c o n t i n u i t y a n d c o n t r ac t 129 Thus they represented a threat to the existing order and a dangerous means in the socialist struggle towards the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Liberals for a long time adopted a kind of wait-and-see policy while the Social Democrats distrusted the state and expressly opposed legislation concerning the contract of employment.258 From1905 the left-wing parties - Liberals and Social Democrats - received a majority in the second chamber and thus a decisive influence on the treatment of the several drafts concerning labour relations that the government presented.259 Around the turn of the century in 1900, the social issue had been transformed into the “worker issue” (Sw. arbetarefrågan). Even if this renaissance of state intervention no doubt had a most immediate connection to the radical emergence of strikes, it concerned other areas than labour life, such as the treatment of juvenile offenders and child welfare.260 The public discussion on the “worker issue” dealt with at least three, partly overlapping dimensions namely the social, political and economic aspects. The social aspect concerned the workers’ claims to get social security in case of a loss of income.A general European tendency of the period from the Industrial Revolution until the Second WorldWar was the establishment of a system of compulsory social insurance. These patterns did not emanate from the most industrially advanced liberal capitalist states, but rather from strongly conservative countries where industrialisation was preceded by strong state action to estrange the working class from socialist ideas.261 Although the liberal Sven Adolf Hedin (1834-1905) as early as in 1884 confronted the Swedish parliament with a model of mandatory insurance for workers, legislation concerning this matter was not passed until 1916.262 Subsequently, the system was 258 Schiller 1967, p. 269;Westerståhl 1945, pp. 241-246. 259 Westerståhl 1945, p. 267; Nygren 1981, pp. 382-383. 260 Nygren 1981, p. 359; Kumlien 1997, p. 351. 261 Hepple 1986b. 262 Meidal 1987; Spångberg, 1925.
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