7.2.7 Sweden Local Democratic Traditions
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This article is from the Nordic countries FAQ, by Antti Lahelma and Johan Olofsson, with numerous contributions by others.
7.2.7 Sweden Local Democratic Traditions
If Swedes aren't proud of the violent past with vikings, wars and conquers
then instead the long and strong democratic tradition is a very important
part of the cultural heritage.
To trace this tradition is almost impossible, since already in the first
written laws (from the 1220:ies) it seems obvious that the customs are
timehonored. Villages had had time at least since the Iron age to develop
traditions. To distinguish Sweden's conditions compared to Finland, Denmark
or the European continent is also hard but a few differences are obvious.
While solitarily living families have been more important in parts of
Finland, villages and works are the most prominent communities in Sweden.
The Danish tradition is influenced by feudalism and the absence of woods and
works. Fishing villages have been of the greatest importance on the long
Norwegian coast and on the many Danish islands. These societal differences
are usable when one tries to analyze the differences between "national
characters" - still one must remember the resemblance is more prominent than
the differences.
Scandinavia and Finland has had only a rudimentary feudal system. Most land
has been owned by commoners paying taxes to the king and without being
directs subordinates to any lords. The great forests has made it hard for
the lords to pester and punish the commoners.
In Sweden the villages were left to rule themselves without any superior to
interfere. Each villages had, until the 19:th century, one fenced field
precisely marked in shares for each property. (On the rich plains some
villages had two or even three fenced fields where the crops were changed
systematically, but in these cases each farm had property on each field.)
Outside of the fence the cattle had to graze between sowing and harvest. The
farmers were responsible for one part each of the fence. The fence was the
most important subject the villagers had to cooperate about, but as the
field was organized it was also practically and often necessary to do the
work coordinated on the same days. The village meeting had to discuss and
decide about this, but also about the use of woods, fishing water, common
roads, boats and herding.
The village meeting was however not for crofters or other poor. Instead it
often regulated how many lodgers the village could feed, forcing people to
move.
The main rule was, that changes in the statues for a villages were to be
accepted by all farmers unanimous. The statues could however stipulate that
other decisions were to be made by a majority. Unanimity was however the
basic rule for how decisions were to be made at meetings in villages and
parishes.
This tradition of unanimous decisions must have contributed to the Swedish
custom of adjustment of ones attitudes to the perceived majority. Unanimous
decisions demand a high degree of compromises from the individuals.
The pre-Christian culture was a tribe culture like many other of the
pre-Christian cultures among the indo-Europeans. The members of a tribe were
obliged to avenge injuries against their dead and mutilated relatives. A
balancing structure is necessary to hinder tribe fights to lead to society
destructing anarchy. In the North-Germanic cultures the balancing
institution was the Thing ("ting"). The thing was the assembly of the free
men in an area, as in a hundred ("härad") or in a province / county
("landskap"), at which disputes were solved and political decisions were
made. Before Christianity chieftains where at the same time political and
religious leaders, with the main purpose to bring the people good times
("fred" - nowadays actually the word for peace). The place for the Thing
("tingsplats") was often also the place for public religious rites, and
sometimes the place for commerce.
In case of bad times the people could sacrifice their leader (literally!),
or maybe less violently select another leader. As the Christian missionaries
then convinced the most respected among the viking magnates, an abyss opened
between the ordinary agrarian people an their converted magnates; and the
old order was disrupted.
Free peasants who were used to participate in the decision making in the
village, in the province and in the realm did not easily accept to be left
unquestioned when the Svea kingdom expanded.
The Engelbrecht rebellion is probably the best picture we can get of how
kings had been elected in older times. Engelbrecht was elected to captain
for Dalarna where he and the people had promised each other allegiance, then
he went to Västmanland, where the people summoned to the "tingsplats"
expressed their support and allegiance, then to Uppland where Engelbrecht
and the people promised each other allegiance, then to Östergötland, where
the procedure was repeated, and then to Västergötland where he was honored
by the people, then to Halland (the part which at that time was identified
with Götaland and Sweden). All this occurred in the end of the summer 1434.
In January 1435 a diet appointed Engelbrecht as captain for the Swedish
realm, and as such he that year negotiated with the union-king - with poor
result. In response to demands from the country a new diet was summoned in
1436 where Engelbrecht was elected king. As king he requested the people in
Stockholm to swear allegiance. The Stockholmians had to choose between a
battle and a new king, and accepted the new king.
During the 16th century a lot of land was taken by the state from parishes
and convents. These lands were then often transferred to the nobility,
particularly from 1567 to 1680, which had important consequences for the
peasants. Tenant farmers on state property could be forced to do extra work
in addition to the law-regulated taxes, which was a less favorable situation
than for farmers owning their own land, but farmers on land sold/given to
nobel masters had additionally lost their right to participation in the
elections of peasant representatives at the diets.
Works (bruksorter) is the contrasting element, organized in much as a
manorial estate, where the owner had the duty to act as a good master in a
strictly hierarchical household. The works was a closed society, taking
responsibility for the people living there from the cradle to the grave.
United the people could express their wishes and propositions, and a wise
master would not act against the best of the people. But the power was his.
The rules of order at democratic meetings got changed in the 19:th century.
The villages were split, many farmers' houses were moved away from the
village, each farm got it's field separated from the others, and the village
meeting became obsolete. The traditions from the higher assemblies, where
the majority ruled, were found fit for the parishes also, particularly when
these came to grow due to the urbanization. With the Free Churches, the
Temperance movement and the workers unions foreign influences were added to
the old traditions.
Today fairness and equality are important parts of the order at a meeting.
The word is given to speakers in the order they have asked for it, no-one is
to be unfairly favored. The assembly and the chair are not supposed to
interrupt the speaker, unless he/she breaks any decided rules (as a time
limit) or humiliates others. All who wish to speak are entitled to do so
prior to the voting, all are entitled to put propositions forward, all
propositions are to be equally handled (almost!), and in case of the
majority taking a position one feel impossible to take responsibility for,
then all are entitled to get ones dissentient opinions taken to the records.
But still traces of the unanimity tradition is visible in the attitude that
people who suspect they belong to a minority should better not utter their
opinion - to the best of all - in order to reinforce the feeling of unity
and unanimity. ...and after a decision all participants are expected to
advocate the opinion of the majority - whatever they thought before.
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