EU förknippas ofta med en svag relation mellan väljare och valda politiker, samtidigt som att EU forskare har en diskussion kring huruvida organisationen kännetecknas av bristande demokrati. Brutna vallöften är främsta orsaken till minskat förtroende för politiker och således en försvagad demokrati. Detta då de valda politikerna skall representera väljarnas åsikter som är centralt i representativ demokrati vilket kännetecknar Europaparlamentet. Europaparlamentet är EU:s enda folkvalda instans vars främsta uppdrag är att föra fram medborgarnas politiska åsikter där vallöften har en central del i relationen. Tidigare forskning kring vallöften har främst berört nationella val. Uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka om de svenska partierna Kristdemokraterna och Socialdemokraterna uppfyllde sina utlovade vallöften i EU-valet år 2009 samt att se om dessa partier påverkar demokratin i någon bemärkelse. Studien är en kvalitativ innehållsanalys där båda partiernas vallöften analyseras utifrån mandat-, ansvars-, representations- och frihetsmodellerna som utgångspunkter för att undersöka om vallöftena uppfyllts. Valmanifesten som innehåller vallöftena jämförs med de dokumenterade uttalandena i plenarsammanträden ledamöterna gjort under mandatperioden år 2009 till år 2014. Socialdemokraterna uppfyllde merparten av sina vallöften och intog en stark representativ ställning vad gäller ledamöternas sätt att bedriva politik. Kristdemokraterna uppfyllde även merparten av vallöftena, samtidigt som ledamoten för partiet intog både en representativ och en frihetsställning i sina politiska handlingar.

The number of political parties in Sweden that are identifying themselves as caring for the labour politics and labour workers is increasing. Due to that and the upcoming Swedish parliamentary election in September 2018, I have investigated fulfillment of election pledges within the field of labour politics during two mandate periods seen to four cases. The questions that binds this thesis together is which of the four cases that have fulfilled the highest number and the highest percentage of the studied election pledges, and to what extent, during the mandate periods of 2006 to 2010 and 2014 to the 1st of May 2018. This is being made through a quantitative literature study which applies theory consuming methods of the responsible party model and the rational choice theory.   This study concludes that the socialist party, Socialdemokraterna, is the party that have fulfilled and started the highest percentage of the studied election pledges. Seen to the number, the socialist and environmental friendly coalition, de rödgröna, had the highest full fulfillment of pledges. However, the liberal conservative coalition, Alliansen, had the highest number of half fulfilled pledges. They also had the highest number of pledges with no fulfillmet, wherease the environmental friendly party, Miljöpartiet, had the highest percentage of election pledges with no fulfillment.

Election promises and their fulfillment are subjects that have been studied quiete extensively within the academics, this thesis seeks to investigate how the promises given by the red-green block in Sweden during the mandate periods of 2014-2018 and 2018-2022 have or have not been fulfilled. The theoretical basis used in this thesis is that of Rational choice with Gunnar Sjöbloms three arenas that parties engage in and that of the responsible party model. In this study the method used is a theory consuming one, this type of method uses multiple theories on the same case and investigates how well each of them can explain the phenomena. The promises were taken from each of the parties manifestos from each mandate period and following this some were left out since they could not be fulfilled with national level policies. The results of the study showed that mandate period 1 followed previous results and studies quite well whilst mandate period 2 results differed from previous results. A number of factors could help explain this vast difference and with these variables accounted for the results became more in line with previous studies results. The study showed that for the most part parties do keep most of their promises to some degree but how these studies also must be conducted on a case by case basis to achieve the best results.

The European Parliament elections have since the 1980's been described as 'second-order national elections', which, among other things, means that they are less important to both political parties and to voters. Scholars have often described political parties as a weak link between the European Union and its citizens. Previous studies of the fulfillment of election promises have mainly focused on national governments, and not national political parties in the European Parliament. The purpose of this descriptive study is to investigate the level of fulfillment of election promises that Swedish parliamentary parties present in their election manifestos for the European Parliament election 2014. Based on previous research, this study tests five hypotheses on the material. By mapping and analyzing 183 election promises from 8 election manifestos, the results show a lower fulfillment level than Swedish governments usually achieve on the national arena. The result showed one possible covariation between which party groups the political parties belonged to and fulfillment, but no clear patterns between the characteristics of the election promise and fulfillment. The results of this study has shown that there is reason to further investigate and try to better understand election promises that are given ahead of European Parliament elections.

There is a large part of the population today whose perception of Swedish political parties assumes a pronounced distrust. Often, this mistrust is linked to whether politicians act on the election promises made during the election campaigns. This is a view that opposition parties often encourage through negative criticism during election campaigns and media platforms. The paradox that arises then becomes markedly confusing because research actually shows that parties almost fulfill most of the election promises made.   Furthermore, a society characterized by widespread distrust of political activity risks gradually undermining the representative democracy system, which may lead to diminished democratic legitimacy. In the field of research, therefore, there is often talk of making knowledge regarding election promises more accessible to voters, who then may examine political activity more effectively themselves. The study has analyzed the Alliance's and the Social Democrats' election promise fulfillment during the mandate periods 2006-2010 and 2014-2018, through qualitative analysis of the election manifesto and data collection from the Riksdag's website. The aim was to investigate and compare which of these party organizations best achieved good representation during the alternative government periods through clear method choices that could present data in an easily accessible way.   The study arrives at a result that shows a balancing election promise fulfillment between the Alliance and the Social Democrats, with a small statistical advantage for the Alliance. It also shows how the Alliance has achieved a slightly better representation by succeeding in fulfilling more election promises in key policy areas that the party organization has given higher priority to during the election campaigns and election manifestos.