The subject of this thesis is The Conservative Party and its use of political marketing. The text analyzes how the Party responded to three subsequent election defeats in 1997, 2001 and 2005 and to what extent are the Conservatives utilizing political marketing methods and techniques in reaction to the pressure from their more market oriented competitor, the Labour Party. Since the rebranding of the Labour Party under Tony Blair, the Conservatives were struggling to adapt to the new reality. Instead of utilizing political marketing and being more responsive to the wishes of the electorate they diverged their polities more to the right. However, their incumbent leader, David Cameron, is transforming the Party and making it more market oriented. These efforts are critically analyzed.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the development of the party system in the Russian Federation to determine whether this development can be applied to the classical theory of political parties and party systems designed by european political scientists. In the first chapter there are described theories designed by Maurice Duverger, Jean Blondel, Stein Rokkan and Giovanni Sartori. In the second chapter there is the description of the beginning of the party system in Tsarist Russia. Its task is to draw the options and foundations of the first political party in that territory. The third chapter focuses to the reign of the CPSU, the tools of its government and the reasons for the gradual weakening of its power. The fourth chapter is divided into two parts, the first of which describes the development of the party system in Russia since the fall of the USSR, the second part deals with the comparison of theoretical concepts mentioned in the first chapter and the actual development in Russia.

Taiwan’s February 28 Incident happened in 1947 as a set of popular protests against the postwar policies of the Nationalist Party, and it then sparked militant actions and political struggles of Taiwanese but ended with military suppression and political persecution by the Nanjing government. The Nationalist Party first defined the Incident as a rebellion by pro-Japanese forces and communist saboteurs. As the enemy of the Nationalist Party in China’s Civil War (1946-1949), the Chinese Communist Party initially interpreted the Incident as a Taiwanese fight for political autonomy in the party’s wartime propaganda, and then reinterpreted the event as an anti-Nationalist uprising under its own leadership. After the rapprochement of Mao’s China with the United States in the 1970s, both parties successively started economic or political reform and revised their respective policies toward the February 28 Incident. Moreover, the Democratic Progressive Party rose as a pro-independence force in Taiwan in the mid-1980s, and its stress on the Taiwanese pursuit of autonomy in the Incident coincided with the initial interpretation of the Chinese Communist Party. These partisan views and their related policy changes deeply influenced historical research on the Incident. This study re-examines both the history and the historical accuracy of these partisan discourses and the relevant scholarship on the Incident, and further proposes to understand this historic event in the long-term context of Taiwanese resistance and political struggles. / Graduate

Foreign policy is a constant balancing between playing an active role on the international stage versus taking a more cautious stance. This study compares foreign policy development of three conservative parties during the Cold war, in three different nations with vastly different geopolitical importance. The parties compared in the study are the American Republican party, the British Conservative party and the Swedish Conservative party. This study uses party platform and election manifestos from three separate election years as the main sources for comparison. The comparison covers the early 1950’s, middle 1960’s and finally the early 1980’s. The party programs are thereafter analyzed with help of Lane Crothers model to further classify the foreign policy development of each party during the given time period. In conclusion, the study indicates a general move toward an increasingly active involvement on the international stage. The Republican party represents a foreign policy predominantlybased on military and diplomatic capacity to safeguard American foreign interest in relation to the Soviet Union. The British Conservative party as well as the Swedish Conservative party represent a foreign policy strategy with higher emphasis on international economic cooperation based on the liberal market economy.

Political parties serve as a link between the state and society. Being so, they have a fundamental role in the consolidation of democratic values. It then becomes important to understand their internal functions and character. The purpose of this thesis is to measure the levels of intra-party democracy within three opposition political parties in Southern Africa. Also, this thesis seeks to show whether authoritarian political culture has an affect on a democratic party's behavior. This thesis will strive to show that as party levels of intra-party democracy decrease, fracturing in the party increases. A qualitative case study was conducted on UNITA in Angola, the ANC in South Africa, and the MDC in Zimbabwe. A content analysis was performed on the parties' respective constitutions and official party documents, as well as other scholarly writings. This was paired with an historical analysis of the case states and parties. The parties were assessed along a determined framework for intra-party democracy: political environment, legal framework of the state and party, the inclusiveness of the party, and party economics. Inclusiveness of the party gauges membership participation, leadership competition, gender parity, and oversight. The ANC exhibited the highest levels of intra-party democracy, and has shown the most stability. The MDC was found to have the lowest levels, and has split multiple times in recent years. All the parties demonstrated a need to open leadership participation and create better oversight mechanisms. Political parties proved to be a critical element in a state's potential democratic development, and though there exists deficiencies, the political parties of this study seem committed in many of their functions to this goal.

This thesis examines the handling of racial issues in United States political party platforms from 1964 to 2016. The primary objective of this study is to analyze how the two major political parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, have approached issues of race in their platforms. To accomplish this, a content analysis was conducted on the platforms of both parties during this time period. Each reference to race in the platforms was categorized as either "acclaim," "defend," or "attack." "Acclaim" refers to statements that praise racial progress or advocate for policies that benefit marginalized communities. "Defend" refers to statements that seek to justify the party's position on race or defend racial issues, while "attack" refers to statements that criticize the other party's position or policies related to race. The study reveals that the parties have used different strategies to address race. This research is important because it sheds light on the ways in which the two major political parties have addressed one of the most significant issues facing the United States. The findings provide insight into the ideological differences between the parties and offer a historical perspective on the evolution of racial politics in the United States. This research is relevant for scholars and policymakers interested in understanding the role of race in American politics, as well as for activists and advocates seeking to influence policy outcomes related to racial justice.

<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 past decade has been a relatively tumultuous time in Swedish parliamentary politics with minority governments, a new party challenging the status quo and ultimately the breaking of the second largest coalition in Swedish politics. The decade also saw some policy changes in parties, most strikingly the Moderate party which once an outspoken proponent of a lax immigration policy, saw a clear shift to a more restrictive policy after the 2015 refugee crisis. The first aim of this study is to explain what the shift in immigration policy looks like in terms of whether it was a positional change or a change in ideological emphasis too. By using the method of comparing manifestos the conclusion was reached that the Moderate party shifted both their positional policy and their ideological emphasis. The question of what drives political parties to change policy is a hotly debated one with a wide array of theories and perspectives contributing to the discussion. In addition this study also attempts to apply the theory first proposed by Harmel and Janda (1994) “An Integrated Theory of Party Goals and Party change” on the Moderate party to explain the driving force behind the shift in immigration policy. This was done by comparing Moderate party manifestos from the year 2006 to 2018 in three issues (immigration, private actors in the education sector and private actors in the healthcare sector) that saw the public opinion clearly shift away from the party. Mostly through the process of elimination the study concludes that the Moderate party likely shifted their position on immigration issues in order to have better chances of forming more advantageous coalitions in order to change their opposition status in the future.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the state executive committees of the two major political parties in Texas and to present facts regarding the membership of the committees (the policy-makers) and the professional staff of the state party organization (the administrators of party policy).

<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>