Tage Erlander's first cabinet | |
---|---|
38th Cabinet of Sweden | |
Date formed | 11 October 1946 |
Date dissolved | 1 October 1951 |
People and organisations | |
King | Gustaf V (until 1950) Gustaf VI Adolf |
Prime Minister | Tage Erlander |
Member party | Social Democrats |
Status in legislature | Single-party majority (upper house) Single-party minority (Lower house) |
Opposition parties | Right Wing Party Rural Party Farmers' League People's Party Swedish Communist Party |
History | |
Predecessor | Hansson IV |
Successor | Erlander II |
The first cabinet of Tage Erlander was the cabinet and government of Sweden between 11 October 1946 and 1 October 1951. It was formed following the sudden death of Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson on 6 October 1946.
It was succeeded on 1 October 1951 by the Erlander II Cabinet, a coalition government between the Social Democratic Party and the centre-right Farmers' League. [1]
Following the Second World War, social reform was the pillar of Swedish social democracy. The architect behind the Swedish welfare reforms during this period was the Minister for Social Affairs, Gustav Möller.
During the reign of the Erlander I Cabinet, the following reforms were implemented: [2]
During the war, it was feared that an economic depression would follow after the war's end. The economist Gunnar Myrdal warned of this coming depression in his 1944 book Varning för fredsoptimism(sv). But in 1945, it became clear that the economy was improving. As a consequence, inflation increased in 1946 and 1947 whilst a deficit in the balance of trade became all the more clear. The Swedish currency reserve ran out when the import surplus reached two billion crowns. [3]
Thus, in 1947, reforms and regulations were implemented in order to curb the Swedish import. Making imports and out-going international payments was made more difficult. Rationing on coffee, tea and cocoa was re-introduced. In April 1948, rationing on gasoline was introduced. The rationing and economic difficulties were criticized by the opposition, especially by the liberal People's Party which under the new leadership of Bertil Ohlin had hardened their policies and become the leading right-wing opposition party. [4] The People's Party along with the Right Wing Party spoke of "Krångel-Sverige" (lit. "Hassle Sweden") and chastised the Social Democrats, branding them as an authoritarian party which wanted to regulate things solely because of principles. [5] The reforms were also regarded as an attempt to socialize the private sector. [4]
An inquiry into Sweden's taxation policy was ordered in October 1945 and the subsequent 1946 report authored by Ernst Wigforss proposed that the income tax on poor people should be lowered while the income tax on people with high incomes should be raised. The final proposed legislation suggested raising the corporate tax from 32% to 40%, mandatory taxation on fortunes exceeding 20 000 crowns and a special tax on certain inherited estates. The debate surrounding the tax reform was harsh. The Svea Court of Appeal ruled the proposed inheritance tax as unconstitutional, since the constitution at the time stated that "no-one is to be deprived of their property without a legal verdict". The tax reform was nonetheless approved by the Riksdag. [6]
The opposition's criticism of government policy was sparked by the 1948 general election, when the tone between the ruling Social Democrats and the opposition turned unusually bitter. A prevalent topic during the election revolved around the financing of the parties. Morgon-Tidningen, a Social Democratic newspaper claimed that the People's Party was receiving contributions from "Big Finance", amounting to almost four million crowns. The claims were later found to be untrue, and were conveyed to the newspaper by a Social Democratic MP. The election was a success for the People's Party which increased its share of the vote by over seven percent. The Right Wing Party and the Swedish Communist Party performed poorly in the election. [7]
Monetary policy was focused on keeping interest rates low. Ivar Rooth, the head of the Swedish National Bank resigned in December 1948 when a dispute between the board and himself regarding implementing policies he regarded as inflationary. [8] In September 1949, the Swedish crown was devalued, a day after the British pound sterling was devalued.
Following the election, the Social Democrats began cooperating more closely with the Farmers' League. Talks were held about forming a coalition were initiated but were ultimately unproductive. In the summer of 1951, however, talks were resumed [9] and on 28 September 1951 it was agreed that a joint Social Democratic and Farmer's League government would be formed. The Farmer's League eventually received four ministerial positions in the Erlander II Cabinet. [10] [11]
The Erlander I Cabinet is also known for being the first Swedish cabinet with a woman as cabinet minister, when Karin Kock-Lindberg was appointed to the Cabinet in 1947.
Portfolio | Minister | Took office | Left office | Party | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Prime Minister | 11 October 1946 | 1 October 1951 | Social Democrats | ||
Minister for Justice | 11 October 1946 | 1 October 1951 | Social Democrats | ||
Minister for Foreign Affairs | 11 October 1946 | 1 October 1951 | Social Democrats | ||
Minister for Defence | 11 October 1946 | 1 October 1951 | Social Democrats | ||
Minister for Social Affairs | 11 October 1946 | 1 October 1951 | Social Democrats | ||
Deputy Minister for Social Affairs | 11 October 1946 | 1 July 1947 | Social Democrats | ||
Minister for Communications | 11 October 1946 | 1 October 1951 | Social Democrats | ||
Ministry for Finance | 11 October 1946 | 30 June 1949 | Social Democrats | ||
1 July 1949 | 17 October 1949 | Social Democrats | |||
21 October 1949 | 1 October 1951 | Social Democrats | |||
Minister for Wages | 4 January 1950 | 1 July 1950 | Social Democrats | ||
Minister for Agriculture | 11 October 1946 | 29 October 1948 | Social Democrats | ||
29 October 1948 | 1 October 1951 | Social Democrats | |||
Deputy Minister for Agriculture | 11 October 1946 | 11 April 1947 | Social Democrats | ||
Minister of Commerce and Industry | 11 October 1946 | 29 October 1948 | Social Democrats | ||
11 April 1947 | 24 September 1948 | Social Democrats | |||
24 September 1948 | 1 October 1951 | Social Democrats | |||
Minister of the Interior | 1 July 1947 | 1 October 1951 | Social Democrats | ||
Minister for Civil Service Affairs | 1 July 1950 | 1 October 1951 | Social Democrats | ||
Minister of Supply | 11 October 1946 | 11 April 1947 | Social Democrats | ||
11 April 1947 | 29 October 1948 | Social Democrats | |||
29 October 1948 | 31 December 1949 | Social Democrats | |||
1 January 1950 | 30 June 1950 | Social Democrats | |||
Minister of Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs | 11 October 1946 | 8 March 1951 | Social Democrats | ||
17 March 1951 | 1 October 1951 | Social Democrats | |||
Legal Counsel | 11 October 1946 | 1 October 1951 | |||
Legal Counsel and Minister for Churches | 11 October 1946 | 1 October 1951 | |||
Minister for Fuel | 11 October 1946 | 28 October 1948 | Social Democrats | ||
Minister for Economic Questions | 11 April 1947 | 28 October 1948 | Social Democrats | ||
28 October 1948 | 1 October 1951 | Social Democrats | |||
Minister for Economic Organization | 28 October 1948 | 21 October 1949 | Social Democrats | ||
Minister of Foreign Trade | 6 February 1951 | 1 October 1951 |
Sven Olof Joachim Palme was a Swedish politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1969 to 1976 and 1982 to 1986. Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 until his assassination in 1986.
Gösta Ingvar Carlsson is a Swedish politician who twice served as Prime Minister of Sweden, first from 1986 to 1991 and again from 1994 to 1996. He was leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1986 to 1996. He is best known for leading Sweden into the European Union.
The Riksdag is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members, elected proportionally and serving, since 1994, fixed four-year terms. The 2022 Swedish general election is the most recent general election.
The Riksdag is the national legislature of Sweden. However, when it was founded in 1866 Sweden did not have a parliamentary system of government.
Per Albin Hansson was a Swedish politician, chairman of the Social Democrats from 1925 and two-time Prime Minister in four governments between 1932 and 1946, governing all that period save for a short-lived crisis in the summer of 1936, which he ended by forming a coalition government with his main adversary, Axel Pehrsson-Bramstorp.
The Swedish Social Democratic Party, formally the SwedishSocial Democratic Workers' Party, usually referred to as The Social Democrats, is a centre-left social democratic political party in Sweden. Globally, it is a full member of the Progressive Alliance and the Party of European Socialists.
Tage Fritjof Erlander was a Swedish politician and statesman who served as the prime minister of Sweden and leader of the Social Democratic Party from 1946 to 1969. Previously, he served as minister of education from 1945 to 1946, and was a member of the Riksdag from 1932 to 1973. During his premiership, Sweden developed into one of the world's most advanced welfare states, with the "Swedish Model" at the peak of its acclaim and notoriety. His uninterrupted tenure of 23 years as head of the government is the longest ever in Sweden and in any modern Western democracy.
Since the introduction of parliamentarism in Sweden, six national referendums have been held. Legal provisions for referendums were introduced in 1922, one year after the adoption of universal suffrage. The Constitution of Sweden provides for binding referendums, but all referendums held as of 2012 have been non-binding. The latest referendum, on adopting the euro, was held on 14 September 2003.
Ernst Johannes Wigforss was a Swedish politician and linguist (dialectologist), mostly known as a prominent member of the Social Democratic Workers' Party and Swedish Minister of Finance. Wigforss became one of the main theoreticians in the development of the Swedish Social Democratic movement's revision of Marxism, from a revolutionary to a reformist organization. He was inspired and stood ideologically close to the ideas of the Fabian Society and guild socialism and inspired by people like R. H. Tawney, L.T. Hobhouse and J. A. Hobson. He made contributions in his early writings about industrial democracy and workers' self-management.
Gunnar Georg Emanuel Sträng was a Swedish trade union leader and Social Democratic politician, most known for being Sweden's longest serving minister for finance.
General elections were held in Sweden on 19 September 1948. Despite a campaign by a large part of the Swedish press against socializing insurances, controlled foreign trade and rationing regulations still in use since the war, freshman Prime Minister and Social Democratic leader Tage Erlander managed to defeat the People's Party-led opposition under Bertil Ohlin by a higher election turnout. He maintained his government with only minor losses and the Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party, winning 112 of the 230 seats in the Andra kammaren of the Riksdag. Erlander was to stay on as Prime Minister until 1969.
General elections were held in Sweden on 21 September 1952. The Social Democrats remained the largest party with 110 of the 230 seats in the Andra kammaren of the Riksdag and together with the Communist Party of Sweden they got 115 seats and the other parties 115 seats. Tage Erlander and his Social Democratic Party did however form his second government with the Farmers' League already in 1951 and together with that party the Social Democrats now had a majority of 136 seats in the chamber and together with the Communists 141 seats. In the other indirectly elected chamber the Social Democrats had an absolute majority.
General elections were held in Sweden on 16 September 1956. The Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party, winning 106 of the 231 seats in the Andra kammaren of the Riksdag. A Social Democratic-Farmers' League coalition government was formed by Prime Minister Tage Erlander after the election with 125 of the total of 231 seats. Although the non-socialist parties held a majority in the Second Chamber, the Social Democrats held a majority in the First Chamber, so a non-socialist government could not be formed.
General elections were held in Sweden on 20 September 1964. The Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party, winning 113 of the 233 seats in the Andra kammaren of the Riksdag. Tage Erlander's Social Democratic government was returned to power.
General elections were held in Sweden on 15 September 1968. Held in the wake of the crushing of the Prague Spring, it resulted in a landslide victory for the Social Democratic government and Prime Minister Tage Erlander. It is one of two general elections in Swedish history where a single party received more than half of the vote. Erlander would resign the following year after an uninterrupted tenure of 23 years as head of government.
Folkhemmet is a political concept that played an important role in the history of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and the Swedish welfare state. It is also sometimes used to refer to the long period between 1932 and 1976 when the Social Democrats were in power and the concept was put into practice, but also works as a poetic name for the Swedish welfare state. Sometimes referred to as "the Swedish Middle Way", folkhemmet was viewed as midway between capitalism and socialism. The base of the folkhem vision is that the entire society ought to be like a family, where everybody contributes, but also where everybody looks after one another. The Swedish Social Democrats' successes in the postwar period is often explained by the fact that the party managed to motivate major social reforms with the idea of the folkhem and the national family's joint endeavor.
The second cabinet of Stefan Löfven was the government of Sweden from 21 January 2019 to 9 July 2021. It was a coalition, consisting of two parties: the Social Democrats and the Green Party. The cabinet was installed on 21 January 2019, following the 2018 general election.
[Parliamentary] Committee on Taxation (SkU) is a parliamentary committee in the Swedish Riksdag. The committee manages and debates matters concerning state and municipal taxes and matters concerning taxation, tax payment, and, population registration, as well as matters concerning the enforcement system. Taxes also include customs duties and taxes comparable to taxes.
Sture Henriksson (1917–1957) was a Swedish trade unionist, ombudsman and social democrat politician who killed himself in 1957 while serving as the minister of communications.