The key question of this essay concerns the outcome of Sweden’s latest election. When all the votes where counted, the county of Skåne showed an exceptionally high support for the right wing nationalist party Sverigedemokraterna. Why then, did Sverigedemokraterna have a higher support among voters in Skåne (as part of the larger and transnational Öresund region), than among other Swedish voters? My hypothesis is the following: the regional interaction within Öresund has not only had positive effects concerning the values that the people of Skåne hold. In other words, Danish experience has changed the way in which the people of Skåne view immigrants and radical right wing parties. Before I go on any further I will explain what is meant by the Öresund region. This region encompasses both parts of Sweden and Denmark (most notably Skåne and Själland), and the interaction between the two countries have increased considerably since a physical bridge between the two border regions was opened in July 2000. Now, let us go on to the purpose of this essay, which is to answer the key question, and also to determine if the regional cooperation in the Öresund region has led to changes in the way the people of Skåne view right wing nationalist parties. Therefore, I explored the effects of the interaction between the Swedish region Skåne and the Danish region Själland, in order to discern if the Danes negative views towards immigrants and their strong feelings of nationalism, have effected Swedes and their values. In other words, was it possible that the Danish hostility towards immigrants and their unproblematic view of right wing nationalist parties, had been transmitted to the people of Skåne? Last but not least, it has also been the purpose of this essay to prove that traditional variables, concerning the question of why people vote for right wing nationalist parties, do no longer explain this phenomenon. By traditional variables I mean unemployment and a high density of immigrants of the population in a specific area. In order to research the above mentioned issues, I have gone through letters to the editor, sent to the newspaper Sydsvenskan, and analysed the material using qualitative text analysis. I have also studied literature within the field of cross-border studies. After ten weeks of research, I came to the conclusion that the traditional variables do not explain why Sverigedemokraterna received such a high proportion of the votes in Skåne. However, this essay also sheds light on the possibility of Danish experience as a plausible variable when it comes to explaining the outcome of the last election, but based on my limited study I can neither confirm nor dismiss the hypothesis. However, my study does provide some evidence that supports the hypothesis. In order to draw any conclusions however, it would have to be broadened in itself and replicated in other sections of Sweden or nationally. The results of my study might leave the key question unanswered, but in itself can be viewed as an important step towards obtaining a clearer overview of what has driven the increased vote share for Sverigedemokraterna.

This dissertation asserts that American political culture faces a crisis of virtue and explores the role of citizens, journalists and politicians in fostering it. The historic election of Barack Obama on a platform of hope and change in 2008 suggests that Americans yearn for an infusion of virtue into political life. I assert, however, that we have lacked a lexicon of political virtue, or any systematic understanding of which virtues we value and which matter most to us. Nor have we understood whether groups who constitute key elements of our democracy—citizens, journalists, politicians, men and women, Democrats and Republicans—value virtues in politics similarly or differently. Without a working knowledge of the anatomy of virtue in the body politic, what is to prevent us from having to change again? By charting the virtue systems of these key groups, I have made explicit what is implicit to reveal that political virtue is more valued—and more present—than Americans likely realize. This exploration, I believe, contributes to the scholarship of political communication by enabling a fuller and more useful understanding of American political culture—and of the contradictions, curiosities, and surprises that enrich it. / text