Syftet med analysen har varit att undersöka vilken mening det mångskiftande begreppet jämställdhet får under valrörelserna 2002 och 2006 samt vilka förändringar som har skett. Undersökningen har gjorts genom diskursanalys av partiernas valplattformar från de båda valrörelserna. Med feministisk teori som teoretiskt ramverk har vi analyserat de feministiska diskurser som för en kamp om att fylla jämställdhet med mening och analyserat den förändring som skett. Vårt huvudsakliga resultat är att jämställdhetens mening i båda valrörelserna konstrueras kring Gränsen mellan det privata och offentliga, Våld och Könsmaktsordning eller diskriminering? – och att det är inom dessa områden som kampen om betydelse förs. Mest märkbar är förändringen i Gränsen mellan det privata och det offentliga där det 2002 rådde öppen antagonism mellan en socialistiskt radikalfeministisk diskurs och en konservativ diskurs om familjens betydelse för jämställdheten. 2006 konstrueras jämställdhet i den konservativa diskursen kring familjen, dess valfrihet och möjligheten att pussla ihop arbete med familjeliv, samtidigt som den socialistiskt radikalfeministiska diskursens position har försvagats.

Engblom, Gustav (2009) De nya riksdagspartierna och den politiska dagordningen “The new parilament parties and the political agenda.” 1988 and 1991 the swedish parties Miljöpartiet, Ny demokrati and Kristdemokratiska samlingspartiet made it over the 4 percent threshold and successfully entered the Swedish parliament. Sweden was once described as one of the most stable political systems in the world, but the parliament elections of 1988 and 1991 showed that Sweden was no exception from the growing instability in west democratic political systems. The stability and instability that followed in the west democratic political systems is believed to be explained by the political parties’ efforts to adjust to changes in their political environment. This has lead them to cartelize and the cartel party is believed to prefer stability over triumph for various reasons. The established political parties are believed to be able to manipulate the political agenda in such a way that political topics that would have caused great turbulence in the political system, if debated, are kept away from the political agenda. This the cartel members do to reduce competition among each another. But these political topics can still cause turbulence in the political system if such an issue is actualized by a new party. This essay describes how established party’s propaganda correlates with media’s coverage of the same political issues and how this influence voter preferences. The essay also describes how established parliament parties deals with new parties that aspire to win seats in the Swedish parliament. The main conclusion is that media’s coverage has a huge impact on which questions are perceived to be important to the voters and that established parties do not gain from confronting new parties such as Sverigedemokraterna, if their goal is to keep Sverigedemokraterna from getting seats in the Swedish Parliament. It is instead better to “silence them to death.” However if a new party is ignored by the established parties, but manages to convince the public that a crisis will occur if nothing is done to improve current conditions, this strategy backfires, as it did in 1988 when Miljöpartiet became a parliament party.       Keywords: political agenda; new parties; political instability; media; Sverigedemokraterna

The purpose of this paper was to seek answers to why the Christian Democrats decided to actively contribute to the December agreement as well as its termination. My questions are: • Why did the Christian Democrats decide to join the December agreement? • Why did the Christian Democrats decide to leave the December agreement? I have used an analysis model based on the model Gunnar Sjöblom developed to explain how parties in a multi-party system reach their overall goal of program realization. As a development of Sjöblom's model, I have added an aspect from Karl Loxbo about the importance of the parties' strategic actions over time. I have also used Tommy Möller's description of eleven factors that affect the scope of action for political leaders at national level. I have used a case study design and made a comparison of two different analysis units in time. To chart the course of events and to find causal mechanisms, I have used process tracking. My conclusions are that the Christian Democrats had a primary focus on cohesion of the Alliance as a starting point for entering into the December agreement and that the party largely left the agreement because the new party leader considered it as a barrier to realizing the party's new political orientation. The situation that arose after the Swedish Democrats entered the Riksdag and brought entirely new conditions remains to be solved.

Minority- and cross-bloc regimes in Swedish municipalities have more than doubled the last ten years. The phenomenon should be seen in light of the fact that the traditional blocks have lost support in favor of new parties in the municipal parliaments, such as the Swedish Democrats and different local parties. Historically, the municipal political arena is usually described as less ideological than the national arena. Nevertheless, in the 2014 elections, the turnout resulted in formations of weak center-right/center-left minority governments in one third of the muncipalities in Sweden. When municipal elections result in hung parliaments, remarkably many parties seems to favor minority governments instead of establishing cross-bloc majorities. Why? A possible explanation is that the party identification among the swedish electorate has been replaced by a strong bloc identification, which might induce the parties to avoid coalitions that jeopardize the support from bloc identificated voters. But is this fear rational? Do political parties that form cross-bloc coalitions lose more electoral support than parties that form bloc coalitions?    Thus, the purpose of this study is to provide new knowledge about the Swedish electorate and the impact of bloc identification on Swedish politics, by investigating whether coalition parties election results are related to the choice between bloc and cross-bloc coalitions. This is done by statistical Mann-Whitney tests of election data from Swedish municipal elections between 1994-2014.    The study shows that the average voter support does not differ significantly for parties in blocs compared to parties in cross-bloc coalitions. The exception is the Social Democratic Party, which on average loses fewer votes in cross-bloc coalitions compared to scenarios in which the party is ruling alone or in a traditional bloc. With these results, the study complement previous research on bloc identification and electoral behavior. Furthermore, the study does not support the hypothesis that a party's electoral support in cross-bloc coalitions differs, depending on whether or not the party is leading the cross-bloc coalition.    In summary, the study does not provide rational support for non-scientific assumptions that cross-bloc coalitions are associated with particular declining electoral support, despite increasing political mobility and enhanced block identification among the electorate.

The political development in the Western world is transforming. Political party participation decreases as well as other non-profit associations. This individualistic development is described as a threat to democracy. Nevertheless, some scholars argue that the political participation is a transformation into a new type of participation that instead could strengthen the democracy. The political parties are the foundation of the democratic system and they receive their power by representing the citizens in the decision making process. Yet, the parties transform from organisations with a close linkage to their core groups, to catch-all organisations that aim to maximise votes. Since the goal for parties is to attain as much power as possible, new parties and other political actors have effectively been kept out of political system. The individualistic development is observed through the political consumerism in this thesis. The political consumption is described as a political activity where consuming is used as the mean to impact. To actively select products that represent certain values influence companies to work for those values. It is a free individualistic movement without rules. If asked to describe the typical political consumer it would be a young female with a higher education and thus, an income above average. The political consumer prefers to be involved in issues of personal interest rather than broad party politics. Companies are believed to contain a great deal of power in society and must therefore also obtain responsibility. The problems associated to political consumerism are connected to poor information. Citizens may make wrong political decisions since the information presented to them is poor or faulty. Another problem is the lack of tools to measure political consumption; we do not know how important it is in comparison to other political activities. It is difficult to compare traditional politics with political consumerism since they target different issues and work in different ways. However, political consumerism is not a threat to traditional politics and should instead be recognised as a compliment. / Den politiska utvecklingen i västvärlden håller på att förändras. Deltagandet i politiska partier och ideella organisationer minskar och denna individualistiska trend anses vara ett hot mot demokratin. Dock finns det forskare som hävdar att det politiska deltagandet påvisar en förändring till en ny typ av deltagande som kan stärka det demokratiska systemet. De politiska partierna utgör basen för det demokratiska systemet. Partiets makt grundas i att representera medborgarna i beslutsprocessen. Trots det utvecklas partierna från organisationer med en klar koppling till sina kärnväljare till röstmaximerande organisationer som vill attrahera den breda massan. Eftersom partiernas mål är att få så många röster som möjligt har nya partier och andra politiska aktörer effektivt kvarhållits utanför systemet. I den här uppsatsen observeras den individualistiska trenden genom politisk konsumtion. Den politiska konsumtionen beskrivs som en politisk aktivitet där konsumtion används som påverkningsmetod. Att aktivt välja produkter som representerar vissa värden påverkar företag att jobba mot dessa värden. Det är en fri och individualistisk rörelse utan klara regler. Den typiska polisiska konsumenten är en ung kvinna med högre utbildning och en inkomst över genomsnittet. De politiska konsumenterna föredrar att involvera sig i frågor av personligt intresse istället för bred partipolitik. Företag anses ha mycket i samhället och måste därför också ta ett ansvar. Problemen med politisk konsumtion är kopplade till dålig information. Medborgare kan ta felaktiga politiska beslut när den disponibla informationen är dålig eller oriktig. Ett annat problem är att det saknas verktyg att mäta politisk konsumtion. Vi vet inte hur viktigt fenomenet är i förhållande till andra politiska aktiviteter. Det är svårt att jämföra politisk konsumtion med traditionell politik eftersom de jobbar på olika sätt mot olika frågor. Hursomhelst, politisk konsumtion är inte ett hot mot traditionell politik utan bör snarare ses som ett komplement.

This thesis studies the indirect effects of Europeanization on national political parties.   I argue that Europeanization has affected the way national parties operate, and communicate with the voters, by restricting the national policy space through increased economic and political integration. Furthermore, I argue that the impact of Europeanization is likely to be reflected in electoral manifestos and changed patterns of party competition. Accordingly, Europeanization is hypothesized to change party rhetoric in a cartel-like manner by diminishing voters’ expectations, and also by avoiding EU-affairs in electoral manifestos. The hypothesis suggests, moreover, that Europeanization is reflected in convergence among parties regarding the rhetoric concerning EU-affairs.   The purpose of the thesis is to examine to what extent the rhetoric concerning EU-affairs has changed in electoral manifestos sinceSwedenjoined the European Union in 1995. The political parties examined are Socialdemokraterna, Moderaterna and Miljöpartiet. The parties’ electoral manifestos, from the period 1994-2010, are analysed through quantitative and qualitative content analysis. Subsequently, analyses from a comparison between results from earlier manifestos and older ones are evaluated.   The thesis concludes that the space given to EU-affairs in electoral manifestos consistently decrease and that the rhetoric tends to become vaguer over time. In conclusion, this result might indicate that the parties avoid debating the EU-affairs. Yet, the empirical analysis finds no signs of convergence among the parties.

This study deals with the phenomenon of European integration and its impact on national party programs in Poland, a current member state of the European Union. The author will argue that the question of European integration has left a mark on the political party programs of two mainstream domestic parties on opposite sides of the ideological dimension, in the form of a certain degree of convergence regarding the “European issue”. Relating the result of the analysis to the theoretical structure of Europeanization and sociological institutional change, the essay will attempt to show a possible link between them. Although this trend does not seem to indicate any dramatic effects of the membership per se in the programs (the national arena seems, in most cases, be of more value for party activities) there is an indirect effect in the form of the presence of Europarties and a pronounced incentive for social and economic adaptation.

Based on widespread public debate prior to Swedish EMU-referendum 2003, the main purpose of this thesis is to examine and analyze the standpoint of the Swedish parliamentary parties in the EMU-issue, from perspektive of the following questions; 1) What is the official standpoint of the parliamentary parties in the EMU-issue? 2) What claimed effects of a Swedish EMU-membership or non-membership have the parties presented? 3) What rifts can be found within the parties, in relation to their official standpoint in the EMU-issue? The Sweidish parliamentary parties´ standpoint in the EMU-issue will be analyze from the point of view of a number of current theories. These theories are basically democrazy theories that all have transnationalization and Europeanization as a common ground. The conclusions are, among others, that the parliamentary parties` standpoints in the EMU-issue are based on ideological values about whether or not a Swedish EMU-membership is good for Sweden. The Liberal Party, the Christian Democrats, the Moderate Party and the Social Party have a positive view on EMU and a deeper European integration, and basically value the economic efficency of the EMU higher than democratic decision making and a national currency and monetary policy. As for the EMU-critical parties such as the Centre Party, the Green Party and the Left Party, their view in the EMU-issue can be regarded as more nationalistic, since they say no to an exapanded financial cooperation. A contibuting factor to their standpoint in this issue is that they value the national influence over currency and monetary policies, and democratic decision making higher than the economic effciency of the EMU. The Swedish parliamentary parties have suggested a number of effects of a Swedish EMU-membership or non-membership. In general; all parties tend to exaggerate the factors which benefit their own EMU-standpoint, and to some extent discard those which oppose their stand in the EMU-issue. This thesis makes it clear that regarding the EMU-issue all of the parliamentary parties are more or less divided. The Moderate Party and the Liberal Party are seen as the most united for a Swedish EMU-membership, whereas the Left Party and the Green Party are the most united against Sweden joining the EMU. The Centre Party is resonably united in their opposition to a Swedish membership, apart from a small minority of EMU-advocates. The Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats, on the other hand, are the most devided parties in the EMU-issue. / Med anledning av den omfattande debatten inför den svenska EMU-folkomröstningen år 2003 är det huvudsakliga syftet med denna uppsats att undersöka samt analysera de svenska riksdagspartiernas ställningstagande i EMU-frågan utifrån följande frågeställningar: 1) Vilka är de svenska riksdagspartiernas officiella ståndpunkter i EMU-frågan? 2) Vilka påstådda effekter har riksdagspartierna fört fram vid ett svenskt EMU-medlemskap eller ett EMU-utanförskap? 3) Vilka splittringar finns det inom riksdagspartierna i relation till partiernas officiella ställningstagande i EMU-frågan? De svenska riksdagspartiernas förhållningssätt i EMU-frågan behandlas utifrån flera demokratiteorier som har transnationaliseringen och europeiseringen som gemensam bas. Slutsatserna är bland andra att riksdagspartiernas ställningstagande i EMU-frågan bottnar i ideologiska värderingar om att ett svenskt EMU-medlemskap är bra respektive dåligt för Sverige. Folkpartiet, kristdemokraterna, moderaterna och socialdemokraterna är positiva till EMU och till en fördjupad europeisk integration där de i grund och botten värderar EMU:s ekonomiska effektivitet mer än en demokratisk beslutsordning och en nationell valuta- och penningpolitik. När det gäller EMU-kritiska partierna som centerpartiet, miljöpartiet och vänsterpartiet är deras synsätt i EMU-frågan att betrakta som mer nationalistiskt eftersom de säger nej till ett utökat ekonomiskt samarbete. En bidragande orsak till deras uppfattning i denna fråga är att de värdesätter det nationella inflytandet över valuta- och penningpolitiken samt en demokratisk bestlutsordning mer än EMU:s ekonomiska effektivitet. Sveriges riksdagspartier har fört fram många påstådda effekter vid ett svenskt EMU-medlemskap eller ett EMU-utanförskap. Generellt sett tenderar alla riksdagspartier förstora de faktorer som främjar deras egna EMU-ståndpunkter och i viss mån förkasta det som går tvärt emot deras ställningstagande i EMU-frågan. Moderaterna och folkpartiet bedöms vara de mest enade partierna för ett svenskt EMU-medlemskap medan vänsterpartiet och miljöpartiet är de mest sammanhållna partierna mot en svensk EMU-anslutning. Centerpartiet är förhållandevis överens i sitt EMU-motstånd bortsett från en mindre minoritet med EMU-förespråkare. Kristdemokraterna och socialdemokraterna är däremot de mest splittrade partierna i EMU-frågan.

Flera politiska teorier har under 1900-talet talat om hur moderna demokratiska partier riskerar bli mer lika varandra. Denna undersöknings syfte är att undersöka om detta förefaller vara fallet i Sverige mellan åren 1994 och 2014. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna består av två sätt att betrakta demokratisk politisk representation, samt de tre ideologierna liberalism, konservatism och socialism som används för att kategorisera partierna. Program, valmanifest och hemsidor från partierna har studerats med metoden etnografisk innehållsanalys. Resultaten tyder på att partierna var relativt ideologiskt utspridda år 1994 men har 2014 kommit att bli övervägande liberala. Alla partier utom Vänsterpartiet bedömdes höra till den statliga representationsformen, vilken innebär att partier i första hand inte representerar en utpräglad politisk bas av väljare eller särskilda intressegrupper, utan snarare nationen, staten och befolkningen mer som helhet. Överlag indikerar resultaten att de svenska partierna har blivit mer lika varandra mellan 1994 och 2014.

Since the 2018 elections Swedish political parties have been eager to enforce civic and language tests as prerequisite for citizenship. This turn in citizenship ideology is studied through problem representations which intend to solve the social segregation, alienation and the supposed poor language skills of immigrants residing in Sweden. By using Carol Bacchi’s approach to policy analysis, What’s the problem represented to be?, this thesis uncovers how the problem representations contain invisible for the naked eye instruments which appear to address the immigrants’ problems but in fact directly benefit the citizenship-holders.