ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the political colouring of different parts of the country, changes in regional strength of the parties over the years, and the relationship between partisan strength and the social structure of different regions. It analyses the classic questions of how the social environment influences voting and how electoral choice varies between different types of communities. In the Swedish debate the political changes in the metropolitan areas have been the focus of major attention. In the 1921 election there were sizeable differences between the constituencies not only in electoral participation but also in the distribution of votes between the blocs. The long-term electoral changes which have occurred in Swedish politics since the introduction of universal suffrage have been fairly uniform in different parts of the country. The Swedish sociologist, Gosta Carlsson, has computed differences between the estimated and actual voting percentages for the labour parties in each constituency for the elections of 1911, 1924 and 1940.
