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Swedish Rural Society and Political Culture: The Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Peter Aronsson
Peter Aronsson
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Lund and Högskolan i Växjö, Sweden
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Extract

In 1776, baron Salomon von Otter, governor of the neighbouring county of Halland and jus patronatus of the local parish, stood opposite the men of Öja parish at a meeting outside the church. The powerful nobleman was for the third time arguing for the praiseworthy and legally required task of building a combined school and poor-house in cooperation with the neighbouring parish (where he happened to own most of the land). The peasants of Ö for a third time refused, both in writing and orally, on the grounds of their alleged right to self-government. The baron continued with his persuasions, and presented the support he had from the local nobility, among them the bishop. He was still met with a firm refusal. Eventually the baron ordered that they should build the house, referring (probably without much legal foundation) to his position as jus patronatus. Now everybody surrendered, except one farmer who refused to join in the final decision. This fact was carefully noted by the local clergyman, together with assurances that this unwise stubbornness would not suffice to impede the project.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , April 1992 , pp. 41 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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References

Notes

1. Church Records of Öja, protocols of the parish meetings, VLA.

2. österberg, Eva, ‘Svenska lokalsamhällen i förändring ca 1550–1850. Participation, representation och politisk kultur i den svenska självstyrelsen. Ett angeläget forskningsområde’, Historisk Tidskrift 1987:3.Google Scholar

3. Behre, Göran, Larsson, Lars-Olof, Österberg, Eva, Sveriges historia 1521–1809. Stomaktsdröm och småstatsrealiteter (Stockholm, 1985), p. 222.Google ScholarMyrdal, Janken, ‘Jordägandet i Sverige. Från 1500-tal till 1800-tal’, Folkets historia, årg 16, 1988:4.Google Scholar

4. Winberg, Christer, Grenverket. Studier rörande jord, släktskapssystem och ståndsprivilegier, Rättshistoriskt bibliotek, ser I, band 38 (Stockholm, 1985).Google ScholarHerlitz, Lars, Fordegendom ochränta. Omfördelningen av jordbrukets merprodukt i Skaraborgs län under frihetstiden, Meddelanden från ekonomisk-historiska institutionen vid Göteborgs universitet 31 (diss, Göteborg, 1974).Google Scholar

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6. Österberg, Eva, ‘Bönder och centralmakt i del tidigmoderna Sverige. Konflikt – kompromiss – politisk kultur’ Scandia 1989:1.Google Scholar Both Österberg and I make use of the concept of ‘kommunalismus’ as designating this drive for self determination that takes on political and juridical forms of interaction with the State. The inspiration comes from Peter Blickle. Cf Blickle, Peter, Deutsche Untertanen. Ein Widerspruch (1981)Google Scholar; ‘Kommunalismus, parlamentar- ismus, republikanismus’, Historische Zeitschrift, band 242, 06 1986, pp. 529–56Google Scholar; ‘Communal Reformation and Peasant Piety: The Peasant Reformation and Its Late Medieval Origins’, Central European History, vol XX, 1987:3–4, pp. 216–28.Google Scholar

7. For literature, examples and knowledge about the political process at the parish level I have to make a collective reference to my main manuscript, which will make up my doctoral thesis to be published in 1992: Bönder gör politik. Sockenstämman som Social Arena, ca 1680–1850. The research has been made possible by, and benefits from, a project led by Professor Eva Osterberg, University of Lund.

8. For example, Nilsson, Sven A., ‘Krig och folkbokforing under svenskt 1600-tal’, Scandia 1982.Google Scholar

9. Herlitz, Nils, Grunddragen av del svenska statsskickets historia (Stockholm, 1959).Google Scholar

10. Margareta Revera, 1600-talsbönderna och deras herrar. Om jordägande skatter och samhälls- förändring i ljuset av nyare forskning, Den svenska juridikens uppblomstring i 1600-talets politiska, kulturella och religiösa stormaktssamhälle, Rättshistoriska studier, serie II, band 9 (Stockholm, 1984). Johansson, Kenneth, ‘Herrar och bönder. Om jurisdiktionen i några småländska friherrskap på 1600-talet’, Scandia 1990:2, pp. 161–91.Google Scholar

11. Englund, Peter, Del hotade huset. Adliga föreställningar om samhället under stormaktstiden (diss, Uppsala, 1989)Google Scholar; Elmroth, Ingvar, För kung och fosterland. Studier i den svenska adelns demografi och offentliga funktioner 1600–1900, Biblioteca Historica Lundensis (Lund, 1981).Google ScholarAgren, Kurt, ‘Rise and Decline of an Aristocracy. The Swedish social and political elite in the 17th Century’, Scandinavian Journal of History, Vol I, no 1–2 1976.Google ScholarNilsson, Sven A., ‘Reduktion eller kontribution’, Scandia 1958.Google Scholar

12. Carlsson, Sten, Ståndssamhdlle och ständspersoner 1700–1865. Studier rörande del svenska ständssamhällets uppläsning (diss, Lund, 1949).Google Scholar

13. ‘Detta stånd gär steg för steg fram at omsider få fatta uti riksstyrelsen’ (authors translation). Cit Alexandersson, Erland, Bondestdådet i riksdagen 1760–1772, Bibliotheca Historica Lund- ensis XXXVI (diss, Lund, 1975), p. 204.Google Scholar

14. Herlitz, , pp. 162 ffGoogle Scholar; Ingers, E., Bonden isvensk historia, del II (Stockholm, 1948).Google Scholar

15. Bäck, Kalle, Bondeopposition och bondeinflytande under frihetstiden. Centralmakten och östgö-taböndernas reaktioner i näringspolitiska frågor (diss, Stockholm, 1984)Google Scholar; Olai, Birgitta, Storskif-tet i Ekebyborna. Svensk jordbruksutveckling avspeglad i en ästgätasocken, Studia Historica Upsaliensia 130 (diss, Uppsala, 1983)Google Scholar, idem, ‘…till vinnande af ett redigt Storskifte…’En komparativ studie av storskiftet i fern härader, Studia Historica Upsaliensia 145 (Uppsala, 1987). For a European perspective and on the later ‘laga skifte’ of Sweden see Pattersson, Ronny, Laga skifte i Holland 1827–1876 (Stockholm, 1983), pp. 318–35.Google Scholar

16. At least this is the case if we allow the Estate to represent the peasants on crown land too – a position that could be justified in the Swedish case.

17. Cf, Karlsson, Per-Arne, Järnbruken och attitydmässig konflikt under Sveriges tidiga industria-lisering 1700–1770 (diss Stockholm, 1990).Google ScholarFridén, Bertil, På tröskeln till marknaden. Makt institutionell kontext och ekonomisk effektivitet i Västsverige 1630–1800 (diss Goteborg, 1991).Google Scholar

18. There are different opinions on the capacity of the economy in the eighteenth century. No doubt the mercantilist projects were mostly failures, with the big exception of the iron industry. Concerning agriculture, some historians have identified a Malthusian situation, but recent research stresses the dynamic economy that must lie behind the rise in population and the fact that Sweden, from being a corn importing country, became an exporter during the first decades of the nineteenth century. For a discussion in recent years see Fridholm, M., Isacsson, Mats, Magnusson, Lars, Industrialismens rötter (1976)Google Scholar; Gadd, Carl-Johan, fåm och potatis. Jordbruk, teknik och social omvandling i Skaraborgs Iän 1750–1860Google Scholar, Meddelanden fran ekonomisk-historiska institutionen vid Göteborgs universitet 53 (diss, Gröteborg, 1983). Martinius, Sture, Jordbrukets omvandling på 1700- och 1800-talen (Lund, 1982).Google Scholar More is known of the achievements of peasant farming in the nineteenth century. Cf Köll, Anu-Mai, Tradition och reform ivdstra Sodermalnlands jordbruk 1810–1890. Agrar teknik i kapitalismens inledningsskede (diss Stockholm, 1983).Google ScholarPeterson, Gunilla, Jordbrukets omvandling i västra Östergötland 1810–1890 (diss Stockholm, 1989).Google Scholar

19. The main concern was with the manufactures, but several propositions were made for a totally new organisation of agriculture. Heckscher, Eli F., Sveriges ekonomiska historia från Gustav Vasa, del 11:1–2 (Stockholm, 1949)Google Scholar and Westerlund, Lars, Sockensamhällen och provinssam-fund. Riksdagsbehandlingen av 1752 års organisationsprojekt rörande ‘Oeconomiska Samhälden til Landthuushäldningens uphielpande’ (Abo, 1988).Google Scholar

20. Herlitz, Nils ‘Ett och annat om självsryrelsens betydelse i svensk författningshistoria’, Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift 1921:2–3.Google Scholar Osterberg ibid and ongoing research by Kenneth Johansson, Department of History, University of Lund.

21. On the interconnected dynamics between the fundamental societal concepts see Williams, Raymond, Marx och kulturen. En diskussion kring marxistis kultur och litteraturteori (Stockholm, 1980).Google Scholar

22. In England the politicisation of Political Culture takes on manifold expressions, but they are mainly formed in the context and tension between the free associations and parliamentary praxis. The German example shows a lower degree of diversification and is more confined to a ‘classical’ growth of political arena completely outside the state, although with a lot of personal ties to the administration. See Eckhart Hellmuth's introduction and a number of articles in The Transformation of Political Culture: England and Germany in the Late Eighteenth Century, ed. Hellmuth, Eckhart (Oxford University Press, 1990).Google Scholar

23. For a more detailed attempt to explore the theoretical possibilities of this view see Aronsson, et al. , ‘Vem skapar historia? Om struktur och subjekt som historieteoretiskt problem’, Scandia 1988:2 (1989).Google Scholar

24. Johansson, K-H, Svensk sockensjälvstyrelse 1686–1862 (diss, Lund, 1937), p. 325Google Scholar; Carlsson, Sten, Svensk historia II. Tiden efter 1718 (1961) (Stockholm, 1980), pp 71–2.Google Scholar

25. Church records of Ålmeboda parish, protocols of the parish meetings, VDA, VLA. Gosta Lext, Mantalsskrivningen i Sverige före 1860, Meddelanden från ekonomisk-historiska institutionen vid Göteborgs universitet, 13 (Göteborg, 1968).

26. Carlsson, , Svensk historia, pp. 193 ffGoogle Scholar; Alexandersson, pp. 212 ff.Google Scholar

27. Winberg, , Grenverket, pp 188–201.Google Scholar

28. There are exceptions of course. For example, cottagers of a thoroughly manor dominated parish could, at least until the middle of the nineteenth century, occupy important positions as elected functionaries in the parish-’communes’.

29. Some aspects of the building of new coalitions in Britt Liljewall, ‘Das bürgerliche Bild vom Bauern. Die Zeitungslektüre schwedischer Bauern in den 1870er Jahren’, Idylle oder Aufbruch? Das Dorf im Bürgerlichen 19. Jahrhundert, Ein europäischer Vergleich, Jacobeit, heraus- gegeben von Wolfgang et al. (Berlin, 1990)Google Scholar and Kyle, Jorgen, ‘Peasant Politics and the Social Question in Sweden 1840–1920. Traditions and Conceptualisation’, Language and the Construction of Class Identities, ed. Strath, Bo (Gothenburg, 1990).Google Scholar

30. The argument is inspired by E.P. Thompson. See for example the foreword to The Making of the English Working Class (London, 1963)Google Scholar and ‘1700-talets engelska samhälle - klasskamp utan klass?’, Herremakt och folklig kultur. Socialhistoriska uppsatser (Malmo, 1983).Google Scholar

31. This opinion might be regarded as a synthesis of Åmark and Stråth who respectively stress the weakness and the strength of the population to explain the political culture of nineteenth- century Sweden. Bo Sträth, ‘Continuity and Discontinuity in Passing Front I and II. Swedish 19th Century Civil Society: Culture, Social Formations and Political Change’ and Åmark’s replay in Democratisation in Scandinavia in Comparison, ed. Stråth, Bo (Dep of History, Gothenburg University, 1988)Google Scholar. For a social interpretation of the early revivalist movements see Aronsson, Peter, ‘Pigornas rop och överhetens diskurs’, Scandia 1989:2 (1990).Google Scholar

32. Lundkvist, Sven, Folkrörelserna i del svenska samhället 1850–1950, (Uppsala, 1977)Google Scholar

33. Kyle, Jörgen, pp 334–7.Google Scholar

34. Svensson, Göran, ‘Utländska bilder av Sverige. Bespeglingar i det moderna’, Sverige- vardag och struktur (Stockholm, 1988).Google Scholar

35. This is also the thesis of the provoking essay ‘Byalagets diskreta charm eller Folkhemmets demokratiuppfattning’, Du sköna gamla värld. Den europeiska traditionens framtid (FRN- framtidsstudier, 1987)Google Scholar by the polish ‘foreigner’ Maciej Zaremba. It gave me a lot of ideas, but here I use some of his observations and hypotheses in a more ‘apologetic’ way than he did.

36. Therborn, Göran, ‘Hur det hela började. Bär och varför det moderna Sverige blev vad det blev’, Sverige – vardag och struktur (Stockhom 1988), p. 23.Google Scholar For the crises of the Swedish model, both de facto and as an ideal, see respectively idem, ‘Den svenska välfärdsstatens särart och framtid’, Lycksalighetens halvö. Den svenska välfädsmodellen och Europa (Stockholm, 1987)Google Scholar and Svensson ‘Utländska bilder av Svenge’.

37. This is also the basic assumption of the CONDIS project. The project aims at comparative analysis of the democratisation process in several regions of northern Europe. The Swedish investigation is led by Professor Bo Stråth, University of Gothenburg.

38. Verba, Sidney et al. , Elites and the Idea of Equality, (1987).Google Scholar See also Anton, Thomas J., Administered Politics. Elite Political Culture in Sweden (Martinus Nijhoff Publishing, Boston/The Hague/London, 1980).Google Scholar

39. Verba, , Elites, pp. 31–2.Google Scholar See also Therborn, , Sverige p. 34Google Scholar, who in addition stresses homogeneity among the subjects as a source of a consensus political culture.

40. Magnus Mörner present a long term description of the origins of The Swedish Model, in many parts similar to mine. The explanation though, points in a greater degree towards the importance of the social control exercised by church and government officials. Mörner, Magnus, ‘The Swedish Model: Historical Perspectives’, Scandinavian Journal of History 1989:3, pp. 245–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar My point here does to some extent re-establish an older tradition in Swedish historiography, but hopefully it has gained in substance and argument by the more recent results by social historians. I owe much to the inspiration from professor Eva Österberg who also made important comments to the text. Kenneth Johansson, Maria Ågren, Bengt Schüllerquist, Sidsel Eriksen, fellows in the research projects concerning long term changes in the political participation and criminal behaviour, fellows of the higher seminar, University of Växjö, and professor Bo Stråth, have also made important comments to a previous version of this paper.

41. I have chosen not to discuss the concept of Political Culture here. Behind my use of the term I have drawn a lot from Nicolas Demertzis who develops the necessary criticism of the Political Culture studies of the '60s, in Cultural theory and political culture. New directions and proposals (diss, Lund, 1985).Google Scholar This tradition does indeed still produce books.