The phenomenon of political parties has existed for a long time, but the modern meaning of party is not as old. Today, a political party is synonymous with a party organization, which, among other things, is mobilized before general elections. At the time of the breakthrough of Swedish democracy around 1920, this phenomenon was quite new, at the time of the introduction of the bicameral Riksdag in 1867, it did not exist. In that sense, the Social Democrats are usually called Sweden’s first modern party, which emerged in the late 19th century.

What a party was in the 19th century had a less fixed form, and such entities were often less permanent. Sometimes a party meant more or less a list that members signed up to signal what they intended to vote for. The image below shows party formations and party splits between 1867 and 1970, illustrated as a hierarchical tree (from the biographical book series Tvåkammarriksdagen 1867–1970).

In the lower part of the tree, the five Riksdag parties are found that existed at the time of the dissolution of the Bicameral Riksdag, and which still exist today: Centre Party, Left Party, Liberals, Moderate Party, and Social Democrats. However, in the first decades of the Bicameral Riksdag there were a plethora of parties, and often with similar names. For example, within a 15-year period, you find “Centern” (second chamber, 1873–1882), “Center-högern” (second chamber, 1883–1886), “Nya centern” (second chamber, 1883–1887), and “Centern” (first chamber, 1885–1887).

One aim of the Swerik project is to address this complexity and add “party belonging” (when such existed) to the database of members of parliaments.

Skärmavbild 2023-06-14 kl 10 37 55