In Search of Respectability: Popular Movements in Scandinavian Democratization — from Voluntary Associations to Mass Organizations

Abstract

No serious student of political institutions would today maintain that development can be understood without taking comparative historical research on state and civil society into account. The international debate on determinants of national development takes the issue of mass mobilization and popular participation more and more seriously. Democracy does not only include the establishment of democratic freedoms and universal suffrage, but also the creation of the social and cultural conditions for popular participation in political life by — for instance — the reduction of the working day and through universal education. Political parties must not only be deeply rooted among members and voters; it is not sufficient for a party to mobilize voters during an election; active participation by members and sympathizers between elections is also necessary for a vital democracy.

This chapter is based on relevant research in two projects, ‘The Functions of the Class Society: The Popular Movements’ started in 1965 at the Department of History of the University of Uppsala, and the joint Scandinavian project called ‘From Associations to Mass Organizations — Social Change and the Origin of the Modern Association Movement Studied in a Comparative Nordic Perspective’. The latter project was started in 1982. The following studies should be mentioned from the first project: Ingrid Åberg, Förening och politik. Folkrörelsemas politiska aktivitet i Gävle under 1880-talet (Association and Politics), 1975; Torkel Jansson, Samhällsförändring och sammanslutningsformer (Transformation of Society and Forms of Organization), 1982; and Sven Lundkvist, Folkrörelsema i det svenska samhället, 1850–1920) (The Popular Movements in Swedish Society, 1850–1920), 1977. From the second project: Niels Clemmensen, Associationer og foreningsdannelse i Danmark 1780–1880 (Associations and the Formation of Associations in Denmark 1780–1880), 1987, Torkel Jansson, Adertonhundratalets associationer (Nineteenth-Century Associations) 1985, Henrik Stenius, Frivilligt — jämlikt — samfällt. Föreningsväsendets utveckling i Finland fram till 1900-talets början (Voluntarily — Equally — Mutually: A History of Voluntary Assocations in Finland until the Early 20th Century), 1987.