It is often said that European Immigration Policy has been converged to civic integration policy, which requires immigrants to learn the culture, history, and language etc. of the host country. That trend of convergence is sometimes regarded as the European retreat from multiculturalism, and sometimes even as convergence to the assimilationism, and so called 'fortress Europe.' This doctoral thesis is aiming at attaining more sophisticated understanding of this phenomena, by conducting analyses both at the national level and European level. At national level, it challenges the common wisdom that civic integration basically aims at restricting migrants and tries to revalorize national citizenship, through comparative analysis of the Dutch and the German party politics at the stage of legislating key national civic integration policy. By doing so, it found that the diversity of national civic integration policy from liberal to restrictive. At the EU level, it challenges the assumption that the EU played a role in uploading national interests and promoted European convergence towards restrictive immigration policy. Through the analysis of each EU institution's attitude and their influence over national immigration policy. It tries to figure out the processes of negative Europeanization where the effects of EU laws and soft governance tools of the commission actually pre-emptively guide the national policy towards rather modest civic integration, and even prohibited national member states from adopting very restrictive policy at national level. From the combination of those findings, the thesis tries to propose new model of immigrant integration and citizenship acquisition, that is, 'phased integration model'. It interprets the convergence towards civic integration as institutionalization of immigrant integration path in each member states. / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) was in power for decades by successfullyimplementing a “third way” policy based on Marxist ideology. This policy was unique since itsimultaneously spurred economic growth, welfare, and equality between classes. Therefore,this study examined why the party lost the election 1976, despite implementing this “thirdway” policy. By scrutinizing scientific books, articles, and a dissertation on the subject, fourtheories were identified. These four theories were tested against three books that identify whySAP lost the election 1976. The results show that SAP lost primarily by going against theSAP voters’ opinion by supporting the use of nuclear energy. In addition, a weak economyand unemployment hampered the party’s ability to continue implementing welfare reforms.The conclusion is that SAP lost the election 1976 due to supporting nuclear energy use wheneconomic growth declined and voters had little trust in the party’s ability to stimulate welfare.

The past decade has been a relatively tumultuous time in Swedish parliamentary politics with minority governments, a new party challenging the status quo and ultimately the breaking of the second largest coalition in Swedish politics. The decade also saw some policy changes in parties, most strikingly the Moderate party which once an outspoken proponent of a lax immigration policy, saw a clear shift to a more restrictive policy after the 2015 refugee crisis. The first aim of this study is to explain what the shift in immigration policy looks like in terms of whether it was a positional change or a change in ideological emphasis too. By using the method of comparing manifestos the conclusion was reached that the Moderate party shifted both their positional policy and their ideological emphasis. The question of what drives political parties to change policy is a hotly debated one with a wide array of theories and perspectives contributing to the discussion. In addition this study also attempts to apply the theory first proposed by Harmel and Janda (1994) “An Integrated Theory of Party Goals and Party change” on the Moderate party to explain the driving force behind the shift in immigration policy. This was done by comparing Moderate party manifestos from the year 2006 to 2018 in three issues (immigration, private actors in the education sector and private actors in the healthcare sector) that saw the public opinion clearly shift away from the party. Mostly through the process of elimination the study concludes that the Moderate party likely shifted their position on immigration issues in order to have better chances of forming more advantageous coalitions in order to change their opposition status in the future.

This thesis describes how the religious-secular, economic, and cultural dimensions come to expression in the electoral manifestos of two political parties in the 2016 elections in Morocco. The parties in question are the Islamist-oriented Party of Justice and Development (PJD) and the non-Islamist Party of Authenticity and Modernity (PAM), viewed as leading contenders and emerged as the two biggest parties in the same election year. This study applies a qualitative text analysis of the manifestos and shows that the parties differed on two dimensions of three. The parties showed the most significant difference under the religious-secular dimension, where PJD supported increased religious influence on policymaking. In contrast, PAM kept itself neutral and neither supported nor opposed religious influence on state affairs. The next most significant difference was found under the cultural dimension. Both parties expressed support for gender equality, albeit PAM was more ambitious and proposed an amendment to the family law to equalize women with men regarding the right of the Moroccan woman to transfer her citizenship to her non-Moroccan husband. In contrast, PJD proposed extending maternity leave and fighting violence against women. The slightest differences were found under the economic dimension. Surprisingly, both parties advocated for almost the same free-market and redistribution policies even though they represented two opposing blocks in the Moroccan party system.

政黨是我國政治中最重要的行動者，然而多數有關於政黨政治的研究多由大黨的角度出發，忽略了其他中、小規模的政黨在其中所能發揮的影響作用。本文以小黨為主要研究對象，由小黨的觀點解釋其如何在政治運作過程中發揮政治影響力，或是以哪些手段達成更多的政黨目的。本研究選擇的研究對象是民主化以來存續時間較長、規模較大的三個小黨：新黨、親民黨與台灣團結聯盟，研究時間從立法院第3屆起（1995年）至第6屆結束（2008年）為止，共12年的時間。 本文結合國內外國會、政黨研究的相關研究成果，建構一套小黨的行動理論，接著從結構性的制度規則、質性的立委深入訪談資料，以及量化的立法紀錄，檢視與解釋三個小黨在立法院的各種行動及背後的政治動機。在台灣，小黨的出現常常是因大黨在政黨立場上先出現變動，小黨有取代大黨原有的政黨立場與選票支持的企圖而興起。隨後在議事規則的政黨化改革過程中，又給予小黨透過參與選舉、晉身進入立法議事參與者的政治機會。小黨的興起及運作機會既與外在的政黨政治及制度條件密切相關，也即預示小黨在立法院的策略行動及政治結果，也受到現實的政黨政治關係、自身的政黨立場及議事制度等現實條件所限制框架。經由對於三小黨的質化訪談與量化立法紀錄資料的分析後發現，小黨的政黨行動兼具持續與彈性的雙重特徵，在不同的政治條件下，小黨的某些政黨行動並不因為政治條件的改變而轉變，如團結與妥協。但小黨又常隨著不同的大黨對立程度，調整其於政治過程中的議價方式，是其靈活彈性的另一面。

The aim of this paper is to empirically examine the ideological trends and positioning of the Swedish liberal party with the Danish social liberal party. This paper also aims to analyze the reasons behind the trends. By examine the development in these two Nordic liberal sisterparties, this paper contributes to our understanding of why and how party change is initiated. The paper commences with an intuitive notion that the Swedish party has in fact, made a lurch towards the right, during the past ten to fifteen years while the Danish party has retained their social-liberal position in the centre of the Danish political spectrum. The questions then asked are: can this hypothesis be verified empirically? If so, how can this phenomenon of divergence, be explained? The method used in this thesis is process-tracing and the empirical material does to a large extent rely on interviews with central agents as they are specified in the theory of each party. The starting point of the paper is theory on party change, which identifies the important agents, goals and determinants of party policy.. It rely on rational choice assumption, pays regard to institutional boundaries and is placed somewhere in the category of new institutionalism. This thesis argues that it is empirically unquestionable that the Swedish party de facto has made a lurch to the right during the last decade, while the Danish party has shown significant stability in their ideological position. The thesis further argues that the development in the Swedish party can be explained through a shift of primary goals, from policy-seeking toward vote-maximising, while the Danish party’s primary goals have since the beginning of the nineties until now, remained primarily policy-seeking. This explains why their ideological trend has kept a stable course. The paper concludes by stating that the divergent development within the two parties is explainable on the basis of the institutional organisation within each party, together with the different political environments they are occupied in.

The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze the behavior among political parties in the Swedish parliament in the debates on foreign policy from year 2000 to year 2015. The aim is to find out if and how much the parties have politicized the topic of Sweden’s standpoint towards the military non-alignment that has characterized the country’s foreign politics throughout the years. The aim was also to see if turbulence in the international sphere has led to a tendency among the parties to keep a more unanimous debate about Sweden’s military non-alignment for reasons that stem from the interest of maintaining national security. The analysis did not show that parties politicized this political area to a greater extent during this period, but rather kept a low profile in these matters. However, this analyze indicates that parties tend to bring up the topic to a higher degree right after a conflict in Sweden’s surrounding area has occurred. There are therefore reasons to reevaluate the theory that says that parties tend to stick together when international turbulence occurs, as the result of this analyze rather shows a higher level of politicization in the debates on foreign policy during these times.

Förvånansvärt lite forskning har ägnats åt ungdomars deltagande i partipolitiska ungdomsförbund trots en långvarig nedåtgående trend i medlemsantal. Studier visar att ungdomsförbunden har svårt att rekrytera samt behålla sina medlemmar vilket är oroande då vi behöver ungdomars röster i partipolitiken för vår representativa demokrati och för att ungdomförbunden är den främsta rektryteringskällan till våra moderpartier. Denna studie syftar till att få en djupare förståelse kring varför ett urval av ungdomar väljer att gå med i partipolitiska ungdomsförbund samt vad de har för motiv till att stanna kvar. Studien består av semistrukturerade intervjuer med åtta ungdomar som är eller har varit aktiva inom ungdomsförbunden Ung Vänster och Moderateras ungdomsförbund MUF. För att undersöka detta har studien fokuserat på individuella resurser och faktorer och moraliska, sociala och materiella motiv till partipolitiskt deltagande. Resultatet visade på att individuella resurser och faktorer som politiskt intresse, motivation och sociala nätverk var viktiga kopplat till varför ungdomarna väljer att gå med i ett partipolitiskt ungdomsförbund. Sociala och moraliska motiv var högst förekommande bland ungdomarna för både varför de väljer att gå med men också vad som gör att de stannar kvar inom förbundet. / Surprisingly little research has been devoted to young peoples participation in party-affiliated youth organizations, despite a prolonged downward trend in membership numbers. Studies indicate that these youth organizations struggle to recruit and retain their members, which is concerning since young peoples voices in party politics are crucial for our reprecentative democracie and because these organizations serve as the primary recruitment source for their motherparties. This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of why a selection of young individuals choose to join party-affiliated youth organizations and what motivates them to remain. The study consists of semi-structured interviews with eight youths who are or have been active within the youth organizations Ung Vänster and Moderaternas ungdomsförbund MUF. To investigate this, the study focuses on individual resources and factors and also moral, social, and material motives for political participation. The results indicate that individual resources and factors such as political interest, motivation, and social networks are significant in why young people choose to join a party-affiliated youth organization. Social and moral motives are most common motives among the youth for why they choose to join and what keeps them engaged within the organization.

Detta är en studie av hur ’äldre’ som språklig och social kategori samt åldrande som process konstrueras i tre sammanlänkade offentligheter. Avhandlingens övergripande syfte är att studera och kritiskt granska olika sätt varpå ’äldre’ som kategori förstås och representeras i relation till pågående omförhandlingar av innebörden i den senare delen av livet som livsfas. Valet av material har gjorts utifrån utgångspunkten att medierade offentligheters betydelse för bildandet och upprätthållandet av sociala och kollektiva identiteter, liksom deras roll som platser för diskussion om hur samhället ska organiseras, har ökat. Studien utgår från tre kontrasterande empiriska material; artiklar från dagstidningar, texter från ett pensionärsparti, och en offentlig utredning om den framtida svenska äldrepolitiken. Det studerade materialet är publicerat mellan 2002 och 2004 Genom att materialen analyseras som ingående i en dialog med varandra, ett offentligt samtal, synliggörs relationerna mellan olika konstruktioner. Skillnaderna mellan de olika materialen är betydande. Men analysen visar också på hur samma argument och föreställningar finns närvarande i alla tre offentligheter. Hur ’äldre’ som kategori konstrueras i de olika materialen är relaterat till olika föreställningar både om äldre människor och deras samhälleliga status, men också om samhället och nationen som en föreställd gemenskap. Studien visar bland annat att ’äldre’ är en kategori som det talas om, men inte till. Det är också sällan som ’äldre’ är en position det talas utifrån. I samklang med detta konstrueras kategorin som ett objekt för den nationella gemenskapens ansvar och omsorg. / This is a study of how ‘older people’ as a linguistic and social category, and ageing as a process, is constructed in three interrelated publics. The aim of the thesis is to study and critically investigate the different ways in which ‘older people’ as a category is understood and represented in relation to ongoing negotiations about the meaning of later life as a stage of life. The increased significance of mediated publics for the formation and maintenance of social and collective identities, as well as their role as spaces for deliberation on the organization of society, is a starting point for the study and has bearing on the choice of data. The study is based on three contrastive sets of empirical material; newspaper articles, texts from a pensioner’s party, and a government report on the future old age policy of Sweden. The studied texts were published during the period 2002 – 2004. The publics have been studied as in a dialogical relation with each other. This strategy highlights the relations between different constructions of the category. The differences between the publics are significant. At the same time the analysis also shows overlaps of arguments and in the way that the category is understood between the publics. The ways that ‘older people’ are constructed in the material is related to different notions about older people and their societal status. But also to ideas about society and the nation as an imagined community. The study shows, among other things, that ‘older people’ is a category that is spoken about, rather than to. ‘Older people’ rarely functions as a subject in the studied material. In relation to this, the category is constructed as an object for the care and responsibility of the national community.

Inspired by critiques of controlled elections under “single-party rule,” this dissertation explores the performance, implications and potentials of China’s village elections. It first reviews the most important studies on the progress of China’s grassroots democracy and then analyzes the social-political background of village self-management which to date has been neglected in the academic literature. Based on empirical studies conducted in Sichuan, this dissertation investigates the roles and attitudes of various participatory groups in village elections and in the course of electoral reforms. It also discusses the failure of the existing law to set out fundamental rules for village elections and to effectively guide people’s behavior. Further, this dissertation offers detailed recommendations to improve the existing law in order to guarantee the accessibility, authenticity and competitiveness of village elections. / Graduate / 0398 / 0616 / aloeke@gmail.com