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Makemakean Does Various Graphical Things!

Looking at the records for the Riksdag of 1760-1761, I find that some parts of the country are ridiculously overrepresented. Närke and Värmland (counted together) have 19 MPs. Malmöhus and Kristianstad each have a mere three.
 
Ares96 said:
Which estates are you counting?
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The peasants.

But the information I am about to give you will make you really, really happy, methinks.

So, coming back from my minor Osyssey trying to track down the partisan groupings of Sweden's MPs in the late 19th century, I stopped by Carolina Rediviva to cheer myself up, and have at look at the Swedish Hansards from the 18th century. Now, I knew that though the Estate of Peasants had elections by secret ballot officially, but didn't use it, because of the illiteracy of a large chunk of its members. So I wondered, can't you get that data for the Speakership?

Well, turns out that the Speaker was always elected by acclamation until 1764, at which point they finally started using the secret ballot (someone had the brilliant idea of proposing preprinted ballots so that illiterates could vote). Which was a bummer, but then, when looking over the introduction for the "Hansard" volume containing 1746-47, I found this:

footnotey.png

Basically, two interesting things happened (among many) this Riksdag. At one point, a great number of MPs signed a codument expressing their confidence in the sitting (Hat) Speaker, Olof Håkansson från Lösen socken in Östra härad in Blekinge. And then later, a great number of MPs signed a document expressing protesting something that has been expressed in another document or whatever, and this was the (Cap) opposition. There is some slight overlap, of course, but by using this, the footnote explains, one gets a good idea of who were members of the Hats and who were members of the Caps.

Now, these lists just contains the names of the MPs, of course. But at the front of the book, there is a complete list of all MPs after what parishes and hundreds they were from, meaning that finally, we make make an election map for 1746!!! :D:D:D

ListsofNames.png
 
I wouldn't get blinded by that - you'll note that the cities were almost uniformly free-trade (with the odd exception of Östergötland - I could see Norrköping wanting to protect its textile mills from British competition, but the other ones?), and having them tend Cap is going to be Highly Illogical.
 
Ares96 said:
I wouldn't get blinded by that - you'll note that the cities were almost uniformly free-trade (with the odd exception of Östergötland - I could see Norrköping wanting to protect its textile mills from British competition, but the other ones?), and having them tend Cap is going to be Highly Illogical.
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It would be, yes. But I have actually been somewhat troubled by there not being enough countryside seats for the Hats, and this allows us to put Småland and Östergötland in their column, or at the very least make those areas Hat/Cap competitive.
 
Makemakean said:
It would be, yes. But I have actually been somewhat troubled by there not being enough countryside seats for the Hats, and this allows us to put Småland and Östergötland in their column, or at the very least make those areas Hat/Cap competitive.
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I dunno, to me something feels off about that. Småland feels like it has, or should have, this rich Cap tradition. A straight line from Dacke through Pechlin to Sönderheim, you know?

Östergötland I do not mind. Probably not Västergötland either - I always pictured areas dominated by large agricultural estates as more likely to vote Hat, and that covers those provinces (well, not all of Västergötland, but Skaraborg and north-central Älvsborg). It also covers Scania, admittedly, but we can use their pro-free-trade leanings to justify that one sticking with the Caps.
 
Ares96 said:
I dunno, to me something feels off about that. Småland feels like it has, or should have, this rich Cap tradition. A straight line from Dacke through Pechlin to Sönderheim, you know?
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That is true. It doesn't really mesh with the technocratic, urban Hats to be strong in darkest Småland. Yeah, you win on that one.

Ares96 said:
Östergötland I do not mind. Probably not Västergötland either - I always pictured areas dominated by large agricultural estates as more likely to vote Hat, and that covers those provinces (well, not all of Västergötland, but Skaraborg and north-central Älvsborg). It also covers Scania, admittedly, but we can use their pro-free-trade leanings to justify that one sticking with the Caps.
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For the most part, but I can also see some parts of Scania being fertile ground for the Crowns/Skepticals.

Yes, well, then, it seems like we have a plan. ;)
 
Makemakean said:
That is true. It doesn't really mesh with the technocratic, urban Hats to be strong in darkest Småland. Yeah, you win on that one.
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We can still have some Hat strength around Kalmar and Västervik, but I feel like this is a party system where the Darkest Småland conservatives of Kronoberg and the free-church liberals of Jönköping would stand relatively united. Tempered by some Crown strength in the former.
 
I would like to add that the data that that image relies upon is apparently thanks to Elis W. Håstad, who wrote quite extensively on the Tariff Elections of 1887. He was also a great fan of the Swiss system of government (him having written his dissertation on the matter), and as an MP for the Right (now the Moderates) he was a maverick calling for a permanent Samlingsregering (a government comprising the Social Democrats, the Agrarian League, the Liberal People's Party, and the Right).
 
Makemakean said:
I would like to add that the data that that image relies upon is apparently thanks to Elis W. Håstad, who wrote quite extensively on the Tariff Elections of 1887. He was also a great fan of the Swiss system of government (him having written his dissertation on the matter), and as an MP for the Right (now the Moderates) he was a maverick calling for a permanent Samlingsregering (a government comprising the Social Democrats, the Agrarian League, the Liberal People's Party, and the Right).
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He was also apparently chairman of Heimdal for 1926. I imagine they loved him as the years went by.
 
Looking over Danish statistics for elections in the 19th century. Denmark was just as eager to keep detailed records on everything. Perhaps a little too eager. I can only assume that they did not do elections by secret ballet, because these notes from the 1850s indicate just how many people after profession and age voted for the different candidates.

And they have it after geographical subsections as well! This is ridiculously detailed data. Just a shame that the ideological inclinations and parties of the candidates are completely unknown, otherwise this would have been a goldmine for anyone wishing to study the ecological inference problem in detail.
 
Well, it's official. The Archivist at Uppsala University in charge of the matter has informed me that he has been unable to find the data, nor any of the essays and documents that might have contained it. So, err, yeah.

He did however say that I was welcome to come over and go through the archieves myself if I wanted to.
 
ribbing.png

Thinking of doing a series entitled "Faces of Nordic Reunification" to serve as a guide of sorts to the various political players who on the 26 June 1867 go into the First Nordic Union Election. The above is of course Hugo Hubert Ribbing, Chancery President of Sweden since 1861 (slated to be her last), a loyal member of the Hat party, presently standing for the Älvsborg County burgher constituency. The protégé of the late Henrik Johan Palmstierna, Ribbing got the job when the former died, and he has actually (unlike his benefactor) had a very cordial relationship with the present King of Sweden and Norway, Arthur, slated to become co-Emperor across the North when the Kalmar Constitution comes into effect on 20 July 1867.
 
Ares96 said:
Didn’t the Swedish government carry on as a subnational unit?
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It does in a sense, but the title and office of President of His Royal Majesty's Chancery will seize to be, its duties being divided between the offices of President of His Imperial Majesty's Chancery (on union level) and the Rikshövding of Sweden.

I was thinking that each and every subnational unit should have its own unique title for the head of the government. In Sweden, they've just gone with the logic of "we call them landshövdingar on the lower level, and then häradshövdingar on an even lower level, so this time it should be a rikshövding, right?"
 
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