This paper studied if the year 2015 in France, which was characterized by a strongly politicized immigration debate as a result of the terrorist attacks and migration crises, had any consequences on attitudes towards immigrants. With this in mind this paper examined whether people on the right/conservatives, who traditionally have been less tolerant towards immigrants, have had an increase in negative attitudes towards immigrants. To examine this a logistic regression analysis was used with a focus on the main study variable being the left-right scale in addition with control variables to analyze the effect they had on attitudes towards immigrants. The results showed no statistically significant difference between people on the right/conservatives who were negative towards immigrants before the terrorist attacks/migration crises and afterwards. This also meant that symbolic politics theory that was used to test the hypothesis this paper was arguing for didn’t show evidence for people on the right/conservatives feeling that immigrants are a bigger threat towards their culture, traditions and values. To conclude, the results showed no empirical evidence that people on the right/conservatives had showed an increase in negative attitudes towards immigrants in 2016.

In this thesis I examine the relationship between party affiliation of the local political leadership and the municipal tax rate in Sweden’s 290 municipalities between 1994 and 2018. The mean tax rate of Swedish municipalities has increased by 1.3 percentage points in that time, while the prevalence of right-wing coalitions – consisting of parties that claim to want a lower tax rate – in leadership also has increased. I therefore examine to what degree right-wing coalitions have contributed to the increase in the mean tax rate compared to left-wing and mixed coalitions. I find that while right-wing coalitions have contributed to the increase in the mean tax rate to a lower degree than other coalitions, the difference is small, and the difference between the contributions of right-wing and left-wing coalitions is not statistically significant. I also examine how right-wing coalitions containing the Green Party and local parties have affected the municipal tax rate compared to coalitions consisting only of traditional right-wing parties. When the Green Party or local parties are part of a right-wing coalition, the mean increase in the municipal tax rate is much lower than that of coalitions consisting only of right-wing parties. Lastly I examine how the amount of parties that are part of a local right-wing coalition affect the municipal tax rate and find that the fewer parties, the larger the mean tax increase.

This essay will explain the electoral success of radical right parties in thirteen Western European countries over time. Based on a theory of convergence and polarization as a recent for the upsurge of radical right partiers. The two main factors that will be tested as potential explanations to the success of these parties are polarization and convergence along the leftright and the Gal-Tan dimensions respectively. The questions (and hypothesis) that will be answered in the essay are; Does left-right convergence between established parties lead to electoral success for Radical right parties (H1); Does Gal-Tan polarization lead to electoral success for radical right parties (H2). This research problem is approached then with statistical methods. The conclusion is that radical right parties benefits from polarization between parties in the party system on the left right and the Gal-Tan dimensions. Yet, the findings show that Gal-Tan polarization has a more profound effect than left-right polarization.

There have been discussions about why men in Sweden to a greater extent vote for right-wing parties, the discussion about why women, on the other hand, vote on the left-wing parties is less often discussed. What really makes women and men vote so differently in a supposedly equal country like Sweden? This essay is a quantitative study where the aim is to contribute to increased understanding of the different voting preferences. The data used in the essay comes from the SOM institute from the University of Gothenburg. Previous research has shown that a shift took place around the 60s and onwards, women then started getting an education and jobs that did not only involve the home and family. With this, women began to vote more on the left-wing parties. Regression analysis and factor analysis have been carried out to find connections between how different perceptions of violence and socio-economic factors influence whether one votes left or right. The theoretical frameworks for this essay are the silent revolution, GAL-TAN and ethics of care. The results show that there are differences between women's and men's political preferences, where women are more to the left and men more to the right on the political left-right scale. The cultural factor ethics of care is connected to the aspect that social vulnerability is considered to be a contributing factor to the violence in society, and is the factor that most affects the gender gap in political preferences. The impact that structural factors have on political preferences is consistent with previous research. Finally, we have discussed limitations and recommendations for future research.