This doctoral thesis deals with the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and its foreign policy towards Czechoslovakia during the 1970s and 1980s. It aims not only to analyse the relationship between SPD and KSČ (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia) but also the communication and cooperation between SPD, Czechoslovak dissidents and Czechoslovak political emigration. The main goal of the dissertation is to answer three basic questions: What were the goals of social democratic eastern policy (Ostpolitik) towards ČSSR? Were they achieved? Does the party changed its attitude towards Czechoslovakia after 1982, when it became an opposition party?

The purpose of this study is to address a period in Swedish political history when the politicization of the Church of Sweden was formed, a politicization that still exist. How this period came about is viewed through the writings and speeches of an important member of the Social democratic party, Arthur Engberg, who became Minister of Education and Religion in the first Swedish social democratic government in 1932. Prior to being a minister, Engberg first argued to immediately separate the church from the state. Later, he argued that the church first must be reformed by the state before the separation can take place. The question addressed in the study is, if Engberg continued his efforts as a minister, 1932­–1939, or if he instead, as some implies, aligned with the church? The most authoritative literature when studying Engberg is Beltzén Arthur Engberg – publicist och politiker (Arthur Engberg – publicist and politician) from 1973 which suggest that he did follow his early intensions. This is however contradicted by a contemporary prominent party member, Rickard Lindström in an article in Tiden 1946. The method applied to study this question was to research Engberg’s writings and speeches in a chronological order and to put them into context with the parallel processes of the formation of the Christian Socialist Group and with the internal reformation of the church.  The conclusions drawn by the study is that Engberg became a defender of the church as the cultural institution he wanted it to be. He had come to realize that the church could be accepted and even useful for managing the religious matter of the state. As such it must be controlled by the state and a separation between state and church is not necessary in the foreseeable future.

The strength of a nation’s control of the fiscal economy affects not only the nation, but also individual citizens. How to develop, support and maintain a strong national economy that also affords the individual citizen a good standard of living has challenged economists over the past century and longer. This bachelor thesis examines whether the ideas of Ernst Wigforss, a former Swedish Minister of Finance (1933–1949), have had a long-term impact on Swedish fiscal policy. Wigforss has been relatively ignored in research, and this bachelor’s thesis also aims to redress this neglect. To address the question of Wigforss’ impact during the 20th century, an idea analysis at three points in time (1937, 1973 and 1997) has been conducted. These dates were picked out from an interpretive framework as represented historical points during the 20th century coupled with clear transformations in fiscal policy. The empirical data that was the base for the analysis were Wigforss ideas and Swedish parliamentary papers. This analysis shows that Wigforss’ fiscal ideas and specifically his thoughts relating to the important of a policy supporting expansive fiscal policy played a major role in Sweden’s fiscal policy until the end of the 1990s. Yet, after the fiscal policy reform in 1997, the ideas of Wigforss are no longer evident in the development or the presentation of Swedish fiscal policy.

This essay will examine how two Swedish newspapers from two different political wings reported the Troubles in Northern Ireland (1968-1998) in the early 1970’s. There was a very specific line of thought present in the general discourse about political violence in Sweden during the 1970’s. The study found that the two newspapers had different approaches to both this Swedish line of thought and the Troubles itself. The social democratic newspaper Arbetet had a rather emotional tone in their articles about the conflict.  In the moderate Borås Tidning the discourse was vastly different. The emotions present in Arbetet were missing and exchanged with an objective view of the conflict with a hardline neutrality embossing the articles. No sympathies for either side of the conflict was shown in any of the newspapers. Arbetet was however more passionate about the conflict while the interest for the conflict dwindled in Borås Tidning with smaller and smaller articles as a result.

Research on social movements has traditionally addressed issues of movement emergence and mobilisation, paying little attention to their outcomes and consequences. Moreover, despite research on the political consequences of social movements accelerating in recent years, much has been left under researched, no more so than the impact social movements have on one of the most important actors in liberal democracies: political parties. This paper extends social movement research by examining whether social movements have an impact on political parties and under what conditions impact is more likely to take place. The empirical analysis, investigating whether anti-austerity social movements have had an impact on social democratic parties in Ireland and Spain during the years 2011 to 2016, suggests that the relationship between social movements and political parties is both under-theorised and under-researched, and mistakenly so. The paper finds that while parties are more likely to be influenced by social movements when certain conditions are present, social movements can also have unintended impacts on parties. Ultimately, this paper encourages research on political parties, and particularly research on party change, to pay greater attention to social movements and for social movement research to pay greater attention to political parties.

The daily Právo lidu (Peoples' Rights), a paper of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), started to be published 12 of May 1945, immediately after a forced break during the Second World War. However, its renewed edition did not last much longer than mere three years. After the Social Democratic Party merged with the Communist Party the newspaper was closed, or more precisely "diverted" under the auspices of Rudé právo (Red right), the central organ of the Communist Party. My aim in writing this thesis is a study of this period as such, its presentation on the pages of Právo lidu, or a presentation of some major historical events on the pages of the diary and the form of the paper itself. The work is therefore divided into two main parts. The first is a theoretical introduction describing pivotal moments in the development of post-war Czechoslovakia, where I am focusing on the description of the aspects that shaped the period, formed the internal political situation and directed the former Czechoslovakia into the Soviet Union's sphere of influence. The second part of the thesis is devoted to the very analysis of the diary in the years 1945 - 1948, its form, its way of distributing the information and describing certain political moments, as well as the anchorage of the daily in party structures. A...

<p>The Social Democratic Party and the Moderate Party are two parties with different ideological background. The parties have different opinions in issues of public and private matters. The Social Democratic Party profiles it self, through the local and national party programs, as a party for solidarity and security. The Moderate Party, on the other hand, profiles it self through their programmes as a party with a possibility for the individual to shape his or her own life. Through a survey on members in the local government, and two key persons at national level, the view of municipal self-government has appeared. The party programmes constitute a platform for the parties´ views on municipal self-government. These views have been put together with the result of the survey. Urban Strandberg has designed an analysis frame related to municipal self-government. His concept, municipalities’ basic character, board of directors and administration, is the theoretical foundation of the thesis. The content of the Party programmes and the results of the survey are thendiscussed within the frame of Strandbergs concept and Demokratiutredningens rapport SOU 2000:1. From the collective perspective of the theory, the content of party programmes and the result of the survey an image of the parties’ views on municipal self-government starts to grow. Within each party respectively, they keep a common strategy in important issues, which the local governments and the parties’ basic characters have raised. There are dividing lines due to the administration of the municipalities. Civic participation unites the parties in ideological issues. The opinions, in the issue of municipal self-government, differs between the Social Democratic Party and the Moderate Party. The reason for that is because of their fundamental different views in the fields of social order and ideology, as it is described in the party programmes. In reality when the parties shape the politics they cannot profile themselves as much as in the"vision"in their party programmes. The parties have to find a middle course, which is reflected in the answers from some of the respondents.</p>

Based on the concept of rhetorical situation, the purpose of this study is to compare and describe the three Socialist leader's May Day speech from the years 1954, 1978 and 2011. The results of the analysis showed that there is a big difference in how the leaders chooses to appeal to the rhetorical audience. Erlander, 1954, never appealed directly to his audience which Palme, 1978, did both initially as repeatedly throughout his speech. Juholt, 2011, has a personal and frequent appeal which is repeated throughout his speech, which is interpreted as a sign of the intimization of the public language. It proved difficult to discuss the Socialist rhetoric as one unified form. The rhetoric realm is influenced by too many external factors, such as the media, which makes it impossible to speak of it as one. The analysis revealed that the language of the 1th may-speeches is characterized by the people who use it. It is inevitable that the speaker puts his utmost emphasis, in both language and speeches. It would require a larger and more comprehensive analysis to allow any conclusions about a social-democratic language.Keywords: Rhetorical situation, genre, ethos-logos-pathos, 1th May, the Swedish Social Democratic Party, Tage Erlander, Olof Palme, Håkan Juholt

This essay is regarding the problematic facts about child poverty in Sweden. Since the beginning of the new millennium child poverty has increased, in Sweden. The last report which came out in the spring this year (2012) opened up for a lively political debate as well as big headlines in news papers and other media. The attention it got in Society became hard for the politicians to avoid. The Swedish section of Save the Children, demanded in their report concerning child poverty in Sweden that the Swedish Government need to do an inquiry about the increasing child poverty.    Today in Sweden, there are two big parties, and they have been the biggest for a long time now. The two are Socialdemokraterna and Moderata Samlingspartiet. The first mentioned one is representing a socialist policy whilst the second one is representing a right-wing party. This study will deal with whether the parties have changed over time or not. The big question will be whether they have changed their opinions and positions since the beginning of 1960. This year is chosen in particular because it was during this period the largest development of the welfare state of Sweden started. It will be about if the parties changed according to, in particular poverty in Sweden. There are two main questions that I intend to answer throughout the text, to finally analyze the questions in the last part of this essay.

Magistriniame darbe pristatomas Švedijos socialinės politikos modelis, apžvelgiama raida, nustatoma kokiam gerovės valstybės tipui jis priskiriamas. Nagrinėjamos gerovės valstybės formavimosi sąlygos, socialdemokratų politikos ideologijos įtaka socialiniam modeliui ir bedarbių integracijai. Darbe analizuojamas nedarbo paplitimas Švedijoje, rodikliai lyginami su ES. Tiriamos bedarbystės priežastys, nagrinėjamos nedarbo mažinimo priemonės. Prieita išvados, jog Švedijos socialiniam modeliui ir gerovės valstybei pamatus padėjo socialdemokratų politika ir ideologija, kurios vertybės išlaikytos iki šių dienų. Efektyvi socialdemokratų socialinė politika ir aktyvios darbo rinkos priemonės daro didelę įtaką bedarbių integracijos rezultatyvumui ir lemia žemą nedarbo lygį. Magistrinis darbas aktualus visos ES lygiu, nes socialinė politika Švedijoje plačiai išvystyta, o ES dar tik formuojama. Šalis jau pasiekė ES Lisabonos strategijos 2010 m. numatytus užimtumo tikslus. Čia daugelį metų nedarbo lygis mažesnis nei kitose ES šalyse. Švedija – universali valstybė, kurioje derinamas ekonomikos augimas, visiško užimtumo siekimas, nedarbo mažinimas kartu atidžiai rūpinantis gyventojų socialine apsauga. O Lietuvoje, kaip ir kai kuriose ES šalyse, trūksta gerovės valstybės elementų. / The model of social policy in Sweden is introduced in this Master‘s research work. Its evolution, the type of welfare state, conditions of formation are defined. The influence is established for social democratic ideology on the social model and for the integration process of unemployed persons. The prevalence of unemployment in Sweden is analysed, the rates are compared with EU. Unemployment reasons and means of unemployment reduction are considered. It was concluded, that the corner stone of Swedish social model and welfare state is social democratic politics and its values that are still significant and popular nowadays. Its operative social policy and active labour market actions influence the efficiency of unemployed persons’ integration process and determines the low rate of unemployment. This Master’s research work is significant in all EU, as the research field is relevant. Social policy is wide developed in Sweden, whereas it is in the initial stage period in EU. The country already succeeded in EU Lisbon Social Policy Agenda employment goals for 2010. A great while the unemployment rate was less than in other EU member countries. Sweden is the all-purpose state, where the economic growth, the pursuit of complete employment, the reduction of unemployed persons’ number are combined together with thorough citizens’ social security. And there is a lack of elements of welfare state in Lithuania and other EU countries.