<p>The aim of this paper is to empirically examine the ideological trends and positioning of the Swedish liberal party with the Danish social liberal party. This paper also aims to analyze the reasons behind the trends. By examine the development in these two Nordic liberal sisterparties, this paper contributes to our understanding of why and how party change is initiated. The paper commences with an intuitive notion that the Swedish party has in fact, made a lurch towards the right, during the past ten to fifteen years while the Danish party has retained their social-liberal position in the centre of the Danish political spectrum. The questions then asked are: can this hypothesis be verified empirically? If so, how can this phenomenon of divergence, be explained?</p><p>The method used in this thesis is process-tracing and the empirical material does to a large extent rely on interviews with central agents as they are specified in the theory of each party. The starting point of the paper is theory on party change, which identifies the important agents, goals and determinants of party policy.. It rely on rational choice assumption, pays regard to institutional boundaries and is placed somewhere in the category of new institutionalism.</p><p>This thesis argues that it is empirically unquestionable that the Swedish party de facto has made a lurch to the right during the last decade, while the Danish party has shown significant stability in their ideological position. The thesis further argues that the development in the Swedish party can be explained through a shift of primary goals, from policy-seeking toward vote-maximising, while the Danish party’s primary goals have since the beginning of the nineties until now, remained primarily policy-seeking. This explains why their ideological trend has kept a stable course. The paper concludes by stating that the divergent development within the two parties is explainable on the basis of the institutional organisation within each party, together with the different political environments they are occupied in.</p>

<p>Title: Similarities or differences within the centre-right? A study of the potential for party fusions within in the Swedish centre-right</p><p>Author: Charlie Weimers</p><p>Aim: The thesis seeks to find the potential for party fusions within the Swedish centre-right by analyzing the ideological similarities and differences between the parties.</p><p>Method/Material: In the thesis, four dimensions of the parties’ ideologies are analyzed: view of man, theory for societal structures, fiscal theory and moral values. The results of the study of the ideologies are then compared. The investigation is done with the party manifestos as starting point and with the analysis of ideas as theoretical tool.</p><p>Main Results: The comparative analysis, based on the parties’ ideological views, shows specific party constellations are more probable than others. The biggest ideological similarities are to be found between the Liberal People’s Party and the Centre Party, out of which I conclude that these two parties have the best potential for a fusion. The Moderate Party and the Christian Democratic Party also have clear similarities, thus there is a potential for fusion to a certain degree. The Moderate Party also shows some similarities with the Liberal People’s Party and the Centre Party, hence the possibility for a merger can not be excluded. My conclusion is based upon social liberalism and neo-conservatism as ideal types, which gives the Christian Democratic Party a position to the right. Thus, it would possible to claim that this party has the least options regarding fusion partners. The Moderate Party has the most alternatives, since the party is in a kind of “middle ground” between social liberalism and neo-conservatism.</p><p>Number of pages: 49</p><p>Course: Political Science C</p><p>University: Faculty of Social and Life Sciences, Karlstad University</p><p>Period: Fall, 2006</p><p>Tutor: Anders Broman</p><p>Keywords: centre-right, Sweden, party fusion, ideology, Moderate Party, Liberal People’s Party, Christian Democratic Party, Centre Party</p>

The aim of this paper is to empirically examine the ideological trends and positioning of the Swedish liberal party with the Danish social liberal party. This paper also aims to analyze the reasons behind the trends. By examine the development in these two Nordic liberal sisterparties, this paper contributes to our understanding of why and how party change is initiated. The paper commences with an intuitive notion that the Swedish party has in fact, made a lurch towards the right, during the past ten to fifteen years while the Danish party has retained their social-liberal position in the centre of the Danish political spectrum. The questions then asked are: can this hypothesis be verified empirically? If so, how can this phenomenon of divergence, be explained? The method used in this thesis is process-tracing and the empirical material does to a large extent rely on interviews with central agents as they are specified in the theory of each party. The starting point of the paper is theory on party change, which identifies the important agents, goals and determinants of party policy.. It rely on rational choice assumption, pays regard to institutional boundaries and is placed somewhere in the category of new institutionalism. This thesis argues that it is empirically unquestionable that the Swedish party de facto has made a lurch to the right during the last decade, while the Danish party has shown significant stability in their ideological position. The thesis further argues that the development in the Swedish party can be explained through a shift of primary goals, from policy-seeking toward vote-maximising, while the Danish party’s primary goals have since the beginning of the nineties until now, remained primarily policy-seeking. This explains why their ideological trend has kept a stable course. The paper concludes by stating that the divergent development within the two parties is explainable on the basis of the institutional organisation within each party, together with the different political environments they are occupied in.

Title: Similarities or differences within the centre-right? A study of the potential for party fusions within in the Swedish centre-right Author: Charlie Weimers Aim: The thesis seeks to find the potential for party fusions within the Swedish centre-right by analyzing the ideological similarities and differences between the parties. Method/Material: In the thesis, four dimensions of the parties’ ideologies are analyzed: view of man, theory for societal structures, fiscal theory and moral values. The results of the study of the ideologies are then compared. The investigation is done with the party manifestos as starting point and with the analysis of ideas as theoretical tool. Main Results: The comparative analysis, based on the parties’ ideological views, shows specific party constellations are more probable than others. The biggest ideological similarities are to be found between the Liberal People’s Party and the Centre Party, out of which I conclude that these two parties have the best potential for a fusion. The Moderate Party and the Christian Democratic Party also have clear similarities, thus there is a potential for fusion to a certain degree. The Moderate Party also shows some similarities with the Liberal People’s Party and the Centre Party, hence the possibility for a merger can not be excluded. My conclusion is based upon social liberalism and neo-conservatism as ideal types, which gives the Christian Democratic Party a position to the right. Thus, it would possible to claim that this party has the least options regarding fusion partners. The Moderate Party has the most alternatives, since the party is in a kind of “middle ground” between social liberalism and neo-conservatism. Number of pages: 49 Course: Political Science C University: Faculty of Social and Life Sciences, Karlstad University Period: Fall, 2006 Tutor: Anders Broman Keywords: centre-right, Sweden, party fusion, ideology, Moderate Party, Liberal People’s Party, Christian Democratic Party, Centre Party