Study Of The History, Theory And Practice Of Swedish Social Democratic Party During Its Administration

The Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party or Social Democrats (SSDP) not only has become the largest party in Sweden, but has enjoyed the longest history in power among European Social Democratic Parties after the tortuous development of 118 years since it was founded in 1889. During its administration, the SSDP has made great progress in theory and practice, in particular, its Swedish socialism and Swedish Model, which make it a miracle in the contemporary world socialist movement. In the course of Swedish modernization, the SSDP plays a key role. To a certain extent, it is the SSDP that promotes the Swedish political, economical and social huge development. Without the SSDP, it is impossible for Sweden to become one of the most developed countries in the world. The SSDP has experienced the rise and fall in its political career, its experiences and lessons are beneficial to Chinese Communist Party.Guided by Marxism, the dissertation probes comprehensively and systematically the history, theory and practice of the SSDP during its administration in order to summarize its governing rules and draw on its experience and lessons. The major contents of this dissertation are as follows:The introduction illustrates the reason for selecting such a research subject and the significance of the study; the literature review; the way of thinking and methods used in the study; the definition of some main concepts; the innovation and defects of the dissertation.The first part mainly expounds the establishment, transformation of the SSDP and the adminisration at its early age. With the rise of Swedish industrial revolution , in the high tide of the home and foreign working class against capitalist system and under the influence of Marxism , the SSDP was founded in 1889.At the end of 19century and the beginning of 20 century, with the emergence of Bernsteinism, the division and reshuffle took place in the party, and then, the SSDP progressively gave up the idea of capturing power by violent revolution and stepped on the way to take power by legal struggles. In 1917, the SSDP was in office for the first time and start the adminisration at its early age. The world economic crisis in 1930s and the burst of the Second World War provides the SSDP a chance to think deeply and probe how to strengthen its governing position under the condition of complicated atmosphere and parliamentary multi-party system. Within this period of its administration , the SSDP laid down and carried out so called "People's Home "plan, which helped Sweden break away from economic crisis and free itself from devastation of the Second World War. The initial practice of the administration furnished it with valuable experiences and was also pregnant with the embryo of main characteristics of Swedish democratic social movement. The second part mainly expounds the "Golden age" of the SSDP and formation of Swedish Model. The SSDP was in office nearly interruptedly from 1945 to 1976, so that the period was called "Golden age" of the SSDP. During its adminisration, with continuous exploring its theory and practice, the SSDP experienced the shift from Welfare Socialism to Functional Socialism. In particular, it promoted the establishment of the Swedish Model, namely, in terms of the economy, the SSDP gave up the policy of socialization, and emphasized on economic plan and form the mixed economic system; in terms of social reform, the SSDP propelled the legislation of social security and built a so called welfare state system from cradle to grave; in terms of class relationship, the SSDP pursued corporatism to push forward the friendly cooperation of every classes, parties and interest groups; in terms of diplomatic policy, the SSDP persisted in the policy of positive neutralism. The establishment of the Model has also made Sweden fulfill a leap from poor and backward countries to one of the most developed capitalist countries. However, in spite of those remarkable achievements, some new contradictions and crises were incubating in the SSDP, which brought about severe challenges to its govening position.The third part mainly expounds the rise and fall of the SSDP, its thinking and exploration from 1976 to 1994. With the burst of 1970s'economic crisis, the latent crises of the SSDP came out into the open, in addition, because the theory and practice of the SSDP could not keep up with the development of domestic and external situation, it fell out of power three times from 1976 to 1991. However, even within the period of crisis, the SSDP did not stop its step to explore, and still tried to adjust its economic, social, ownership's and diplomatic policy. Especially, the establishment of'Wage-Earners'Fund set off a new upsurge of Fund Socialism after Functional Socialism. Those explorations did not thoroughly reverse its declining tendency, but it helped the SSDP accumulate profitable experiences.The forth part mainly expounds the new opportunities and new challenges of the SSDP at the turn of the 20th century. In 1994, the SSDP won the election again .After coming back to the power, the SSDP began to its new explorations. Under the influence of the trend of thought of The Third Way around the Europe, the SSDP carried out such reforms as in ideology, economy, social policy and diplomatic policy, As a result, the SSDP won 1998's and 2002's election. However, due to the challenges of welfare system, the transformation of party's organizational structure, the influence of medium on party and social problem, the SSDP failed in 2006's election and lost the power once again.The fifth part mainly expounds several main theoretical problems concerning the SSDP. The first one is the nature of the SSDP. By analyzing its class basis, theory and ideology, we think that the SSDP is a party that represents the interests of working class and labor mass and reforms capitalist system. The second one is the experiences and lessons of the SSDP during its administration. We think that its experiences and lessons lie in innovation of theory, social comprehensive development and construction of party. The third one is the relation between the CPC and the Western SDP (WSP) including SSDP. We think that despite essential difference in ideology between the CPC and the WSP, we should develop the relation of the two sides on the basis of Marxist ideology in view of actual need of international politics. The fourth one is the inspirations that we should draw from the SSDP. We think that the inspirations has the following aspects: i) the goal of our party should be to serve the people wholeheartedly; ii) We should strengthen innovation of theory; iii) We should pay close attention to harmonious development of society; iv) We should be honest and clean in performing our official duties.