The Social Democratic Party () was a social-democratic political party in Iceland. It was founded in 1916, as the political representation of the

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

s of Iceland.

History

In 1920, its first member of the

Althing The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the Parliamentary sovereignty, supreme Parliament, national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ('Thing (assembly), thing ...

, the Icelandic parliament, Jón Baldvinsson was elected. The party would contest elections to the Althing with little success until 1934, when the party obtained 10 parliamentary seats. Iceland shifted towards a

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

system later that year which political scientist Amel Ahmed attributes to the rising electoral threat that the Social Democratic Party posed to the Independence Party and Progressive Party. Between 1926 and 1940, the party was a member of the

Labour and Socialist International The Labour and Socialist International (LSI) was an international organization of socialist and labourist parties, active between 1923 and 1940. The group was established through a merger of the rival Vienna International and the Berne Intern ...

.Kowalski, Werner (1985)
''Geschichte der sozialistischen arbeiter-internationale: 1923–1919''
Berlin: Dt. Verl. d. Wissenschaften (in German). The party led the government of Iceland three times, first in 1947–1949 under Stefán Jóhann Stefánsson, then in 1958–1959 under Emil Jónsson and finally under Benedikt Sigurðsson Gröndal in 1979–1980. Its longest participation in government was with the Independence Party from 1959 to 1971. The Social Democratic Party was succeeded in 2000 by the Social Democratic Alliance, a

centre-left Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...

party with a wider political base created by the merger of the Social Democratic Party with the National Awakening, the People's Alliance and the Women's List.

Party chairmen

* Ottó N. Þorláksson (1916) * Jón Baldvinsson (1916–1938) * Stefán Jóhann Stefánsson (1938–1952) * Hannibal Valdimarsson (1952–1954) * Haraldur Guðmundsson (1954–1958) * Emil Jónsson (1958–1968) * Gylfi Þorsteinsson Gíslason (1968–1974) * Benedikt Sigurðsson Gröndal (1974–1980) * Kjartan Jóhannsson (1980–1984) * Jón Baldvin Hannibalsson (1984–1996) * Sighvatur Kristinn Björgvinsson (1996–1998) * Guðmundur Árni Stefánsson (1998–2000)

History

Party chairmen

Election results

References

Further reading