This study investigates differences in foreign policy among Swedish political parties during 1972-1982. For 44 years, Sweden was led by the Social Democrats until the centre-right coalition gained power in 1976.  Social Democrat Olof Palme is probably one of the most notable Swedish politicians, known for his strong commitment in foreign policy including opposition to American involvement in Vietnam. However, certain signs show that the centre-right parties also had a strong commitment in many conflicts during the investigated period. Deepened research comparing the left and the right during this period has however not been done. Hence, this study aims to compare if there was any change in policy after 1976, but also look into similarities and differences between the political parties during the whole period. This is done through a comparison of the yearly Swedish foreign policy debates from 1972 to 1982, comparing views in four conflicts at the time: Vietnam, South Africa, Afghanistan and Central America. The findings show many similarities and differences, with small general differences in Swedish foreign policy before and after the historical shift of power in 1976. Interestingly, there is a notable commitment to foreign policy among the centre-right parties - sometimes stronger than Palme and the Social Democrats.

Den 17 september 2006 röstade det svenska folket för ett maktskifte i riksdagen. Den nya regeringsmakten gick under namnet Allians för Sverige och bestod av partierna Moderaterna, Centerpartiet, Folkpartiet och Kristdemokraterna. För skapandet av denna allians utarbetade partierna en tydlig gemensam politik och ett gemensamt valmanifest. Detta är en undersökning om vad dessa fyra partier har fått offra av sin egen politik till den gemensamma politikens fördel, samt om något eller några partier har fått åsidosätta större del politik än resterande partier. Den beroende variabeln är därmed graden av office-seeking. För undersökningen har partiernas valmanifest 2002 varit utgångspunkten. På denna grund har partiernas politiska meningsskiljaktigheter noterats. Partiernas respektive ståndpunkter har därefter jämförts mot vad den gemensamma politiken från 2006 och framåt avser. För att visa på eventuella vinnare och förlorare avseende partiernas genomslag av den egna politiken har spelteorin Chicken race används. Chicken race, vars namn härstammar från spelet om att vika undan eller riskera kollision, visar hur partierna har agerat i frågor som karaktäriserats av olika åsikter. Resultatet visar att de tre mindre partierna i Allians för Sverige har högre grad av office-seeking än vad det större partiet Moderaterna har.

This paper examines how the eight parties in the Swedish parliament pit different social groups against each other, in the 2015 Almedalstal compared to the 2016 Almedalstal, when using the Dutch political scientist Cas Mudde’s definition of populism. The speeches are analysed using a qualitative content analysis. The results show that several parties are more populist in the 2016 speech than the 2015 speech and that the parties have shifted focus from solutions to blaming as well as elevating their own core electorate and their primary areas of confidence with the electorate. The analysis shows that some parties have tendencies to use some populist discourse. The paper identifies that the Swedish Democrats continues to use a populist discourse while the Left party has become more populist in their discourse in the 2016 speech. The Christian Democrats and the two major political parties, the Moderate party and the Social Democrats, tend to accentuate more of a populist discourse in the 2016 speeches but not to the extent to say that they use a populist discourse as defined by Mudde.

This study aims to provide answers to how the former Alliance parties relate to their basic ideologies today in comparison to the ideological anchoring during the time when the Alliance cooperation was still relevant in Swedish politics. The study also seeks to explain observed disparities based on previous political science research on Sweden's party system, the GAL-TAN scale and median voter theory. The investigation applies two dimensions to capture the ideologies in the materials; the view of human beings and social theory where an economic aspect is also included. The study examines how prevalent the parties ideologies are within the migration policies and school policies. These areas are perceived to cover the selected dimensions. The goal is for the study to increase political awareness among voters, provide increased knowledge of how Sweden's party system works and provide an explanation as to why the Alliance eventually split. The method used in the study is a qualitative ideology analysis of party programs and election manifestos based on two time periods; year 2004 and 2022. The results show that the parties follow their ideologies to a large extent based on the material. What deviated was that the Moderates' migration policy attitude has changed, whereby the party has moved more towards TAN on the GAL-TAN scale. However, the survey is not comprehensive in order to fully establish whether the parties' ideologies are followed, partly because only two policy areas are analyzed and partly because the actual and real policies were not examined.

Den breda mitten, eller bara mitten, är ett centralt begrepp i Centerpartiets identitet. Trots detta är Centerpartiets sakpolitik inte särskilt positionerad i ”mitten”. Partiet är snarare det mest högerlutande partiet av samtliga riksdagspartier vad gäller ekonomiska frågor. Samtidigt är själva idén med den breda mitten att etablera ett bredare samarbete över blockgränser men exkludera Vänsterpartiet och Sverigedemokraterna på grund av deras respektive ytterkantsposition. Rent sakpolitiskt är den breda mitten en gåta. Medan fenomenet inte tillåter sig att begripas speciellt väl ur ett sakpolitiskt perspektiv, argumenterar föreliggande uppsats för att det bättre kan förstås utifrån dess symboliska betydelse. Den breda mitten undersöks således som en instans av sekulär religion. Genom intervjuer med Centerpartister kartläggs ett religiöst meningssystem som grundas på; (1) ett heligt ideal om en icke-extrem politisk karaktär i form av mitten; (2) en moralisk gemenskap som sluter upp kring idealet och försvarar det från all form av upplevd extremism, men som är mer intresserad av sitt förakt för Sverigedemokraterna och (3) upplevelser av hur ritualer kring motståndet mot Sverigedemokraterna och självuppoffring för idealet erbjuder frälsning från synden att kunna associeras med Sverigedemokraterna via högeridentiteten. Religionens funktion tolkas vara att reglera diskrepansen mellan partiets identitet och praktik genom ritualer och moraliska argument som triumferar över sakliga problem med motstånd mot Sverigedemokraterna som den övertygande mekanismen. Mitten identifieras vidare som den perfekta täckmanteln för en förlorad högeridentitet och för de framgångar som motståndet mot Sverigedemokraterna bringar partiet, då motstånd mot båda ytterkantspartierna gör att Centerpartiet kan hävda sig som mitten och därigenom attrahera den större grupp väljare som finns där. Motståndet mot Sverigedemokraterna tolkas i sin tur som den grundläggande drivkraften bakom fenomenet den breda mitten, en drivkraft som inte bara bygger på framgångar i termer av en ökad väljarbas utan också på en upplevd välvilja, en dold förhoppning om en alternativ och självständig högergemenskap men även på en möjlighet för Centerpartiet att göra upp med sin egen historia av främlingsfientlighet. / The broad middle, or just the middle, is a central concept in the identity of The Centre Party in Sweden. Despite this, the politics of The Centre Party is not particularly positioned in “the middle”. Rather, The Centre Party is the most right-leaning party of all the parliamentary parties when it comes to economic issues. Simultaneously, the very idea behind the broad middle is to establish wider cooperation across block boundaries but exclude the parliamentary parties The Left Party and The Sweden Democrats due to their respective outer edge position. As a matter of concrete policy, the broad middle is an enigma. While the phenomenon does not allow itself to be understood particularly well from a concrete political perspective, the present thesis argues that it can be better understood based on its symbolic meaning. The broad middle is thus analysed as an instance of secular religion. Through interviews with members of The Centre Party, a religious meaning system is mapped which is based on; (1) a sacred ideal of a non-extreme political character in the form of the middle; (2) a moral community that defends the ideal by protecting it from all sorts of experienced extremism, but whose interest lies more in its contempt for The Sweden Democrats and (3) experiences of how rituals surrounding the antagonism towards The Sweden Democrats and self-sacrifice for the ideal offers salvation from the sin of being associated with The Sweden Democrats trough a Right-wing identity. The function of the religion is interpreted as regulating the discrepancy between The Centre Party’s identity and practise through rituals and moral arguments that triumphs over factual problems with the antagonism towards The Sweden Democrats as the convincing mechanism. The middle is further identified as the perfect cover for a lost Right-wing identity and for the successes that the antagonism towards The Sweden Democrats brings the party, since opposition to both the outer-edge parties allows The Centre Party to assert itself as the middle and thus attract the larger group of voters who are located there. The antagonism towards The Sweden Democrats is in turn identified as the primal driving force behind the phenomenon the broad middle, a driving force that is not only based on successes in term of increased voters but also on an experienced benevolence, a hidden hope for an alternative and independent Right-wing community as well as on an opportunity for redemption with The Centre Party’s own history of xenophobia.