Karl Albert Staaff (21 January 1860 – 4 October 1915) was a Swedish liberal

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, ...

and

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicit ...

. He was chairman of the Liberal Coalition Party (1907–1915) and served twice as

Prime Minister of Sweden The prime minister ( sv, statsminister ; literally translating to "Minister of State") is the head of government of Sweden. The prime minister and their cabinet (the government) exercise executive authority in the Kingdom of Sweden and are su ...

(1905–1906 and 1911–1914). Staaff was active in the Swedish movement for

universal suffrage Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political sta ...

, and as the Liberal party's

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

he presided in 1905 over an attempt to introduce universal and equal suffrage for men. His successor as party leader,

Nils Edén Nils Edén (25 August 1871 – 16 June 1945) was a Swedish historian and liberal politician who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1917 to 1920, and along with Hjalmar Branting acknowledged as co-architect of Sweden's transition from ...

, eventually managed to carry this further into universal suffrage in 1918–19, including for women. Due to conservative intervention, Staaff's proposal for

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

was ultimately scrapped for a proportional system. In 1912, the period of leave that women were allowed following a child's birth was extended to 6 weeks, and in 1913 a tax-financed pension scheme was introduced.Foundations of the Welfare State: 2nd Edition by Pat Thane, published 1996 Staaff ran into sharp conflict with the conservative Swedish establishment, and became a hated figure in the Conservative, pro-

Monarchic A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic ( constitutional monarc ...

and anti- Democratic establishment. An intense smear campaign was launched against him, picturing him as the destroyer of Swedish tradition and society: wealthy

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

ers could even buy ash-trays shaped as his head. His staunch anti-military politics created the greatest fundraising in the Swedish history until that time, the 12 M kronor coastal battleship where the funds where raised in a few months in 1912. Staaff had to bite the lemon, and the ship was ordered. In 1914 Staaff stepped down from government in protest, after Conservatives had summoned a farmers' demonstration at the Royal castle's court in Stockholm, where King Gustaf V – who according to the law was supposed to stay out of politics – denounced Staaff's defence policies. The contemporary Swedish Liberal party The Liberals counts him as the first among the more prominent leaders of Swedish 20th century liberalism, followed by such parliamentarians as Nils Edén, Carl Ekman,

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

laureate Bertil Ohlin, Gunnar Helén, Per Ahlmark and

Bengt Westerberg Bengt Carl Gustaf Westerberg (born 23 August 1943) is a Swedish politician. He was leader of the Liberal People's Party from 1983 to 1995, member of the Riksdag from 1984 to 1994 and Minister for Social Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister 1991 t ...

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Staaff, Karl Albert 1860 births 1915 deaths People from Stockholm Liberal Party of Sweden politicians People from Uppland Members of the Riksdag Prime Ministers of Sweden Swedish Ministers for Justice Uppsala University alumni Free-minded National Association politicians