost its position as the first party in the National Assembly and has maintained it to this day. In fact, it is a political party that laid the foundation for modern Swedish politics, society, and culture in general.

In the case of early Swedish social democracy, it was founded in 1889 by a person who was a clothing store employee at the time, under the influence of German and Danish social democracy.

In particular , it was first created in the Malmo region in southern Sweden , which was also because the distance between Copenhagen and Malmo, the capital of Denmark, was not very different.

Per Albin Hansson , who took office as party leader in 1921, cooperated with the Swedish Communist Party (Left Party) and put forward a working class party in the 1928 general election, but was defeated. First of all, this is because conservative bourgeois parties failed to receive overall support by questioning their cooperative relationship with the Communist Party.[13] Therefore, Hanson carried out a general reorganization of the organization and route. First, LO, the core organizational foundation,[14] It blocked the influence of communists within the country and sought to expand its support base to various classes by frequently using the word 'people ' instead of words such as 'class struggle'. In addition, when the military mobilized to suppress protests during a strike in Helsingland in 1931 killed five civilians, the communists who suppressed the protests were also claimed responsible, criticizing the government for excessive suppression despite opposition from radicals within the party. This almost led to another split, but it was resolved once a compromise was made, and the change of LO's leadership succeeded in strengthening solidarity with the Social Democratic Workers' Party and reducing the influence of communists. Thus, he succeeded in the general election held the following year, 1932, and came to power.

At the party convention held just before the 1932 general election, when the aftereffects of the Great Depression were still strong, the radicals' argument for socializing ownership of the means of production clashed with the Hansson and leadership's argument for overcoming the economic crisis through limited crisis management policies. In the meantime, Ernst Wigfors, who was influential in the radicals within the party , argued that socialization and a planned economy were different and that a planned economy without socialization was possible, and this was accepted. Immediately after taking power, the party began implementing unemployment measures and protection and support policies for farmers, and introduced various social welfare systems such as the unemployment insurance system in 1934 , the maternity protection allowance system in 1937 , and the two-week paid vacation system in 1938 .

In labor-management relations, conflicts between labor and management have continued since the Social Democratic Workers Party came to power. So the bourgeois parties put pressure on the Social Democratic Workers Party. The Social Democratic Workers' Party government conveyed that the problem could be resolved through legislative action. LO, a labor union, thought that government intervention through such legislative measures would reduce the union's autonomy, and SAF, a management organization, also thought that favorable legislative measures would be taken as LO and the Social Democratic Workers Party were somewhat related. So, after several years of negotiations, in 1938, LO and the employers' organization SAF negotiated autonomously and established the so-called ' Saltsjöbaden Agreement ' in the Swedish resort city of Saltsjöbaden . Through this, it became possible to resolve problems between labor and management autonomously while minimizing government intervention.

1939 November When the Soviet Union invaded Finland , public opinion was formed that the military and foreign ministry should intervene. However, at that time, the cabinet voluntarily dismissed the foreign minister and tried not to see blood. However, they turned a blind eye to interventions at the level of providing military supplies and necessities and sending civilians to organize volunteer corps.

In December of the same year , a national cabinet was established for stable national management . At the same time, he concluded a trade agreement with Germany to export steel to Germany. Germany later occupied Norway and in 1941 In June, the passage of German troops into Swedish territory was also approved. after 1943 It changed course after Germany's defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad . First of all, the Allied Powers approved the German Army's request to stop the crossing of mobile trains, and the scale of steel exports was also reduced.

Sweden's neutrality policy from 1939 to 1945 was not completely neutral. This neutrality policy was met with discontent even within the party and even caused some moral damage.[15] However, thanks to this, Sweden was able to avoid the devastation of war, unlike its neighbors Norway and Denmark, which were in the middle of the fiery pit of Europe at the time . In addition, Hansson comforted and encouraged the people through frequent radio speeches, which created an image of trying to save Sweden politically, and greatly contributed to increasing support for him, the Social Democratic Labor Party, and the national cabinet.

In 1944, with the defeat of the German army deepening through the Normandy landings and Operation Bagration , the Social Democratic Workers' Party, like the LO, drew up the 'Post-War Program of the Labor Movement', which was the direction for managing the Swedish economy after the war. It proposed public control of the financial market, establishment of state-run commercial banks, state-led industrial rationalization, and nationalization of companies with monopolistic market structures or inefficient market competition . In particular, nationalization of the oil distribution industry was proposed. At the time, Hanson opposed it because he thought it was too radical and would hurt his support base, but unlike before, due to his narrowed position within the party, it had no choice but to be officially adopted, and Hansson ended up supporting it.[16]

1945 After the general election in July , despite opposition from one hand, the national cabinet was dissolved and a single government was formed. In 1946, Hanson, who took the post of Prime Minister, He was to serve this term until his death on 6 October .

The period from 1946 to 1969 was the era of the Tagge Elander cabinet. Elander was one of the high-ranking officials who supported the establishment of refugee camps in Sweden during World War II. He succeeded Prime Minister Hansson, who died suddenly in 1946, and developed the Swedish model he laid the foundation for, creating a so-called 'strong society' and The policy represented by the 'People's House' was implemented in Sweden. It also coincides with the ‘record era’, the peak period of Swedish economic growth.

Based on Gunnar Myrdal 's book, The Demographic Crisis, a large number of policies were adopted to improve the quantity and quality of the population.[17] In addition, he accepted some of the criticism from the right wing and developed pragmatic policies to link welfare policy and economic growth.

Even though he was a prime minister who was popular enough to win a landslide victory in the elections in the final days of his term, he could have stayed in power longer, but he felt that he needed to train his successor and improve the party's constitution, so he handed over the cabinet to his comrade Palme and resigned. It is said that when he retired, he had no place to live, so the Swedish people built him a villa .

The prime minister of Olof Palme is considered an important ideological turning point in the history of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and a period of structural experiments. Since being elected as the number of party in 1969 , he has finished the party's identity and policy routes by suggesting more radical social democracy lines beyond the moderate social reform stance . Thanks to this, the Social Democrats are considered to be inherited in the Palme period, and today's Swedish welfare policy is already completed at this time.

Palme defined himself as a revolutionary reformist and suggested a new ideal of economic democracy beyond the expansion of the welfare system. It is an attempt to seek democratic control of the means of production beyond just about income redistribution, and it is evaluated that the Social Democrats were the first attempt to go beyond the traditional welfare state model.

A representative case was the introduction of the Wage Workers' Fund. The idea, which earned a part of a corporate profit on the workers' fund so that the company's ownership was ultimately belonged to the workers, showed that the Social Democrats attempted to democratize the economic structure itself, not just welfare. Although it was implemented in a form that was reduced due to strong rebounds, it was a symbol of the changing ideological orientation of the Social Democratic Party.

This attempt was also a strategy to bring the left -wing forces and the new three -way flow into the institutional politics. At the same time, the government intended to secure a link with young people with strong leftist support while strengthening the party's moral legitimacy through international progressive agenda such as opposition to the Vietnam War , the anti -imperialism remarks, and the anti -nuclear movement. Palme is a leader who coordinates the party between ideological consistency and public scalability, contributing to increasing the party's legitimacy and durability by institutionalizing political demands and criticisms that require more radical and rapidly changing inside and outside the party.

However, the limitations and shadows were not small, and the financial pressure caused by the expansion of welfare spending in 1976 combined with the limitations of macroeconomic management resulted in the Social Democratic Party losing power for the first time in 40 years. After returning to the position of prime minister in 1982 , Palme took a somewhat right-clicking and readjusted the existing route, seeking a third way . Unlike before, the eclectic approach of maintaining economic stability and welfare by suppressing wage increases led the Social Democratic Party to seek viable policy alternatives in the changing global economic environment.

In the 1980s , the entire Swedish industry was restructured , and the shipbuilding industry was abolished, the wood pulp industry was reorganized into the paper industry, the steel industry was centralized and specialized, and the mechanical engineering was digitized. As a result, the Social Democratic Party's long -term power, which was based on the support of the workers, was also shaking, and in 1986, the political shock was added to the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme, a symbol of democracy and equalism .

At the same time, Sweden's capital began to reduce domestic investment and transfer funds to other countries in Europe. At this time when the European Union was formed , consensus on neoliberalism was spreading among financial elites . In particular, as Ronald Reagan in the United States and the neoliberal economic policy of Margaret response in the United Kingdom influenced the world, the progressive tax system and strong income redistribution, which were the strengths of Sweden, were no longer economic. Eventually, due to the departure of capitalists, decreasing domestic investment, and international neoliberal flows, the Social Democrats have given up on radical reforms of the Rain-Midner model, and gradually turned to market-friendly policy by accepting neoliberalism.