Det aktiva deltagandet inom traditionella former för politik såsom politiska partier har de senaste decennierna minskat drastiskt. Särskilt unga är en grupp som allt mer använder sig av andra vägar in i politiken för att påverka denna, såsom sociala medier. Detta skulle kunna påverka ett demokratiskt system som är byggt på representation genom partier negativt. Syftet är att öka förståelsen för ungdomars upplevda hinder för att gå med i ett politiskt parti för att de ska kunna inkluderas mer. Vår fråga är därför, vilka upplevda hinder bidrar till att ungdomar inte engagerar sig i politiska partier? Vi besvarar den med hjälp av 3 fokusgruppsintervjuer innehållande elever i årskurs 3 på två teoretiska program på ett medelstort gymnasium med över 10 nationella program i Mellansverige. Studien fokuserar på 4 teorier om demokrati, passivitet, individualiserat engagemang och sociala mediers påverkan på engagemang. Brist på tid, intresse och kunskap var 3 tydliga hinder som upplevdes av majoriteten av ungdomarna. Ungdomarna är en blandning av standby- och oengagerade medborgare. Engagemanget har individualiserats, då ungdomarna upplever det svårt att veta vad partier står för och även ofta uttrycker en motvilja att behöva ställa sig bakom hela det paket av åsikter ett parti har. Sociala mediers användande har till synes normaliserats och inte mobiliserat fler ungdomar till att bli partipolitiskt aktiva. Vi ser tecken på att Dahls demokratikriterier kan påverkas negativt av demokratins utveckling. Exempelvis kan den låga nivån av kunskap bland ungdomar ses som ett hinder för dem att nå upplyst förståelse. Även effektivt deltagande påverkas negativt av låg kunskap och rädsla för konflikter. Ungdomarna tar inte kontroll över dagordningen genom partier eller alternativa sätt och upplever sig inte ha kontroll över den heller. Det finns väsentliga hinder som upplevs av ungdomar och dessa är problematiska för en representativ demokrati. Den här studien bidrar till att öka förståelsen, men det behövs ytterligare forskning på området.

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This study aims to explore ideological profiles in local parties’ electoral manifestos. Through qualitative content analysis, three profiles, redistributive, developmental, and political discontent-oriented are investigated in local parties’ electoral manifestos in the case of Norrbotten. One of the main findings shows that the political discontent-oriented profile occurs to a lesser extent in comparison with the other profiles. Instead, many of the manifestos convey concerns relating to their municipality’s persistence. Local parties in Norrbotten tend to endorse new establishments of companies and industries in their manifestos. When expressing political discontent, the electoral manifestos often focus on distancing themselves from ideology-oriented politics while claiming to be a pragmatic alternative. Some manifesto also expresses the need to prioritize vulnerable groups in the municipality, especially the Sami people, senior citizens, and rural communities within the municipality.

With the change from the most stable party system in Europe to a decline in party membership and a fragmented parliament, Sweden has lost its’ unique status in European politics. A weakened collective identity and changes to social structures have brought the phenomenon of personalization of politics to the attention of scholars. The phenomenon, which centres on the increasing meaning of individual politicians at the expense of a decreasing importance of the political collective, is this studies’ theoretical framework. This study aims to examine the presence of personalization of politics among Swedish parliamentary parties on Instagram. In order to analyse the Instagram accounts a quantitative content analysis was conducted over three separate periods from the election month of 2014, 2018, and 2022. The findings suggest that no linear trend is to be found, however the level of personalization of politics is generally high among the parties on Instagram. Furthermore, the centralized personalization, the focus on party leaders, is exceedingly prominent among the studied cases.

Medborgarskapet har en betydande roll i alla delar av världen. Det kan ges till medborgare antingen vid födelse eller via en medborgarskaps anmäla. Vissa krav bör uppfyllas innan man ansöker om ett medborgarskap, men just nu debatterar en del partier i Sveriges riksdagen i syfte att försvåra medborgarskapskrav och föreslår språktester som ett krav inför medborgarskapsanmälan. Att inte få ett medborgarskap i ett land, kan det innebära utanförskap och olika rättigheter. Därför blir studiens syfte att undersöka om riksdagsdebatten har förändrats mellan år 2014 och 2022 gällande språkkravet, att se vilka ståndpunkter och argument som förekommer i riksdagsdebatten samt att ta reda på anledningar på partiernas agerande. Studien är en kvalitativ textanalys med inslag av innehållsanalys. För att utföra studien har all fakta i stor omfattning valts från riksdagens webbsida och andra trovärdiga sidor. Resultatet har visat en begriplig förändring i riksdagsdebatten vid de undersökta åren. 2014 har språkkrav inte ägt rum såsom att införa obligatoriska ceremonier, medan 2022 har flertal partier debatterat om vikten att införa språktester. Partiernas olika ställningstaganden har berott på den ideologiska- och strategiska aspekten, såsom att antingen sträva efter fler röster, vilket kräver förändringar eller att hålla fast vid en enda ideologin som inte kräver ändringar. Dessutom har partiernas ståndpunkter och argument kring språkkravet kopplats till det liberalistiska- och kommunitära synsättet. Forskaren har hävdat i slutsatsen att ett språkkrav är mindre viktigt att uppfyllas inför medborgarskapsansökan. Detta baseras på tidigare forskning som har uppvisat att språktester leder bland annat till utanförskap.

Countries with proportional representation are increasingly introducing an electoral threshold to stop smaller parties from entering their parliaments. In this paper, I’m focusing on the  proportional electoral system and mainly why some countries choose to impose a barrier to their parliaments and others do not. First I did a survey to see which countries that are using it and after that I decided to do three case studies including: Sweden, The Netherlands and Turkey. I used Carles Boix theory on proportional electoral systems. The main variable in his theory is that the “threat” from the social democratic parties has an affect on the enforcement of a PRsystem. I wanted to examine whether it was possible to apply this theory on the implementation of thresholds. Finally, it is possible to conclude that Boix theory can be used even when studying the emergence of electoral barriers. Boix theory suggests that any "threat" from new parties makes the old, larger and established parties or other government organizations want to impose a threshold to secure their positions. This was the case in Sweden and in Turkey. In countries where this situation does not exist, it seems to be no need for an electoral barrier, as shown in the Netherlands.

The purpose of the study is to account for and analyse comparisons between the Swedish political parties' programs to show change within and between the parties over time, regarding Swedishness and integration. The goal is to discover in which way the parties have changed or not changed their political programs over a twenty-year period – 1998 and 2018. The text in the political programs is the focus of the study's analysis. A history-didactic perspective is also presented, as an extension of the study's possible use. The comparison reveals both a change within each party and a common change towards a more obligate-based ground to become a Swedish citizen.  What I have found is that there is a significant change over a period of twenty years. The climate has hardened and except from Miljöpartiet, an implementation of Swedish language-tests, social-studies tests and economic consequences, unless these demands are fulfilled, is demanded. Sverigedemokraterna is the only party that has reduced the use of demanding vocabulary, even though they still have the highest use of the demands.

AbstractMedia presents hate crimes and nationalism as phenomenon that has increased both internationally and nationally in recent years. Further media largely pair these phenomenon together. The groups mostly exposed to hate and nationalism are people of different ethnic origin and LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer) people. In Sweden's general election in 2010 a RHP-party, Sweden Democrats, made it in to Parliament. The purpose of this study was to examine how hate crimes and nationalism, in the form of the Sweden Democrats, has increased in Sweden and if there was any link between them. By mapping the proportion of reported hate crimes and the proportion of eligible voters who voted for the Sweden Democrats in Sweden between 1997 and 2009 the study's main aim was to investigate whether there was any link between the proportion of reported hate crimes and the proportion of voters for Sweden Democrats in Sweden. The results question whether an actual increase of hate crime occurred due to methodological changes in the Swedish Security Service, the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention and the police. Also the dark figure is large regarding this crime. Sweden Democrats has had strong success in recent years, but whether this is a sign of increased nationalism can’t be impugned. 1998 and 1999 revealed a relationship between hate crime complaints and voting on the Sweden Democrats, but after 1999 the relationship is weak.

In the late 20th century, the proportions of women and men elected into European national parliaments became increasingly equal. Political parties shape these outcomes by selecting and fielding candidates in elections. Scholars recognise that parties' actions do not occur in isolation; yet there is little systematically comparative research about the configurations of conditions in which these actions occur. Previous research also often relies on studies of West European parties. This doctoral thesis investigates how conditions inside and outside parties combine to create gender-equal parliamentary presence. The thesis examines the extent to which Western European experiences apply to Central and East European parties, and explores the conditions that stand in the way of progress towards gender balance. It presents three empirical studies. The first is a qualitative comparative analysis of 57 West European parties during the late 1980s, a period in which the trend towards equality accelerated. The second study applies the knowledge produced in the first analysis to cases in Central and Eastern Europe. It uses an original dataset covering six parties in four EU member states in a structured focused comparison. Finally, the thesis presents an in-depth case study of an unexpectedly gender-balanced Latvian party. The analyses show that gender-equal parliamentary presence is achieved when conditions inside and outside parties combine, and that no condition is necessary or singularly sufficient. The absence of gender-equal parliaments is sustained by combinations other than the absence of those that lead to gender-balance. Operationalisations from Western Europe turn out to be largely applicable to cases in Central and Eastern Europe. These latter cases also demonstrate that organisational instability need not impede women’s presence in elected office. / Under sent 1900-tal har andelen kvinnor och män i nationella demokratiska parlament i Europa blivit alltmer jämstora. Politiska partier formar politisk representation genom att välja egna kandidater till val. Forskare har visat att partiers beteende på den punkten inte sker i isolering, men det finns ändå en brist på systematiskt jämförande studier om vilka kombinationer av villkor som leder till jämn könsrepresentation i nationella parlament. Dessutom vilar tidigare studier ofta på kunskap om situationen i Västeuropa. Den här doktorsavhandlingen undersöker hur villkor i och utanför politiska partier kombineras för att uppnå jämställd parlamentarisk representation. Den utforskar i vilken grad de västeuropeiska erfarenheterna är användbara i Öst- och Centraleuropa, och studerar villkoren som upprätthåller manlig dominans i parlamentariska partier. Den presenterar tre empiriska studier. Den första är en kvalitativt jämförande studie (fsQCA) av 57 Västeuropeiska partier under sent 1980-tal, en period då andelen kvinnor i nationella parlament ökade. Den andra studien tillämpar kunskapen från den första studien på fall i Öst- och Centraleuropa. Studien bygger på ett unikt dataset med sex partier från fyra EU-stater, i en strukturerad fokuserad jämförelse. Slutligen presenteras en fallstudie av ett ovanligt jämställt parti i Lettland. Analyserna visar att lika andelar kvinnor och män i nationella parlament åstadkoms när villkor i och utanför partier kombineras, och att inget villkor är nödvändigt eller ensamt tillräckligt. Frånvaro av jämn representation upprätthålls av andra kombinationer än de som leder till jämn representation. Operationaliseringarna som utvecklades för Västeuropa är applicerbara i Öst- och Centraleuropa. De senare fallen visar också att organisatorisk instabilitet inte behöver hindra en jämställd parlamentarisk närvaro.

In this research paper I have interpreted and analysed how it is possible for a Radical Right Populist Party such as FPÖ (The Freedom Party) to obtain electoral success in the end of the last millennium. In 1999 they were elected into the national legislative parliament with 26.9% of the votes and participated in the Shüssel government from February 2000. I believe this is an extreme case study and my method is the so called Disciplined-configurative case study. I’ve conducted this study by using earlier published research and than dividing these old theories into to three analytical categories. By doing this I hopefully came closer to understand the problem with FPÖ: s electoral success in a better way than before. The interpretation of the data was enabled by a structural theory-method and my findings were that the FPÖ used the rapid and macro-societal changes in an effective way by mobilising a great share of some strata that to some extent were of a cross-class nature in the Austrian electorate 1999. This was possible as a consequence of bad management by the conventional political parties (SPÖ, ÖVP) and their party-functionaries. Other findings were that the electorate system is crucial for the success of Radical Right Populist Partiers such as FPÖ and that the Austrian party system was a match with its low threshold for parliamentary representation and its proportional electoral system. Key words: Radical Right Populist Parties, FPÖ, Austrian domestic politics