Hansson IV Cabinet 1945–1946
Single-party Social Democratic cabinet under Per Albin Hansson, formed after the wartime samlingsregering dissolved at the end of WWII, that transitioned Sweden out of the war economy and began the postwar Folkhemmet expansion before ending abruptly with Hansson's sudden death on 6 October 1946.
The Hansson IV Cabinet, sworn in on 31 July 1945, was a single-party Socialdemokraterna government formed after the wartime samlingsregering dissolved at the end of WWII. Per Albin Hansson continued as prime minister at the head of an SAP-only cabinet, with the young Tage Erlander holding the education portfolio.
The cabinet’s task was to convert the war economy into a postwar economic boom and to begin the massive expansion of the folkhemmet welfare state. Concrete early steps included Sweden’s 1946 entry into the United Nations and the introduction of free school lunches and free textbooks under Erlander’s education ministry. The legislative texture of the next two decades — basic pensions, child allowance, and the buildout of free universal healthcare — would be enacted under the cabinets that followed, but the political mandate began here.
The cabinet ended abruptly on 6 October 1946 when Per Albin Hansson died suddenly of a heart attack. Tage Erlander succeeded him as PM and would hold the office for the next 23 years, the longest tenure in Swedish political history.