Political scientists have long been fascinated by theories of political knowledge and what causes it to vary. Theories of political socialization, derived from psychological theories of social learning, have been the driving force behind many of these studies. In this study, it is proposed that there is a causal connection between parents being civil servants and their children having a large knowledge of the same sector. In theories on political socialization it has been suggested  that the effect of political socialization is most prevalent among young adults in the years before leaving home. In this study, theories of social learning and political socialization are thus used to elaborate an understanding of a proposed causal connection between parents being civil servants and their children’s knowledge of the same sector. Surveys are used to find data and the method of OLS, Ordinary Least Squared, is used to find potential causal connections. Using OLS estimators, this study finds no such hypothesized causal connection, but finds that the effect of political socialization seems to be larger after the children have moved out, rather than before as studies before have shown.

En politiskt kunnig befolkning är enligt många demokratiteoretiker en förutsättning för en välfungerande demokrati. Politisk kunskap hos medborgare ger dessa möjligheten att agera ansvarsutkrävande och rösta bort makthavare som anses ha förbrukat sin rätt till makt. Av tidigare forskning kring ämnet framgår att nyhetsmedia har en viktig roll som förmedlare av information som kan leda till politisk kunskap. Föreliggande uppsats syftar till att undersöka huruvida konsumtion av nyhetsmedia resulterar i en ökad politisk kunskap för svenska högskolestudenter, samt styrkan i detta samband. Mer preciserat undersöks förhållandet mellan konsumtion av nationella nyheter och kunskap om nationell politik, samt förhållandet mellan konsumtion av lokala nyheter och kunskap om lokal politik, alltsammans i en svensk kontext. En enkätundersökning har legat till grund för studiens resultat, vilken skickats till högskolestudenter i Uppsala. Undersökningens resultat har vidare analyserats med hjälp av regressionsanalyser. I studiens resultatdel framkommer tendenser på att en ökad nyhetskonsumtion leder till ökad politisk kunskap för högskolestudenter, både i nationell och lokal kontext. Det visar sig också att en ökad nyhetskonsumtion har en större påverkan på politisk kunskap på nationell nivå, samt att nivån av lokalpolitisk kunskap är låg.

The purpose of the study is to investigate whether schoolbooks in social science contribute to the development of students' participate competence regarding to politics. To succeed in this, the books need to cover political knowledge on the basis of three dimensions (polity, policy and politics). Furthermore, the books will need to present the EU from an internal political perspective, which includes three different criteria. This will increase the student’s credence to the European Union’s political system. A qualitative text analysis has been applied to the study and the material includes four social science books that are related to two courses in social sciences in upper secondary school. The reason is that participant competence is a goal that is included in the content of the courses. The study shows that all dimensions are present in the books, but that the authors choose to prioritize the polity and policy dimension. The result also shows that the authors do not choose to write about different parties and ideologies within the EU, which affects the other dimensions. This indicates that the books meet two of three criteria regarding the portrayal of the EU from a domestic policy perspective. The result shows that the writers fail to highlight the pluralism of views in the EU political system. The conclusion drawn is that schoolbooks can increase students' competence if used more frequently by teachers in EU-education.

Sweden is a member of the European Union and Sweden’s turn-out in the elections to the European Parliament is low compared to its own national elections. Earlier research in the field of didactics in civics regarding the EU have mostly focused on aspects of civic education such as which subject content teachers teach and what knowledge they test their students on. Even today, textbooks are an important part of shaping education. This study has focused on how the EU is presented in textbooks for civics in Swedish upper secondary school, specifically the course “Samhällskunskap 1b”. The aim was to research the political knowledge about the EU presented in textbooks and research how the presented political knowledge can contribute to political participation.  The study utilizes two different theories, the first is Maria Jarl’s definition of the participatory democratic process and the second is a categorical instrument constructed by Peter Wall used to analyze political knowledge. The method used is both a qualitative content analysis and a comparative analysis. The categorical instrument used stipulates that political knowledge contains three dimensions, polity, policy, and politics. Each dimension has several variable categories attached.  In the study, four textbooks written for the civics course “Samhällskunskap 1b” were analyzed, in accordance with the developed methodological framework. The results of the study found that each of the textbooks contained all three dimensions of political knowledge. However, the dimensions were not equally present in the content with an imbalance favoring the polity dimension which encompassed more than half of the observed variable categories in each of the textbooks. The politics dimension was also found to be relatively non-existent in each of the textbooks with coverage as low as 2% in one of the textbooks. Thus, the conclusion is that the political knowledge regarding the EU in the textbooks is far too one-sided to provide a satisfactory contribution to political participation. We also confirm that a similar focus on the polity dimension regarding the EU exists in textbooks which can also be found in the content teachers teach. This might have several implications for future political participants in Sweden and thus also Swedish democracy.

The Swedish citizens' trust towards politics is decreasing. This examination's purpose is to investigate the citizens' trust towards the Swedish parliament, government and social institutions in the two Swedish suburbs Skarpnäck and Bromma. This is being studied through Robert D Putnam's theory of social capital and how social capital is affecting people's trust towards each other and Swedish politics. This is being researched based on these questions: “How does the trust look towards the parliament, government and social institutions in Skarpnäck and Bromma'' and the subquestion “What possible explanations are there for the difference in trust between Skarpnäck and Bromma.” The second question is “How does Putnam's definition of Social capital differ between Skarpnäck and Bromma” and the subquestion “Is a bigger social capital the explanation for a higher trust in the two studied areas?”. Data for this research has been collected through the triangulation method thus with a method of quantity and a method of quality. The method of quantity is executed through two surveys and the method of quality is executed with semi- structured interviews. The study shows a result of a difference in trust between the two suburbs where the citizens of Bromma have a higher level of trust towards the parliament and social institutions. The citizens of Skarpnäck have a higher level of trust towards the government. This study displays the fact that Robert D. Putnam's definition of social capital regarding network and norm can not be used to explain the difference in trust. Instead this research shows that the political standing point regarding what party you vote for, political knowledge and political interest is a bigger contributing factor with reference to trust towards politics and social institutions.