This article addresses the expansion of urban public services in major Nordic cities, from 1850 to 1920. We argue that changes in political discourse were the driving force that prompted politicians to act on behalf of the urban public, significantly before the rise of the universal welfare state. The discursive changes are explored through three analytic concepts: publicness, urban citizenship and the welfare city. We start by presenting a short overview of the development of urban public services. Then we demonstrate how these concepts may be used in conjunction to explain the historical changes. Finally, the material effects are discussed in three case-studies, addressing freshwater pipes, public transport and municipal health care, respectively.

This book deals with six critical junctures in early modern Sweden between 1500 and 1810, intense periods of change when the prevailing system of government was challenged and replaced by something different – a new political regime. Drawing on both history and the social sciences, this book presents a new interpretation of Sweden’s early modern political history. First, each critical juncture’s course of events is analysed, and key political actors’ incentives and motives are identified. The impact and effects of each regime shift are explained using three analytical key concepts: state capacity, impartiality, and political participation. Second, the various regime shifts are compared and the long-term effects of the early modern changes on state formation and democratization are discussed. How and in what ways did the turbulent changes in government affect Sweden’s subsequent development into a modern, democratic state?

Sweden’s conflict-ridden history is highly relevant for understanding the process of state formation in early modern Europe. In comparative studies, sixteenth-century Sweden is sometimes highlighted as a pioneer; a dynastic state that organized an efficient fiscal bureaucracy to finance military expansion. In other contexts, Sweden’s representative institutions of the eighteenth century have been an example of participatory or even proto-democratic forms of government. However, the two periods have rarely been compared to explain similarities and differences, or why the first period transformed into the second. This book takes a holistic approach to the period 1538–1810, explaining how and why the shifting regimes influenced political and social development.

The analysis shows the uneven character of the ongoing struggle between Sweden’s power elites and social groups demanding political inclusion. The ideal balance between a strong state and an organized society proved hard, if not impossible, to realize in the early modern period. Democratization in Sweden continued to be an uneven process well into the twentieth century.

Den här boken handlar om sex regimskiften i det tidigmoderna Sverige mellan 1500 och 1810, formativa moment då det rådande styrelseskicket utmanades och ersattes av något annat – en ny politisk regim. Med utgångspunkt i både historia och samhällsvetenskap presenteras en ny tolkning av Sveriges tidigmoderna politiska historia. Först analyseras händelseförloppet vid varje regimskifte och de viktigaste politiska aktörernas drivkrafter och motiv identifieras. Konsekvenserna och effekterna av varje regimskifte förklaras med hjälp av tre analytiska nyckelbegrepp: statskapacitet, opartiskhet och politiskt deltagande. Därefter jämförs de olika regimskiftena och dess långsiktiga effekter på statsbildning och demokratisering diskuteras. Hur och på vilka sätt påverkade de turbulenta regimskiftena Sveriges senare utveckling till en modern demokratisk stat?

Sveriges konfliktfyllda historia är relevant för att förstå statsbildningsprocessen i det tidigmoderna Europa. I komparativa studier lyfts 1500-talets Sverige fram som en pionjär; en dynastisk stat som organiserade en effektiv byråkrati för att finansiera militär expansion. I andra sammanhang har Sveriges representativa institutioner under 1700-talet varit ett exempel på politiskt deltagande eller till och med tidiga demokratiska reformer. De två perioderna har dock sällan jämförts för att förklara likheter och skillnader, eller varför den första perioden övergick i den andra. Boken Shifting regimes tar ett helhetsgrepp på perioden 1538–1810 och förklarar hur och varför de skiftande regimerna påverkade den politiska och sociala utvecklingen.

Analysen visar hur ojämn kampen mellan Sveriges makteliter och sociala grupper som krävde politisk inkludering var. Den ideala balansen mellan en stark stat och ett organiserat samhälle visade sig vara svår, för att inte säga omöjlig, att förverkliga under den tidigmoderna perioden. Demokratiseringen i Sverige fortsatte att vara en ojämn process långt in på nittonhundratalet.

This book examines Nordic cities from 1850 and their transformation from traditional, oligarchic towns to modern, inclusive welfare cities.

In the contemporary world, the role of cities as hotbeds for progressive change has become increasingly topical. Historical studies on how Nordic cities addressed social and environmental questions a hundred years ago and how they eventually created new and inclusive policies for the future is a useful contribution to the current debate. The concept of the welfare city is addressed and elaborated upon to analyse the attempts by urban authorities to solve the problems following industrialization and urbanization. From the late nineteenth century, municipal public services promoted the integration of new groups in the urban community including workers, immigrants, women and children. The contributions in this book analyse various examples of welfare and public services that include infrastructure and transport systems, health care, housing conditions, outdoor life and entertainment. The chapters highlight the arguments and considerations promoting welfare policies, while also addressing differences between the Nordic countries. The evolution of the Nordic welfare city was a process of several overlapping phases or dimensions.

An important conclusion of this book is that the evolution of the Nordic welfare city was a process of several overlapping phases or dimensions. This chapter suggest that this development should be interpreted as a succession of different types of welfare cities with specific characteristics; the patriarchal, the economic, the social, the universal, and the neoliberal welfare city. The model covers the whole period from c. 1850 to the present, addressing municipal organization as well as political regimes. We also contend that it was not material infrastructure by itself, but rather the ongoing contestation and negotiation over a plethora of various welfare services that eventually contributed to a widening and strengthening of urban citizenship. The types of welfare cities suggested thus represent different outcomes from the ongoing struggle over material and cultural networks, involving paupers as well as politicians and professional experts.

The formation of states in early modern Europe has long been an important topic for historical analysis. Traditionally, the political and military struggles of kings and rulers were the favoured object of study for academic historians. This book highlights new historical research from Europe’s northern frontier, bringing ‘the people’ back into the discussion of state politics, presenting alternative views of political and social relations in the Nordic countries before industrialisation. The early modern period was a time that witnessed initiatives from people from many groups formally excluded from political influence, operating outside the structures of central government, and this book returns to the subject of contentious politics and state building from below.

This chapter argues that the concept of state building from below may be used as an analytical tool for better understanding of political and social relations in the era before industrialisation. In the Nordic countries, the discussion about the state building process in the 1980s and 1990s produced two conflicting narratives. The early modern period produced new repertoires for collective action and political agency. While this long-term perspective is perfectly valid, we argue that the concept of state building is more relevant for our focus on interactions at the micro level. Erling Sandmo has argued that early modern society should be analysed as a permanent public sphere, where ordinary people interacted with each other on a day-to-day basis. State territory was not a uniform entity but rather a fluctuating space full of ‘holes’ – places and spaces where central control was missing or totally dependent on local agents and institutions.

This essay addresses the relation between social stratification and state formation in early modern Sweden. I argue that the belligerent politics of Swedish rulers promoted the social and political rise of a smaller group of peasant freeholders. The state preferred to bargain with the landed peasants who commanded authority over the marginalised groups in local society. The freeholders could therefore shift the heavy burden of military conscription on to crofters, farmhands and day labourers.

The concept of class has relevance for this analysis, as it draws attention to the marginalised and dispossessed. However, focusing on class might also obscure the complexity of social relations in peasant society. Conflict was not restricted to the struggle between lords and peasants, or between husbands and servants. As historians, we must recognise the specific interests of various social groups as well as the capacity of the state to promote new forms of extraction.