Swedish Social Democratic Party

Swedish Social Democratic Party

The Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party, (Swedish: Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetareparti, SAP; literally, "Social Democratic Workers' Party of Sweden"), contesting elections as 'The Workers' Party – The Social Democrats' (Arbetarepartiet-Socialdemokraterna), or sometimes referred to just as 'The Social Democrats' (Socialdemokraterna); is the oldest and largest political party in Sweden. The party was founded in 1889. In 1917, a schism occurred when the left socialists split from the Social Democrats to form the Swedish Social Democratic Left Party (now the Left Party). The symbol of the SAP is traditionally a red rose, which is believed to have been Fredrik Ström's idea.

The Social Democratic Party's position has a theoretical base within Marxist revisionism. Its party program interchangeably calls their ideology democratic socialism, or social democracy. The party supports social welfare provision paid for from progressive taxation. The party supports a social corporatist economy involving the institutionalization of a social partnership system between capital and labour economic interest groups, with government oversight to resolve disputes between the two factions. In recent times they have become strong supporters of feminism, equality of all kinds, and maintain a strong opposition to what they perceive as discrimination and racism.

On 7 December 2008, the Social Democrats launched the Red-Greens together with the Greens and the Left Party. The parties contested the 2010 election but lost the election to the centre-right Alliance. On 26 November 2010 the Red-Green alliance was dissolved.