Historisk Tidskrift. Utgiven av Svenska historiska föreningen
  Hem Aktuellt  Tidigare nummer Bli Medlem  Annonsera Om Historisk Tidskrift  För skribenter  Föreningen In English
 

Historisk tidskrift 126:4 • 2006

Innehåll (Contents) 2006:4

Uppsatser (Articles)

Bönder i svensk politik under 1900-talet. Exemplet den svenska högern

Fredrik Eriksson

Fulltext (pdf)

Summary

From Farmers in twentieth century Swedish politics. The case of the Swedish Conservative Party to manly citizen. The peasant in early twentieth-century Finnish history writing

Few economic groups have achieved the political success of the farmers of Sweden, Europe and North America. Farmers have often managed to shape agricultural policies to suit their own interests. This article investigates how and why farmers have managed to be so politically influential. Whereas the number of farmers has fallen in the twentieth century, their political influence has not declined in the same way. By studying the Swedish Conservative Party – ”Högerpartiet”, later ”Moderata samlingspartiet” – this article demonstrates how farmers have achieved political influence. The Conservative Party’s history as a farmers’ party is relatively unknown because the Conservative Party has not, since the 1930s, played a central role in the formulation of agricultural policy. Nor has the party presented itself as a party of farmers in the post-war period. Yet, in the early twentieth century structures were created in the Conservative Party that have lived on to the present day.

There are clear parallels between this development in the Conservative Party and the establishment of the national system of agricultural policy. It was the system of negotiated settlement between interest groups within the corporative state that formed the basis of regulated farming. Regulation was often made on the farmers’ terms, however, which led to a neglect of the consumer perspective. The influence of the farmers and the farmers’ unions on agricultural policy in the twentieth century can be divided into three periods. The starting point is the parliamentary reform of 1866, which greatly strengthened the political position of the farmers. From then and up to 1930, farmers’ influence on agricultural policy was contested. From 1930 to 1967, the farmers had a hegemonic position in the formulation of agricultural policy. After 1967, the power of the farmers over agricultural policy has again been contested.

Keywords

agriculture, agricultural policy, political influence of farmers, agricultural organisations, conservatism, the Conservative Party (Högerpartiet, Moderata samlingspartiet)