Introduction

Abstract

This introductory chapter argues that popular struggle was an essential part in the overall political processes and instrumental in the formation of democracy in Scandinavia. Then follows a methodological section on how historians and social scientists have studied collective popular struggles in the form of hunger riots, tax rebellions, petition drives, strikes, demonstrations, public meetings and social movements. We are particularly aware of how social groups, movements and state institutions interact to create political regimes based on the principle of popular sovereignty, and that democratic demands often manifest themselves in waves within the single country and across nations. Our focus on popular struggle and the entanglement between popular struggle and democracy does not exclude political elites, and conservative and outright anti-democratic movements. Together with state officials, they are present in day-to-day politics and constitute crucial actors in the tortuous and contradictory processes of democracy. In other words, we focus on how social and political mobilization ‘from below’ interact with policies and power networks’from above’, in the shaping of democratic Scandinavia.