Frihet i Tiden : Diskussion och användande av begreppet frihet i den socialdemokratiska idéskriften Tiden 1915-1920 och betydelsen av detta för partisplittringen 1917.

In 1917, the Swedish socialist party SAP, Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Arbetarparti, was split in two. A more radical, leftish fraction broke out and became SSV, Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Vänsterparti (today Vänsterpartiet). The party division is often explained with different attitudes concerning parliamentarism and militarisation – a more compromising one and a more revolutionary and defence nihilist one – that in a time of world war and revolutions led to insurmountable disagreements. Several of the party members thought that the division would not be permanent, as it became. The cementation of the separation suggests that there were more fundamental differences between the leaving fraction and the remaining SAP than just short-sighted political questions such as the WW1. This essay investigates the concept of freedom in the social democratic discourse to discover whether different views and usage of the concept of freedom might indicate greater ideological differences that cemented the division. This is a thorough study of the Social Democrat magazine Tiden during the period 1915-1920, with this purpose. To see the differences properly, a theoretical background on freedom is made, where the differences between liberal, socialist and Leninist freedom together with the ideas of freedom to and freedom from, as well as Isaiah Berlins concepts of positive and negative freedom are distinguished and examined. After the examination of the material, the conclusion is drawn that the views on and ideas of freedom vary greatly, and that it is very likely that it did have an impact on the division, especially in a long-term perspective