AbstractThis thesis discusses ideological and rhetorical change of the Moderate Party of Sweden. The aim of the thesis has been to study the party during a time-span of almost 20 years, trying to identify changes related to each of the three party leaders.A hypothesis was developed, suggesting that the three party leaders each represented a different kind of ideology namely neo-conservatism, neo-liberalism and Social Liberalism. By studying newspaper articles and protocols from the Swedish Parliament, riksdagen, I was able to verify the hypothesis in all but the first party leader, Carl Bildt. It was showed that his ideology had more in common with New Right than with neo-liberalism.After identifying these changes I looked for explanations within Party Strategy Theory and Social Change Theory. My conclusions were that the changes could be understood by the great loss of voters in the election of 2002 and that agents within the Moderate Party acted upon the ambition to win new and old voters to the party, thereby recognizing the need for change.Keywords: Ideological Change, Rhetorical Change, The Moderate Party,Neo-Liberalism, Neo-Conservatism, Social Liberalism..

Participating in peace support operations has been and remains a significant part of the Swedish defense and security politics. Since the end of the Cold War, the Swedish national defence has been more and more dismantled, in favor of international peace support operations which have become an increasingly important task for the Swedish defence. Why then, is Sweden so engaged in conflicts so far from home? Using two classic theories of international politics, realism and liberalism, this study aims to shed light on arguments from the Swedish parliament on why it is important for Sweden to participate in international peace support operations. After analyzing arguments of the Social Democrat Party, the Moderate Party, the Green Party and the Liberal Party concerning three different peace support operations which Sweden has participated in, the result shows that although both realism and liberalism are influencing the parties? argumentation, liberalism is the theory which is used more often.

The purpose of this comparative study is to investigate if the views of Sayyid Qutb and Tariq Ramadan regarding social structure and religion are possible to unite with western liberal democracy. The basis of the study is the problematizing approaches written by Qutb and Ramadan regarding the possible unity between Islam and democracy. These problematizing approaches are then tested on the political philosophy of liberalism to see if a unity is possible.The result showed that Qutb's view did not meet the criteria of democracy, which wasn't surprising due to his negative views on the system. However, Ramadan's reformist view on Muslim identity did unite with the views of liberal democracy, though questions regarding the possibility of creating and preserving a European Muslim identity in the secular society were immediately brought to attention.The importance in Qutb's view is social equality, unity and submission to God and the importance of Ramadan's view is to create and preserve a European Muslim identity and adapt to the society where you live and participate as a citizen. Qutb's view will not tolerate diversity and one is to keep or convert to the Muslim faith.

The main purpose of our paper is to reconstruct the intervention logic of the Swedish government's proposal to introduce a tax deduction for homework help. Furthermore, we also intend to outline the perceived impacts of this tax deduction in the municipality of Linköping. Our material consists of the government bill regarding the tax deduction, the parliamentary debate which preceded it as well as interviews with key people in the municipality of Linköping. In our study and in the light of Matthew Clarke?s theory of neo-liberalism within education policy, we also ask ourselves if the intervention logic behind the tax deduction and its perceived effects can be seen as a manifestation of neo-liberalism.

Postmodernism and neo-liberalism is often thought of as two opposite conceptions of the reality and the world. This thesis takes on a critical view of this assertion and the main purpose was to perform a correlation between postmodernism and neo-liberalism. With different theoretical assumptions about constructions of thoughts, agency and structure and the welfare-state a theoretical framework was created. According to this framework the two isms were correlated to each other and the welfare-state to see if there where similarities or dissimilarities between the isms. The assumptions of this thesis are that there are correlations between postmodernism and neo-liberalism in the constructions of thoughts, namely similar view on epistemology.

Uppsatsen syfte är att ta reda på ifall den Europeiska Unionens (EU) handelspolicy för den interna respektive den externa marknaden följer den liberala retoriken som förs av unionen. Det är en komparativ fallstudie som använder sig av idealtyper för att ge en nyanserad bild av unionens handelspolicy. Det teoretiska ramverket som används för att framställa dessa idealtyper är merkantilism samt liberalism. Idealtyperna appliceras sedan på de två fallen. Fokus för studien ligger på tiden mellan Lissabonfördraget och 2012 innan den senaste utvidgningen till 28 medlemsstater ägde rum.

This essay analyses the national standard for maintenance aid and if it´s compatible with the standards set in the government mould.As new-liberal ideas get more scope in the Swedish policy the analyses focus consisted in seeing about the social contribution been changed, and if the standards in the government mould have lost their worth.The national standard is not edified on the basis of subsistence levels, but becomes paradoxical when numbers of welfare recipients is the measure used in order to measure poverty, concurrent as the government mould aims to protecting every citizen?s welfare.The study analyses a type of society that has emerged during a period of time. In a normative analysis concepts are set in relation to each other where, the analysis presents standards that are vague. If the standards in the government mould are presented as something valuable and get their worth back in the policy, perhaps also the citizen´s in Sweden change attitude to poverty and welfare contribution.   Social- liberalism justifies social contribution and the welfare State, while new-liberalism has other opinions about what redistribution should contain.

Purpose: Which type of social critique does hiphop music present and is it possible to categorize the critique?Is it possible to categorize the social critique ideologically on the basis of socialism, liberalism and conservatism?Procedure and method: A qualitative text method has been used to see which arguments the songs portray. Two different analyzes has been used. The first one was a theory based on Thomas Denk and Daniel Silanders book: Att studera demokratisering and Arvidssons book: Musik och politik hör ihop and its purpose were to categorise the critique. The second one was based on a book by Reidar Larssons: Politiska ideologier i vår tid.

This paper examines the ideological content of the compulsory school policy of the Swedish Liberal Party. The aim of the study is to investigate whether the Liberal Party does really represent a liberal policy for the compulsory school, or if it is more accurately described as conservative. The analysis is carried through by two separate critical examinations of the Liberal Party motion on school politics to the parliament and the Conservative Party motion on school politics to the parliament respectively. A comparison is then made between the ideological contents of the two documents. The specific party policies are linked to universal definitions of liberalism and conservatism with the help of an analytical tool consistent of a series of educational philosophies.

The purpose of this essay is to find out if Alliansen has lost their Bourgeoisie collective identity. The comprehensive questions of this essay are:Does liberalism or conservatism dominate the manifesto of Alliansen from 2006-2010 compared to the manifesto 2014-2018?Have Alliansen changed their ideological views to the centre of the political spectrum in their manifesto from 2006-2010 compared to the manifesto 2014-2018? The method used in this essay is a qualitative dimensional study. The results of the essay show that conservatism dominates both manifestos of Alliansen and show that the ideological view of Alliansen has not changed. Alliansens view of human beings in their manifesto from 2006-2010 is pessimistic and so is Alliansens manifesto from 2014-2018 and therefore closer to the conservative ideology than the ideology of liberalism.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate possible reasons Sweden might have had to motivate the start and end of its nuclear program during the Cold war. This investigation will be conducted using a qualitative research method and making a comparison between the theories realism and liberalism?s ability to explain the decisions. The question this paper is based upon is as follows: Can Sweden?s creating and shutting down of a nuclear weapons program during the Cold war be explained by the international events and actions that were taking place during this time period? The result consists of liberalism pointing out several failures on the international level that might explain the cynical decision from Sweden to create the nuclear weapons. Realism considers the decision to make perfect sense at this point in time, to protect Sweden on the anarchy that was going on at that time according to this theory.The ending of the nuclear weapons program is being explained largely by the rise of the MAD-concept which renders the acute need of nuclear weapons in Sweden void.  Liberalism on the other hand considers this a logic step due to the better established UN that is playing a larger role now than in the 1940s. In conclusion, realism does a better job explaining the start of the nuclear weapons program, while liberalism explains the end of it more efficiently. The contribution this thesis has to the research of political science can be seen mainly in three areas.

Uppsatsen är en komparativ studie om försvarsbeslut 1925 och försvarsbeslut 2004. Jag testar två teorier mot dessa två försvarsbeslut, det är realismen och liberalismen. Det jag vill få fram genom uppsatsen är att se likheterna och skillnaderna i de båda besluten inom ett säkerhetspolitiskt perspektiv..

The Swedish Moderate party, often also called the Conservative party, was founded with conservatism as the dominant ideology. During the years, however, liberalism has gradually found its way into the party. The aim of this study is to analyze the Moderate party?s political platforms from 1984 to 2013 from an ideological perspective. Is conservatism still a foundational ideology in the Moderate party, or has the liberal ideology taken its place? The study is based on an ideal type analysis that illustrates the Moderate party?s argumentation in six political issues in the years 1984, 1993 and 2013.

This essay seeks to gain understanding on the thoughts of Konrad Adenauer regarding the future of Europe in the post-WWII era, and European integration in particular. The material used is his memoirs, which gives an insight into the part of his thought that he chose to share with the rest of the world. The essay uses an analytical framework of three theories, popular within the academic discipline of international relations: realism, liberalism and constructivism. The conclusion it draws is that none of the theories can in a satisfying way describe Adenauer?s thoughts, but rather that they all in some way describe certain elements of his thoughts.

The purpose of the essay is to make a comparative study between the Christian value parity and the Christian Democrats. To answer the purpose the following questions are asked: What are the similarities and differences between party programs? What are the similarities and differences in their origin? The theory used is based on Reidar Larlsson political ideologies, there were two ideologies used to apply on the result: conservatism and liberalism. The method was ideologies analysis. The result of the study shows that there were some similarities and some differences between the part programs.