Shifting Regimes

Political Disruption and Change in Early Modern Sweden

Mats Hallenberg, Magnus Linnarsson & Joakim Scherp

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Sveriges tidigmoderna historia präglades av stora omkastningar av det politiska systemet. Olika politiska regimer avlöste varandra, ibland under stormiga former. I boken Shifting regimes tas ett helhetsgrepp på perioden 1538–1810. Hur och på vilka sätt påverkade de turbulenta regimskiftena Sveriges utveckling till en modern demokratisk stat? I boken ifrågasätts den etablerade bilden av Sveriges historia som en kontinuerlig process dominerad av konsensus mellan de politiska aktörerna. Författarna visar att demokratiseringen av Sverige var en seglivat ryckig och svängig process ända in i modern tid

English

The history of early modern Sweden is a turbulent one. Over almost three hundred years, the country experienced a series of political upheavals, in which one type of political regime was replaced by a radically different one.

Drawing on both history and the social sciences, the authors of Shifting Regimes present a novel interpretation of Sweden’s early modern political history, claiming that this 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 state with an efficient fiscal bureaucracy to finance military expansion. In later contexts, Sweden’s representative institutions have been an example of participatory or even proto-democratic forms of government.

However, the two characteristics have rarely been compared in order to explain similarities and differences, or why one form of government gave way to another. Taking a holistic approach to the period 1538–1810, the authors explore the forces that drove this development and describe the long-term effects of the recurrent ruptures on state capacity and political participation.