Who Voted for Socialism? The Rise of the SAP in Swedish Local Elections, 1910-18

• In Event: Voters and Communication in Advanced Democracies

Abstract

Employing fine-grained, group-level data recorded in local elections between 1910 and 1918, we explore the social and geographical basis of the rise of Swedish social democracy and the overall formation of the Sweden’s 20th century party system. In spite of the electoral reform of 1909, which introduced quasi-universal male suffrage, plural voting continued to be employed in local elections during the 1910s. Voters, who were divided into 40 income grades, received as many ballots as the number of his income grade. Exploiting the published records of electoral behavior by income rank in those elections, we explore the structure of support for social democracy, liberalism and conservatism. Socialist vote was strongly correlated with income rank – but varied across geographical area, as a result of unionization and the nature of associational life.

Authors

• Carles Boix, Princeton University

• Zsuzsanna Blanka Magyar, University of Barcelona