Søren Pedersen Jaabæk (1 April 1814 – 7 January 1894) was a Norwegian politician and farmer. Jaabæk is the longest-serving member of the

Norwegian Parliament The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list proportional represe ...

in the history of Norway, and was one of the founders of the

Liberal Party of Norway The Liberal Party (, , V; ) is a social liberal political party in Norway. It was founded in 1884 and is the oldest political party in Norway. Despite its native name, the Liberal Party is positioned in the centre on the political spectrum, and ...

Early life

Jaabæk was born in

Holum Holum is a former municipality that was located in the old Vest-Agder county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1964. The administrative centre was the village of Krossen where Holum Church is located. T ...

, Lister og Mandals amt, Norway in 1814. After living in

Halse og Harkmark Halse og Harkmark is a former municipality in the old Vest-Agder county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1964. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Halse, which at that time was a ...

for some years, he returned to Holum following his father's death in 1849. He began his professional life working in schools and churches. He served several terms as mayor of Holum and Halse og Harkmark between 1840 and 1890. In 1845, he was elected to the Norwegian Parliament, where he served until 1891.

Political career

In 1865, Jaabæk founded (lit. "The Friends of the Peasants", inspired by a Danish society of the same name), a political society of Norwegian farmers which evolved from a local group in

Mandal A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administrative c ...

to a national movement, composed of more than 300 local bodies with approximately 30,000 members in total. Through Bondevennerne, Jaabæk introduced the open popular meeting to Norwegian politics, and the first Norwegian

cooperatives A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...

emerged as offshoots of the Bondevennerne movement. Bondevennerne's main newspaper, '' Folketidende'', was also founded by Jaabæk in Mandal in 1865. Jaabæk was elected chairman of Bondevennerne in 1868. In parliamentary politics, Jaabæk eventually emerged as the leader of the oppositional alliance of farmers. He often sided with

Johan Sverdrup Johan Sverdrup (30 July 1816 – 17 February 1892) was a Norwegian politician from the Liberal Party. He was the first prime minister of Norway after the introduction of parliamentarism. Sverdrup was prime minister from 1884 to 1889. Early year ...

, a major representative of the urban liberal opposition. In 1869, Jaabæk and Sverdrup became political allies, thus establishing an alliance between the urban and the rural opposition, which would lead to the foundation of the

(led by Sverdrup) in 1884. By 1884, little remained of Bondevennerne. Some of the remaining bodies gradually became local Liberal bodies. Jaabæk never became one of the leading figures of the new party, but he remained a supporter of Sverdrup for the remainder of his political career. For his last parliamentary term, Jaabæk represented the

Moderate Liberal Party The Moderate Liberal Party (, literally "Moderate Left") was a List of political parties in Norway, political party in Norway that emerged from the moderate and religious branches of the Liberal Party (Norway), Liberal Party in 1888. The party's t ...

. He left the Norwegian Parliament in 1891. In 1884 he was a co-founder of the

Norwegian Association for Women's Rights The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights (; NKF) is Norway's oldest and preeminent women's rights, women's and girls' rights organization that works "to promote gender equality and all women's and girls' human rights through political reform, ...

. Jaabæk supported

economic liberalism Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberalism ...

and was widely known for his opposition to high governmental spending. His alleged stubbornness in economic matters earned him the nickname "Neibæk" ("No-bæk"). Due to his rationalistic approach to Christianity, as well as his view of positions in the church as ordinary professions, he became at odds with the Norwegian clergy in the 1870s. Jaabæk supported many democratic reforms, and spoke up for

universal suffrage Universal suffrage or universal franchise ensures the right to vote for as many people bound by a government's laws as possible, as supported by the " one person, one vote" principle. For many, the term universal suffrage assumes the exclusion ...

and equal marriage rights for men and women. Jaabæk died in 1894.

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