The thesis concentrates on Hofors and a local trade union environment between 1917 and 1946, where important parts of the trade union’s power were held by parties to the left of the social democrats. The overall aim is to problemize and discuss the issue of what characterised and made possible this deviation from the usual picture of a trade union movement dominated by social democracy. What characterised the conditions in such a local trade union environment and to what extent can local norms and political culture be linked to the conditions and the development in the trade union movement in Hofors? The factors behind the radicalism in Hofors can be found in the local union and political context. The investigation points out the following main reasons: the left-wing local council of the Social Democratic Party and its successors’ organisational lead, the local labour council’s working method being close to what has been considered “social democratic”, their representatives being highly trusted in the local community, and the growth of a local radical tradition. The political culture and the norms that gradually developed were based on a left-wing social democratic tradition. The local council of the Social Democratic Party that left the party in 1917 to join the left-wing social democratic faction was the same local council, despite their names and change of parties in the 1920s and 1930s. It became the local labour movement’s bearer of traditions and represented the continuity in the local trade union environment, which contributed to the leftwing socialist project being long-lived in Hofors. The central aspects were the trade union work and the practical-concrete tradition that developed. Primarily through successful trade union work, the local labour council and its trade union representatives gained strong and long-term support from a large proportion of the local trade union movement’s members and the population of Hofors. Against this background it may be stated that, even though it was often impossible for the parties to the left of social democracy to maintain a local trade union and political power position that was stronger than that of the social democrats for a lengthy period of time, it was not entirely impossible. It may also be stated that for the trade union member as such, a communist or socialist party affiliation was not a real obstacle in the election of shop stewards. Their focus was primarily put on the would-be representatives’ personal qualities and ability to live up to the demands and expectations placed on them by the members, and not so much on their ideological persuasion.

The thesis "Political image of emerging politicians and media they use to build their image" examines the reationship of young aspiring politicians to the topic of political image. The main objective of this thesis is to examine the relationship of young aspiring politicians to political image and whether they are actively seeking to build their own political image. Young aspiring politicians are defined for purposes of this thesis as members of youth political organizations Young Social Democrats and Young Conservatives over 18 years old. The first part of this thesis summarizes theoretical findings on the issue of political image in terms of political marketing and political communication and defines political youth organizations and describes their function in relation to society and political parties. The second part of this thesis examines the relationship of young aspiring politicians to political image through qualitative research using semi-structured interviews as research tool.

In 2005 the Swedish social democratic government settled a defense treaty with Saudi Arabia. Ten years later, a new Social democratic government ends the treaty. This thesis will study the Social democratic party’s motives behind their actions regarding the treaty. Kjell Goldmanns theory regarding the three fields of interest concerning state’s foreign policy, security policy, economy and international values, will serve as the theory and operationalization of this thesis. The thesis will operate an analysis of motives to study the main motives of the party’s actions during four events. After examining the actions of the Social democrats in media and the parliament, the thesis found that the party had changed their main motives between 2005 and 2015. Their main motives in 2005 were economical and in 2015 were their main motives international values, which reaches the conclusion that the Social democrats have changed their motives regarding the treaty.

The economic policy of the Swedish Social Democrats has undergone major changes during the last thirty years. From using a so-called Keynesian policy to promote full employment in the economy, the Social Democrats have switched to a more monetaristic policy to promote low inflation instead. What I intend to do with this study is to see if the policy change also can be noticed in how the party describe their own policy. Have the Social Democrats been open and transparent with their change in priorities, or have they tried to hide this in their rhetoric? The purpose of this thesis is to examine if one can notice a change from a Keynesian to a monetaristic policy in the Social Democrat’s descriptions of their economic policy. The main research question, which I intend to answer, is: "Is it possible to notice a change from a Keynesian to monetaristic policy in the Social Democrat’s descriptions of their economic policy?" I have chosen to study the descriptions found in the financial forecasts, presented by the Social Democrats during their time in government rule between 1970 and 1999. The research method I use is the qualitative text analysis. After analyzing the descriptions found in the financial forecasts I present an answer to the main research question: Yes, it is partly possible to notice a change from a Keynesian to monetaristic policy in the Social Democrat’s descriptions of their economic policy. I only say partly possible because it is possible to notice the policy change that took place between the 1970s and 1980s, when low inflation was given the same priority as low unemployment. Whereas it is not possible to notice the change that took place between the 1980s and 1990s, when low inflation was given the highest priority, above low unemployment.

The thesis deals with the relation of social policy and budget policy of the Czech Republic in the period of 2000 - 2010. In the theoretical part there are explored principles,characteristics, functions, subjects and instruments of implementation of social policy. The concept of welfare state, its potentiality and limitations, including contemporary critical reflections, are discussed. As a theoretical background, in context of public choice theory, there is treated the question of political cycle influence on social policy. Attention is also focused on public budget system, particularly on the role of state budget. In the empirical part, aimed to deeper assessment of social dimension of the budget policy, are analysed data from the three electoral periods when different governments of social or civic democrats were enforcing different social policy. For electoral periods were collected and evaluated data regarding the four parameters: results of elections and govenrment profile, legislation acts of social policy, macroeconomic limitations, and expenditures of the state budget on social policy. With the help of the SWOT method were compared separate periods and were presented answers to the hypotheses H1 and H2, validating that the government of social democrats did not prefer more strongly social...

The thesis Political Programmes of the Czech Representation in the Second Halve of the 19th Century focuses on both programme documents and actual work of Czech political parties, whether more or less institutionalized, between the years 1848 (March Revolution) and 1918 (the downfall of Austria-Hungary). At first it summarizes the historical development in the respective period (Chapter 1), next, it analyses programmes of political parties in three broadly defined topics: 1) Organisation of the empire, question of the Czech State Right (Chapter 2); 2) Constitutionalism, civil rights and role of a citizen (Chapter 3) and 3) National matters (Chapter 4). The attitudes about each of these areas of the following political parties are defined: Bohemian nobility, National Party (till 1874) or Old Czechs (since then), Young Czechs, Social Democrats, Agrarians, Catholic parties, National Socialists, Progress parties and parties of the Radical State Right, Realists and Anarchists. For the conclusion, the author of the thesis attempts to characterise and evaluating the Czech political representation, as well as its importance for the development since 1918.