The European Parliament elections have for decades been described as 'second-order national elections', meaning that parties tend to have a national focus rather than a European one. Furthermore, the parties are often described as a weak link between the European Union and its citizens. Studies on the parties' election promises have mainly been done on national elections and show that election promises become increasingly important over time. However, no previous studies have looked at election promises in European elections. The purpose of this comparative case study is to compare the election promises that Swedish parliamentary parties present in their election manifestos for the European Parliament elections of 2014 and 2019, in order to contribute to both the discourse on European Parliament elections and the discourse on election promises. Two established fields of research that have not previously met in this way. Based on previous research, this study tests eight hypotheses on the material. By mapping and analyzing 1374 election promises from 16 election manifestos, the result shows a predominant share of election promises with a European focus, rather than national. The election promises are surprisingly specific rather than vague and mainly critical of EU-policy rather than the European Union as a political system. The conclusion of this result is that the European Parliament elections as 'second-order national elections' do not emerge when election promises are studied. The results of this study has shown that there is reason to revise the prevailing picture of European Parliament elections in this field of research.

The European Parliament elections have since the 1980's been described as 'second-order national elections', which, among other things, means that they are less important to both political parties and to voters. Scholars have often described political parties as a weak link between the European Union and its citizens. Previous studies of the fulfillment of election promises have mainly focused on national governments, and not national political parties in the European Parliament. The purpose of this descriptive study is to investigate the level of fulfillment of election promises that Swedish parliamentary parties present in their election manifestos for the European Parliament election 2014. Based on previous research, this study tests five hypotheses on the material. By mapping and analyzing 183 election promises from 8 election manifestos, the results show a lower fulfillment level than Swedish governments usually achieve on the national arena. The result showed one possible covariation between which party groups the political parties belonged to and fulfillment, but no clear patterns between the characteristics of the election promise and fulfillment. The results of this study has shown that there is reason to further investigate and try to better understand election promises that are given ahead of European Parliament elections.

There is a large part of the population today whose perception of Swedish political parties assumes a pronounced distrust. Often, this mistrust is linked to whether politicians act on the election promises made during the election campaigns. This is a view that opposition parties often encourage through negative criticism during election campaigns and media platforms. The paradox that arises then becomes markedly confusing because research actually shows that parties almost fulfill most of the election promises made.   Furthermore, a society characterized by widespread distrust of political activity risks gradually undermining the representative democracy system, which may lead to diminished democratic legitimacy. In the field of research, therefore, there is often talk of making knowledge regarding election promises more accessible to voters, who then may examine political activity more effectively themselves. The study has analyzed the Alliance's and the Social Democrats' election promise fulfillment during the mandate periods 2006-2010 and 2014-2018, through qualitative analysis of the election manifesto and data collection from the Riksdag's website. The aim was to investigate and compare which of these party organizations best achieved good representation during the alternative government periods through clear method choices that could present data in an easily accessible way.   The study arrives at a result that shows a balancing election promise fulfillment between the Alliance and the Social Democrats, with a small statistical advantage for the Alliance. It also shows how the Alliance has achieved a slightly better representation by succeeding in fulfilling more election promises in key policy areas that the party organization has given higher priority to during the election campaigns and election manifestos.

The following essay can be described as an election pledge research where the presidential pledges are compared to the politics they implement when in power. The purpose is to see if they are genuine with their promises or just seeking the votes of the public. The study will focus on three election campaigns, 2008, 2012 and 2016. This essay will implement two theories: Rational choice theory and the Mandate Model. To answer this two questions will be dealt with. They are as follows: How likely is it that the promises made during a presidential campaign are kept? What category of pledges are kept to the most extent and in what way does this influence the voter?  To deal with those questions this essay will apply a case study design that implement the methods of a theory consuming- and qualitative text analysis.  The result of the study showed that for the three studied elections a minority of the pledges were fulfilled. But as previous studies also have done is adding fulfilled pledges and compromises. In that case 71,18% of the election pledges were at least partly fulfilled. The pledges that were kept to the greatest extent was economic aid and financial support. The influence on the voter depends if they are satisfied by compromises or just want pledges to be kept.