Elections in the new Scandinavian democracy

[Volodio]

Huh, it seems as if the very existence of a socialist Scandinavia is inspiring revolutions. I can't imagine that the powers of Europe are very happy with that - and they see it as a situation to be... corrected.

What was this Mecklenburg Revolution like? Localized to Mecklenburg and its environs? Why didn't it spread?

Basically Germany didn't form and Mecklenburg is still independent. The revolution stayed localized to the region, but it failed because the Prussians sent their army to crush the revolution. Scandinavia also sent its army, but the revolutionaries capitulated too soon.

 

[Volodio]

1892 Elections​

The coalition government had spent the entire term focusing only on heavily contested education reforms. First creating a public education system, then making school mandatory for all children. Both had been opposed by Hoyre and Venstre. While this had had the benefit of keeping the Communist Party and the Labor Party united, as they did have to consider reforms they disagreed on, it also made them appear less decisive and slowed their momentum.

Hoyre had tried to oppose the socialist state by violent means, especially motivated at the use of African colonies to supply the agricultural need of Scandinavia. The violent protests had succeeded at increasing the support for their party as more and more discontent against socialism left Venstre and joined the conservatives.

The big event of the elections was the Finnish War. It was a Scandinavian intervention in support of a democratic independence movement in Finland against the Russians. This conflict was supported by everyone except Hoyre, which disliked the idea of supporting a democratic revolution. It caused an important backlash against their party as most of the Scandinavian population was anti-Russian, independently of the cause, and many still remembered the attempted invasion of Stockholm of 1874. Most people also supported democracy by that point and many newspapers made the parallel between the Russian intervention in the Scandinavian Civil War in the 1850s and their opposition to Finnish’s dream for democratic institution. All three parties struggled to become the face of the conflict, but it was ultimately the Labor Party which succeeded, thanks to the charisma of Klauman.

The Labor Party won at 40,8%, then came Venstre with 27,5% of the votes, the Communist Party with 18,2% and finally Hoyre with 13,3%. The repartition was 122 seats for the Labor Party, 82 for Venstre, 55 for the communists and 41 for Hoyre. The coalition of the Labor Party and the Communist Party continued thanks to their victory.

 

[HistoryDude]

So... is Finland independent? Are they democratic or socialist?

 

[Volodio]

So... is Finland independent? Are they democratic or socialist?

Finland isn't independent, there is a democratic revolution against the Russians. In game term, Finland is still a puppet of Russia and there is a civil war between the conservative Russian puppets (backed by Russia) and the democrats (backed by me). I don't really mention the conservative side because RP-wise Finland shouldn't even be autonomous. The devs only did so to make it playable, but it's not justified.

 

[Volodio]

1896 Elections​

The elections of 1896 were the first ones during which women were allowed to vote. It had been one of the last reforms agreed on by both the communists and the social democrats. The rife between them was growing deeper. The social democrats made significant efforts to appear more moderate and criticized the radicalism of the communists. The workers largely supported the Labor Party, largely thanks to the campaign by the unions, but there were many protests in favor of the Communist Party.

An important point of the elections was the situation in Mecklenburg. Mecklenburg had seen the election in government of both communists and social democrats, and Scandinavia had come to help the newly elected socialists with financial aid. It had been a diplomatic breakthrough as until that point the Socialist State had been isolated on the world stage. However, there had also been a divide between the social democrats and the communists, with the latter being expelled of the government and trying to start a revolution on their own. The socialist coalition in Scandinavia was fighting among themselves to decide which side to support. The decision would be made by whoever won the elections.

Venstre was weakened significantly by the women vote. While women were finally equal to men before the law, at least officially, true equality was a slow process that was definitely still not there. In particular, there were huge gaps in the education level of men and women. Girls went far less to school and very few were going as far as university. It resulted in the educated jobs, like teachers, doctors and clerks, to be entirely dominated by men. Those were the backbone of Venstre’s voter base. Women were instead more represented in the working-class professions, resulting in their weight being thrown behind particularly the Labor Party, but also the Communist Party and even Hoyre.

Hoyre was also empowered by the defeat of the Scandinavian intervention in the Finnish War. They campaigned on stopping foreign interventions and break the diplomatic isolation by encouraging dialogue with the other countries.

The Labor Party won the elections at 42%, followed by Venstre at 23,9%, then the Communist Party at 17,6% and Hoyre at 16,3%. The Labor Party had 126 seats, the Communist Party 53, Venstre 72 and Hoyre 49. While the Labor Party fell short of the 150 seats needed for a majority, they decided nonetheless to form a government without coalition. They were the happier with the status quo and did not require a legislative majority to pass reforms. Instead, they wanted executive power to determine the diplomacy of the country and engage in a program of expansion of the welfare institutions.

 

[Volodio]

1900 Elections​

The elections of 1900 took place in the middle of the 2nd Colonial War. Initially started by the Labor Party trying to take Nigeria, it had expanded when Prussia and France intervened on the side of the local Africans and wanted to change the government of Scandinavia so it would become a monarchy once again. The conflict had been ongoing for nearly two years during the elections. It had cost the lives of over 200 000 Scandinavian and had terrible consequences on the economy. People had to make great sacrifices as the government was allocating resources for the war. There was also a famine in Africa caused by the French perturbing the grain shipment. A lot of food was lost and the food that was not lost was sent to Scandinavia, creating shortages in Africa.

The conflict greatly benefited the communists as other nations threatening socialism in Scandinavia played heavily into their rhetoric and seemed to justify the radicalism of the Communist Party. They were not opposing the war, but they were accusing the Labor Party of not handling correctly. The Labor Party was also fiddling with the idea of implementing a large conscription system to help win the war, which not popular.

Meanwhile, Hoyre and Venstre were opposing the war and welcomed the change in government wanted by the Prussians and French, but it was an unpopular opinion as the population was staunchly nationalist and felt attacked in this war. Despite the fact that it had been started by Scandinavia, people had expected the conflict to stay localized to Africa. The fights in Denmark and the desire of the Prussian government to put the regime they wanted and not elected by the workers in Scandinavia had greatly contributed to this perception of being on the defensive. Hoyre was especially affected by their stance as many soldiers had been part of their voter base and also for the war, a conflict they resolved by switching allegiance to the communists. Many conservative voters were also in the occupied parts of Schleswig and Holstein and could not participate in the elections.

The Labor Party won with 33,4% of the votes, but very closely followed by the Communist Party at 33%. Then came Venstre at 21,4% and Hoyre at 11,9%. The seat distribution was of 100 for the Labor Party, 99 for the communists, 64 for Venstre and 37 for Hoyre. Because of how close in votes the communists and social democrats were, they decided to form a war government together.

 

[Volodio]

Because Africa is probably going to take a more important role as we enter the 20th century, here are the Scandinavian colonies in Africa:

 

[HistoryDude]

The map was useful!

Does Scandinavia have any allies against this overreach by France and Prussia? Doesn't Britain want to preserve their precious balance of power?

 

[Volodio]

No, Scandinavia has no ally. It is a socialist state and thus it has no real good relations with anyone. Neutral at best. France and Prussia wanted a regime change, which sucks for Scandinavians but doesn't really destabilize the balance of power. There was no real reason for Britain to get involved.

 

[Volodio]

1904 Elections​

The war coalition had continued collaborating together even after the end of the war, finished on a victory. It was due in large part to the change of stance of the unions, which constituted a large part of the Labor Party and had decided to join the communists in their fight to spread socialism to Africa. The first step was to make them equal before the law and give Africans the same rights as Scandinavians.

This was something opposed by both Venstre and Hoyre, which both refused the idea of equality with Africans and the use of governmental resources on the colonies. Venstre especially had a lot of support from the farmers, who had switched side from Hoyre and were afraid of more competition with the African agricultural market. Venstre also managed to get the supports of the Africans themselves by convincing the local chieftains in charge of the communities that they would lose power if the policies of the communists were to pass. The chieftains, in turn, rose with their villages against the government. They did violent protests, looting, harassed, hampered construction efforts, and more.

Their effort did not directly impact the elections as there were no worker council in the colonies, but it was used by Venstre to show that it was a mistake as even Africans did not want those reforms. The effectiveness of this argument is contestable.

Another contentious point of the elections was the economic situation. Scandinavia had struggled to recover from the war and the economic crisis it had caused. The recovery had been done thanks to increased financial help, notably to the unemployed, veterans and old people, as well as an augmentation of the minimum wage. Venstre criticized those decisions, claiming they were hurting businesses and creating more debt. Yet it was something people were overall happy about and which brought many voters to the Labor Party.

The elections were a victory for the Labor Party with 36,7% of the votes, followed by the Communist Party at 26,8%, then Venstre at 23,7%, then finally Hoyre at 12,5%. The Communist Party had 80 seats, the Labor Party 110, Venstre 71 and Hoyre 39. The communists and social democrats decided to continue their coalition in order to pass their reforms in Africa.

 

[HistoryDude]

Ah, manipulating public opinion by supplying half-truths - what an old strategy! At least it didn't quite work!

 

[Volodio]

1908 Elections​

The elections of 1908 took place in the middle of the 2nd Finnish War. It was an invasion of the newly independent Republic of Finland. It was justified by the communists as a way to protect the workers and by the Labor Union by the idea that Finland was a natural part of Scandinavia. Both Hoyre and Venstre opposed it, but it was not popular as many were receptive to the nationalist argument of the social democrats. It was made even worse as both opposition parties had claimed foreign powers would intervene in the conflict and the scale of the war would expand. They tried to scare people into believing another economic crisis, like the one which followed the 2nd Colonial War, would take place if the invasion was followed through. However, no other country intervened in the war. As Scandinavian troops advanced into Finland and there was still no international reaction, the scaremongering campaign of Hoyre and Venstre blew back against them and their support dwindled.

Venstre was even more affected as an important part of their politicians changed stance on equal rights with Africans and began to support it. It caused many of their supporters to switch sides. Some felt like it was redundant to the policy of the government and joined the Labor Party, while those that still opposed it joined Hoyre. Venstre had never been so unpopular. It created a lot of internal doubt about the direction of the party. Some even questioned whether the party had any future.

At the same time, the first African reforms were happening. The power of the local chieftains was removed and in its place workers’ councils were formed. However, it was a very slow process. It was made even worse as the anti-clerical laws still in place restricting numerous offices and positions to people who did not parade religion during their campaign. As the Africans were very religious, the vast majority of them were not eligible and could not really participate in the political process. The government was trying to enforce its anti-clerical policies, which by that point had worked successfully in Scandinavia, to Africa, but it took a long time before any effect was seen. So while 1908 saw the first participation of Africa in the Scandinavian elections, something heavily criticized by Hoyre, in reality it was only by Scandinavians who had moved to the colonies. Their participation was also too small to even be noticed.

Moreover, the population of Scandinavians and Africans was roughly equivalent. Scandinavians had benefited from the progress of medicine and large increases in their standard of living, which had caused a demographic boom. The fear of Hoyre of being outvoted by Africans was not justified, especially at the time where Finland was getting invaded and would bolster the European side. The slow rate of the integration of Africans also reduced the risk of a cultural shock. The rare Africans that could vote were largely integrated into Scandinavian politics, at least at a local level, before they could participate in the elections.

The Labor Party came first with 36,1% of the votes, followed by the communists at 33,5%, then Venstre at 17,2% and finally Hoyre at 13%. It gave 108 seats to the Labor Party, 100 to the Communist Party, 52 to Venstre and 42 to Hoyre. The communists and social democrats continued working together.

 

[Volodio]

1912 Elections​

The elections of 1912 took place at the end of the 3rd Colonial War. It had been a resonating success for the government in more ways than one. No economic crisis had been caused. The Prussians had been crushed and their country was crippled with the liberation of Pomerania. The diplomatic isolation was finally over and Scandinavia was a fully integrated member of the international community. The temporary alliance with France was proving it.

However, while it was a good way to end the term, the rest had not been so smooth and the memory of it had not disappeared in the head of the voters. The diplomatic outreaches had made apparent the conflicts between the social democrats and the communists, as the latter wanted to support causes they agreed with while the Labor Party insisted alliances were more important. In 1909, the government had supported a revolution in Prussia, hoping to create a lasting alliance with their southern neighbor. However, when in 1910 the provisional Prussian government had asked for help against a massive socialist revolt, the social democrats had wanted to honor the alliance while the communists insisted on supporting the other side. It was resolved with Scandinavia staying neutral, then going to war against the new socialist government a year later for the colonies in Africa. The Communist Party had agreed to it only because the socialists in Germany did not appear as concerned about the rights of Africans as they were.

This tension between the two parties in government had also increased because the communists were pushing for a complete collectivization of the economy, which was heavily opposed by the Labor Party. The coalition broke and both parties decided to run separately and fighting each other during the campaign.

The Finns, who were finally part of Scandinavia after the successful invasion, could vote in the elections. However, the anti-clerical policies prevented many from leading their workers’ council as the majority of the population of Finland was still deeply religious. So while the Finnish vote was widely communist, in reality there was a violent opposition which could not vote and rallied itself to Hoyre.

Hoyre by that point was taking over the governmental opposition from Venstre. The switch to supporting the African reforms had deeply hurt the party and only the ideological liberals were still in it. Meanwhile, Hoyre was framing itself as the opposition party to the socialist policies. They formed a paramilitary organization and used violence to increase their chances of winning the elections. Not everyone supported the violence, but Hoyre still managed to gather a large coalition, from simple shop owners and moderate conservatives to outright fascists.

The Labor Party won with 37%, followed by the communists at 33,1%, then Hoyre at 17,5% and finally Venstre at 12,2%. It gave 111 seats to the Labor Party, 99 to the Communist Party, 37 to Venstre and 53 to Hoyre. The coalition government was not renewed and instead the Labor Party decided to rule alone, though without the support of the communists they could not pass substantial reforms.

 

[HistoryDude]

Congrats on conquering Finland! What did Russia think of that?

Wait, what happened with Prussia? Other than a revolution? How much territory in Germany do they still have?

How did this alliance with France emerge?

 

[Volodio]

Russia and me have had hostile relations pretty much since the Russian intervention in the civil war in the 1850s. So the invasion of Finland didn't change much. They didn't intervene though, probably because they had equally bad relations with Finland.

I should have expanded a bit more on the 3rd Colonial War, but basically I attacked a Prussian subject for their states in Africa (I'm talking about the two ugly states in the middle of my colonies in the screenshot I posted earlier). The war ended up being Scandinavia + France (the "temporary alliance") vs Prussia + Spain (didn't mention Spain because it was mostly a front fought by France). Me and France won and among other things, Prussia was forced to release Pomerania. They also lost a couple of cities over the decades, but nothing major. I'll try to post a screenshot of Europe eventually, but Prussia is still pretty similar to its 1836 borders.

 

[Volodio]

1916 Elections​

By 1916, the political violence had increased significantly. In Finland and Africa, it was mostly due to the anti-clerical policies still in place. In the rest of Scandinavia, it was largely caused by the high taxes and the lack of improvement for people’s life. Everywhere, there were people calling for the end of the Socialist State and a return to the republic. While the Labor Party was not willing to decrease the taxes at this moment, they needed it to pay back the large debt contracted by the government over the decades, they were considering ending the anti-clerical laws. It caused a lot of uproar among the communists when it was leaked to the press.

Yet despite this bleak situation, the government also had a lot of supporters thanks to their victory over Russia a few months prior. Many people had initially opposed it and said the Labor Party was crazy for even considering it as Russia had too many soldiers and was too big. However, the technological advantage of the Scandinavians proved to be decisive as the Russians were slaughtered with five of them killed for every Scandinavian. In the end, they had to agree to humiliating peace terms, notably large war reparations of over 17 million £, the creation of an independent Baltic state and ceding east Karelia. This peace deal, which was signed at the beginning of the campaign, largely increased the support to the Labor Party and almost ensured their victory in the elections by itself.

Each party made their own promises if they were victorious in the elections. The Labor Party promised an end to the anti-clerical laws. The communists on the contrary insisted on upholding those laws. They were also insisting on collectivizing the economy. Hoyre and Venstre announced they would make a coalition government in the unlikely scenario of their victory. This announce that had been a long time coming due to their common opposition to the socialists. It was only agreed in 1916 because Hoyre was dominating and had not wanted to submit to Venstre, while Venstre was losing steam and was afraid of no longer existing as a party. Their common platform was the end of the Socialist State, which was opposed by both the Labor Party and the Communist Party.

The Labor Party won the election with 40,8% of the votes, followed by the communists at 27,9%, then Hoyre at 17,8% and finally Venstre at 13,3%. It gave 84 seats to the Communist Party, 122 to the Labor Party, 53 to Hoyre and 41 to Venstre. The Labor Party stayed in power and immediately started reforms to remove the anti-clerical policies.

 

[Volodio]

Here is the situation in 1919. It should help situate things a bit. And be a bit of a teaser of what's to come.

 

[HistoryDude]

Austria's a republic? How did that happen? And is that a communist France I see?

The end of the anticlerical laws should help end some dissent - even if it destroys the socialist-communist coalition.

 

[Volodio]

Austria had a revolution quite recently. Not sure over what, frankly I don't concern myself much with Austria as it's too far from me. And yes, it's a communist France.

 

[Volodio]

1920 Elections​

In 1920, Scandinavia was plagued by political violence. The violent protests by Hoyre had only increased in intensity, Venstre had even joined in. The communists had also started an armed opposition as a result of the removal of the anti-clerical laws. They even went as far as supporting armed independent uprising in Africa and Finland. They were crushed in blood, leading to the death of tens of thousands and the further radicalization of the communists.

The protesters had enforced a total paralysis of the state by massive strikes, especially in the construction department. The Labor Party had to take large debt. The deficit was only increased. Some taxes were outright removed as the government could no longer enforce them and hoped it would increase their popularity. It did, but only slightly. Budget cuts were even considered.

The removal of the anti-clerical restrictions had finally permitted a large part of the African and Finnish population to vote, but few of them supported the Labor Party. Many were conservative or liberal and joined Venstre and Hoyre. Ironically the party that opposed their rights being given benefitted probably the most from it. There were lots of socialists, but most of them turned toward the Communist Party rather than the social democrats, that they blamed for the problems of the country. The Labor Party had had an outlandish diplomatic success in those four years, securing an alliance with the new socialist states of France and Prussia, as well as dominating the trade of the entire Baltic, including Prussia, but all of it was ignored by the voters.

The situation had degenerated so much that the government was willing to consider doing some of the reforms demanded by Hoyre and Venstre, including putting an end to the Socialist State and restoring the republic. They hoped by making those promises they would steal voters away from Hoyre and Venstre, but it also enraged communists.

The Communist Party won the elections for the first time, with 32,6% of the votes. They were nearly followed by the Labor Party at 30,7%, then Hoyre at 21,8% and finally Venstre with 14,7%. It gave 98 seats to the communists, 92 to the social democrats, 62 to Hoyre and 48 to Venstre. It created a strange situation as no party could rule alone. In fact, the Hoyre and Venstre coalition had enough seats to create their own government if the other parties decided to run alone. As a result, the social democrats and the communists agreed to form a coalition government under the leadership of the Communist Party, which instead of appeasing the opposition decided to push even more extreme reforms: the collectivization of the economy. The negotiations had been harsh due to the bad blood between the two sides, but it had been deemed necessary to prevent the end of the Socialist State.