On February 20, the long expected parliamentary election was held. As the first expression of national opinion under the manhood suffrage law, its result was awaited with unusual interest. Dissolution of the House of Representatives had been demanded by the liberal press ever since the passage of the election law of 1925, but the old parties had been reluctant to appeal to the electorate. In the fifty-second session of the Diet, the Kenseikai cabinet reaped a harvest of unpopularity by an arrangement with the Seiyukai and Seiyuhonto which prevented a no-confidence vote. When the Seiyukai came into office in April, 1927, it was apparent that any ministry which postponed dissolution would forfeit popular esteem; and in any case the four-year term automatically required a general election before May, 1928. The Kenseikai and the Seiyuhonto made preparation for the coming election by amalgamating into a united opposition under the name of the Rikken Minseito. The Seiyukai prepared by dismissing the governors in twenty-four of the forty-seven prefectures and filling their places with adherents who would promote the party's interests at the polls.

The outstanding aspect of the Swedish parliamentary system in recent years has been a series of minority governments. Six ministries since 1920 have been able to muster only a minority support in the Riksdag. This inability of any party to obtain a majority may be attributed in part to the fact that six parties, four major and two minor, are represented. A brief review of party history may assist in understanding the present situation.

The parliamentary reform of 1866 which abolished the four estates of the old Riksdag and established a two-chamber parliament substituted parties for classes. The organization of the two houses resulted in Conservative control of the first chamber and Agrarian (Lantmannapartiets) domination of the second. The practice of voting jointly on bills rejected by one house saved the situation from becoming a deadlock. In 1888 the issue of protection temporarily split the Agrarian party, but it reunited in 1895 on a moderate protectionist platform. This party represented the rural communities of the kingdom and was by nature conservative. As the cities grew in population, a party more representative of the middle class in the urban communities, the Liberals, gained strength. In 1903 the Liberals captured 102 seats in the second chamber; and, in opposition to the Conservatives, they organized their first ministry under Staaff in 1905. The increasing industrialization of Sweden resulted in the emergence of a fourth party, the Social Democrats, composed largely of the laboring classes. Hjalmar Branting, editor of the party's official organ, Socialdemokraten, was elected to the Riksdag in 1896; but for a number of years the Social Democrats controlled only a few seats. The franchise reforms of 1911 and 1921 resulted in great accessions of strength, and since 1919 this party has been the strongest single group in both houses. It now lacks only twelve of having a majority in the lower house, thirty-five of having a majority in both houses. Its adherents hope to close this gap at the elections of next autumn.

The Labor party of Norway, organized in January, 1927, as a result of a fusion of the Social Democrats with the former Labor party, made sweeping gains in the elections to the Storting in October last and established itself as the strongest party in the country. Gains were made also by the conservative Agrarian, or Farmer's, party; while the old Conservative party suffered heavy losses; and, in proportion to its strength, the losses of the Communists were even greater. The Radical, or Left, party, which has steadily lost ground since the war, experienced a further decline.

The following tables show the votes polled by the leading parties in the elections of 1927 and 1924, and the number of their representatives in the Storting after these elections:

On July 4, 1928, President Augusto B. Leguía will have served thirteen years as chief executive of Peru—the last nine of them consecutively—and will still have one year of his present five-year term ahead of him. This is a remarkable record not only in Peru but in all South America. In fact, in Peru only two other presidents have served two complete terms, and those not consecutive; while Señor Leguía has the honor of being the only man who has been elected three times to the first office in the land. However, the moment one commences to take note of the various accomplishments of this diminutive dynamo of Peruvian politics, the smashing of precedents appears to be a routine matter, of administrative efficiency.

Leguía was elected president in 1919, but apparently fearing that his political enemies might try to prevent him from taking office, he forstalled them by a coup d'état of his own. Less than a month after his installation, a presidential decree placed before the people a project for such a drastic reform of the constitution that it was apparent that what was really contemplated was a new constitution.