Populism has been an integral part of the Finnish political system since the late 1950's. At that time the Agrarian Populist Party, better known as The Rural Party, emerged and thrived for decades until the party financially broke down in the 1990's. Reemerging on the political scene as the True Finns, the party is more radical and more influential than ever, gaining enough support to be the third largest party of the 2011 parliamentary election. Sweden, Finland?s neighbor, in contrast has a history with very little populist presence or radical right populist parties (RRP-parties).

The purpose of this study is to examine the critically raised concern on whether the Liberal party of Sweden, in policies regarding the compulsory school, really represents a liberal policy or if it actually functions more as an ambassador for conservative ideals. An ideology analysis is employed for the purpose of answering the research question, which asks if the party?s changed viewpoint on the compulsory school between the years of 1990 and 2010 could be understood in terms of an ideological alternation. The analysis is carried out by an examination where the party?s policies are linked to common definitions of the two political ideologies, with the assistance of an analytical tool consistent of a series of educational philosophies.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitude of teachers regarding including democratic behaviour when grading students in social science. The purpose is also to investigate whether the teachers consider there to be a conflict between the right of freedom of speech and the democratic values that the school is supposed to make sure the students have when they graduate. The study also investigates the problems political decisions encounters when going from theory to reality.The theory of Ulf Petäjä on why the freedom of speechs is important, Robert Dahls theory about the democratic process and Anders Sannerstedts theory about converting political decisions to reality is what this study is based on.The study was carried out at three different schools; Teleborg Centrum, Växjö, Dackeskolan, Tingsryd and Centralskolan, Virserum ranging from the spring of 2006 and the spring of 2007. The method used except from litterature studies was interviews with active teachers.This study shows that teachers don?t think it?s acceptable to grade students based on their political ideology.

The purpose of this essay was to examine the role of the acquisition of the Swedish language for integration of adult immigrants given by the seven parties currently in the parliament and other players on the field. The questions were meant to bring light upon the arguments used by the different players concerning the role of the Swedish language, to enlighten which discourses that are constructed, and the contradictions that exist between these. We parted from a postmodern position and used social constructionism to back up our method and theory of analysis; discourse theory. The results revealed three different discourses concerning the role of the Swedish language in the integration process; the liberal discourse, the discrimination discourse and the social democratic discourse. The liberal discourse claims that immigrants have a responsibility to learn Swedish to be able to achieve employment and to provide for themselves.

The rise of the Swedish Democrats, as a political party in Sweden, has been surroundedby controversy both within and outside of the media. As such a polarizingtopic, the party has been the focus of negative and positive attention. On onehand it has been considered a racist and xenophobic party due to its policies onimmigrants. On the other, it has also been seen as a solution to what has been consideredby some to be a constant problem in Sweden, for those same policies.These policies are motivated by what the party perceives as a threat to Swedishsociety. That is to say, immigrants are a threat to Sweden because of thechanges they impose on the Swedish identity.

The purpose of this essay is to analyze the ideological development of the former communist parties and the contemporary left-wing socialist parties of the Nordic countries. It is aimed at the two decades that have passed since the collaps of the Berlin wall and the parties at hand are; the Norwegian Sosialistisk Venstre, the Danish Socialistisk Folkeparti, the Swedish Vänsterpartiet and the Finnish Vasemmistoliitto. Since the 1960´s these parties have undergone major ideological changes with reference to a widening of their political agenda to an inclusion of democratic ideals as well as the new ideologies of feminism and ecologism. Thus reforming them into modern left-wing socialist parties at different times. The main hypothesis is formulated from the idea that there must be a connection between the startingpoint of reformation and the degree of modernism/traditionalism they show today.

Local politicians are key actors in the democratic system and their ideas concerning democracy plays a central role in local democratic politics. The study's point of departure is the notion that local politicians are dependent of coherence between practice and theory concerning democracy and in the study of their ideas we acquire knowledge about the democratic practice.This study examines the local politicians? view of Swedish democracy and explores the logic of the discourse that makes statements concerning democracy possible. Twenty local politicians have been interviewed and from the material a discourse have been established through the use of formulation of problems and cause, nodal points and chains of analogy which is compared with democratic ideals.The study comes to the conclusion that a hegemonic discourse exists, in which central nodal points are representative and listening. The idea of the representative system is hegemonic and is based in the liberal democratic ideal although the view of the citizens rather can be traced to the radical, communitarian and deliberative ideal.

This thesis deals with the cultural efforts of the Swedish labour movement during the periodof 1917-1939. It aims to examine the similarities and differences between social democratsand communists in their approach towards culture.My theoretical guidelines are the dialectic and materialistic view on history as set forth byKarl Marx and Friedrich Engels.I have examined some important individuals in the cultural debate within the Swedish labourmovement, such as Ture Nerman and Arthur Engberg, and I also briefly outline the debate inthe Soviet Union from the classics of Lenin and Stalin.I have found that the social democrats were mainly concerned with a democratic distributionof the existing bourgeois culture rather than working for the creation of a new proletarianculture; the communists on the other hand made considerable efforts to benefit the workers'own culture based on class struggle, but failed to threaten the social democratic ideologicalhegemony among the Swedish working class..

This thesis analyses ideas of gender in the Swedish radical right. The aim of the study is to see if there are any differences or similarities in the way gender is being formulated by a populist radical right party as the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna), the extreme right party, Party of the Swedes (Svenskarnas Parti) and the extreme right movement Swedish Resistance Movement (Svenska Motståndsrörelsen). Ideas of gender are presented in the theory chapter which is used later on in the analysis to compare with the radical right organisations of Sweden. To fulfil the aim we have performed a comparative ideological analysis between the three organisations and the base for our analysis is texts from each organisation?s webpage.

Since the 1970s voting behaviour has changed. Party identification and class voting has declined. As the electorate becomes more volatile, campaign strategy and party image becomes essential. Political communication and mass media now play an important role in election campaigns. Therefore, researchers take an interest in the impact of media on public opinion.

The purpose of this study is to examine the critically raised concern on whether the Liberal party of Sweden, in policies regarding the compulsory school, really represents a liberal policy or if it actually functions more as an ambassador for conservative ideals. An ideology analysis is employed for the purpose of answering the research question, which asks if the party?s changed viewpoint on the compulsory school between the years of 1990 and 2010 could be understood in terms of an ideological alternation. The analysis is carried out by an examination where the party?s policies are linked to common definitions of the two political ideologies, with the assistance of an analytical tool consistent of a series of educational philosophies.

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.

The purpose with this essay is to find out ifneo-fascist connection will change the next generationscitizens (in this specific case ninth graders) opinions about a specific political party. In modern day Sweden,only one political party stands for political ideas that can be seen as neo-fascist (Sverigedemokraterna). Whatwould happen if the next generation citizens saw this connection and how would they respond? That?s whatthis essay is all about, are the students ?positive?, ?negative? or ?on changed? to a neo-fascist politicalparty? The studies research type is mainly of a qualitative nature butquantitative elements occur. The data iscoming from two classes of ninth graders that answered eight questions each.

This essay is a comparative research between pupils' experience of how the headmaster, teachers and other school staff interpret and apply the democratic education. The results are based on a survey carried out in senior high school, as well as interviews with the school staff. The democratic education charge has a long history of Swedish school system and is the basis for the maintenance of a democratic society. Both policy paper of state investigations and researchers in the field, regard to school as the primary and unique instance in order to promote and develop democratic skills in children and young people. However, it is shown that those who come out from school lack of knowledge and awareness of democracy and the will to speak their mind.

What every theory of democracy has in common is a reference to ?a people? who are, in one way or another, collectively self-governing. Given that, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the so called boundary problem of democratic theory, or, in other words, the question of who should be included in the democratic community. Lately, the historically given boundaries have been questioned in favour of a cosmopolitan democracy. Still, little has been said about the boundary problem in general, especially from a theoretical point of view.