ERLANDER, TAGE (FRITIOF)

born June 13, 1901, Ranster, Sweden died June 21, 1985, Huddinge, near Stockholm politician, prime minister of Sweden for 23 years, who was the major architect of its welfare state. Erlander graduated from the University of Lund in 1928 and was an editor for the encyclopaedia Svensk Uppslabok from 1928 to 1938. He entered the Riksdag (parliament) as a Social Democrat in 1933 and held several ministerial posts in Social Democratic governments from 1938. He became prime minister and chairman of the Social Democratic Party following the death of Per Albin Hansson in 1946 and remained in both posts until October 1969. In 1970 he was elected to the new single-chamber Riksdag that his government had championed since 1955. Over the course of Erlander's long tenure, Sweden increased its social-welfare legislation with the passage of greater old-age benefits, child allowances, and rent subsidies. His educational reforms included extending compulsory education to nine years and increasing higher-educational opportunities. After his retirement Erlander wrote four volumes of memoirs, Tage Erlander (197276).