Abstract: The purpose of this essay is to analyze how populist parties argue for state authority in a way that resembles Thomas Hobbes’s arguments in Leviathan. Moreover, the essay analyzes the characteristics of human nature studied by Thomas Hobbes connecting it to the importance of the National State. The parties analyzed are Sweden Democrats from Sweden, VOX from Spain and Jobbik from Hungary. The research questions are: 1)How do populist parties argue for state authority?  2) How do their arguments resemble Thomas Hobbes’s arguments for state authority in Leviathan? The theories used are related to the study of Thomas Hobbes described in Chapter 13 and 29 in Leviathan related to human nature and state of authority. Moreover, Cas Mudde and Hellström’s theories are used related to populist parties on the right. The method used is a qualitative method which includes an argumentative analysis which aims to explain the essay’s purposes. In conclusion, the analyzed populist parties share the ideas of Thomas Hobbes related to the state of authority and the decrease of corporations in the National State. In other words, the populist parties argue that the national state must be unity and solid in order to defend its own interest and citizens’ interests.

This social scientific thesis is dedicated to the widespread social phenomena of racism. More specifically, I am conducting a critical discourse analysis according to Fairclough’s methodology. The analysis is aimed at analyzing the politics of the Sweden Democrats wherein there is a use of three primary sources. As proposed by previous research on the topic of racism, a multifaceted approach is used, and the analysis is initiated with a variety of theories. As for the background, CERD’s 22/23rd concluding observation on Sweden clarifies for Sweden’s current reoccurrence of racial discrimination/racism. In addition, with ECOSOC’s General Comment no. 20. laying out a definition to the concept of discrimination, and thereon using AHRC’s definition on racism.  The main purpose of the thesis was to lay out: -       How the Sweden Democrats approach migration politics and how this furtherly could be seen as problematic due to issues of racism/racial discrimination/racial differentiation.  As the final conclusion came to; the Sweden Democrats pursue an ethnocentric rhetoric which will de facto lead to both direct and indirect discrimination.

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The purpose of this dissertation is to examine and present six different texts produced by the Sweden democrats. This examination focuses its attention on the content and the technique of the arguments present in the texts. In addition, the results will be put in relation to the steering documents for the Swedish school system. The aim is to observe common features regarding content and technique present in the texts. More specifi-cally, I will examine how the texts produced by the Sweden democrats pose a problem to the Swedish school system. In this particular study, data were collected through a selection which resulted in six different texts representative for the Sweden democrats. In addition, to display a broader picture of the party, the texts are written by different writers. Having carried out this particular study, certain conclusions can be drawn. To begin with, the texts are comprehensive and treat similar issues, namely anti-multiculturalism and condescension against the establishment. Secondly, there is a difference regarding content depending on the receiver of the text. Finally, there is a discrepancy between the content of the arguments in the analysed texts and the steering documents of the Swed-ish school system. This is particularly noticeable when it comes to multiculturalism and the treatment of foreign people. However, the results also show that there are some similarities regarding maintenance of the Swedish culture.

This thesis aims to contribute to the study of how established political parties deal with an increasingly popular radical right parties, focusing on the case of Sweden and the Sweden Democrats (SD). Swedish parties have had a different approach compared to established parties in other European countries, when being challenged by the radical right. The trend has been that the major parties have formed government with support of the radical right and also adapting some of their political positions, in order to regain lost voters. Although, in the case of Sweden, the initial strategy of the major parties was to distance themselves from SD:s policies, while also making efforts to isolate them from positions of power and minimizing their influence in all levels of government.  Anders Backlund (2020) has studied the case of Sweden and argues, with the use of the modified spatial theory (Meguid 2008), that the initially rejective strategy of the major parties towards SD, might have forced them to adapt their policies to a large extent further down the line. The thesis explores Sweden as a least-likely case for a theory-testing purpose. Through the means of a combination of qualitative and quantitative content analysis the election manifestos from all parliamentary parties in Sweden, from the last five elections are being analyzed. The thesis tries to explain to what extent, and in what manner, the parliamentary parties have adapted their policies to those of SD – and furthermore, to what degree these adaptations can be explained in terms of the strategic pursuit of votes.  The Sweden Democrats are placed far out on the TAN-scale, on the socio-cultural political conflict dimension GAL-TAN – where TAN stands for Tradition, Authoritarianism and Nationalism. Therefore, the extent to which the remaining parties have included policies related to TAN in their election manifestos is examined. The result shows that most parties in Sweden increasingly have included policies related to TAN in their election manifestos for the more recent elections – hence showing an adaptation to both SD:s policy suggestions and their way to formulate issues. Especially the parties that have been shown to lose particularly many voters to SD, but also the parties that are not competing for their votes to any bigger extent, exhibit a political conformity in the direction of SD.  The thesis strengthens the modified spatial theory by highlighting how Swedish parties swiftly have modified their strategy of handling SD – from initial rejection, to adaptation of rhetoric and policy. The thesis further contributes a few theoretical adjustments, to more fully explain how all major Swedish parties have managed their strategies when facing the increasing popularity of SD.

Given the tendency of Populist Radical Right (PRR) parties to form anti-LGBTQ+ claims, this thesis aims to understand how a PRR party operating in a context characterized by progressive values relates to LGBTQ+ topics in their political messages on social media. A single case study of the Sweden Democrats (SD) – an example of a PRR party operating in such a context – was conducted. Idea analysis, which included the concepts of homonationalism and heteroactivism, was performed on 44 posts published during the year following the 2022 election on the social media platform X by politicians representing the SD in the national parliament. The results show that the SD pursued a homonationalist discourse in that they advocated LGBTQ+ rights to oppose Islam in general and Muslim integration in Sweden in particular. However, when the SD solely focused on the Swedish domestic context, LGBTQ+ rights were not promoted, but rather heteronormativity was favored above non-normative relationships, gender identities, and gender expressions. Thus, the results suggest that the SD took part in heteroactivism. Moreover, while the SD avoided outspoken homophobic statements, transphobic ideas were evident. Hence, the SD adapted to the Swedish context by performing a balancing act where they weighed the expression of heteronormative ideals against the potential loss of acceptance from a public supporting LGBTQ+ rights. Altogether, these results contribute to research on PRR parties operating in contexts characterized by progressive values as well as research on the SD concerning LGBTQ+ topics.

This thesis aims to examine the existence of populism in Swedish party politics, specifically inthe cases of The Sweden democrats on the right and The Left party on the left side. Two partiesthat can be considered each other's opposites in Sweden. The research questions revolve aroundif both parties can be considered to populist, if there are any differences in the type of populismthat the parties express and finally if there have been any changes of populism within the partiesin recent years. The definition of populism that is applied is created by Mudde & Kaltwassser (2017) and seespopulism as a thin-centered ideology with “the pure people” versus “the corrupt elite,” andargues that politics should be an expression of the will of the people. The thesis also usespopulist subtypes from Jagers & Walgrave (2007) to discern different types of populism. The methods used consist of a comparative research design and a qualitative content analysis toexamine the questions of the thesis, based on speeches made by the parties in Almedalen. Theresult shows that both parties can be considered to be populists, but there are differences betweenthe parties based on subtypes and in who they see as the people or the elite. There have not beenany considerable changes in the expressed populism in any of the parties.

In 2010, the populist radical right party the Sweden Democrats were voted into the Swedish parliament, which rattled the mainstream parties. The Sweden Democrats’ stance on migration policy was clear from the start, with their MPs promoting a radical decrease, if not a complete stop, to all immigration. This thesis aims to expand the existing research about populism in Sweden and contribute to the field of political science by analysing the general policy debates on migration policy held after the entry of the Sweden Democrats into parliament. The study examines the debates to get answers to several questions: What do politicians think is the main problem with migration policy over the years and how are the problems represented? Is it possible to find indications of populism during the debates and are there signs of the Sweden Democrats' discourse being normalized? Are there any discursive shifts made by the mainstream parties and is there a hegemonic discourse visible throughout the debates? The results show four dominating problem representations on the topic of migration over the years, with the problem representation of the Sweden Democrats gaining support from the Liberals and the Christian Democrats in the debate of 2018. Tendencies of normalization of the Sweden Democrats’ discourse are also detectable in the 2018 debate, as well as some discursive shifts by mainstream parties. A hegemonic discourse is visible during the 2010 and 2014 debates, but it has lost its hegemonic position during the 2018 debate.

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The rise of the populist parties in last decades throughout the Europe provide the ground for researches and studies. The recent success of Sweden Democrats (SD) in Swedish 2014 elections, and getting third major party position has been subjected to several studies. The present study for the dramatic rise of Sweden Democrats (SD), is based on the analysis of economical and cultural factors to find out this success, provides an analytical basis for understanding the reasons behind this phenomenon. This study tests two hypotheses by statistical data analysis, and analyses the economic and cultural perspectives by scholarly literature and provide new findings by testing these hypotheses. The study provides outcomes that reasons for the rise of Sweden Democrats (SD) in Swedish society lies somewhere in economic conditions and cultural diversity intolerance.