What happened next: Suffrage

On February 2, 1889, L.O. Smith submitted a proposal for extended male voting rights to the Swedish parliament. The same year, the Social Democratic Labor Party was founded, and the party took suffrage very seriously. Until then, the issue had mainly had attention from liberal politicians and their associations. It now became an important issue of equality for socialists.

Smith called himself liberal, but he despised party politics. In his view, socialism corrupted the workers. Instead he urged them to take action and organize themselves independently, without involvement of any political party. The Swedish parliament granted the male population voting rights only in 1909. Ten years later, the right to vote was further extended to everyone over the age of 23, including women.