THE PARTY SYSTEMS

Here, as in Chapter 3, we analyse culturally related countries together – partly because the discussion can be presented more succinctly, but also because divergences stemming from different institutional structures (particularly from contrasting party systems) can be highlighted in an interesting way.

Sweden has a predominant party system overshadowed by the Social Democrats, who obtained 40–50 per cent of the votes from the 1930s, and governed from 1932–76, though occasionally in coalition. Their predominance was in part secured through the fragmentation of the opposition between the Conservatives – a fairly standard business-oriented group, strongest in the South; the Liberals – radical in European terms, with advanced libertarian and welfare positions; the Agrarians – traditionally non-conformist in religion, teetotaller in ideology and supportive of rural interests; and the Communists.

This five-party system emerged in Sweden from 1900–20 and has remained structurally unchanged from that date, in contrast to Denmark. However, relationships within and between the parties underwent substantial changes during the 1960s and 1970s. The Agrarian Party, responding to the decline of the rural population, changed its name to the Centre Party and very successfully extended its appeal to radical, free-thinking voters in the city on ‘new’ issues such as the environment. At the same time moves were made to commit the bourgeois parties to an electoral alliance against the Social Democrats, as it was obvious that no credible governmental alternative could emerge short of a coalition including all three.