Swedish Social Democratic Party

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Arbetarepartiet Socialdemokraterna
Leader	Göran Persson
Founded	1889
Headquarters	Sveavägen 68, Stockholm
Political ideology	Social democracy
International affiliation	Socialist International
European affiliation	Party of European Socialists
European Parliament group	Party of European Socialists
Colour(s)	Red
Website	www.socialdemokraterna.se
See also the politics of Sweden series

The Swedish Social Democratic Party (Swedish: Arbetarepartiet-Socialdemokraterna, commonly referred to as Socialdemokraterna; literally, "Workers' Party the Social Democrats " and "Social Democrats") is a major political party in Sweden. The party was founded in 1888. (In 1917, a schism occurred when the communists and revolutionaries left to form what is now the Left Party).

The party's ideology is social democracy (some mention democratic socialism as well). 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 (LO), 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^{[citation needed]}.

There are a number of organisations within the Swedish social democratic movement:

• The National Federation of Social Democratic Women in Sweden (S-kvinnor) organizes women.
• The Swedish Social Democratic Youth League (Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Ungdomsförbund or SSU) organizes youth.
• The Social Democratic Students of Sweden (Socialdemokratiska Studentförbundet) organizes university students.
• The Christian Brotherhood (Broderskap) 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.

Contents 1 Voter base 2 Ideology and policies 3 Leadership election, March 2007 4 Social Democrat party leaders 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] 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.

[edit] Ideology and policies

Part of the Politics series on Social democracy

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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 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 (current US dollars), only behind that of the US, but by 1993, a time when the economy was in deep crisis, Sweden had lost its position. [1] 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 (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 (f.e. a ban on the availment of prostitution in 1999), 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 government 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." (Debate on March 16, 1983). [2]

Also, in his book published in 1983, the future prime minister of Sweden, Ingvar Carlsson wrote: "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." ('Vad är socialdemokrati?", 1983)

The 2006 election result is historic in being the worst result for the Social Democrats ever in a general election with universal suffrage. A four party non-socialist government will be formed: the Alliance for Sweden. In the 2006 elections the party received 34.99% of the votes.

[edit] Leadership election, March 2007

This article or section contains information about an upcoming or ongoing election. Content may change dramatically as the election approaches and unfolds.

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^[1]:

• Thomas Bodström
• Carin Jämtin
• Wanja Lundby-Wedin
• Ulrika Messing
• Pär Nuder
• Leif Pagrotsky
• Mona Sahlin
• Thomas Östros

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.^[2]

[edit] Social Democrat party leaders

Name	Term served as party leader	Term served as prime minister
collective leadership	1889-1896	not applicable
Claes Tholin	1896-1907	not applicable
Hjalmar Branting	1907-1945	1920, 1921-1923, 1924-1925
Per Albin Hansson	1907-1925	1932-1936, 1936-1946
Tage Erlander	1946-1969	1946-1969
Olof Palme	1969–1986	1969-1976, 1982-1986
Ingvar Carlsson	1986–1996	1986-1991, 1994-1996
Göran Persson	1996–	1996–2006

[edit] See also

• Prime Minister of Sweden
• Government of Sweden
• Parliament of Sweden
• Elections in Sweden
• Politics of Sweden

• ABF

[edit] References

1. ^ Helst ska en kvinna ta över, Dagens Nyheter, 19 September 2006
2. ^ Wallström vill inte leda s, svt.se, retrieved 21 September, 2006

• United States Department of State - Sweden

[edit] External links

• Socialdemokraterna (Swedish)

Political parties in Sweden
Represented in the Riksdag (349)	Social Democrats (130) | Moderate Party (97) | Centre Party (29) | Liberal People's Party (28) | Christian Democrats (24) | Left Party (22) | Green Party (19)
Represented in the European Parliament (19 out of 732)	Social Democrats (5) | Moderate Party (4) | Christian Democrats (2)* | June List (2)* | Left Party (2) | Centre Party (1) | Feminist Initiative (1)** | Green Party (1) | Liberal People's Party (1)** *Three MEPs were elected for the June List, but one defected to Christian Democrats. **Two MEPs were elected for the Liberal People's Party, but one defected to Feminist Initiative.
Minor parties:	Sweden Democrats (2.93%) | Pirate Party (0.63%) | Senior Citizen Interest Party (0.52%) | Health Care Party (0.21%)