Religious Origins of Democratic Pluralism

The Religious Origins of Democratic Pluralism focuses on explaining one of the riddles that fascinated historians and political scientists for much of the twentieth century, namely, the origin and development of Swedish social democracy. While othercountries in Europe experienced dramatic swings between radical and conservative political parties, which resulted in tragic experiments with totalitarian regimes, Sweden, by contrast, miraculously seemed to avoid these extremes, and instead maintained space for democratic discussion and even dissent. This peaceful transformation was facilitated by political actors who crafted the discourse of their debates in such a way that pluralism came to be valued as an ethical good and then vigorously defended. This study examines the decades leading up to the emergence of social democracy in Sweden, and in particular, the career of one prominent politician, Paul Peter Waldenstrom (1838-1917). Waldenstrom was a clergyman, revival preacher, educator,author, and newspaper editor, whose political career began in 1868 with his participation in the Church Assembly of the Church of Sweden. His role expanded during his years of service in the Swedish parliament, the Riksdag, from 1884-1905. This study places Waldenstrom in dialogue with his contemporaries and opponents as a means of identifying how the theological values and priorities of the religious awakening were articulated in the public sphere and contributed to the development of a new political order.



Mark Safstrom, PhD, is Lecturer of Swedish and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has previously published The Swedish Pietists: A Reader and a translation of Paul Peter Waldenstrom's allegorical novel, Squire Adamsson: Or, Where Do You Live?