%0 Journal Article
%T The making of ¡®Swedish democracy¡¯: Anti
%A Jussi Kurunm£¿ki
%J Journal of Modern European History
%@ 2631-9764
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1611894419835746
%X This article investigates the formation and use of the notion of the ancient origins of Swedish democracy before the Second World War. A commonplace of the early rhetoric on the ancient origins of Swedish democracy was its reference to an anti-aristocratic tradition, despite the variety of political positions that the rhetoric served. It was the leitmotif of the first sporadic notions of a democratic past in the 18th century, it was the main topic of the romantic idealisation of a coalition between the monarch and the peasants, and it served as an argument in struggles over suffrage reforms and parliamentary government. When parliamentary democracy was institutionally established, the ¡®aristocracy¡¯ lost its central place in the rhetoric of a Swedish democratic tradition. At the same time, the notion of a coalition between the people and the monarch was revised to a more non-specific notion of the common interest between the people and the government. In the context of the rise of totalitarianism, a ¡®Swedish¡¯ and ¡®Nordic¡¯ democratic tradition was employed as a rhetorical means of defending existing political institutions in the country
%K Ancient
%K democracy
%K modern
%K Nordic
%K political tradition
%K Sweden
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1611894419835746