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Shopkeepers and the Swedish Model: The Petty Bourgeoisie and the State during the Interwar Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2008

Extract

When the Swedish Social Democratic Labour Party came to power in 1932, Sweden experienced a turning point in its history. For the first time the role of the Social Democratic Party in the construction of the welfare state became significant. Until the end of the 1910s the Social Democrats had concentrated their primary efforts on the problems of trade union recognition and the struggle for parliamentary democracy. After 1920 the Social Democrats became the largest party, but did not gain political power except for a brief interlude. The concept of the ‘Swedish Model’ has often been used in Sweden and abroad to describe the unique development of Swedish society in the twentieth century. However, historians and social scientists have tended to analyse Swedish society without a clear definition of the very concept, the ‘Swedish Model’.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

1 The literature on the Swedish Model is quite extensive, and therefore only selected major works in English are listed here. See, for example, Misgeld, K. et al. , Creating Social Democracy: A Century of the Social Democratic Labour Party in Sweden (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992)Google Scholar; Tilton, T., The Political Theory of the Swedish Social Democracy (Oxford, Clarendon Press: 1991)Google Scholar; Baldwin, P., The Politics of Social Solidarity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Heclo, H., Modern Social Politics in Britain and Sweden. Yale Studies in Political Science 251 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974)Google Scholar; Esping Anderson, G., Politics against Markets. The Social Democratic Road to Power (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985).Google Scholar

2 Marcus, M. and Rydman, E., eds, Köpmän i samverkan (Stockholm: Förlag AB Svensk Litteratur, 1958), 123.Google Scholar

3 Ibid., 153, 183. Gillberg, K. E., Sveriges Köpmannaförbund under 100 år (Stockholm: Sveriges Köpmannaförbund, 1983), 40.Google Scholar

4 Ibid., 185.

5 Ibid., 234.

6 Statens offentliga utredningar (thereafter SOU), 1940: 34, 232.

7 Marcus, and Rydman, , Köpmän i samverkan, 155, 185.Google Scholar

8 Ericsson, T., Mellan kapital och arbete. Småborgerligheten i Sverige 1850–1914, (Umeå: Umeå Studies in the Humanities, n. 86, 1988).Google Scholar

9 Ibid., ch. 5; Ericsson, T., ‘Inom handelsvärlden härskar en borgerlig anda. Arbetsgivare och anställda inom handeln 1890–1914’, Historisk Tidskrift, Vol. 4 (1984).Google Scholar

10 Ibid., 413.

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid., 418–20.

13 Amark, K., ‘Social Democracy and the Trade Union Movement: Solidarity and the Politics of Self-interest’, in Misgeld, K. et al. ,, Creating Social Democracy (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992), 73–4.Google Scholar

14 Marcus, and Rydman, , Köpmän i samverkan, 237.Google Scholar

15 SOU 1933: 36, 38–42.

16 Ibid., 238.

17 Motion i första kammaren, 1929: 12; Motion i andra kammaren, 1929: 21. Riksdagstrycket (Parliamentary Papers).

18 Register till riksdagen, 1929.

19 The investigation was presented in an official report in 1933. Utredning angående tredje mans rätt till neutralitet i arbetskonflikter och därmed sammanhängande frågor. SOU 1933: 36.

20 Ibid., 79–82.

21 Ibid., 80.

22 Amark, , Social Democracy, 74.Google Scholar

23 Ibid.

24 Ibid.

25 Proposition 1935: 31 (Parliamentary Papers).

26 Quoted from Amark, , Social Democracy, 75.Google Scholar

27 Ibid., 75.

28 Ibid.

29 See, for example, Ericsson, T., ‘The Mittelstand in Swedish Class Society, 1870–1914’, Scandinavian Journal of History, Vol. 4 (1984).Google Scholar

30 See, for example, Crossick, G. and Haupt, H-G., The Petite Bourgeoisie in Europe 1780–1914 (London: Roudedge, 1995)Google Scholar; idem, eds, Shopkeepers and Master Artisans in Nineteenth-century Europe (London: Methuen, 1984).Google Scholar

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32 Ericsson, , Mellan kapital och arbete;Google ScholarMarcus, and Rydman, , Köpmän i samverkan.Google Scholar

33 Ericsson, , ‘The Mittelstand’, 320–1.Google Scholar

34 In an official report published in 1935 they used the American term, ‘variety shop’, to define these Swedish shops.

35 See, for example, De svenska enhetsprisföretagen (SOU) 1935: 63, 14.

36 Ibid., 15.

37 Marcus, and Rydman, , Köpmän i samverkan, 220.Google Scholar

38 Motion i andra kammaren, 1934: 501 (Parliamentary Papers).

39 Motion i andra kammaren, 1934: 501, 9 (Parliamentary Papers).

40 Marcus, and Rydman, , Köpmän i samverkan, 222.Google Scholar

41 Sveriges köpmannaförbunds årskongress. Protokoll (Stockholm, 1932).

42 Ericsson, , ‘The Mittelstand’;Handlingar förelagda Svenska köpmannaförbundets årsmöte 1936 (Stockholm, 1936).Google Scholar

43 Handlingar förelagda Svenska köpmannaförbundets årsmöte 1936.

44 Sveriges köpmannaförbunds årskongress. Protokoll (Stockholm, 1934).

45 SOU 1935: 63.

46 See, for example, Alex, P., Den rationella konsumenten. KF som folkuppfostrare 1899–1939 (Stockholm: Brutus Ostling Bokförlag, 1994).Google Scholar

47 SOU 1941: 35, 232–3.

48 Handlingar förelagda Svenska köpmannaförbundets årsmöte 1936.

49 ibid.; Handlingar förelagda Sveriges köpmannaförbundets årsmöte 1934; Marcus, and Rydman, , Köpmän i samverkan, 224, 240.Google Scholar