Dans l’inconscient collectif et la culture nationale, l’image du Second Empire fut longtemps couverte par un voile d’opprobre. La défaite de Sedan, les diatribes de Victor Hugo et le coup d’État se conjuguèrent pour fixer durablement une légende noire. Des travaux historiographiques ont en partie réparé cette image, en montrant la réalité de la mutation libérale durant la décennie 1860 et la particularité de la conception du suffrage universel. Il restait à envisager les conséquences sur l’agent de l’État, en particulier dans son rapport avec l’une des spécificités de l’Empire : la candidature officielle. L’idéologie césarienne consiste à subordonner l’existence de l’Empire à la victoire du candidat recommandé par le Gouvernement lors de chaque élection, locale ou nationale. Le salut impérial requiert donc de placer tous les « fonctionnaires » sous la dépendance de ce candidat. L’opération est facilitée par deux points : d’une part, il n’existe pas de statut protégeant les fonctionnaires ; d’autre part, les libertés publiques sont sévèrement contrôlées. Mais la dépendance ne saurait être absolue. Le rôle de l’État évolue et les agents compétents qui parviennent à se rendre indispensables s’ouvrent un espace d’autonomie. Surtout, la législation électorale promouvant les grands principes modernes relatifs à la liberté des scrutins commence à être appliquée par la jurisprudence du Conseil d’État. L’agent devient donc partagé entre les nécessités inhérentes au soutien du candidat patronné et les obligations légales contrôlées par le Conseil d’État. / The image of the Second Empire was disgraced for a long time in our national culture. Indeed the French defeat at Sedan, Victor Hugo’s diatribes and the Coup combined to firmly corroborate the dark vision of the period. Yet some historical studies have partly restored it by showing the reality of the liberal mutation in the 1860’s and its particular conception of the universal suffrage. Thus it was also important to focus on the consequences on the Civil Servant and more particularly on his link with the official candidacy, which was one of the characteristics of the Empire. The ideology of Napoleon III consisted in subordinating the existence of the Empire to the victory of the candidate recommended by the Government for each local or national election. Therefore all the “civil servants” had to be subservient to the official candidacy. The manoeuvre was facilitated by two things. Indeed there was no status to protect the civil servants and the public liberties were strictly controlled by the Imperial rule. Yet it was not a complete dependence. The role of the State evolved and the competent civil servants who managed to be vital elements progressively became autonomous people. What is more, the electoral legislation, which conveyed great modern principles connected to voting freedom, began to be applied by the case law of the Legislative Body. Hence the civil servant became torn between the innate necessities to endorse the legitimate candidate and the legal obligations controlled by the Legislative Body.

This thesis analyzes Jason Brennan's paper "The Right to a Competent Electorate," then critiques his argument in favor of restricting voting rights to those deemed competent. I consider the practical and ethical implications of testing for competence, then conclude, contrary to Brennan, that granting all citizens voting rights is more just than restricting the voting population.

The aim of this dissertation is to describe and analyse the voting restrictions of the Swedish franchise reform of 1909. These restrictions required that the voter should be a male of good repute, who had paid his national and local taxes for three years before the election year, had done his military service, had not been declared incapacitated or bankrupt nor owed society any poor relief. In practice, this meant that some 20% of the adult male population were excluded from voting. This study explores both the ideological beliefs and political strategies behind these restrictions, and how the system worked in practice at the national and local levels. Since earlier literature has paid scant attention to the voter’s status as a citizen, this dissertation uses citizenship as one of its analytical tools. Although often described as universal suffrage for men, the 1909 Electoral Law was thus less radical than is usually assumed. As you had to have fulfilled certain obligations as a citizen in order to vote, it is hard to say that voting was a right. A central role in formulating these new conditions was played by the Riksdag’s moderate Conservative group. The reform therefore had the potential to preserve the political influence of the Right in the age of mass democracy, not least as the question of the unrestricted franchise for men and women could be deferred. However, the 1909 Electoral Law was not only aimed at reducing the political influence of the lower classes, but the proponents of the system also wanted to educate the citizens ideologically by constructing an image of the ideal citizen as a self-supporting male, who fulfilled his obligations to society. The National Women’s Franchise Association, whose campaign demanded suffrage for women on the same conditions as men, therefore had to relate to a political discourse dominated by (male) civic virtues and qualifications, and argue that women made a major contribution by fulfilling their special obligations to society. Also, the tax payment and poor relief voting restrictions in the 1909 franchise reform had an impact on the way proposals for women’s right to vote were formulated. The Social Democrats, whose electorate was heavily affected by the taxpaying qualification, in their programme for a constitutional reform demanded that this particular restriction should be abolished. To limit the number of party voters excluded from the polls, Social Democratic newspapers and election offices tried to mobilise disenfranchised workers to appeal the electoral register and get back on it. Those activities, which have been largely neglected in earlier research on the history of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, came to constitute an important element in the party’s election campaigns during the 1910s. In Sweden, the poor relief voting restriction (the pauper exclusion) was applied in a much more general way than in other countries, disqualifying recipients of very small or provisional amounts that had not been repaid as well as family providers who had received poor relief because of family members. The rules also proved very difficult to put into practice. The Social Democrats and many Liberals, but also leading members of the Swedish Poor Relief Association wanted to reform the law so that only those permanently supported by poor relief should lose their right to vote. Unlike the Social Democrats, the Liberals supported the taxpaying qualification as a necessary token of orderliness. However, they wanted the conscientious poor taxpayers to be distinguished from those who were neglectful and dilatory. As the Liberal-Social Democratic coalition government, which came to power in 1917, found out, this proved impossible. Instead, the taxpaying qualification was abolished in connection with the 1918-1921 constitutional reform, which also gave women the vote and limited the poor relief voting restriction to those permanently receiving support. In sum, the 1909 franchise reform did not constitute a sharp divide between the old system of income and property qualifications and twentieth century democracy. There was a clear continuity with the former system, in which you earned the right to vote by fulfilling your obligations. The 1909 reform did not lead to universal suffrage for men. Instead, it should be regarded as an intermediate stage in the development towards universal suffrage. Property and income qualifications for voters were abolished, but new qualifications and new mechanisms for exclusion were introduced instead. In this respect, Sweden was not unique. Before adopting universal suffrage, many countries combined universal suffrage with various voting restrictions. In Sweden, however, the right to vote came with an unusually large number of conditions.

The dissertation is a biography of the industrialist and statesman Christian Lundeberg, a leading and stongly pronounced conservative actor in Swedish political life during the decades around1900, but nowadays almost forgotten. The purpose is to identify the main forces – convictions as well as external factors – behind his actions. He was very influential within  a range of important sectors, i.a. compulsory national service, repeated interventions to keep the iron ore of Norrland under Swedish ownership,  establishment of a regular conservative party and the decision on the vote to right (for men) in 1907. His most well-known action was as Swedish Prime Minister and head architect behind the peaceful dissolution in 1905 of the union with Norway. However for a long time biographies have not been regarded as ”real” scientific work within the concerned academic Swedish circles. For this reason the introductory chapter analyses these discussions  and  concludes that time now is ready for the genre to come in from the cold , enumerating six criteria regarded to be of paramount importance. These are being observed in the consecutive parts of the study. The following chapter studies the concept of paternalism as defined within Swedish professional circles, forming a background to the remaining parts of the dissertation. In their turn these present thorough reviews both of Lundeberg’s activities as a paternalistic foundry proprietor in the local family owned community of Forsbacka and of his contributions on the central political level. The final chapter summarizes the driving forces behind Lundeberg’s activities in stating that he was not an ultraconservative person, a priori opposing all progress.  Instead as the years passed he developed a clear readiness for compromise solutions. Three key concepts are said to be central to the understanding of his person: “Fatherland”, ”Responsibility” and “Duty”.  Throughout all his life he adhered to many of the paternalistic principles and values he learnt at an early age in Forsbacka. His present anonymity is explained  by the fact that he in a retrospective very often is considered as being defeated in a number of political convictions now regarded as important.

<p>This is a dissertation about Swedish liberalism as a political rationality and, more specifically, the conditions that made the transition from an exclusionary society to an inclusive one possible at the beginning of the 20th century. I have made a case study of National Association of Social Work (Centralförbundet för Socialt Arbete, CSA), an association that played a significant role in the institutionalization of social politics in Sweden. The objectives are threefold. Firstly, to analyze CSA as a liberal political rationality. Secondly, to analyze its political ontology. Thirdly, to examine its motives for defending an including society.</p><p>One of the main arguments in this dissertation is that the political rationality of CSA is characterized by a form of government that works in and through society, as well as through freedom. By using the concept of ”the state of suspension” I try to capture and analyze the ontological ambiguity of the individual in liberal thought; an ambiguity expressed in biopolitical categorizations of the population according to perceived capacities for rational thought. The inclusion of the excluded part, which I describe through the notion of “the social”, was possible due to a new political ontology, which considered the individual as being a product of social circumstances, and as someone possible to shape and govern in and through society. </p><p>I argue that the political struggle of the excluded not only served to revise the political ontology of CSA, but also provided the rationale for the efforts to create an including society with universal suffrage. CSA did not regard citizenship as a right, but as a political technology and as a solution. Furthermore, I argue that citizenship shouldn’t be seen as a prerequisite for the politization of the excluded. On the contrary, this part of the population was already, at least partially, politicized and they became political subjects through their participation in the struggle for political rights.</p>

This is a dissertation about Swedish liberalism as a political rationality and, more specifically, the conditions that made the transition from an exclusionary society to an inclusive one possible at the beginning of the 20th century. I have made a case study of National Association of Social Work (Centralförbundet för Socialt Arbete, CSA), an association that played a significant role in the institutionalization of social politics in Sweden. The objectives are threefold. Firstly, to analyze CSA as a liberal political rationality. Secondly, to analyze its political ontology. Thirdly, to examine its motives for defending an including society. One of the main arguments in this dissertation is that the political rationality of CSA is characterized by a form of government that works in and through society, as well as through freedom. By using the concept of ”the state of suspension” I try to capture and analyze the ontological ambiguity of the individual in liberal thought; an ambiguity expressed in biopolitical categorizations of the population according to perceived capacities for rational thought. The inclusion of the excluded part, which I describe through the notion of “the social”, was possible due to a new political ontology, which considered the individual as being a product of social circumstances, and as someone possible to shape and govern in and through society. I argue that the political struggle of the excluded not only served to revise the political ontology of CSA, but also provided the rationale for the efforts to create an including society with universal suffrage. CSA did not regard citizenship as a right, but as a political technology and as a solution. Furthermore, I argue that citizenship shouldn’t be seen as a prerequisite for the politization of the excluded. On the contrary, this part of the population was already, at least partially, politicized and they became political subjects through their participation in the struggle for political rights.