ABSTRACT
The fact that the SAP had lost the 1976 General Election, by the narrowest of margins was a shock to the entire Swedish political system. The SAP had been in office for 44 years, and their values had become almost synonymous with perceptions of Swedish society - certainly when viewed from the outside. Despite the fact that reform of the Swedish constitution had weakened the dominance of the largest political party, by increasing the proportionality of the electoral system, together with shortening the frequency of the electoral cycle from four to three years, and irrespective of the fact that the ‘left’ and ‘right’ political bloc’s had exactly the same number of seats since the 1973 election, the SAP defeat was still largely unexpected.
