This Master’s (60 credits) dissertation paper examines how three Swedish newspapers describe the political ideology called anti–Semitism in Germany, from the day it was born in end of October 1879 until January 1882 after the campaigns of persecution of Jews in Russia and Germany.Politically, the 1880s were formative years in Swedish history. A party system emerged slowly andseveral new political ideologies found their way into Swedish political life. Many of those wereinfluences from Germany: socialism, nationalism, political conservatism. But also anti–Semitism.This paper is a comparative study between the newspapers Dagens Nyheter (liberal), Nya DagligtAllehanda (conservative) and Stockholms Dagblad (conservative) and describe how the anti–Semitic political movement in Germany, and the ongoing atrocities against Jews in Russia andGermany, were being portrayed in the Swedish media. The survey in the essay shows that the newspapers describe the political ideology anti-Semitismvery differently. Liberal Dagens Nyheter was highly critical against the political form of hatredagainst the Jews, but so was also conservative Stockholms Dagblad, although the latter had a higherdegree of a neutral type of reporting than the former. Stockholms Dagblad leaned towards supportof a Bismarckian type of conservatism, (which at this time had not yet embraced hatred againstJews as an official policy). The newspaper of the three with the strongest support of the anti-Semitic political movement inGermany was the daily Nya Dagligt Allehanda, which very often expressed and reproduced anti-Semitic constructions and derogatory and racist views on Jews.However, the newspaper Nya Dagligt Allehanda did not embrace the most extreme and violent formof anti-Semitism which were being advocated by some German politicians in the 1880s, whichincluded the deportation or even mass murder of Jews.

This thesis investigates the developing understanding of male homosexuality as a societal issue in Sweden between 1930 and 1960, primarily detailing what political motives and scientific ideas defined the governmental discourse around the group in question. In doing so, the discussion about male homosexuality is situated within a rapidly transforming political landscape. 1930–1945 has been described as a preamble to the Swedish welfare state, while 1945–1960 is commonly seen as its defining period. The study shows that in the 1930s, the question of homosexuality was connected to population policy, while from 1941 and onwards, it was primarily connected to social policy. It is then argued that these changes can be understood using theoretical ideas of biopower, more specifically state generated ideals regarding productivity and biological reproduction. It is also argued that the surge in negative attitudes towards male homosexuality in the 1950s must be understood as an effect of this development.

Från Reagan till Trump: Populistiska uttryck inom det republikanska partiet 1980–2017 är en kandidatuppsats av Angelica Carlsson. Syftet med studien är att förklara förekomsten av populistiska uttryck inom det republikanska partiet i USA under tidsperioden 1980–2017. Populistiska uttryck i politiska tal av presidenterna Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush och Donald Trump undersöks och graderas utifrån Kirk A. Hawkins sex kriterier över populism. Talen analyseras också utifrån de teoretiska begreppen tunn respektive tjock populism. För att förklara de populistiska uttrycken beaktar studien den historiska kontexten och utvecklingslinjer inom det republikanska partiet. Utifrån studiens resultat kan konstateras att de populistiska uttrycken är högst i Reagans och Trumps tal, medan Bushs tal har en lägre grad av populism. I studien förklaras detta utifrån den historiska kontexten, där 1980 och 2016 präglades av mer politisk instabilitet än 2000. Studien belyser hur populism inte uppstår ur tomma intet utan ska förstås i relation till kontexten i vilken den uttrycks. / From Reagan to Trump: Populist expressions within the Republican Party 1980–2017 is a bachelor thesis by Angelica Carlsson. The aim of the thesis is to explain populist expressions within the Republican Party in the United States during the period 1980–2017. Populist expressions in political speeches by the presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Donald Trump are investigated and graded based on Kirk A. Hawkin's criteria of populism. The thesis is also taking the theoretical terms thin and thick populism into consideration. In order to explain the populist expressions the historical context and the historical development of the Republican Party is taken into account. The main findings of the thesis is that Reagan's and Trump's speeches has the highest degree of populist expressions, while Bush's speeches has a lower degree of populist expressions. The study explains this from the historical context, where 1980 and 2016 were characterized by more political instability than 2000. The study illustrates how populism does not arise from nothing and should be understood in relation to the historical context.

This dissertation concerns Sveriges Kommunistiska Parti (SKP) [the Swedish Communist Party] – in 1967 renamed Vänsterpartiet kommunisterna (VPK) [the Left Party – the Communists] and in 1990 renamed Vänsterpartiet (V) [the Left Party] – and the Party's process of coming to terms with history and its communist legacy. The aim of the study is to describe and analyse the SKP/VPK/V's process of coming to terms with history for the period 1956-2006, and to set out and problematise the driving forces and constraining mechanisms of this process. The theoretical framework of the study consists of Gunnar Sjöblom’s theory about party strategies of political parties in multi-party systems and Michael Freeden’s conceptual approach to ideology analysis.      During the period of study the SKP/VPK/V has, like no other political party in Sweden, been ascribed historical guilt regarding its own party history but also regarding the effects of world communism. The Party has thus found itself in a situation where it has had history as an adversary. The process of coming to terms with history has mainly revolved around three issues: independence (1956-1977), international ties (1977-1989) and a broadening beyond the communist tradition (1986-2006). The internal debate within the Party has linked these issues to calls for change aimed at ridding the party of what is considered undesirable elements of the Communist legacy. By analysing the arguments pursued in favour of these calls, it is possible to pick out a number of the driving forces behind the Party's process of coming to terms with history, namely an ambition to obtain vote maximisation, programme realisation and maximisation of parliamentary influence. The urge to distance the Party from certain aspects of its communist past has thus been related to fundamental goals that political parties in multi-party systems seek to obtain.      The results of the dissertation show that it is possible to pick out five main constraining mechanisms in the Party's process of coming to terms with history. 1) The safeguarding of Party cohesion. 2) The safeguarding of the distinctive character of the Party.  3) The need to resist external pressure. 4) The desire to avoid unfair apportioning of blame. 5) The safeguarding of the right to define the substance of one's own ideology. The existence of these constraining mechanisms help to explain why the process of coming to terms with history lingered on for several decades, and also why it seems to have been a process of such complexity for the Swedish Communist and Post-Communist Party.