The purpose of this essay is to examine and compare two different minority governments that have been ruling in Sweden since the one chamber parliament was introduced in 1971. This examination will be helpful to make conclusions about the political strategies that have been used during their time in the government. This essay will also try to answer why these strategies were used, if the motives were just tactical or if they were based on ideological theories. In this essay I will review and compare the government of Ola Ullsten from 1979 and the government of Stefan Löfven from 2014 to see if there are any similarities between their strategies and also what effects their time as prime ministers of Sweden have on the aspects of democracy and efficiency. Sweden is known for its negative parliamentarism which often generates weak minority governments and the cases of this study are examples of that. The question to be answered is wheater or not political strategy is absolutely necessary and a result of a selection system that forces politicians to use strategy to be able to rule or if political strategy is used as a weapon to maximize their self interests.

This study investigates differences in foreign policy among Swedish political parties during 1972-1982. For 44 years, Sweden was led by the Social Democrats until the centre-right coalition gained power in 1976.  Social Democrat Olof Palme is probably one of the most notable Swedish politicians, known for his strong commitment in foreign policy including opposition to American involvement in Vietnam. However, certain signs show that the centre-right parties also had a strong commitment in many conflicts during the investigated period. Deepened research comparing the left and the right during this period has however not been done. Hence, this study aims to compare if there was any change in policy after 1976, but also look into similarities and differences between the political parties during the whole period. This is done through a comparison of the yearly Swedish foreign policy debates from 1972 to 1982, comparing views in four conflicts at the time: Vietnam, South Africa, Afghanistan and Central America. The findings show many similarities and differences, with small general differences in Swedish foreign policy before and after the historical shift of power in 1976. Interestingly, there is a notable commitment to foreign policy among the centre-right parties - sometimes stronger than Palme and the Social Democrats.