This thesis examines the Social Democrat party’s and Moderat Party’s ideology. The purpose of this essay has been to investigate the ideological approach of Social Democrats and Moderats. In order to fulfill the purpose of the study, ideological similarities between the parties have been distinguished. In order to complete the study, the Social Democrats party programs from 2001 and 2013 and the Moderat party programs from 2001 and 2011 have been used.  In order to answer the purpose of the study has theoretical approach been used. In addition, the study uses the ideologies of the parties as well as an explanatory theory that is catch all-parties which is used to understand the party’s behavior. The ideologies that been used by the study are the ideology of Social Democrats, which represents socialism and reformist socialism and the Moderats which constitute Conservatism, Liberalism and Neoliberalism.  In order to complete the essay, qualitative methodology with an idea and ideology analysis has been applied. However, in order to distinguish ideological similarities between the parties, the study has used dimensions which means that ideologies have been operationalized. They constitute human perception, the view of the state and the view of economics. In order to study the ideologies of the parties, the study has focused on these three areas to map ideological similarities.  The result of the study shows that the views of social democrats and moderators are different from each other in the first dimension, which is human perception and it does not change during the period of time the study has focused on. In the second dimension, the political parties’ have different view in their party programs from 2001. However, there are similarities between the parties because the Moderates change positions in their party program 2011 while the Social Democrats hold on to the same attitude in 2013 as they had in 2001. In the final dimension, there will be different results, because the Social Democrats and the Moderates have the same views in the view of economics in 2001 and 2013. Why the parties change their mind in one of the dimensions, have been able to understand by the Catch all-party theory, which means that the parties act strategically to reach as many select groups as possible to win elections. By tapping down its ideology, the parties reach a wider electoral group, both ideological and non-ideological voters.

Right-wing populism is experiencing a revival across a number of European states. To date, they have achieved remarkable results in several elections, leading to an increase in representation in local, national and european levels. Sweden and Germany are two of the European countries that have experienced this political evolution through the Sweden Democrats (SD) and the Alternative for Germany (AfD). The purpose of this thesis is to study the parties’ origins in order to examine whether the current versions of the parties are equivalent to the versions of the time of their founding. In order to address this question, I have used primary sources such as official party programmes, as well as secondary sources for a more impartial perspective. In conclusion, both of the parties have very different origins and have subsequently evolved in different directions towards their current forms, which indeed show significant similarities.

This thesis studies the relationship of cultural and economic segregation with politics.Based on a theoretical model where the provision of a public good depends on howfar apart voters are in terms of preferences, it is suggested that the support for theSweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) to some extent is driven by segregation.Using municipal level data on incomes and namesday names in zip code areas an indexof segregation is created in order to test this hypothesis. The results are inconclusive butthere is an indication of a negative association between multidimensional segregationand the election results for the Sweden Democrats.

Utilizing the debates of the German Reichstag, the proceedings of the SPD, the memoirs of the leading military and Marxist figures and the principal newspapers of the Second Reich and Weimar Republic, this dissertation attempts to show how the army chiefs and the socialist leaders of Germany altered their policies not only to promote their interests but also to protect the state.

The Sweden Democrats have gained considerable political success in recent years, as have many other right-wing populist parties in the West. We theorize that the economically weakest and least educated parts of native society are the ones who experience, real or imagined, the most pressure and competition from immigration. Skill level is divided into three different categories, depending on education. These are "low-skill", "medium-skill" and "high-skill". We expect that immigration should make the low-skilled and medium-skilled more prone to vote for the SD, when compared to the high-skilled natives. We use survey data from the SOM institute of Gothenburg University, as well as municipal data from Statistics Sweden, to test the hypothesis. Our results seem to show that the support for the SD among low-skilled natives increases when immigration increases, compared to high-skilled natives. No such effect is observed for the medium-skilled natives.

The following study is a qualitative text analysis and an idea- and ideologyanalysis with the aim of examining the Sweden Democrats view on women over time and if the party’s organizational and ideological development is reflected in the party’s ideas regarding women’s role in society. The material of research consists of the Sweden Democrats party programs which has been analysed through conservatism and populism, which is the theoretical framework of this study. The results of the analysis have been divided into three different time periods and the first period between 1989-1999 indicated a strong connection between the Sweden Democrats view on women and a conservative view on women. During the second and third time period, between the years 1999-2018, the operational indicators for a conservative view on women could not be discovered, however several operational indicators which indicated a populistic view on women could be established. Previous academic research has categorized the Sweden Democrats view on women as conservative, but the results of this study´s analysis argues that the party´s view on women rather should be described as populism.

The rising support for right-wing populist parties and the subsequent anti-immigrant sentiment has become a focus of interest across academia, media, and public debates. In a similar vein, this thesis explores the portrayal of immigrants and citizens by the Swedish right-wing party Sweden Democrats leader and by the members of the Swedish online forum Flashback. The theoretical framework draws on the approaches- discourse theory and discursive psychology from discourse analysis that facilitated in examining the speeches and debates by the SD leader as well as the comments of the forum members. Whereas the results highlight the Sweden Democrats leader’s discourses constructing immigrants as a burden, the forum members are noted as constructing the immigrants as inherently flawed. Further, while the leader views the citizens as victims, who are denied their rights to resources and welfare, the forum members also describe themselves/citizens as victims, however, due to being denied a sense of belonging, autonomy, and prestige. The study also focused on identifying the strategies that both deploy to be persuasive. The results showed both using blame and victimization as strategies to be persuasive. The SD leader, by blaming the ruling party and victimizing the citizens is noted as aiming to create a grand discourse of- Country in Crisis, and thereby, comes across as seeking to instill fear, threat, and vulnerability among citizens. In contrast, the forum members are marked as blaming the immigrants, ruling elites as well as Swedish women, and victimizing themselves, and seem more focused on creating the discourse of People in Crisis. By doing so, they are noted as justifying their anger, disempowerment, and woundedness. Together, the leader and the forum-members discourses are viewed as creating a broader discourse that could benefit from further examination of the notions such as pessimistic persuasion, the powerlessness of us/we, and othering the insider.

In this essay the goal has been to examine what kind of beliefs about the "people´s home" the Sweden Democrats expresses during the period 1990-2014, and how these beliefs are used in the political debate. This has involved an examination of the party's total number of intention decorations documents, and the party´s magazine The SD Courier (SD-Kuriren). The theoretical concepts that have been used to analyse the material are the different forms of "historical use", and particularly the types of "historical use" that are used by political actors.These concepts are "existential", "moral", "political-pedagogical" and "ideological" use of history. These concepts have been combined with a hermeneutic method, in which Intertextual reading has had a crucial role, and the focus have been to find change and continuity. The party has used their interpretation and beliefs about the "people's home" idea, to show their political intent and to criticise opponents, but also to some extent paint a picture of a Sweden in chaos. The party´s idea of the "people´s home" include the nation's peculiarity, homogeneity as the foundation of stability, the importance of the traditional family for raising good citizens. They use this idea of the "people´s home" to describe their vision as a political organization, and partly to criticise opposition parties, arguing these do not live up to the idea of the good "People's home". But also, to some extent paint up a picture of a country in chaos if the "people´s home" idea do not take its rightful place in society, and political discourse. / Inom ramen för denna uppsats har undersökts vad för typ av föreställningar om folkhemmet som det svenska riksdagspartiet Sverigedemokraterna ger uttryck för mellan åren 1990-2014, och hur deras användningen av folkhemstanken i den politiska debatten ter sig. Detta har inneburit undersökning av deras samtliga partiprogram samt deras partitidning SD-Kuriren. De teoretiska begrepp som har använts är de olika formerna av historiebruk, som används av politiska aktörer.Dessa är Existentiellt, moraliskt, politiskt-pedagogiskt och ideologiskt historiebruk. Dessa begrepp har kombinerats med en hermeneutisk metod, där intertextuell läsning, samt förändring och kontinuitet varit framträdande inslag. Partiet har använt, som de anser korrekta, föreställningar om folkhemmet, vilka innefattar nationens särart, homogeniteten som grunden till stabilitet, och den traditionella familjens betydelse, för att fostra goda medborgare. De använder denna folkhemstanke, dels till att beskriva sin målbild som politisk organisation, och dels för att kritisera motståndarpartier, genom att hävda att de inte lever upp till tanken på det goda folkhemmet. Men också i viss utsträckning måla upp en bild av ett land i kaos om folkhemstanken inte får inta sin rättmätiga plats i samhället.

The purpose is to understand the reasons for changed perceptions about Swedish nuclear weapons during the time when Sweden considered acquiring these weapons. The main question is: which stories about Swedish nuclear weapons did key players in Sweden present from 1958 to 1963 and how did these stories change. Primary sources are texts from 1958– 1963, texts for or against Swedish atomic weapons, government investigations and political texts and bills. The theoretical perspective is framing analysis (Kuypers) and narrative analysis (Shenhav) unified in a method. Text-by-text, framing, agenda extension, and story are investigated and compared, supported by previous research. The analysis shows that stories can be divided into five categories, the military, the dystopian, the scientific, the state community building and the security policy stories. In 1958, the military story of nuclear weapons dominated as an issue of weapons development in the nuclear age. The following year, new stories came from opinion leaders, the yes side developed stories about the necessity of the bomb for the military and in foreign policy. The no side told stories about the consequences of a Swedish bomb as a dystopia for humanity and the collapse in foreign relations. Both told scientific stories about the effects which either ended in calming message to the people or created fear of radiation damage and the genetics of future generations. After 1959 both the Social Democrats and the military began to hesitate and changed their stories. Among other things, future civil nuclear power, economic realism and good relations with the US outweighed the idea of nuclear weapons guaranteeing a Swedish non-alliance policy. The change in the stories could also be interpreted as an early de facto no a conclusion shared by previous research. By 1963 the Social Democrats' story of a modern society without nuclear weapons dominated.

Election campaigns in the Czech Republic are undergoing a major professionalization process since 2006. The most noticeable proof of this trend is the Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD), which is effectively cooperating with foreign agencies. In 2006 CSSD followed the example of British Labour Party and applied market-oriented party concept to its behaviour. The strategy of a market- oriented party is to identify public priorities, analyze them and to create an election program; since voter's satisfaction is crucial for a market-oriented party, it uses a wide variety of marketing services and techniques. I am analyzing the election campaigns of Czech Social Democratic Party in 2006 and 2010 using the Market-Oriented Party Model published by Jennifer Lees-Marshment in 2006. My goal is to find out whether CSSD followed the Market-Oriented Party Model in 2010 and whether it is going to keep applying the concept in the future. Key words: Election campaign, Czech social democratic party, political marketing, election management.