Folkmajoritetens upphöjda tankesätt[…] : En presshistorisk undersökning av den konservativa pressens opinionsbildning rörande representationsreformen de fyra sista månaderna år 1865

Sammanfattning: In 1865 the four national estates in Sweden voted to reform the national representation to a bicameral parliament. This reform was preceded by a rise in liberal sentiment in the country, especially among the emerging middle class. The vote was not unanomous however and some newspapers backed up the more conservative representatives that were hesitant to pass the reform. Three of these conservative papers have been examined and analysed, to identify the arguments against the reform that were presented, and how they viewed the reform. The objections that were vocalized by the papers mainly focused on the upheaval the reform was feared to cause. The liberal press was considered misleading and hypocritical, when discussing the issue. The newspapers did not deny the problems with the current representation, instead they prefered the changes to be smaller and more gradual, except for Nya Dagligt Allehanda, which is positive to the new change. One suggestion to an alternative representation is a system based on a class system, instead of income. The liberal reformers are seen as a threat to stability and are described as revolutionary more than once. A major fear regarding the reform was that the second chamber would facilitate mobrule in place of the current representation. Earlier works in the area have mainly focused on the reformers, but this work shows their sceptical, conservative counterparts.