This article focuses on how the Swedish neutrality policy during the First World War became a contentious topic in Swedish domestic politics. The food crisis in 1916–1917, social disquiet in connection with the Finnish Civil War, and the German revolt in 1918 steered Sweden away from benevolent neutrality towards Germany and into a more pragmatic orientation. All of this finally led to universal suffrage in 1918–1919. The article suggests that this transformation was more an issue of bourgeois reorientation than a revolutionary situation halted at the last minute.