The or '''Social Democrats''' ( in
Sweden . The party was founded in 1888. (In 1917, a schism occurred when the
Communists and revolutionaries left to form the
Left Party ).
The party's ideology is
Social Democracy (some mention
Democratic Socialism as well). Its base primarily consists of blue-collar workers, intellectuals, and public sector employees. It derives much of its power from strong links with the
Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO), which represents around 90 percent of Sweden's blue-collar workers. The party is a member of
Socialist International .
Currently, the Social Democratic Party has about 165,000 members, with about 2540 local party associations and 500 workplace associations.
There are a number of organizations within the Swedish social democratic movement:
The logo of the party is the red rose, designed by
Fredrik Ström .
The Swedish Social Democratic Party has received between 40%-50% of the votes in all elections of "modern times" (between 1940 and 1988). Being so dominating, its voters come from many different backgrounds. A few important groups can be identified. One of them is those who are
Immigrant s; another is the
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.
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.
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 governing party of Sweden. However, the moderate coalition government was not able to improve the finacial situation and served only one (3-year) term in office.
(Subsequent governments have had terms of 4 years due to a change in the constitution in 1994.)
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.
- Hjalmar Branting , ( 1920 , 1921 - 1923 , 1924 - 1925 died in office)
- Rickard Sandler , ( 1925 - 1926 )
- Per Albin Hansson , ( 1932 - 1936 , 1936 - 1946 died in office)
- Tage Erlander , ( 1946 - 1969 )
- Olof Palme , ( 1969 - 1976 , 1982 - 1986 assassinated)
- Ingvar Carlsson , ( 1986 - 1991 , 1994 - 1996 )
- Göran Persson , ( 1996 -present)
