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enabled the party to enroll some 200,000 members, making it the second largest political grouping in the country. The Moderates obtain their principal support from estate owners and large farmers in rural areas and from industrialists and employer groups in the cities. Additionally, some upper level professionals, high-ranking military officers, and much of the clergy of the Church of Sweden may be counted among the party's supporters.
b. Organization and leadership
The structure of the Moderate Coalition Party closely resembles that of the Liberal Party. Its national party convention, which meets every 3 years, elects the executive committee, which consists of the chairman, two vice chairmen, and 10 other members. The advisory committee includes the entire executive committee, in addition to 10 elected representatives, as well as representatives from other party organizations. The district organization is the prime local authority.
The most important auxiliary organizations supplementing party activities, especially educational and propaganda work and the training of future party leaders, are the Moderate Youth Association, with approximately 35,000 members, and the Moderate Women's Association, with some 55,000 members (both figures as of 1970). A significantly large proportion of party voters are women. The Swedish Moderate Student Association, organizationally independent of the party, is the largest political student organization in the country.
The Moderate Coalition Party has experienced considerably more turnover in leadership over the past 20 eras than most other Swedish political parties. The present leader, Gosta Bohman, is the fourth since 1950. Bohman, born in Stockholm in January 1911, succeeded Yngve Holmberg in November 1970, when he was blamed for party losses in the 1970 elections. Bohman has been a member of the Riksdag since 1958.
c. Program and policies
Moderates historically have been the chief opponents of socialism and the SAP. The party has been the principal exponent of a strong defense force and protective tariffs for industry and agriculture. It supports social security and welfare measures for humanitarian reasons, although it opposes the use of these programs as a means of redistributing income. It stands for the reduction of government expenditures, particularly for social welfare, so that corporate, inheritance, and income taxes may be lowered. The party, however, has been minimizing demands for a reduction in social welfare benefits, because its past position on this issue contributed to election losses. With an eye to broadening their appeal among the electorate, the Moderates have urged the creation of a "universal property-owning democracy," i.e. every Swede to be a homeowner. The party maintains that this objective is obstructed by confiscatory tax rates, which make it difficult to accumulate savings for the purchase of a home, and by the government's housing program, which emphasizes the construction of apartments instead of individual homes. Although the party supports educational reform and expansion, some of its followers are apprehensive over the inevitable lowering of academic standards in a thoroughly democratized upper secondary and university system. The Moderates are the principal defenders of the monarchy and the established Lutheran State Church; many have never accepted the fait accompli of the welfare state.
In foreign affairs, the party officially supports Sweden's policy of neutrality and non-alliance, but strong elements have advocated joint defense measures with Norway and Denmark, and a minority, particularly the military, favors membership in NATO. The Moderates have consistently advocated greater defense expenditures. On the Vietnam issue, the party and its press have supported the US position.
d. Press and finances
The chief newspaper supporting the Moderate Coalition Party are the Svenska Dagbladet, published in Stockholm, and the Syd Svenska Dagbladet Snallposten, published in Malmo. In addition, 43 other party dailies were published in 1969 - the largest number of newspapers for any Swedish party. The Moderate press, like the Liberal press, is self-supporting. Most Swedish advertisers prefer the papers that cater to the affluent upper and middle classes rather than the Social Democratic press, which is aimed principally at the working class. The party depends largely on private donations to finance its operations and campaigns. The method of collecting and forwarding membership dues from the local to the national level of the party is similar to that employed by the Liberal Party.
5. Party of the Left-Communist
a. Membership and electoral strength
The Swedish Communist Party was formed in 1921 by Social Democratic left-wing dissidents, made up
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