Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party - Political Impact and History

Political Impact and History

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The party's first chapter in its statutes says "the intension of the Swedish Socialdemocratic Workers Party is the struggle towards the Democratic Socialism," that is, a society with a democratic economy based on the socialist principle, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." Since the party held power of office for a majority of terms after its founding in 1889 through 2003, the ideology and policies of the Social Democratic Party (SAP) have had strong influence on Swedish politics. The Swedish social democratic ideology is partially an outgrowth of the strong and well-organized 1880s and 1890s working class emancipation, temperance, and religious folkrörelser (folk movements), by which peasant and workers' organizations penetrated state structures early on and paved the way for electoral politics. These movements had influence on political formation in Sweden, at least in part because they experienced less state repression than similar working-class organizations have, for example, in the United States. In this way, Swedish social-democratic ideology is inflected by a socialist tradition foregrounding widespread and individual human development. Gunnar Adler-Karlsson (1967) confidently likened the social democratic project to the successful social democratic effort to divest the king of all power but formal grandeur: “Without dangerous and disruptive internal fights…After a few decades they (capitalists) will then remain, perhaps formally as kings, but in reality as naked symbols of a passed and inferior development state.” However, so far this socialist ambition has not materialised.

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