Tage Fritiof Erlander

Tage Fritiof Erlander , 1901-85, Swedish socialist leader, prime minister of Sweden (1946-69). On the editorial staff of the encyclopedia Svensk Upplagsbok from 1929 to 1938, he was first elected to the Riksdag in 1933. He held several ministerial positions before 1946 and became a leading expert on education and social welfare. A Social Democrat, Erlander helped further the development of the Swedish socialist state. Although sympathetic to the West, Erlander preserved formal Swedish neutrality in the cold war. At his retirement he was succeeded as party leader and prime minister by Olaf Palme.

Erlander, Tage Fritiof (b. 13 June 1901, d. 21 June 1985). Prime Minister of Sweden 1946–68 Born in Ransäter (Värmland), he graduated from Lund University in 1928. He worked as the editor of an encyclopaedia, but in 1933 was elected to the Riksdag (Parliament) as a Social Democrat. He was an Under-Secretary in the Social Department (1938–44), then Minister without Portfolio, and Minister of Education (1945). He was the party's surprise choice to succeed Per Albin Hansson as party leader and Prime Minister. He continued his predecessor's development of Sweden's model welfare state. He introduced an extremely high rate of very progressive taxation in 1947 which was designed to reduce income inequalities and put large funds for redistribution into the hands of the state. In response, pensions were increased, and a child allowance scheme introduced, while other measures such as statutory holidays were in place by 1955. Despite initial economic difficulties, when he profited from disunity among the opposition parties, he was able to sustain his model of a socialism that he took to be the middle way between Communism and capitalism, owing to his political craftsmanship, his pragmatism and common sense, and the blossoming of the economy. After leaving office, in which he was succeeded by Palme, he wrote his memoirs in six volumes (1972–82).