<p>University of Växjö</p><p>School of Social Sciences</p><p>Bachelor Thesis in Political Science</p><p>Title: “Sverigedemokraternas valframgångar 2006 – En ulv i fårakläder?”</p><p>Author: Emma Haraldsson and Åsa Neuschütz</p><p>Tutor: Emil Uddhammar</p><p>The aim of this study is to explain Sverigedemokraterna’s electoral success in 2006 and the essay assumes that some form of change has occurred. To study this change two hypotheses have been constructed. The first hypothesis concerns the change within Sverigedemokraterna and the second hypothesis concerns the change of the Swedish voters attitudes.</p><p>Kirchheimers catch-all theory is used to explain the change in Sverigedemokraterna. The catch-all theory states that parties have to change their structure to maximise the number of votes. Lipset and Rokkan’s theory about the party system is also used along with Inglehart’s value studies to explain why parties change.</p><p>The tests of the hypotheses are carried out through a text analysis and a statistical survey. The essay concludes that Sverigedemokraterna has not changed very much and that it is mainly an esthetical and not an ideological change. Therefore the first hypothesis has to be falsified. The second hypothesis can be neither falsified nor verified, because the material is too diverse. Further studies are necessary to explain the electoral success of Sverigedemokraterna.</p>

University of Växjö School of Social Sciences Bachelor Thesis in Political Science Title: “Sverigedemokraternas valframgångar 2006 – En ulv i fårakläder?” Author: Emma Haraldsson and Åsa Neuschütz Tutor: Emil Uddhammar The aim of this study is to explain Sverigedemokraterna’s electoral success in 2006 and the essay assumes that some form of change has occurred. To study this change two hypotheses have been constructed. The first hypothesis concerns the change within Sverigedemokraterna and the second hypothesis concerns the change of the Swedish voters attitudes. Kirchheimers catch-all theory is used to explain the change in Sverigedemokraterna. The catch-all theory states that parties have to change their structure to maximise the number of votes. Lipset and Rokkan’s theory about the party system is also used along with Inglehart’s value studies to explain why parties change. The tests of the hypotheses are carried out through a text analysis and a statistical survey. The essay concludes that Sverigedemokraterna has not changed very much and that it is mainly an esthetical and not an ideological change. Therefore the first hypothesis has to be falsified. The second hypothesis can be neither falsified nor verified, because the material is too diverse. Further studies are necessary to explain the electoral success of Sverigedemokraterna.

This thesis treats of the usage of online voting advice applications, VAA, by Swedish students at the Linnaeus university. Four questions are investigated: 1) to what extent do the students use VAA? 2) do they follow the results? 3) are there any differences between groups? and finally 4) how do they reflect upon the VAA? The thesis is based on a theory of electoral democracy where the elections and the voters are the focal point. The voters’ volatility is also theorised and put in connection with VAA. A survey is used to answer questions 1–3 and semi-structured interviews to answer question 4. The main findings are that a remarkable part of the Linnaeus students, 62 %, use VAA and the applications are mainly used by the young. A substantial part also seems to follow the results presented by the application, above all the students that took the VAA seriously. 14 % of the students based their vote exclusively on VAA results. The students find positive and negative aspects to the use of VAA. They can be used for fun or be developing for the users. They should however only be used as a complement; the students point out that more information is needed to base the vote on. By informing the voters, the Linnaeus students think that VAA can mobilise voters and change their preferences.