Abstract The struggle for Swedish foreign policy – How Swedish foreign policy was defined and established between the years 1867–1905 as a result of prevailing political power-sharing AIMS – The aim of this master thesis is to problematize how the Swedish foreign policy was defined politically in the context of the existing constitutional power-sharing model between the bicameral parliament and the ruling monarch. The period 1867–1905 is considered an earlier phase in the political process towards modern parliamentarianism in Sweden. DESIGN – An overall theoretical perspective of a correlation between domestic- and foreign policy is applied, and complemented with a theoretical position of which actor has the priority to define Swedish foreign policy. The thesis uses a methodology of extensive argumentation analysis, with a thematic division between the internal political arena on one side, and on the other side the parliamentary arena. The first arena is analyzed by combining political programs with the monarchs’ autobiographies and memoir. The second arena uses parliamentary debate protocols, parliamentary bills. In this way the thesis generates a selection and a greater understanding of various political issues which is of concern to the actual foreign policy definition in the annual official political throne speeches of the Swedish monarch. RESULTS – A variety of political issues are regarded as of foreign political importance within the internal political arena and is distinguished by a degree of correlations with ideological, ideal and political domestic issues. Such issues are then reflected in the parliamentary arena, through debates in both first and second chambers. The range of issues addressed is not only of constitutional importance, regarding the monarch’s executive power over the different foreign policy areas, but also concerning which political approach should be applied to define the main principle of Swedish foreign policy. Together, the parliamentary debates reveals which arguments influence the definition of foreign policy and which actors who claim the priority to define Swedish foreign policy – all within the existing frame of the power-sharing system. CONCLUSIONS – The thesis concludes that the actors of various parliamentary committees, and especially the constitutional committee, not only had the crucial argument which determined the outcome of the numerous parliamentary debates. Same actors also had the priority to define the main arguments on which the foundations of the monarch’s foreign policy political guidelines where dictated.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-294429 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Björk, Martin |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Historiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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