<p>Abstract:</p><p>The aim of this study has been to investigate (theoretically as well as empirically) the problematic notions of state neutrality and political perfectionism and, in particular, the potentially vast continuum existing between these concepts both in theory and in actual political practice. In order to accomplish this, a conceptual analysis has examined (some of) the arguments for and against state neutrality and political perfectionism, different aspects of neutralism and perfectionism as well as the exact definition of the concepts of “neutrality of justification” and “conceptions of the good”. Using a specific (though not entirely uncontested) definition of these concepts, an empirical analysis was made of Swedish parliamentary parties and their cultural policies. The empirical part of the study seemed to confirm one of the basic premises of this study; that state neutrality and perfectionism are often (as has indeed been recognized by critics of state neutrality) intertwined in the business of everyday politics.</p>

Abstract: The aim of this study has been to investigate (theoretically as well as empirically) the problematic notions of state neutrality and political perfectionism and, in particular, the potentially vast continuum existing between these concepts both in theory and in actual political practice. In order to accomplish this, a conceptual analysis has examined (some of) the arguments for and against state neutrality and political perfectionism, different aspects of neutralism and perfectionism as well as the exact definition of the concepts of “neutrality of justification” and “conceptions of the good”. Using a specific (though not entirely uncontested) definition of these concepts, an empirical analysis was made of Swedish parliamentary parties and their cultural policies. The empirical part of the study seemed to confirm one of the basic premises of this study; that state neutrality and perfectionism are often (as has indeed been recognized by critics of state neutrality) intertwined in the business of everyday politics.

This paper examines if European integration has had an impact on national political parties by looking at the stances of the Swedish Green Party and the Left Party on the issue of the European Community and the European Union over time. With the development of the European Community and the European Union, national political parties face the challenge of an emerging political arena. European integration research has recently become more involved with what is called europeanization and political integration within the member states them self, this paper aims to provide further leverage to the thesis that national political actors undergo some degree of europeanization and are politically integrated in the EU, by examining manifestos of two historically eurosceptic Swedish political parties. The theoretical framework provided by neo-functional integration theory as well as europeanization is used to examine the empirical material in order to see if the political parties at the focal point of this study can be said to have undergone a change in political policy regarding the EC and EU, both in quantity and content. The analysis show that indeed both parties has undergone a change and what might be considered a europeanization, considering that the presence of the EU as a political issue seem to have risen in prominence and importance in the examined manifestos. The parties also show tendencies towards viewing the EU as an arena in which political goals can be achieved for specific issues.

Thesis--Stockholm högskola. / Without thesis statement. Summary in English. Bibliography: p. 284-297.

Thesis--Stockholm högskola. / Without thesis statement. Summary in English. Bibliography: p. 284-297.

This thesis is about immigration discourses among the political elite in Sweden. The focus of interest has been to establish if the racist and assimilationist discourses of the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna, SD) has been influential on the political party elite, and more specifically on whom, and how. Parliamentary debates and opinion pieces written by party elites has been the basis of material for the enquiry, covering the time period 2006 – July 2016. As SD had their political breakthrough in 2010, it is assumed that, provided that they have been influential on the immigration discourses of the mainstream political elite, new elements in the elite discourse mirroring the discourses of SD should emerge after 2010. The results show that some of the assimilationist ideas and negative discourses on immigration pre-existed the breakthrough of SD. The elite of the political mainstream articulated a strong resistance towards SD’s discourses during their first election cycle. However, more negative discourses bordering those of SD emerged in tandem to the so called refugee crisis in late 2015. The crisis can thus be understood as a catalyst breaking some of the taboos regarding negative immigration discourses. At the same time, although assimilationist discourses emerged among other elites than SD, they where always presented in much milder forms than SD’s discourses, who remain radically different from the other parties. These assimilationist ideas and discourses where mainly adopted by the right wing parties the Moderates (Moderaterna, M) and the Christian Democrats (Kristdemokraterna, KD), as well as the Liberal party (Liberalerna, L). I conclude that the adjustments in discourse to that of SD is less than expected, perhaphs as a result of the cordon sanitaire.

The politicians have entered a new platform with the potential to democratization and to exchange ideas. Therefore, we want to look into what new conditions social media creates for politicians. Through strategic political communication the goal-oriented two-way communication is depicted as it is crucial for relations to establish, build up, maintain and to be affected.   One aspect of this is about the creation of messages and the visual communication affecting the meaning of the content. In our study, these theories have become the foundation in the research, and of the tools used when developing messages for social networks. We have looked deeper into Facebook as a social media and political parties on this platform. We focused on and observed their different ways of developing messages in their Facebook feed and the reactions they generated. We found tendencies saying that pictures and videos have a great effect on a engagement generated in the posts. This proves that visual communication is a crucial tool for political strategic communications within the networks of social media.

The aim of this following study is to clarify the differences between the swedish parties, the social democrats and the moderates strategies for how to prevent men’s violence against women at the national party level. This study is a textanalysis which aims to examine which strategies the parties think is a need for a better gender mainstreaming, the ideological perspective is taken to account when studying the parties strategies. To do the analysis, i have used the ideologies liberalism, conservatism and socialism, to study how different values are weighed against each other which is a general recommendation how something should be conducted. This can also be called a normative statement for how the parties apply ideological points of departure in their strategies. The analysis shows that the parties have differences in their proposals for action. The main difference between the parties is that the Moderates were mostly on improving the judical system, focing more in the individual, which can refer to liberalconservatism. The Social democrats had lower penalty and more measures in terms of knowledge, method development, follow up where the state had the main role. This can further refer to socialism.

The aim of this dissertation is to describe and analyse the voting restrictions of the Swedish franchise reform of 1909. These restrictions required that the voter should be a male of good repute, who had paid his national and local taxes for three years before the election year, had done his military service, had not been declared incapacitated or bankrupt nor owed society any poor relief. In practice, this meant that some 20% of the adult male population were excluded from voting. This study explores both the ideological beliefs and political strategies behind these restrictions, and how the system worked in practice at the national and local levels. Since earlier literature has paid scant attention to the voter’s status as a citizen, this dissertation uses citizenship as one of its analytical tools. Although often described as universal suffrage for men, the 1909 Electoral Law was thus less radical than is usually assumed. As you had to have fulfilled certain obligations as a citizen in order to vote, it is hard to say that voting was a right. A central role in formulating these new conditions was played by the Riksdag’s moderate Conservative group. The reform therefore had the potential to preserve the political influence of the Right in the age of mass democracy, not least as the question of the unrestricted franchise for men and women could be deferred. However, the 1909 Electoral Law was not only aimed at reducing the political influence of the lower classes, but the proponents of the system also wanted to educate the citizens ideologically by constructing an image of the ideal citizen as a self-supporting male, who fulfilled his obligations to society. The National Women’s Franchise Association, whose campaign demanded suffrage for women on the same conditions as men, therefore had to relate to a political discourse dominated by (male) civic virtues and qualifications, and argue that women made a major contribution by fulfilling their special obligations to society. Also, the tax payment and poor relief voting restrictions in the 1909 franchise reform had an impact on the way proposals for women’s right to vote were formulated. The Social Democrats, whose electorate was heavily affected by the taxpaying qualification, in their programme for a constitutional reform demanded that this particular restriction should be abolished. To limit the number of party voters excluded from the polls, Social Democratic newspapers and election offices tried to mobilise disenfranchised workers to appeal the electoral register and get back on it. Those activities, which have been largely neglected in earlier research on the history of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, came to constitute an important element in the party’s election campaigns during the 1910s. In Sweden, the poor relief voting restriction (the pauper exclusion) was applied in a much more general way than in other countries, disqualifying recipients of very small or provisional amounts that had not been repaid as well as family providers who had received poor relief because of family members. The rules also proved very difficult to put into practice. The Social Democrats and many Liberals, but also leading members of the Swedish Poor Relief Association wanted to reform the law so that only those permanently supported by poor relief should lose their right to vote. Unlike the Social Democrats, the Liberals supported the taxpaying qualification as a necessary token of orderliness. However, they wanted the conscientious poor taxpayers to be distinguished from those who were neglectful and dilatory. As the Liberal-Social Democratic coalition government, which came to power in 1917, found out, this proved impossible. Instead, the taxpaying qualification was abolished in connection with the 1918-1921 constitutional reform, which also gave women the vote and limited the poor relief voting restriction to those permanently receiving support. In sum, the 1909 franchise reform did not constitute a sharp divide between the old system of income and property qualifications and twentieth century democracy. There was a clear continuity with the former system, in which you earned the right to vote by fulfilling your obligations. The 1909 reform did not lead to universal suffrage for men. Instead, it should be regarded as an intermediate stage in the development towards universal suffrage. Property and income qualifications for voters were abolished, but new qualifications and new mechanisms for exclusion were introduced instead. In this respect, Sweden was not unique. Before adopting universal suffrage, many countries combined universal suffrage with various voting restrictions. In Sweden, however, the right to vote came with an unusually large number of conditions.

The overall aim with this study is to understand how and why the political environment in Sweden changed so drastically during the first years of the 1990s. The political mayfly New Democracy took office in the Swedish parliament in 1991 to 1994. At the time they were branded as a rightwing, xenophobic populist party. While our Nordic neighbors have had political parties resembling New Democracy since the beginning of the 1970’s, the established parties in Sweden managed to cover most of these controversial questions for some time. In a world that was dominated by western capitalism and libertinism following the collapse of the Soviet union, with increasing immigration also from outside of Europe, the Swedish people wanted to see change and the 1991 election turned out to be historical in that about 30% of the voters changed party allegiance. Enter New Democracy, a party that had been formally created in February 1991. They had been formed by 2 strong characters who met in November 1990 for the very first time: Ian Wachtmeister and Bert Karlsson. Karlsson was the person with impeccable instincts for publicity. Wachtmeister was the man behind most of the ideas that came to make up the party program. Their leading idea was that politics should be governed by common sense. In this spirit (and the lack of time) they postponed a lot of principal and basic discussions on key matters, with the idea that they would sort them out once elected. This did not work out too well and they soon started to disintegrate from within and by the next election in 1994 they had basically stopped working as a party. The aim of the study is achieved through evaluating the following areas: how did New Democracy communicate with their voters as well as how they worked in parliament seen in the light of their party program; the second evaluates New Democracy from an ideology standpoint and finally; how did the voters look at the political situation in Sweden at this time? What relatively little has been written and researched about New Democracy has seemingly always taken the starting view of looking at them as a populist party. In this thesis I look atthis unconditionally, and start with an analysis of ideologies and populism. The characteristics identified from this are then applied on New Democracy based on what they said they wanted to achieve as well as how they applied their ideas in real life. In order to firmly establish the current theories on ideologies in general and populist theory in particular I have drawn upon some of the most well renown researchers in these areas. As fo rthe study of New Democracy I have been using whatever little material they published themselves, in addition I’ve been using the archives of the Swedish government and a series of books and research on New Democracy. Furthermore I’ve conducted an interview with a former New Democracy parliament member to add and confirm much of the written material. The analysis shows that New Democracy was a party that in some ways were ahead of their time as it took another couple of years and then many of their ideas had been implemented. Their messages and ways to go about it were seen as extraordinary at the time. This provides an interesting parallel to the political debate of today considering what is seen as politically correct. Although they were seen as rebels at the time, by today’s standards they appear as rather harmless. They were seen as a populist party of their day. By comparing to current definitions of a populist parti they would rather be seen as a discontent party. Today they would not stand out even nearly in the same way as they did then. And finally, I would argue that the development of a party like New Democracy was inevitable at the time given all political changes in Sweden and in our vicinity.