During the later parts of the 20th century there occurred several changes to the Swedish public sector. These changes aimed to effectivize and decentralize the governance model in the public sector. One of these changes was the municipalization of the school system, put forward and proposed by the social democratic government in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This study aims to examine and compare that times different parliamentary parties' opinions on the municipalization of the school system. The source material consists of government bills, and in direct relation to the municipalization of the school system.

The Veiled Party: A Discourse Analysis of Sweden Democratic Texts aims to further the understanding of the underlying ideology of the Sweden Democratic party, by revealing whether or not there is any ideological content that include race, racialization, and racism in the party?s political texts. The study offers a background description of the discursive change in the social and political climate of debate in Sweden, which opened a policy window for xenophobic agenda setting. In addition, the study delivers a presentation of the public debate regarding the Sweden Democrats, as well as statements by party representatives.Through a social constructionist and discourse analytic framework, the study aims at understanding how the application of racial ideas are done and mapped. The core of the theoretical framework is a critical race and whiteness theoretical approach.

The aim of this essay is to show if and how group identities are being constructed in maindocuments from three political parties in the Swedish parliament, focusing on class, genderand ethnic identities. The three parties who?s documents are being analyzed are theModerate Party, the Sweden Democrats and the Left Party. The conclusion of the essay isthat the Moderate Party is so focused on the individual that they are not promoting groupidentity based on class, gender or ethnicity. The Sweden Democrats are mostly discussing,and therefore creating a discourse of, cultural identity, where Swedish, Nordic, Europeanand Western culture are being created as the ?us?, and others are being created as ?them?.They are also promoting difference between men and women, therefore dividing the sexesin groups.

During the last decades the Swedish local party systems have gone through some considerable changes. The number of parties present in local party systems have increased and in some cases even doubled. This makes coalition building between parties complex and parties will be forced to rethink their coalition strategies and adjust to the new circumstances. Theoretically, coalition building has often been considered and applied to national data and there have been just a few attempts to develop and theoretically explain coalitions on a local level. Thus the aim of this paper is to use different theoretical approaches to local data to test the significance of traditional coalition theories.

The Voices of ParliamentCongruence between party and personThe purpose of this study is to determine the congruence between the opinions of members of parliament and their respective party policies, in order to further determine the cause of poor voter-party congruence and whether or not the individualization of the parliament could affect the character of legislation. To do so, the study asks two primary research questions;- "Are the communicated party policies representative of the opinions of the members of parliament?"- "Is the discrepancy between party policies and the opinions of the members of parliament sufficient for the individualization of parliament to substantially affect the parliament's decisions?"The study answers these questions by comparing the average of self-described left-right stances of members of parliament with the average of voter-described left-right stances of party policies, using existing survey data and a constructed left-right dimension. The lower average is then subtracted from the higher average, creating a value of congruence that is then inserted into a constructed congruence dimension. The primary findings of the study suggest that there is substantial congruence between party policies and the opinions of the members of parliament, and that the discrepancy between them is unlikely to substantially affect the parliament's decisions..

 The purpose of this thesis was to explore how the ideological self-image of the biggest Swedish governmental party, Moderaterna, has developed between 1993 and 2011. The second purpose was to compare this development on a fundamental ideological level, with development on the operative ideological level. This was to be made by qualitative analysis of the party?s ideological programs and election manifestos. Hopefully this would expose a pattern of the party?s ideological development. The findings of this thesis however, suggested that while the ideology on the fundamental level had radically changed, the ideology on the operative level has been characterized by continuity.

In order to be able to change, to maintain competitiveness as a company in a world where rapid changes is part of the daily life, it is crucial to have knowledge and methods in how to change. One method, originally developed in Finland, is the Change Laboratory. This method is said to be efficient, not only concerning change aspects but also learning, since change and learning in this method is intertwined. This Master Thesis (20p.) tells about the process of conducting a Change Laboratory with a Swedish high-tech company and analyses factors in the process that makes change possible..

The aim of this thesis is to examine the politics and activities of the Social Democratic students´ association Spartakus. Their relationships and political and ideological differences towards the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) and the remaining parts of the Social Democratic youth organisation (SSU) in Linköping during 1969-1971 are examined. To fulfil this aim I have studied relevant literature and interviewed people who were active in Spartakus, as well as people from SSU and SAP in the municipal during the period. I have also studied written material produced by the students´ association itself during the period. The theoretical frame of reference consists of Dahl´s theory on a democratic political order, and party theories like the mass party theory of Duverger, theories from Sjöblom, Panebianco, Lipset and Tingsten and also Gidlund&Möller´s theory about different kinds of party members.

This thesis uses statistical methods to investigate if political appointees working for the Swedish government are good representatives for the members of the ruling party. This is a relevant question since the number of political appointees and the political fields in which they are employed have increased. Some say that this is a sign of presidentialism, which in this context means that the prime minister and his cabinet are becoming more independent from parliament and supporting party. The research is done by comparing the political appointees with an select elite of party members regards to socioeconomic background, which interest that are promoted in society and ideology. The consequences of differences on these characteristics between political appointees and the party elite could be that some interest in society are wrongly overrepresented while others are wrongly underrepresented by the unelected political appointees.

In this paper I propose a definition on what right-wing populism is, by comparing three right-wing populist parties; the Swedish Democrats in Sweden, the Danish Folks Party in Denmark and the Progress Party in Norway. This is also my question formulation. I have used the idea analysis to straighten out the concept of right-wing populism. The purpose of this paper is to make a definition of the concept of right-wing populism, since one seldom speaks of what right-wing populism is but rather only uses it with parties who want to decrease immigration. However is it much more to a right-wing populist party than just the immigration question.      I begin by discussing the previous research about populism and right-wing populism to see what conclusions previous researchers have made.

This thesis uses statistical methods to investigate if political appointees working for the Swedish government are good representatives for the members of the ruling party. This is a relevant question since the number of political appointees and the political fields in which they are employed have increased. Some say that this is a sign of presidentialism, which in this context means that the prime minister and his cabinet are becoming more independent from parliament and supporting party. The research is done by comparing the political appointees with an select elite of party members regards to socioeconomic background, which interest that are promoted in society and ideology. The consequences of differences on these characteristics between political appointees and the party elite could be that some interest in society are wrongly overrepresented while others are wrongly underrepresented by the unelected political appointees.

AbstractWhy do Political Parties emerge? ? A Study of "Sjukvårdspartiet i Värmland"Political Science, Johan UtterThe political parties have important roles to play in contemporary society. They act as bearers of power and presents the voters with finished packages of ideas on how society should grow, develop and change. Political parties are essential to the survival and wellbeing of representative democracy. Many theories have been developed over the years concerning matters related to political parties, but one area of research remains largely unexplored, namely the topic on why political parties do emerge in the first place.

AbstractTitle: From old rightwing-ghost to the new labour party ? The new conservatives political communication during the Swedish election 2006Authors: Pontus CarestenAim: The aim of the essay is to study how the conservative party communicated during the election campaign in 2006. I wish to find out how political parties work in todays society and how the communication has changed over time. To get relevant results I will also see how the theories and empirics interact. The purpose is further to illustrate the new conservatives? campaign work from a senders point of view.Method/Material: I have chosen a qualitative method which consists of three interviews with relevant key persons.

This paper examines how the Swedish nationalistic political party Sverigedemokraterna communicates regarding the crisis they experienced when the Swedish newspaper Expressen published a few video clips of three, in that time, highly important party members that got in an argument after a late night of drinking. Two of the party members were at the time of the publication the members of the Swedish parliament and all of them had important senior positions in the party. In the argument one of the party members used abusive, offensive, sexist and racist language while all acted threatening and even armed themselves with iron bars from a nearby construction site.The aim of this paper is to examine how the party Sverigedemokraterna conducts their crisis communication, if they apologies and the fashion of the apology. A press conference with the party leader and the most active user of abusive language and also an interview with the second member of parliament who is involved in the argument are studied. The rhetorical arena is used to describe and pinpoint the most important stakeholders in the crisis.

This study is about the perception of politics in social work. The aim of the study was to seehow people working with social work in municipalities describe their perception of how politicsaffect their work. The study was conducted in two municipalities in middle Sweden,which had a transfer of power in the 2006 election. Six people; two social workers, two executivedirectors and two politicians was interviewed about their perceptions about politics, ifthe ideological direction of the municipal matters, and how politics effect social work and theorganization. As analyze method organizational theory with focus on change and power wereused.