In the past decades the level of education of the Swedish population has steadily risen. This paper asks questions about the level of education level among members of the Swedish parliament, Riksdagen. The answers are found by studying biographic data over members of parliament between 1971 and 2006. In 1971 a new riksdag, enkammarriksdagen which consists of one “House”, was founded. Earlier, the Riksdag consisted of two “Houses”. Biographical data over all members of parliament from 1971 to 2006 are available the public and represents the source material to this study. This study shows that there is a significant change in the overall education level among members of parliament during this period. During this period the education system as well as the political system, especially the election system, has undergone significant changes. This study also shows that the education level in members of parliament differ from the education level of the rest of the population. It also reveals a possible tendency towards not finishing or graduating from higher education among members of parliament. However, this study can only present possible explanations to this fact and does not draw any general conclusions about the future of this tendency. One possible explanation suggests that the changes in the election system are linked to the education level development of the members of parliament.

This thesis aims at studying the development of the party cohesion in the Swedish national parliament, riksdagen, after the introduction of preference voting in the election of 1998. The party cohesion has been measured during parliamentary sessions before and after the reform. The result of the cohesion during each of the sessions has then been compared towards each other. The cohesion was measured between the members of parliament viewed as a whole, and within the party groups during the different sessions. The research method being used has been a quantified statistical voting analysis, making the comparisons of party cohesion during the different parliamentary sessions as easy as possible. The main findings show an increment of the cohesion after 1998, both among the parliamentary members as a whole, and within the political parties. The result rejected the originally stated hypothesis, saying the party cohesion would decrease after the implementation of preference voting to the Swedish parliament.

<p>This thesis aims at studying the development of the party cohesion in the Swedish national parliament, riksdagen, after the introduction of preference voting in the election of 1998. The party cohesion has been measured during parliamentary sessions before and after the reform.</p><p>The result of the cohesion during each of the sessions has then been compared towards each other. The cohesion was measured between the members of parliament viewed as a whole, and within the party groups during the different sessions.</p><p>The research method being used has been a quantified statistical voting analysis, making the comparisons of party cohesion during the different parliamentary sessions as easy as possible.</p><p>The main findings show an increment of the cohesion after 1998, both among the parliamentary members as a whole, and within the political parties. The result rejected the originally stated hypothesis, saying the party cohesion would decrease after the implementation of preference voting to the Swedish parliament.</p>

This thesis aims at studying the development of the party cohesion and oligarchichaltendencies in the party groups of the Swedish national parliament, riksdagen, after theintroduction of two clear block coalitions during the years 2006-2010.The result of the cohesion during these years has been compared towards the years 1998-2006. The research method being used has been 18 semi structured interviews with member of the parliament during the examined years. The main findings show an increment of both the cohesion and the oligarchical tendencies after the block coalitions during the years 2006-2010. The result verified therefore also the two originally stated hypothesis.

Hur och varför man upplever en viss fråga eller ett land som ett hot förändras över tid. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om man utifrån svenskt officiellt håll kan spåra en diskursändring vad gäller hotbilden från Ryssland. Ytterligare frågor som ställs i uppsatsen är hur diskursen har ändrats och hur man kan förklara dessa förändringar. Utifrån ett säkerhetiserings- och gestaltningteoretiskt perspektiv studeras sex riksdagspartiers gestaltning av ”hotbild Ryssland” under perioderna 1996-1999 och 2008-2011. Resultaten visar att tre riksdagspartier har ändrat sin diskurs. I uppsatsen diskuteras bland annat Sveriges EU-medlemskap samt fördelningspolitiska orsaker som möjliga faktorer till diskursändringen.

<p>This thesis aims at studying the development of the party cohesion in the Swedish national parliament, riksdagen, after the introduction of preference voting in the election of 1998. The party cohesion has been measured during parliamentary sessions before and after the reform. The result of the cohesion during each of the sessions has then been compared towards each other. The cohesion was measured between the members of parliament viewed as a whole, and within the party groups during the different sessions. The research method being used has been a quantified statistical voting analysis, making the comparisons of party cohesion during the different parliamentary sessions as easy as possible. The main findings show an increment of the cohesion after 1998, both among the parliamentary members as a whole, and within the political parties. The result rejected the originally stated hypothesis, saying the party cohesion would decrease after the implementation of preference voting to the Swedish parliament.</p>

This qualitative study aims to examine five Swedish political parties commitment to fight the system of apartheid in South Africa during 1969- 1986. The study concentrates on how the political parties discussed about the Swedish enterprises activity in South Africa and to what extent Sweden should engage. The result shows that all of the political parties strongly condemn apartheid but had different opinions on how Sweden ought to act regarding of the Swedish enterprises activity in the country.

The right to publicly criticize and challenge the government is a fundamental part ofdemocracy. Within the legislative arena political opposition is essential, however, theliterature on oppositional behavior has exclusively focused on general patterns andparty-level variations. Consequently, individual-level oppositional behavior is significantlyunderstudied. Specifically, the absence of a gender perspective is striking. Therefore, thisstudy addresses this gap by examining the relationship between gender and oppositionalbehavior in the Swedish parliament. By combining research on political opposition andresearch on legislative debates, the study develops three hypotheses. Using regressionanalysis, this study tests the general relationship between gender and oppositional behaviorand if the relationship is conditioned by seniority and the proportion of women in partygroups. The study does not find significant gender differences in overall oppositionalbehavior, nor that the general relationship is conditioned by the proportion of women in partygroups. However, the study shows that the effect of gender on oppositional behavior isconditioned by seniority. This finding suggests that women’s tendency to express lessopposition than men, weakness by seniority. This implies that seniority has a positive effecton expressing opposition for female legislators, interestingly, this effect is reversed for menwhere the relationship has a negative relationship with men expressing opposition.

Studiens syfte är belysa och tydliggöra vilka diskurser som är rådande om människor som hamnat i arbetslöshet fas 3 och se hur dessa diskurser konstrueras i svenska dagstidningar. De tidningarna som vi använt oss av i analysen är Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter, Göteborgs Posten och Svenska Dagbladet.   Metoden består utav ett integrerat teragerat perspektiv med begrepp ur den socialkonstruktionistiska idétraditionen avseende framställandet av den arbetslöse kopplat till den mediala exponeringen av arbetslösa i fas 3. Vi använder oss främst av begrepp ur diskursteorin och kritisk diskursanalys. I analysen används begreppet subjektspositioner ifrån diskurspsykologin.   Slutsatser i studien är att de mediala diskurser som råder om arbetslösa i fas 3 till stora delar är ideologiska. De mediala diskurserna positionerar de arbetslösa negativt samt tillskriver dessa olika egenskaper med negativa förtecken.   Resultatet i studien visar på två olika diskurser, den strukturella diskursen och den individualistiska diskusen. Diskurserna kämpar om tolkningsföreträde av den rådande uppfattningen kring jobb- och utvecklingsgarantins tredje fas. Den första textanalysen belyser en föreställning om den arbetslöse i fas 3 som sammankopplas med exploatering av den arbetslöse samt arbetslöshet och utanförskap. I studiens djupare analys, redogörs det för en diskursiv kamp som har uppstått i media. De ideologiska skillnader som genomsyras i tidningsartiklarna berörs tillsammans med en redogörelse för subjektspositionerna.

The Voices of Parliament Congruence between party and person The purpose of this study is to determine the congruence between the opinions of members of parliament and their respective party policies, in order to further determine the cause of poor voter-party congruence and whether or not the individualization of the parliament could affect the character of legislation. To do so, the study asks two primary research questions; - "Are the communicated party policies representative of the opinions of the members of parliament?" - "Is the discrepancy between party policies and the opinions of the members of parliament sufficient for the individualization of parliament to substantially affect the parliament's decisions?" The study answers these questions by comparing the average of self-described left-right stances of members of parliament with the average of voter-described left-right stances of party policies, using existing survey data and a constructed left-right dimension. The lower average is then subtracted from the higher average, creating a value of congruence that is then inserted into a constructed congruence dimension. The primary findings of the study suggest that there is substantial congruence between party policies and the opinions of the members of parliament, and that the discrepancy between them is unlikely to substantially affect the parliament's decisions. / Rösterna i Riksdagen Samstämmighet mellan parti och person Syftet med denna studie är att avgöra vilken grad av samstämmighet som kan återfinnas mellan åsikterna hos riksdagsledamöterna och deras respektive partilinjer, för att vidare avgöra orsaken till undermålig åsiktsrepresentativitet och huruvida riksdagens individualisering kan komma att påverka lagstiftningens utformning. För att göra detta ställs två primära forskningsfrågor; - "Är de kommunicerade partilinjerna representativa för vad partiernas respektive riksdagsledamöter tycker?" - "Är diskrepansen mellan partilinjernas och deras respektive riksdagsledamöters åsikter tillräcklig för att riksdagspolitikens individualisering skall kunna göra ett substantiellt avtryck på riksdagens beslut?" Studien besvarar dessa frågor genom att jämföra medelvärdet av riksdagsledamöternas självbeskrivna vänster-högerpositioner med medelvärdet av partilinjernas väljarbeskrivna vänster-högerpositioner, användande existerande enkätdata och en konstruerad vänster-högerdimension. Det lägre medelvärdet subtraheras sedan från det högre medelvärdet, vilket skapar ett samstämmighetsvärde som sedan inlemmas i en konstruerad samstämmighetsdimension. Studiens primära resultat antyder att samstämmigheten mellan riksdagsledamöterna och deras partilinjer är omfattande, och att det förefaller osannolikt att diskrepansen mellan dem skulle kunna substantiellt påverka riksdagens beslut.