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..

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.

The objective of this undergraduate thesis is to study the Swedish Social Democatic Party?s standpoint of the law allowing asylum seekers to choose where to live (ebo) between 1994-2009. The study?s empirical material is being based on official documents from the Swedish Parliament, which is being analyzed by a method called ?process-tracing?. A research question has been formulated to supplement the objective:What arguments has The Swedish social democratic party expressed pro and con the law of ?ebo?? The study?s theoretical framwork is based on two theories which explain incentives behind parties? decision-making, strategic or ideological, on three arenas. As the law was ratified the party took a positive standpoint, but later shifted to become stricly against it.

Which general outlines are preferable in the relation between organizations and government? From normative theory and method I throw light upon this question by defining and comparing two different democratic standpoints. The substantial democratic standpoint focuses on political effectiveness and the procedural democratic standpoint focuses on equal representation. The normative discussion aims at comparing how well the different standpoints function in political praxis. Since the ambition is to discuss concrete praxis I have also chosen to analyse an extensive case of interest influence in Swedish politics empirically.

AbstractTitle: Similar but different ? Sweden Democrats and Swedish Social Democratic Party in Swedish newspapers online during 2010 (Lika men olika ? Sverigedemokraterna och Socialdemokraterna i svensk rikspress på nätet 2010).Number of pages: 35 (40 including enclosures)Author: Magnus MjöhagenTutor: Amelie HössjerCourse: Media and Communication studies CPeriod: Autumn 2010University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information and Media, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/aim: To discover any possible difference between the media report concerning The Sweden Democrats and The Swedish social democratic party in Swedish news press.Material/method: A quantitative content analysis has been made with 64 articles from the homepages of the four biggest news papers in Sweden: Aftonbladet.se, Expressen.se, DN.se (Dagens Nyheter) and SvD.se (Svenska Dagbladet). The analysis focused on four themes: 1) framing in the articles, 2) impersonation in the articles, 3) the democratic task of journalism and 4) the expectations of journalism in an election campaign.Main results: The main results showed that the difference between the two parties either was nonexistent or very small. The articles were sometimes framed in specific ways, but a big amount of the articles were not framed. Impersonation occurred in about half of the cases, concerning both parties.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how different fractions of Sweden?s left wing (the Social democrats, the Communists, the Syndicalists and the Socialist party) framed the end of the Spanish Civil War and the defeat of the republicans.To answer the purpose four newspapers Arbetaren (syndicalist), Folkets Dagblad (Socialist party), Ny Dag (communist) and Socialdemokraten (social democratic) have been analyzed qualitatively. The thesis has focused on how the different ideologies have framed the war, how they framed the other labour organizations and themselves plus how they relate to information about the war during the period of February 1st1939 till April 5th1939.The analysis shows that the Social democrats and the Communists framed the war as a conflict between fascism and socialism, whereas the Syndicalists and the Socialist party framed the war as a socialistic revolution. Because each side had their own view, their opinions on what threatened a republican victory differed. The Social democrats were most concerned that a non-democratic movement would win the war and the Communists feared that fragmentation within the republicans would threaten their chances to win.

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.

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.

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".

This thesis aims to investigate how the interests of women are handled in political parties whose opinion programs are based on class interests. The essay constructs a theoretical framework, which shows that the descriptive representation of women is a prerequisite for their subjective interests being represented, however not a guarantee.By studying how the Social Democratic party deals with the demands from the Women's federation, the empirical material sheds light on the theoretical discussion. The study's methodological foundation consists of an ideology critical textual analysis, which focuses on the debate on the design of parental allowance that took place within the party during 2005. During the party's congress the women's federation advocated a proposition for increased individualization of the parental allowance, however the party did not accept it. The analysis confirms the theoretical argumentation that descriptive representation is not a guarantee for the representation of women's interests.

AbstractTitle: Similar but different ? Sweden Democrats and Swedish Social Democratic Party in Swedish newspapers online during 2010 (Lika men olika ? Sverigedemokraterna och Socialdemokraterna i svensk rikspress på nätet 2010).Number of pages: 35 (40 including enclosures)Author: Magnus MjöhagenTutor: Amelie HössjerCourse: Media and Communication studies CPeriod: Autumn 2010University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information and Media, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/aim: To discover any possible difference between the media report concerning The Sweden Democrats and The Swedish social democratic party in Swedish news press.Material/method: A quantitative content analysis has been made with 64 articles from the homepages of the four biggest news papers in Sweden: Aftonbladet.se, Expressen.se, DN.se (Dagens Nyheter) and SvD.se (Svenska Dagbladet). The analysis focused on four themes: 1) framing in the articles, 2) impersonation in the articles, 3) the democratic task of journalism and 4) the expectations of journalism in an election campaign.Main results: The main results showed that the difference between the two parties either was nonexistent or very small. The articles were sometimes framed in specific ways, but a big amount of the articles were not framed. Impersonation occurred in about half of the cases, concerning both parties.

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.

In Sweden there is scepticism if there really is a difference between the two biggest political parties, the Moderate/Conservative party and the Swedish Social Democrats. The voters feels that the arguments used by both parties are more or less the same and that it does not matter on whom you vote. Hence I am going to compare the parties? policy programs, developed by the members in each party, by an analysis of ideas to see if the two parties are so similar that they hardly are two different options, or if there is a divergence between the two. My choosing of the parties? policy programs comes from a decision to look at the members? party, they are the authors of the programs, the core. I have to admit I am not unbiased in this work.

We live in a society that has changed rapidly in recent years. The Swedish welfare state identity consisted of structures that had been formed from an emancipatory project. Today, these structures seem to have been erased and replaced by a different form of society. When a society is changing it affects the political, social and economic levels.In this social change Social Democracy seems to have lost its hegemonic position in society and describes itself as standing in a crisis. An effort to modernize the party has therefore begun.

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.