Poor Relief Regulation of 1871 ( Swedish: 1871 års fattigvårdförordning) was a Swedish

Poor Law In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of hel ...

which organized the public

Poor relief In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of hel ...

in the Sweden. It replaced the ''

1847 års fattigvårdförordning The Poor relief regulation of 1847 (Swedish language, Swedish: 1847 års fattigvårdförordning) was a Swedish Poor Law which organized the public poor relief system in Sweden. With some alterations in 1853 and 1871, it established the basis for th ...

'' and was in effect until the Poor Care Law of 1918. In 1847, the first Swedish social help system separate from the church had been organized by the Poor relief regulation of 1847. It was adjusted only to a very minor degree by the 1853 års fattigvårdförordning. The rapid changes during the mid 19th-century, including

industrialisation Industrialisation ( UK) or industrialization ( US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive reorganisation of an economy for th ...

urbanization Urbanization (or urbanisation in British English) is the population shift from Rural area, rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. ...

labour movement The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...

and

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

, created an opposition toward public social projects among the ruling elite, who came to regard them as

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

. The law from 1847, which was influenced by the

liberalism Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...

of the 1840s, came to be regarded as too generous, and gradually the authorities came to practice it more and more strictly. This was illustrated during the

Swedish famine of 1867–1869 The Famine of 1867–1869 was the last famine in Sweden, and (together with the Finnish famine of 1866–1868) the last major famine in Northern Europe. In Sweden, the year 1867 was known as () and, in Tornedalen, as () because of the bark ...

, when emergency relief was delivered almost exclusively to those willing to work for it. A growing opinion felt that society should take responsibility only for orphans, the aged, the insane and the mentally or physically challenged, and deny any form of assistance to all adults who were physically and mentally healthy. In 1871, the law of 1847 was reformed. While the organisation and the system introduced in 1847 was kept in form, the law of 1871 introduced more strict qualifications as to who should be allowed to receive social benefits. By this reform, social benefits was banned for everyone except for those physically or mentally unable to work, such as orphans, the aged, the insane and the mentally or physically challenged, and further more banned the right to appeal a decision made by the Poor Care Board. The law of 1871 was thereby a severe deterioration of social help in Sweden, and those needing no longer qualified to apply for help from the state because of the new regulations was forced to rely on private charity (foremost the local Fruntimmers-skyddsförening) as well as old outdated customs such as ''

rotegång ('walk the parish') or ('walk around') was a historical form of care for the poor in the history of Sweden to support the very poorest in the peasant community. was practiced in the Swedish countryside already in the Middle Ages to care for tho ...

'', the pauper auction and child auctions. It was not until the Poor Care Law of 1918 that the entire poor relief system in Sweden was truly reformed and the

Rotegång ('walk the parish') or ('walk around') was a historical form of care for the poor in the history of Sweden to support the very poorest in the peasant community. was practiced in the Swedish countryside already in the Middle Ages to care for tho ...

, the pauper auctions, the child auctions, the poor houses and other old fashioned phenomena were abolished.

References

* Elisabeth Engberg, I fattiga omständigheter. Fattigvårdens former och understödstagare i Skellefteå socken under 1800-talet. n poor circumstances. Poor relief policy and paupers in Skellefteå parish, Sweden, in the nineteenth centuryUmeå 2005, 368 pp. Monograph. * Hadenius, Stig, Nilsson, Torbjörn & Åselius, Gunnar, Sveriges historia: vad varje svensk bör veta, Bonnier Alba, Stockholm, 1996 * Sven Ulric Palme: Hundra år under kommunalförfattningarna 1862-1962: en minnesskrift utgiven av Svenska landskommunernas förbund, Svenska landstingsförbundet chSvenska stadsförbundet, printed at Godvil, 1962 {{DEFAULTSORT:1871 ars fattigvardforordning Social history of Sweden 1871 in law Social law 1871 in Sweden

See also

References