ABSTRACT
Socialism in Scandinavia has followed a path different from that of most of Europe. The reasons lie in the distinctive nature of Scandinavian society. All the Scandinavian socialists showed a penchant for mass organizations and developed enormous trade union federations which made social democracy far more than a purely political phenomenon. The socialists were fortunate in not having to cope with a clerical issue as was found in Catholic countries; indeed, they soon assimilated certain demands that had been supported by evangelical Protestantism, like temperance. Whereas Scandinavian socialists were generally successful in maintaining party unity, they faced a "bourgeois" opposition divided into at least three parties. Social democracy became the largest political party in each country by World War I. Starting in the 1930s, the Swedish Social Democrats undertook health, education and pension reforms and redistributive tax policies, which laid the basis of the welfare state.
