During the seventh and eighth centuries, the Swedes were merchant seaman well known for their far reaching trade. In the ninth century, Nordic Vikings raided and ravaged the European Continent as far as the Black and Caspain Seas. During the 11th and 12th centuries, Sweden gradually became a unified Christian kingdom that later included Finland. Queen Margaret of Denmark united all the Nordic lands in the "Kalmar Union" in 1397. Continual tension within the countries and within the union gradually led to open conflict be tween the Swedes and the Danes in the 15th century. The union's final disintegration in the early 16th century brought on a long-lived rivalry between Norway and Denmark on one side and Sweden and Finland on the other. These repeated and frequent clashes had adverse consequences on the subsequent development of the Scandinavian countries.
In the 16th century, Gustav Vasa crushed an attempt to restore the Kalmar Union with his fight for an independent Sweden and laid the foundation for modern Sweden. At the same time, he broke with the Catholic Church and established the Reformation. During the 17th century, after winning wars against Denmark, Russia, and Poland, Sweden-Finland (with scarcely more than 1 million inhabitants) emerged as a great power. Its contributions during the Thirty Years War under Gustav II Adolf (Gustavus Adolphus) determined the political, as well as the religious, balance of power in Europe. After Sweden conquered several provinces from Denmark in 1658, Swedish power included present-day Sweden, Finland, Ingermanland (in which Leningrad, U.S.S.R., is now located), Estonia, Latvia, and important coastal towns and other areas in northern Germany.
Russia, Saxony-Poland, and Denmark-Norway pooled their power in 1700 and attacked the Swedish-Finnish empire. Although the young Swedish King Karl XII (also known as Charles XII) won spectacular victories in the early years of the Great Northern War his plan to attack Moscow and force Russia into peace proved too ambitious; he fell in battle in 1718. In the subsequent peace treaties, the allied powers, joined by Prussia and England-Hanover ended Sweden's reign as a great power.
In 1809, Sweden suffered further territorial losses during the Napoleonic wars and was forced to cede Finland to Russia. The next year, the Swedish King, adopted heir, French Marshal Bernadotte, was elected Crown Prince as Karl Johan by the Riksdag. In 1813, his forces joined the allies against Napoleon. The Congress of Vienna compensated Sweden for its lost German territories through a merger of the Swedish and Norwegian Crowns in a dual monarchy, which lasted until 1905, when it was peacefully dissolved at Norway's request.
Sweden's predominantly agricultural economy shifted gradually from village to private-farm based agriculture during the Industrial Revolution, but this change failed to bring economic and social improvements commensurate with the rate of population growth. About 1 million Swedes emigrated to the United States between 1850 and 1890.
The 19th century was marked by the emergence of a liberal opposition press, abolition of guild monopolies in trade and manufacturing in favor of free enterprise, taxation and voting reforms, the installation of a national military service, and the rise in the electorate of three major party groups-Social Democrats Liberals, and Conservatives.
During and after World War I, in which Sweden remained neutral, the country benefitted from the worldwide demand for Swedish steel, ball bearings, wood pulp, and matches. Postwar prosperity provided the foundations for the social welfare policies characteristic of modern Sweden. Foreign policy concerns in the 1930s centered on Soviet and German expansionism, which stimulated abortive efforts at Nordic defense cooperation. Sweden followed a policy of armed neutrality during World War II and currently remains nonaligned.
Political Conditions
Six parties are represented in the Riksdag: the Social Democratic, Moderate (former-Conservative), Liberal, Center (former-Agrarian), communist, and the Environment (Greens).
The Social Democrats have led the government for all but 6 years since 1932. Olof Palme, the leader of that party from 1969 until his assassination February 28, 1986, was replaced by Ingvar Carlsson. Palme had served as prime minister from 1969 to 1976 and was returned to office in the 1982 and 1985 general elections. Between 1976 and 1982, the three nonsocialist parties had a Riksdag majority. The 1976 three-party government fell over the issue of nuclear energy policy, an issue eventually resolved by a referendum in 1980. A Liberal Party minority government (1978-79), led by Ola Ullsten, was succeeded by two coalition governments led by Center Party Prime Minister Thorbjorn Falldin.
The governing Social Democratic Party, with its base among blue-collar workers and intellectuals and public-sector employees, derives much of its power from association with the National Swedish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), which represents more than 90% of Sweden's blue-collar workers. The party program combines commitment to social welfare programs and government direction of the economy while encouraging growth and investment in the private sector. The primary goal of the Social Democrats is to maintain full employment, improving the living standards for Swedish wage earners, and institute programs such as wage-earner funds and codetermination (increased worker influence in management decisions) which party theorists refer to as "economic democracy."
The Moderate Party has gained considerably in voter support over the last 18 years-from 11.5% in 1970 to 18.4% in 1988. The party emphasizes free enterprise, personal freedom, and reduction of the public-sector growth rate, while still supporting most of the social benefits introduced since the 1930s. The party also favors a strong defense and closer ties with Western Europe. Its voter base is urban business and professional people, but the party also attracts young voters, main-street shop owners, and, to a modest extent, blue-collar workers.
The Liberal Party increased its share of the vote from 5.9% in 1982 to 12.3% in 1988. Party leader since 1983, Bengt Westerberg communicated the party's message-"social responsibility without socialism"-as a commitment to a free-market economy combined with comprehensive Swedish social welfare programs. Foreign aid and women's equality also are favorite issues for the Liberal Party. The party's support is centered in educated middle-class voters.
The Center Party, originally supported by farming and forestry interests, maintains strong links with rural Sweden. The party grew in the mid-197Os and, during the 1976 elections, attracted significant numbers of urban Swedes concerned over nuclear power and increased centralization of government authority. With 24.1% of the 1976 vote, Center leader, Thorbjorn Falldin, was the natural leader of the non-socialist coalition government. Since then, the Center Party's support has declined. In alliance with the small Christian Democratic Party, Center won only 12% of the 1985 vote but secured 11.4% in the 1988 election after the alliance had been broken. Sweden's 1976-82 economic difficulties and the 1980 resolution of the nuclear energy issue may have contributed to this trend. Falldin resigned as party leader in December 1985 and was replaced by Karin Soder, the first woman to head a major Swedish political party. She left a year later for health reasons and was succeeded by Olof Johansson.
Sweden's principal communist party is the Left Party (VPK), which while opposing Social Democratic concessions to free enterprise, consistently has voted in the Riksdag to allow the Social Democrats to form a government. In recent years, the VPK has adopted a stance critical of the Soviet Union on issues such as Afghanistan and Poland. VPK voter support remains stable-5.4% in 1985-just above the 4% needed for Riksdag representation. Various splinter communist groups, professing the ideologies of Soviet and other communist leaders, such as Trotsky and Mao, have never come close to Riksdag representation. Although voting is not compulsory, 85.9% of the eligible electorate participated in the 1988 national elections.
For the first time in 70 years, a new party managed to gain representation in the Riksdag after the 1988 elections-the Environment Party (Greens) received 5.6% of the vote and has 20 seats. The environment was one of the major issues in the 1988 election. The Greens emphasize environmental aspects of all political, economic, and social matters. They oppose closer cooperation with the European Community (EC) and wish to completely phase out nuclear energy within 3 years.
Source: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, July 1989.