In 1988 the Swedish Social Democratic Party decided to reform the tax system. In this essay I analyse the motives behind their acting on a basis of the party strategic theories of Przeworski and Sjöblom. The reform commonly referred to as the tax reform of the century, was although they considered that it was a high risk project pursued together with The Liberal Party. The new tax system implicated a less progressive income tax scale, actions against tax avoidance and raised value-added tax. The empirical analysis is primarily based on memoirs written by the key actors.

The aim of this thesis is to discover facts about the Sweden democrats by looking at statistics of five different municipalities. The main question at issue is: What can you say about the Sweden democrat's voters by researching the voter statistics of the voter districts in the municipalities. The five municipalities who are the object of the study are, Helsingborg, Hässleholm, Landskrona, Svedala and Trelleborg.The Method for this thesis is a case study of five municipalities in Skåne. I have been researching the voterstatistics in the local voterdistricts of 2002 and 2006. I have compared The Sweden democrats with the Social democrats, the conservative party (Moderaterna), and The Liberal Party (Folkpartiet Liberalerna).The theories that this thesis is based on are voterbehaviour and rightwing-party theories.The Results are that one can not see any signs of the Sweden democrat's success being a result of a far-reaching right wave.

Based on widespread public debate prior to Swedish EMU-referendum 2003, the main purpose of this thesis is to examine and analyze the standpoint of the Swedish parliamentary parties in the EMU-issue, from perspektive of the following questions;1) What is the official standpoint of the parliamentary parties in the EMU-issue?2) What claimed effects of a Swedish EMU-membership or non-membership have the parties presented?3) What rifts can be found within the parties, in relation to their official standpoint in the EMU-issue?The Sweidish parliamentary parties´ standpoint in the EMU-issue will be analyze from the point of view of a number of current theories. These theories are basically democrazy theories that all have transnationalization and Europeanization as a common ground.The conclusions are, among others, that the parliamentary parties` standpoints in the EMU-issue are based on ideological values about whether or not a Swedish EMU-membership is good for Sweden. The Liberal Party, the Christian Democrats, the Moderate Party and the Social Party have a positive view on EMU and a deeper European integration, and basically value the economic efficency of the EMU higher than democratic decision making and a national currency and monetary policy. As for the EMU-critical parties such as the Centre Party, the Green Party and the Left Party, their view in the EMU-issue can be regarded as more nationalistic, since they say no to an exapanded financial cooperation.

AbstractThe aim of this thesis is to analyse a proposition that was made by the Swedish liberal party in the election campaign in 2002. The proposition was part of an integration program and the main point was that to become a Swedish citizen you should do a test to prove your ability in Swedish. In this paper, I?ve been investigating the way that this proposition was presented and the reactions that it met among the Swedish people. In my work I have noticed that there are some specific arguments that were very powerful and which were the ones that attracted most people.

The purpose of this essay is to present, from a theoretical framwork about regional democracy, possible methods to handle the regional democratic problems in Östergötland in Sweden and to investigate the opinion of the political parties regarding this issue. Both the national and the local/regional level are investigated. The contents of the essay is based on literature studies and interviews of politicians in Östergötland. Regional democratic problems that is discussed are the political responsibility and the power distribution between the political actors on the regional level. A solution of the problem could be to organize the regional society structure in accordance with one of the following organization models"Statligt regionalt ansvar","Kommuner i samverkan"or"Regionalt folkstyre".

Every now and then new political ideas appear which creates debate. A current example of political debate is the one which concerns the creation of a feminist political party in Sweden -Feministiskt initiativ. Apparent in the current debate is that there are two existing conflicts of ideas present. The liberal thought of politics of ideas stands against feminism's demand for presence in the political life. And the other, the conflict which concerns the question of where a line between the public and the private spheres should be drawn.

AbstractWhen the Swedish Centre Party, Centerpartiet, just before Christmas 2012 released a draft for new program of ideas a powerful "winter storm" broke out. Ideas that Centerpartiet would abolish compulsory schooling and the right to inheritance and allow polygamy are just a few of the things that cause alarm.It's not the first time during the last years the Centre Party is associated with neo-liberal elements in their party?s ideology. In 2007 Erik Ullenhag criticized Centerpartiet for their new neo-liberalism was a danger to the alliance.The aim of this study is to investigate whether it is possible to see a change in Centerpartiets ideology and how deep it is. From an idea analytical approach based on ideal types, created for social liberalism, neoliberalism and ecohumanism, the party programs from 2001 and 2013 are studied.

The aim of this paper is to study and outline the factors governing political leadership at the party leader level, and to conclude to what extent a party leader rules and to what extent the party leadership is contextually determined. The theories used are based on Elgie's interactionistic study of political leadership and Stewart's organisational model of leadership as well as political culture.Thus, the questions raised are if the leader leads or if the leader follows; if the leadership environment is formed by the leader or if it is, merely, implemented on the leader; and what a model of the political leadership consist of? To answer these questions a text analysis comparing Sahlin?s speeches to the party?s political programme is used as well as in-depth interviews with members of the Board of Party.The conclusion shows that the leadership is contextually framed, but the leader is free to implement his or her ambitions within that frame as long as it is coherent to the party line..

This essay is about the Workers Communist Party. My method for the analyzing part in this essay is qualitative methods such as text and idea analysis. I have chosen the words of Claudin to describe which ideological standpoints Workers Communist Party have. First I write about the background to why Workers Communist Party was formed in 1977. The background is the big split of extreme left wingers from the left party, which formed several organisations such as The Communist Marxist-Leninist Revolutionary Party and The Communist Organization for Marxist-Leninists.

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..

One aim of this thesis has been to trace the driving forces among active members of the Swedish Pensioners? Interest Party (SPI), but also to render how party values and ideas are connected to the concepts of is-sue space, distrust, and New Party Politics (mainly populism). Since there are several pensioners? parties in other countries, my second aim has been to investigate whether the party is a result of a diffusion proc-ess of copying a successful equivalent party; in other words to find out whether a master frame has inspired the forming of a Swedish pension-ers? party. Through interviews and document analysis, I have found seven issue dimensions explaining the motives behind my respondents? engagement in the party.

The overall purpose with this thesis has been to study the strategic development of the Swedish Green Party, Miljöpartiet de Gröna. From its first appearance in the Swedish parliament 1988 to its decision to cooperate with the Social Democrats and the Left Party in 1998, the Greens has gone from a radical antiparty to a pragmatic support party. The analysis has concentrated towards identifying the causal factors behind this strategic move made by the Greens, and to determine how this party change has affected the party's strategic goals. In order to do so, a qualitative case study has been conducted where an integrated theoretical approach has been used. By studying official statements and internal debates the thesis concludes that the strategic change made by the Greens was due to the evolvement of a new dominant coalition of within the party.

The overall purpose with this thesis has been to study the strategic development of the Swedish Green Party, Miljöpartiet de Gröna. From its first appearance in the Swedish parliament 1988 to its decision to cooperate with the Social Democrats and the Left Party in 1998, the Greens has gone from a radical antiparty to a pragmatic support party. The analysis has concentrated towards identifying the causal factors behind this strategic move made by the Greens, and to determine how this party change has affected the party's strategic goals. In order to do so, a qualitative case study has been conducted where an integrated theoretical approach has been used. By studying official statements and internal debates the thesis concludes that the strategic change made by the Greens was due to the evolvement of a new dominant coalition of within the party.

The Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) has for a long time often been labeled a populist political party. It has however not been the subject of in-depth study to what extent the party really is populist. A study on whether the party and its supporters fulfill the criteria that a social science definition of populism would stipulate is therefore needed, in order to establish accurately whether the party is populist.    The definition used in my study accentuates three qualities that specify populist organizations: an antagonistic attitude against prevailing power structures, demands for increasing democratic influence and advocating a certain people?s rights ahead of others.The qualitative analysis of documents central for the party shows that it fulfills all of the criteria illustrated in the definition that is the basis of my study.

This study is mainly critical-theoretic and explores the theoretic jungle of the concept of intersectionality with the use of Post-colonial and Feminist theories. The purpose of the thesis is also to investigate the concept of intersectionality further by looking upon its practical use as theoretic tool. This is performed in a discourse analysis of two programs developed by Swedish Liberal Party autumn of 2005. Another purpose is to discuss the multiculturalist dilemma as well as the phenomenon of a hegemonic western Feminism. One conclusion of this thesis is that the use of intersectionality is not unproblematic.