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 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 symbol of the party is traditionally a red rose, which is believed to have been Fredrik Ström's idea.

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. 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.

1 Current Status
2 Voter base
- 2.1 2006 Election Results
3 Political impact
4 Social Democrat party leaders
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Current Status

Currently, the Social Democratic Party has about 125,000 members, with about 2540 local party associations and 500 workplace associations^{[citation needed]}. The member base consists mostly of blue-collar workers, public sector employees and unemployed. The party has close relationships with the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (Landsorganisationen i Sverige commonly refered to as LO). The party is a member of Socialist International, the Party of European Socialists and SAMAK. Since 1996, the working-class profile of the Party has weakened.

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.

[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. The voter base consist of a diverse selection of people through-out society.

[edit] 2006 Election Results

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In the election 2006, the party's support being the worst result for the Social Democrats ever in a general election with universal suffrage. In the 2006 elections the party received 34.99% of the votes. Resulting in the loss of power of office to the opposition.

[edit] Political impact

Because the party has held power of office for a majority of terms in recent history after it's founding. The party's ideology and policies have had strong influence on Swedish politics.

The party is the main architect behind the Swedish welfare state that formed after World War II. Swedish society as it is generally depicted abroad was a result of this policy. Under the Social Democrats' administration, Sweden has retained neutrality as a foreign policy guideline, during the Cold War. 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.<ref>GDP per capita, Earthtrend's statsitcal database</ref> 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 term in office.

Since 1994 privatization of many state companies has occured, such as the phone, postal service and hospitals has taken place to allow for greater competition. However the swedish state remains as majority onwer in all of these cases. The rescently privatized companies still claim to be working on behalf of a welfare state.

[edit] Social Democrat party leaders

Image:Vote.png

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

Name	Term served as party leader
collective leadership	1889-1896
Claes Tholin	1896-1907
Hjalmar Branting	1907-1945
Per Albin Hansson	1907-1925
Tage Erlander	1946-1969
Olof Palme	1969–1986
Ingvar Carlsson	1986–1996
Göran Persson	1996–

Leadership election, March 2007

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<ref>Helst ska en kvinna ta över, Dagens Nyheter, 19 September 2006</ref>:

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.<ref>Wallström vill inte leda s, svt.se, retrieved 21 September, 2006</ref>

[edit] See also

[edit] References

United States Department of State - Sweden

[edit] External links

Socialdemokraterna (Swedish)

Political parties in Sweden		Image:Flag of Sweden.svg
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%)