Right-wing populistic parties are gaining power in many parliaments around Europe. Two parties, the Swedish democrats (SD) and the Swiss people´s party (SVP) are being classified as such. The history of those two are not at all similar, although the parties after many years of intern development and evolution are meeting each other on the political scale. This awakes a lot of questions and therefore the purpose of this paper is to examine why they went in different directions but towards each other, in the way of studying their political program and to what extent they distance themselves from the right of the political spectra. In the conclusion, it will be confirmed that they indeed are right-wing populistic parties and that the biggest traction towards any side on the political scale, is the demand of a certain policy that the electors are asking for.

The study aims to answer whether there is ethnic antagonism in the Sweden Democrats’ parliamentary motions. The analysis has been performed by applying Bonacich’ theory of ethnic antagonism on a narrow selection of the Sweden Democrats’ motions. The selected method has been a directed qualitative content analysis. Some aspects of ethnic antagonism can be found in the motions. SD considers immigrants to lower the wages of Swedes mostly because; they are used to bad labor conditions in their home countries; the government subsidizes immigrants’ labor through various labor market programmes such as instegsjobb (entry jobs) and nystartsjobb (new start jobs). The government, EU, and the labor unions are considered responsible for the perceived worsening of the labor market. The party aims to act in the labor interests of the Swedes by excluding immigrants i.e. cheaper labor, from entering the country. For future research, it could be of interest to study how ethnic antagonism is reflected in other parties.

This bachelor’s thesis examines the causes behind the support of radical right and anti-immigration parties by those with a non-native background. Building on findings of previous research and the funnel of causality, a set of variables consisting of anti-immigration views and socio-economic factors are examined to determine their causal effect on the support for the Sweden Democrats among the non-native swedish population. Utilising data from Syd-SOM 2015 and Väst-SOM 2015, no support were found for the hypothesis that those with a non-native background support the Sweden Democrats on the basis of socio-economic factors. Support were found however for the hypothesis that anti-immigration views among non-natives are an important cause for their support of the Sweden Democrats.

Research question: What role does media play in that xenophobic political parties becomes successful or not? Cohan explains it as:“The press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.”    According to this, researchers argue that media creates a supply factor by merely bring attention to certain phenomenon. To this background, it is reasonable to suspect that media, merely bringing attention to the Sweden Democrats, has brought visibility anf attention to the party that could be essential for the Sweden Democrats success. research question for this study is: How does the local media-coverage of the Sweden Democrats have a role in the party’s success, in a municipality where the party is successful compared to a municipality where the political support is weaker?  Purpose: The purpose of this study is, before the elections for the municipal council in 1998, 2002 and 2006, systematically review the local press media-coverage of the Sweden Democrats in Karlskrona, a municipality where the Sweden Democrats are successful and Växjö, a municipality where the party is not as much successful.   Method: To fulfill my purpose of this study, I studied all articles concerning the Sweden Democrats before a few months before the elections of 1998, 2002 and 2006 in Smålandsposten and Blekinge Läns Tidning. The articles were then reviewed systematically and then later categorized through certain categories. This contributed to what had been written about the Sweden Democrats. Conclusions: The hypothesis that media, unaware, has created a foundation for the success of the Sweden Democrats has been confirmed to some extent in this study. The media coverage the Sweden Democrats was not as frequent as it was when the party began to have political success. Local media’s focus in their articles about the Sweden Democrats differs from a strong municipality for the Sweden Democrats to a municipality with weaker support..    This study has also shown that in municipalities that have weak support for the Sweden Democrats tend to stigmatize the party more than in a municipality that is strong for the Sweden Democrats. However as this study has shown is that stigmatization of the Sweden Democrats has not slown down their success. Quite the opposite, it has gained their success

<h1><strong> </strong></h1><p> </p><p>Research question: What role does media play in that xenophobic political parties becomes successful or not? Cohan explains it as:“The press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.”    According to this, researchers argue that media creates a supply factor by merely bring attention to certain phenomenon. To this background, it is reasonable to suspect that media, merely bringing attention to the Sweden Democrats, has brought visibility anf attention to the party that could be essential for the Sweden Democrats success. research question for this study is: How does the local media-coverage of the Sweden Democrats have a role in the party’s success, in a municipality where the party is successful compared to a municipality where the political support is weaker? </p><p><strong>Purpose:</strong> The purpose of this study is, before the elections for the municipal council in 1998, 2002 and 2006, systematically review the local press media-coverage of the Sweden Democrats in Karlskrona, a municipality where the Sweden Democrats are successful and Växjö, a municipality where the party is not as much successful. </p><p> <strong>Method:</strong> To fulfill my purpose of this study, I studied all articles concerning the Sweden Democrats before a few months before the elections of 1998, 2002 and 2006 in Smålandsposten and Blekinge Läns Tidning. The articles were then reviewed systematically and then later categorized through certain categories. This contributed to what had been written about the Sweden Democrats.</p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> The hypothesis that media, unaware, has created a foundation for the success of the Sweden Democrats has been confirmed to some extent in this study. The media coverage the Sweden Democrats was not as frequent as it was when the party began to have political success. Local media’s focus in their articles about the Sweden Democrats differs from a strong municipality for the Sweden Democrats to a municipality with weaker support..    This study has also shown that in municipalities that have weak support for the Sweden Democrats tend to stigmatize<strong> </strong>the party more than in a municipality that is strong for the Sweden Democrats. However as this study has shown is that stigmatization of the Sweden Democrats has not slown down their success. Quite the opposite, it has gained their success</p><h1><p> </p></h1>

The debate surrounding the opinion polls of the political party Sverigedemokraterna, and later their results in the Swedish election has been evident. The purpose of the study is to investigate how norms of equal treatment in social work practice might be influenced by Sverigedemokraterna's understanding of culture, ethnicity, nationality and religion. The thesis is outlined through the works of Teun van Dijk and Ruth Wodak (2000) regarding racist discourse in politics, Giorel Curran (2004) explaining lesser established parties influence on the broader discourses and Anders Hellström and Tom Nilsson (2010) attempting to ideologically position Sverigedemokraterna. With the method for analyzing policy documents designed by Carol Bacchi (2009) the latest motions from Sverigedemokraterna has been analyzed. Bacchi’s theoretical framework, together with theory concerning the expression of modern racism of John Hodge (1999), Paul Gilroy (1999) and Bennedict Anderson (1996) amongst others has been used to create an understanding of the material. The study shows the existence of understandings within the party of cultures as separate and absolute differentiated from each other, coinciding with research on the matter of racism. Hierarchies amongst cultures defined by place of birth are created through the motions. Ideas of a Swedish culture is portrayed as more developed and superior culture. People's different rights of wellfare are made sense of through arguments of birthplace and embodiment of what the party defines as Swedish culture. / Debatten om partiet Sverigedemokraternas opinionssiffror, och senare valresultat har varit påtaglig. Studiens syfte är att genom analys av Sverigedemokraternas resonemang kring kultur, nationalitet, religion och etnicitet förstå hur normer i det sociala arbetet om likabehandling kan komma att påverkas av dessa sverigedemokratiska resonemang. Med utgångspunkt i Teun van Dijk och Ruth Wodaks (2000) forskning om rasistiska diskurser i politiken, Giorel Currans (2004) studie om mindre partiers påverkan på de politiska diskurserna och Anders Hellström och Tom Nilssons (2010) ideologiska positionering av Sverigedemokraterna har uppsatsens syfte utformats. Med Carol Bacchis (2009) metod för analys av policydokument görs en diskursivt inriktad textanalys av de vid tiden för studien senast publicerade motionerna från partiet. Tillsammans med Bacchis teoretiska ramverk för metoden används forskning från John Hodge (1999), Paul Gilroy (1999) och Bennedict Anderson (1996) m.fl. kring hur nyare former av rasism tar sig uttryck genom föreställningar kring kulturer. Analysen visar på sverigedemokratiska föreställningar om kulturer som skilda från varandra och präglade av olikhet sinsemellan, i överensstämmelse med forskning kring nyrasismens utgångspunkter. Hierarkier av kulturer kopplade till födelseplats utformas i resonemangen förda i motionerna, där idéer om en svensk kultur framställs som utvecklad och överlägsen. Människors rätt till välfärd sorteras i de sverigedemokratiska resonemangen efter födelseplats, och förkroppsligande av en av partiet definierad svensk kultur.

The aim of this study was to determine to what degree the framing of the political party the Sweden Democrats had changed in swedish media, from 2010 in contrast to 2012. Particular interest was directed towards the framing of the party as a problem.This was done by studying the news articles during 12 weeks in 2010, and 12 weeks in 2012, in the newspapers Aftonbladet and Expressen. These particular newspapers were especially interesting to study since they have been outspokenly critical of the party. Both of the newspapers can be said to be among the most clearly critical towards the Sweden Democrats.I studied 256 published articles retrieved through the news database Newsline. Quantitative content analysis was used to determine patterns and tendencies. The theories used to determine variables and the analysis of the articles were the framing theory of Robert Entman (1993) and Jesper Strömbäck (2009). Theories regarding the function of news media in democracy were also used in the analysis from the context of Nord &amp; Strömbäck (2012).The study showed that a slightly more negative framing of the party occurs in 2012. Framing of the party as a problem for the democratic principles occurred less, and moral evaluations were similar between the years. The term xenophobic was mostly used to describe the party in the the overall few instances it was used during both years, with a slight shift towards more neutral and less evocative descriptions like immigration critical in 2012.

Political parties use different strategies to convince voters to vote for them, and with the technological evolution of our time short movie clips are used, now more than ever before, to accomplish these kinds of tasks. However, a political movie clip that separates itself from other political movie clips is Jimmie Åkesson – Snart är det val. This clip is not trying to persuade the voter to vote for the Sweden democrats because of their political plans, instead it tries to convince the voter of a threat that can destroy Sweden in the nearby future if the voter doesn’t vote for the Sweden democrats in the coming election. This essay seeks to investigate how Jimmie Åkesson – Snart är det val constructs this threat, how the threat becomes realistic and in what ways the threat is used in the movie clip to convince the Swedish voter to vote for the Sweden democrats. To investigate this the essay uses a semiotic analysis to dissemble the movie clip in order to understand how the threat is constructed. Furthermore, rhetorical perspectives such as identification, visualizing rhetoric, ethos, pathos, logos and figures of style are used to discuss how the threat becomes realistic and how it is used to win votes. The conclusion of the essay is that the movie clip constructs two different threats in two different realities by using semiotic resources such as fast shifting scenes, documenting images, music, sounds, environments, characters and a narrating voice in a projecting narrative. More specifically these resources create a true dark reality and a happy delusional reality. In these two realities, the two different threats are found. The first threat is the immigrants that are illustrated as an enemy that destroys Sweden and thus creates the true dark reality where the voters and the Sweden democrats also are illustrated. The other threat is other political parties in Sweden and the Swedish media because they are illustrated in the happy delusional reality and therefore can’t help the voter that is portrayed in the true dark reality. In that sense, the two threats are used to convince the voter to vote for the Sweden democrats because they are the only political party that is located in the true dark reality and therefore are the only ones that understand and can solve the problem that causes the true dark reality. Furthermore, these threats become more realistic by enforcing an emotion of fear for the true dark reality with semiotic resources and also by concretizing this reality with documenting images, characters and sounds. These threats also become more realistic because the semiotic resources create imagistic arguments that allows the mind to take shortcuts when conclusions are made.

Right-wing populism is experiencing a revival across a number of European states. To date, they have achieved remarkable results in several elections, leading to an increase in representation in local, national and european levels. Sweden and Germany are two of the European countries that have experienced this political evolution through the Sweden Democrats (SD) and the Alternative for Germany (AfD). The purpose of this thesis is to study the parties’ origins in order to examine whether the current versions of the parties are equivalent to the versions of the time of their founding. In order to address this question, I have used primary sources such as official party programmes, as well as secondary sources for a more impartial perspective. In conclusion, both of the parties have very different origins and have subsequently evolved in different directions towards their current forms, which indeed show significant similarities.

This thesis studies the relationship of cultural and economic segregation with politics.Based on a theoretical model where the provision of a public good depends on howfar apart voters are in terms of preferences, it is suggested that the support for theSweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) to some extent is driven by segregation.Using municipal level data on incomes and namesday names in zip code areas an indexof segregation is created in order to test this hypothesis. The results are inconclusive butthere is an indication of a negative association between multidimensional segregationand the election results for the Sweden Democrats.