Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T03:11:13.153Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Partisanship and Unreformed Bureaucracy: The Drivers of Election Fraud in Sweden, 1719–1908

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2017

Jan Teorell
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper explains election fraud historically in the case of Sweden, drawing on original data from second-instance election petitions filed in 1719–1908. These petitions reveal systematic procedural violations committed by local election officials toward the end of the Age of Liberty in the eighteenth century. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, fraud had been largely purged from Swedish elections, and most petitions instead concerned unclear regulations pertaining to suffrage and eligibility criteria. I argue that this development cannot be explained by changes in electoral rules, the degree of competitiveness, or shifts in economic development or inequality. Instead, the ebb and flow of electoral fraud in Sweden could best be understood as stemming from the professionalization of the bureaucracy in combination with the extent to which elections were partisan. This novel mechanism for generating election fraud is corroborated qualitatively in a within-case longitudinal analysis and from quantitative data on city elections in 1771. I argue that similar processes may explain the rise and fall of election fraud historically in other established Western democracies, such as Britain and the United States.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , Summer 2017 , pp. 201 - 225
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association, 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aidt, Toke, and Jensen, Peter Sandhold (2017) “From open to secret ballot: Vote buying and modernization.” Comparative Political Studies 50 (5): 555–593.Google Scholar
Aldrich, John (1995) Why Parties? The Origin and Transformation of Political Parties in America. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Allen, Howard W., and Allen, Kay Warren (1981) “Vote fraud and data validity,” in Clubb, Jerome, Flanigan, W., and Zingale, N. (eds.) Analyzing Electoral History: A Guide to the Study of American Voter Behavior. Beverly Hills, CA, and London: Sage: 153–93.Google Scholar
Alvarez, Michael, Hall, Thad, and Hyde, Susan (2008) Election Fraud: Detecting and Deterring Electoral Manipulation. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Margaret Lavinia (2000) Practicing Democracy: Elections and Political Culture in Imperial Germany. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersson, Lars (1998) “How did they become voters: Sweden after 1866,” in Romanelli, Rafaelo (ed.) How Did They Become Voters? The History of Franchise in Modern European Representation. The Hague: Kluwer: 341–72.Google Scholar
Argersinger, Peter (1985) “New perspectives on election fraud in the Gilded Age.” Political Science Quarterly 100 (4): 669–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asker, Björn (2007) Hur Riket Styrdes. Stockholm: Skrifter utgivna av riksarkivet: 27.Google Scholar
Baland, Jean-Marie, and Robinson, James (2007) “How does vote buying shape the economy?,” in Schaffer, Frederic Charles (ed.) Elections for Sale. Boulder, CO: Lynn Rienner: 123–44.Google Scholar
Bensel, Richard Franklin (2004) The American Ballot Box in the Mid-Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Birch, Sarah (2007) “Electoral systems and electoral misconduct.” Comparative Political Studies 40 (12): 1533–56.Google Scholar
Birch, Sarah (2011) Electoral Malpractice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brolin, Per-Erik (1953) Hattar och mössor i borgarståndet 1760–1766. Uppsala: Lundequistska.Google Scholar
Burnham, Walter Dean (1970) Critical Elections and the Mainsprings of American Politics. New York: Norton and Co.Google Scholar
Campbell, James (2006) “Party systems and realignments in the United States, 1868–2004.” Social Science History 30 (3): 359–86.Google Scholar
Cantú, Francisco, and Saiegh, Sebastián (2011) “Fraudulent democracy? An analysis of Argentina's Infamous Decade using supervised machine learning.” Political Analysis 19 (4): 409–33.Google Scholar
Capoccia, Giovanni, and Ziblatt, Daniel (2010) “The historical turn in democratization studies: A new research agenda for Europe and beyond.” Comparative Political Studies 43 (8–9): 931–68.Google Scholar
Carlsson, Sten (1963) Byråkrati och borgarstånd under frihetstiden. Stockholm: Svenska Bokförlaget.Google Scholar
Carlsson, Sten (1973) Ståndssamhälle och ståndspersoner 1700–1865: Studier rörande det svenska ståndssamhällets upplösning. Andra upplagan. Lund: Gleerup.Google Scholar
Carlsson, Sten (1988) “Partiväsendet i den svenska tvåkammarriksdagen 1867–1970,” in Tvåkammarriksdagen 1867–1970: Ledamöter och valkretsar, Bd I. Stockholm: Sveriges riksdag: 11–27.Google Scholar
Carlsson, Sten (1990) “1809 års regeringsform,” in Högsta domsmakten i Sverige under 200 år, del 1. Lund: Bloms Boktryckeri: 123–27.Google Scholar
Cavallin, Maria (2003) I kungens och folkets tjänst: Synen på den svenske ämbetsmannen 1750–1780. Göteborg: Historiska institutionen.Google Scholar
Chhibber, Praneeb, and Kollman, Ken (1998) “Party aggregation and the number of partied in India and the United States.” American Political Science Review 92 (2): 329–42.Google Scholar
Collier, Ruth Berins (1999) Paths Toward Democracy: The Working Class and Elites in Western Europe and South America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cox, Gary (1987) The Efficient Secret: The Cabinet and the Development of Political Parties in Victorian England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert (1971) Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Edvinsson, Rodney (2010) “Foreign exchange rates in Sweden 1658–1803,” in Edvinsson, Rodney, Jacobson, T., and Waldenström, D. (eds.) Historical Monetary and Financial Statistics for Sweden: Exchange Rates, Prices and Wages, 1277–2008. Stockholm: Ekerlids: 238–90.Google Scholar
Eggers, Andrew, and Spirling, Arthur (2014) “Guarding the guardians: Legislative self-policing and electoral corruption in Victorian Britain.” Quarterly Journal of Political Science 9 (3): 337–70.Google Scholar
Epstein, Leon (1967) Political Parties in Western Democracies. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Erie, Steven (1988) Rainbowʼs End: Irish-Americans and the Dilemma of Urban Machine Politics, 1840–1985. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Esaiasson, Peter (1990) Svenska valkampanjer 1866–1988. Stockholm: Allmänna förlaget.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, Gösta (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Fällström, Anne-Marie, and Mäntylä, Ilkka (1982) “Stadsadministrationen i Sverige–Finland under frihetstiden,” i Ericsson, Birgitta et al. (eds.) Stadsadministration i Norden på 1700–talet. Olso: Universitetsforlaget: 173–286.Google Scholar
Folke, Olle, Hirano, Shigeo, and Snyder, James (2011) “Patronage and Elections in U.S. States.” American Journal of Political Science 105 (3): 567–585.Google Scholar
Fortin-Rittberger, Jessica (2014) “The role of infrastructural and coercive state capacity in explaining different types of election fraud.” Democratization 21 (1): 95–117.Google Scholar
Frohnert, Per (1985) “Administration i Sverige under frihetstiden,” i Blomsted, Yrjö et al. (eds.) Administrasjon i Norden på 1700-talet. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget: 185–286.Google Scholar
Glaeser, Edward, and Goldin, Claudia, eds. (2006) Corruption and Reform: Lessons from America's Economic History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press Google Scholar
Hansson, Sigurd (1893) Om ordningen vid val till svenska riksdagens andra kammare. Statsrättslig studie med ledning af Högsta domstolens utslag i hithörande mål. Lund: Gleerupska.Google Scholar
Harris, Joseph (1934) Election Administration in the United States. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Hartlyn, Jonathan, McCoy, Jennifer, and Mustillo, Thomas (2008) “Electoral governance matters: Explaining the quality of elections in contemporary Latin America.” Comparative Political Studies 41 (1): 73–98.Google Scholar
Huber, Evelyn, and Stephens, John D. (2001) Development and Crisis of the Welfare State. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ingebritsen, Christine (2006) Scandinavia in World Politics. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Jenkins, Jeffery (2004) “Partisanship and contested election cases in the House of Representatives, 1789–2002.” Studies in American Political Development 18 (2): 112–35.Google Scholar
Johansson, Ulla (1973) “Hattar och mössor i borgarståndet 1755–1756.” Historisk Tidskrift 93: 489–529.Google Scholar
Johnson, Ronald, and Libecap, Gary (1995) The Federal Civil Service System and the Problem of Bureaucracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Jörberg, Lennart (1975) “Structural change and economic growth in nineteenth-century Sweden,” in Koblik, Stephen (ed.) Sweden's Development from Poverty to Affluence, 1750–1970. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Kam, Christopher (2017) “The secret ballot and the market for votes at nineteenth century British elections.” Comparative Political Studies 50 (5): 594–635.Google Scholar
Kelly, Judith (2012) Monitoring Democracy: When International Election Observation Works, and Why It Often Fails. Princeton, NJ, and Oxford: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kleppner, Paul (1979) The Third Electoral System, 1853–1892: Parties, Voters, and Political Cultures. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Kleppner, Paul (1987) Continuity and Change in Electoral Politics, 1893–1928. New York: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Kreuzer, Marcus (1996) “From co-optation to competition: Changing forms of electoral corruption in nineteenth century France,” in Little, Walter and Posada-Carb, E. (eds.) Political Corruption in Latin American and European Perspective. London: McMillan: 97–114.Google Scholar
Kuo, Didi, and Teorell, Jan (2017) “Illicit tactics as substitutes: Election fraud, ballot reform and contested congressional elections in the United States, 1860–1930.” Comparative Political Studies 50 (5): 665–696.Google Scholar
Lagerqvist, Lars (2011) Vad kostade det? Priser och löner från medeltid till våra dagar. Sjätte upplagan. Lund: Historiska Media.Google Scholar
Lehoucq, Fabrice (2002) “Can parties police themselves? Electoral governance and democratization.” International Political Science Review 23 (1): 29–46.Google Scholar
Lehoucq, Fabrice (2003) “Electoral fraud: Causes, types, and consequences.” Annual Review of Political Science 6: 233–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehoucq, Fabrice, and Kolev, Konstantin (2015) “Varying the un-variable: Social structure, electoral formulae, and election quality.” Political Research Quarterly 68 (2): 240–252.Google Scholar
Lehoucq, Fabrice, and Molina, Iván (2002) Stuffing the Ballot Box: Fraud, Electoral Reform, and Democratization in Costa Rica. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lewin, Leif (2006) Ideology and Strategy: A Century of Swedish Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lewin, Leif, Jansson, Bo, and Sörbom, Dag (1972) The Swedish Electorate 1887–1968. Stockholm: Almquist and Wiksells.Google Scholar
Lilienberg, A. (1894) Anteckningar angående riksdagsmannaval till Andra kammaren till tjänst för röstberättigade och valförrättare. Stockholm: Nordstedt and Söner.Google Scholar
Lindbeck, Assar (1975) Swedish Economic Policy. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Lipset, Seymour M. (1959) “Some social requisites of democracy: Economic development and legitimacy.” American Political Science Review 53 (1): 69–105.Google Scholar
Mares, Isabela (2015) From Open Secrets to Secret Voting: Democratic Electoral Reforms and Voter Autonomy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Google Scholar
Metcalf, Michael (1977a) Russia, England and Swedish Party Politics 1762–1766: The Interplay between Great Power Diplomacy and Domestic Politics during Sweden's Age of Liberty. Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Metcalf, Michael (1977b) “The first ‘modern’ party system? Political parties, Sweden's Age of Liberty and the historians.” Scandinavian Journal of History 2 (1–4): 265–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Metcalf, Michael (1981) “Structuring parliamentary politics: Party organization in eighteenth-century Sweden.” Parliaments, Estates and Representation 1 (1): 35–49.Google Scholar
Metcalf, Michael (1990) “Det politiska spelet kring Högsta Domstolens tillkomst,” in Högsta domsmakten i Sverige under 200 år, del 1. Lund: Bloms Boktryckeri: 5–16.Google Scholar
Mozaffar, Shaheen, and Schedler, Andreas (2002) “The comparative study of electoral governance: Introduction.” International Political Science Review 23 (1): 85–101.Google Scholar
Müller, Wolfgang C., and Strøm, Kaare, eds. (1999) Policy, Office or Votes? How Political Parties in Western Europe Make Hard Decisions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Myhrman, Johan (1994) Hur Sverige blev rikt. Stockholm: SNS Förlag.Google Scholar
Nield, Robert (2002) Public Corruption: The Dark Side of Social Revolution. London: Anthem Press.Google Scholar
Nilsson, J. E. (1934) “Borgarståndet,” in Frihetstidens maktägande ständer 1719–1772. Stockholm: Victor Peterssons: 235–73.Google Scholar
Nyblade, Benjamin, and Reed, Steven (2008) “Who cheats? Who loots? Political competition and corruption in Japan, 1947–1993.” American Journal of Political Science 52 (4): 926–41.Google Scholar
O'Leary, Cornelius (1962) The Elimination of Corrupt Practices in British Elections, 1868–1911. Oxford: The Clarendon Press Google Scholar
Olsson, Gunnar (1963) Hattar och mössor: Studier over partiväsendet i Sverige, 1751–1762. Göteborg: Akademiförlaget.Google Scholar
Pastor, Robert (1999) “The role of electoral administration in democratic transitions: Implications for policy and research.” Democratization 6 (4): 1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piattoni, Simona, ed. (2001) Clientelism, Interests, and Democratic Representation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, Michael (1986) The Age of Liberty: Sweden 1719–1772. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rothstein, Bo (1998) “State building and capitalism: The rise of the Swedish bureaucracy.” Scandinavian Political Studies 21 (4): 287–306.Google Scholar
Rueschemeyer, Dietling, Stephens, Evenly Huber, and Stephens, John D. (1992) Capitalist Development and Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rustow, Dankwart (1955) The Politics of Compromise: A Study of Parties and Cabinet Government in Sweden. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Schedler, Andreas (2002) “The nested game of democratization by elections.” International Political Science Review 23 (1): 103–22.Google Scholar
Shefter, Martin (1994) Political Parties and the State. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Silberman, Bernard (1993) Cages of Reason: The Rise of the Rational State in France, Japan, the United States, and Great Britain. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Simpser, Alberto (2013) Why Governments and Parties Manipulate Elections: Theory, Practice, and Implications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Stokes, Susan (2005) “Perverse accountability: A formal model of machine politics with evidence from Argentina.” American Political Sciences Review 99 (3): 315–25.Google Scholar
Stokes, Susan, Dunning, Thad, Nazareno, Marcelo, and Brusco, Valeria (2013) Brokers, Voters, and Clientelism: The Puzzle of Distributive Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Teorell, Jan, and Rothstein, Bo (2015) “Getting to Sweden, part I: War and malfeasance, 1720–1850.” Scandinavian Political Studies 28 (3): 217–37.Google Scholar
Thermaenius, Edward (1935) Riksdagspartierna. Stockholm: Victor Pettersons.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles (2004) Contention and Democracy in Europe, 1650–2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tilton, Timothy (1974) “The social origins of liberal democracy: The Swedish case.” American Political Science Review 68 (2): 561–71.Google Scholar
Ujhelyi, Gergely (2014) “Civil Service Rules and Policy Choices: Evidence from US State Governments.” American Economic Journal 6 (2): 338–380.Google Scholar
Verney, Douglas (1957) Parliamentary Reform in Sweden, 1866–1921. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Wallin, Gunnar (1961) Valrörelser och valresultat. Andrakammarvalen i Sverige 1866–1884. Stockholm: Ronzo boktryckeri.Google Scholar
Wedberg, Birger (1922) Konungens högsta domstol, 1789–1809. Stockholm. Norstedt.Google Scholar
Wedberg, Birger (1940) Konungens högsta domstol, 1809–1840. Stockholm. Norstedt.Google Scholar
Westman, Karl Gustaf (1924) “Den gustavianska Högsta Domstolen och dess hävdatecknare.” Historisk Tidskrift 44 (4): 317–74.Google Scholar
Winton, Patrik (2006) Frihetstidens politiska praktik: Nätverk och offentlighet 1746–1766. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.Google Scholar
Ziblatt, Daniel (2006) “How did Europe democratize?” World Politics 58 (2): 311–38.Google Scholar
Ziblatt, Daniel (2009) “Shaping democratic practice and the causes of electoral fraud: The case of nineteenth-century Germany.” American Political Science Review 103 (1): 1–21.Google Scholar