The purpose of this master thesis is to study and compare conservative, fascist and nationalist youth movements active in Sweden during the 1930s and 40s. The political youth movements at the centre of this study are the Young Swedes (Ungsvenskarna), Swedish Rural Youth League (Svenska Landsbygdens Ungdomsförbund), Nordic Youth (Nordisk Ungdom) and National Youth League of Sweden/National League of Sweden (Sveriges nationella ungdomsförbund/Sveriges nationella förbund). During the early 1900s, youth was often described as both the reviver of society and the future of the nation. Regardless of different ideological and political alignments, the youth movements were all invested in shaping and educating young people to prepare them for the future. In this study, the focal point has been the question why these youth movements wanted the role as educators of young people, as well as what was expected of the young after this education. The main task of the political youth movements seems to have been to give young people ideals to fight for through physical and spiritual education. Through this education the young would realize what was expected of them and finally transform into an ideal youth that could inherit the responsibility as caretakers of the nation as well as the future. The view on the ideal youth varied between the studied youth movements. The Young Swedes wanted to create a conservative youth, actively engaged with the main political party of the movement, the Right (Högern). The ideal youth of the Swedish Rural Youth League were aware of their responsibilities towards the rights of the rural areas and agriculture. The ideal youth of Nordic Youth and National Youth League would have very similar personalities and would be ready to fight and sacrifice for the future rebirth of the nation into similar, yet different, fascistic utopias.

Denna uppsats skrevs med syftet att undersöka hur ungdomspartier förmedlar den egna rollen som har sitt syfte att bidra till demokratin i Sverige. Detta gjordes genom att använda Robert. A Dahls teori kring den demokratiska processen som analysverktyg. Analysen gjordes utifrån ungdomspartiernas hemsidor, sociala medier och stadgar samt andra tillgängliga dokument. Arbetet avgränsade sig till tre olika ungdomspartier vilka var Ung vänster, Liberala ungdomsförbundet och Ungsvenskarna. Resultatet blev att alla dessa kommunicerar tre helt olika roller. Ung vänster förmedlar en roll som kopplades till ”kontroll över agendan” vilket innebär att de primärt fokuserar på sakfrågor och att föra fram sina åsikter. Liberala ungdomsförbundet har istället valt att fokusera på att sprida kunskapen kring sin ideologiska grund som kopplas till kriteriet ”upplyst förståelse”. Ungsvenskarna förmedlar en roll som bidrar till ”effektivt deltagande”, vilket betyder att de rekryterar och utbildar framtida politiker till sitt moderparti. Alla tre har dock fler funktioner och kan kopplas till flera kriterier men detta var vilka deras primära fokus riktade på. / This paper was written with the purpose of examine which role youth parties communicate to have for their contribution to the swedish democracy. This was accomplished by using the theory of the democratic process created by Robert. A Dahl. The youth parties webpages, social media and accessible documents was used in the analysis, the sampled parties was “Ung vänster” (the young left wing), “Liberala ungdomsförbundet” (the young liberals) and “Ungsvenskarna” (The swedish youths). The result being that all three are contributing to the democracy by showing different primary roles yet still being able to fill some of the other criteria as well, however to a lesser extent. “Ung vänster” communicates a role which connects to the criteria of “control of the agenda” which means they have taken on the function of influencing the decision makers of society. “Liberala ungdomsförbundet” has instead chosen to put their focus in spreading information about the main thoughts of the liberal ideology, this role connects to the criteria of “enlightened understanding”. “Ungsvenskarna” is primarily focusing on communicating a function of recruiting and educating new party members with the goal to create future politicians for the main party, this role connects to the criteria of “effective participation”.