enlarged by laws concerning mandatory health insurance, unemployment insurance and retirement pension.263 Legislation was also introduced concerning the protection of children and women (1881, 1889, and 1900) as well as protection against occupational hazards.264 These acts aimed at removing extremely bad conditions in the workplace rather than touching the deeper relationship between employer and worker. In1919Sweden followed many otherWestern countries by passing legislation for an eight-hour working day. During this period of great turbulence following the FirstWorldWar, the worker issue’s political aspects were placed in focus.The political branch of the Swedish labour movement, the Social Democratic Party now gained ground concurrently with the introduction of a democratic form of government. Since the turn of the century in 1900, a dominating question had been the demand for universal and equal suffrage and the principle of a parliamentary system for government. In1909 the graded franchise was partly retained in local elections, but no one was allowed more than40 votes. In the 1909 elections to the second chamber of the parliament all men over the age of 24 obtained the vote, and elections became proportional. Significant success for the Social Democrats and the Liberals in the general elections of 1917 increased their majority in the second chamber. As a result the Conservative government resigned. Up to this time they had held office with the support of the king and the conservative majority in the first chamber. Now King GustavV (1858-1950) had to appoint a government based on a majority in the second chamber.With the appointing of this Liberal-Social Democratic government in1917, the parliamentary system had obtained definite recognition in Sweden. One of the first measures of the left-wing government was to propose a constitutional amendment concerning universal and p a r t i v, c h a p t e r 5 130 263 Jägerskiöld 1955. 264 Schmidt, F 1950, pp. 15-16; Sellberg 1950; Hedwall 1978; Nygren 1982.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=