Political trust is by many thought to be an important factor for a society to work efficiently, due in part to trust in political institutions being a motivator for citizens to abide by rules and laws. Political trust is also thought to have an impact on voter turnout, according to some of the previous research. This correlation, however, is debated among researchers. This paper takes off from previous research regarding how voter turnout is impacted by different factors and specifically how voter turnout among young people is impacted. Previous research shows that voter turnout can be impacted by numerous factors on the individual as well as the aggregated level. Gender, age, and level of education are seen as some of the factors for voter turnout on the individual level, whereas the size of the population and proportional representation are seen as some of the factors for voter turnout on the aggregated level. Moreover, specifically voter turnout among young people is well-studied due to the generally lower turnout of this group. Previous research has shown how education and political interest, among other factors, might impact voter turnout among young people. This paper also rests on previous research of political trust in general and political trust as a factor for voter turnout. As mentioned above, the correlation between political trust and voter turnout is somewhat disputed, with some research showing strong correlation and other studies showing no evidence of such correlation. In this paper we therefore aim to study whether political trust, meaning trust for political institutions, has an impact on voter turnout among young people between the ages of 20–26. The term political institutions in this paper include the Swedish Parliament, the Swedish Government and the Swedish political parties represented in the parliament. The method in this study is quantitative, using cross tabulation to analyse the relationship between political trust and voter turnout among young people. The data on which the analysis is based are gathered from the results of the longitudinal research program Political Socialization Program by YeS (Youth & Society), Örebro university. The results suggests that young people have quite high levels of trust with over half of the respondents expressing very high or quite high levels of trust for all three of the political institutions. The results also show that the young people of this population have more trust toward the Swedish Parliament than to the Swedish Government and the political parties. Furthermore, the analysis indicates that low or no trust in each of the political institutions might correlate to a lower voter turnout on the individual level.

This study deals with the quality of democracy, and its purpose is to examine which factors affect the varying levels of the quality of democracy in the stable democracies in the world. The research question posited in the study is: what explains the varying levels of the quality of democracy in the democratic countries in the world, and do political institutions matter? Theoretically, the quality of democracy is distinguished from other similar concepts employed in comparative politics, and what the quality of democracy stands for is clarified. The quality of democracy is defined in this study as: the level of legitimacy in a democratic system with respect to democratic norms such as political participation, political competition, political equality, and rule of law. In total, four dimensions of the quality of democracy are included that are considered to be very important dimensions of the quality of democracy. These dimensions are political participation, political competition, political equality, and the rule of law. To explain the variation in the quality of democracy, an explanatory model has been developed. The explanatory model consists of five different groups of independent variables: political institutional variables, socioeconomic variables, cultural variables, historical variables, and physical variables. Methodologically, a large-n, outcome-centric research design is employed and statistical analysis is used to examine what effect the five groups of independent variables have on the four dimensions of the quality of democracy. Empirically, the results show that cultural variables and political institutional variables outperform socioeconomic, historical, and physical variables in relation to their effect on the quality of democracy. Consequently, cultural and political institutional variables are the two most important groups of variables when explaining the variation in the quality of democracy in the democratic countries in the world. In relation to the other groups of variables, historical variables are slightly more important than socioeconomic variables when explaining the variation in the quality of democracy. The physical variables constitute the group of variables that has the least importance out of the five groups of variables when explaining the variation in the quality of democracy. In summary, the findings from the study show that the best way of increasing the level of the quality of democracy may be to choose political institutions such as parliamentarism as the executive power system and a proportional system as the electoral system. To put this clearly, to increase the possibility of democratic countries achieving a high level of the quality of democracy they should avoid majority electoral systems and presidential or semipresidential executive systems.

This thesis analyses one of the less explored areas of Swedish politics: the political appointees in the ministerial staffs of the Swedish core executive. The study draws attention to the everyday life of the ministerial staff in order to give an idea of their function: What do the political appointees do? How is the work of the ministerial staffs organized? How is policy coordinated at the political level? The main empirical focus of this thesis is the 2002-2006 term of office. The study contributes to an understanding of the role of political advisers in steering and policy making, and, in the light of this, their potential influence on the policy capacity of the government is considered. Political advisers occupy an ambiguous place within the political system. They play a vital political role, but their presence also challenges the traditional relationship between ministers and public servants. The study shows that political advisers certainly have a leeway to participate in the steering of the ministry's civil servants: they can be said to have a number of steering functions. At the same time, it is made clear that this does not mean that the political advisers are in the position to influence government policy to any great extent. In conclusion, it is suggested that the ministerial staffs do have importance for the government's policy capacity in the sense that they reduce the work load of both the minister and the state secretary and thereby make space for them to govern. The research questions are answered by means of empirical material gathered through a combination of methods, providing data with a range as well as depth and context rarely found in studies of core executives: a survey, participatory observations, focus groups and a series of interviews. The dissertation demonstrates that the ethnographic method is a useful tool for anyone who seeks to highlight and explain the relationships within political organizations. / Avhandlingen analyserar en av de mer outforskade delarna av svensk politik: de politiskt anställda i Regeringskansliets politiska staber. Regeringskansliet betraktas i studien som en politisk organisation, snarare än som enbart en politiskt styrd organisation. Avhandlingen utgör ett bidrag till The Core Executive Approach, som definierar exekutiven i termer av funktion och ställer frågor om vem som gör vad i exekutiven. Studien uppmärksammar vardagslivet i de politiska staberna för att ge en bild av deras funktion: Vad gör de politiskt anställda? Hur är arbetet i de politiska staberna organiserat? Hur samordnas politiken på politisk nivå i Regeringskansliet? Ansatsen är organisationsteoretisk och de olika aktörernas funktion och plats i organisationen står i centrum. Studien bidrar även till förståelse av de politiskt sakkunnigas roll i policyskapande och i styrning av departementen. I ljuset av detta, diskuteras de politiskt sakkunnigas betydelse för regeringens styrningskapacitet. De politiskt sakkunniga spelar en betydande roll för statsrådets politiska och personliga stöd, men deras närvaro i Regeringskansliet utmanar även det traditionella förhållandet mellan statsråd och tjänstemän. Eftersom de politiskt sakkunniga inte ingår i departementens linjeorganisation ingår de inte i den parlamentariska styrningskedjan som helhet, d.v.s. de kan inte utkrävas ansvar av riksdagen. Ur ett demokratiskt perspektiv är det därför angeläget att analysera denna grupps deltagande i skapandet av politiken. Därutöver studeras empiriskt hur de politiskt anställda själva resonerar om styrning och vilka styrningsstrategier de lyfter fram. Avhandlingens huvudsakliga empiriska fokus är begränsat till mandatperioden 2002-2006. Studiens tillvägagångssätt utgörs av en kombination av metoder som ger material med såväl bredd som djup och kontext, vilket är ovanligt i studier av regeringskanslier: en enkätundersökning, deltagande observation, fokusgrupper och kvalitativa intervjuer. Avhandlingens etnografiska inslag är särskilt tydliga i de dagboksutdrag som kompletterar analysen. Avhandlingen visar att etnografisk metod är ett användbart verktyg för den som vill belysa och förklara relationer inom politiska organisationer. Den empiriska undersökningen visar att statssekreterare, planeringschefer och pressekreterare har olika funktioner, som inte överlappar varandra i större utsträckning. De kan snarare sägas komplettera varandra. De politiskt sakkunniga har å andra sidan en bredare funktion, som överlappar de övriga politiskt anställdas funktioner i förhållandevis stor grad. De kan påverka policyprocesser, och i egenskap av statsrådets nära medarbetare, även statsrådets inställning. Studien visar också att politiskt sakkunniga deltar i styrningen av departementen: de kan sägas ha en rad olika styrningsfunktioner. Samtidigt innebär inte detta att de politiskt sakkunniga har möjlighet att påverka regeringens politik i större utsträckning. Styrning från de politiskt sakkunniga betraktas endast som legitimt när den överensstämmer med och kan härledas till statsrådets eller statssekreterarens styrning.  Närhet och möjligheten att ta reda på statsrådets åsikt är en viktig förutsättning för att detta ska fungera. Om de politiska staberna är för stora finns en risk att de politiskt anställdas förmåga att agera i enighet med statsrådets vilja minskar. Sammanfattningsvis föreslås att de politiska staberna har betydelse för regeringens styrningskapacitet i den meningen att de avlastar såväl statsrådet från statssekreteraren, och därigenom skapar utrymme för dem att styra. / Regeringskansliet och samhällets organisering (Reko)