This thesis studies the Swedish Social Democratic Party’s journal Tiden and its ideological changes between traditional social democracy and neoliberalism 1973–1990. Earlier research has shown that this period shaped the contemporary social democracy and society to a great extent. The study is conducted through quantification of the ideological content of articles concerning state, market, and capitalism to get an insight into how the party’s ideology changed during the period. The result has also been compared to the party’s electoral losses in the 1970s. The result shows that the early 1970s were a period characterized by a dominant traditional social democratic ideology. This changed drastically by the end of the ‘70s and in the early ‘80s. At this point, there was a surge in articles that expressed a neoliberal ideology to some extent. This neoliberal tendency peaked in 1990. However, there was not a complete shift from traditional social democracy to neoliberalism. Instead, there was a slow integration of neoliberal views into the old rhetoric. These neoliberal views concerned the market, the extent of the welfare state, and the freedom of choice regarding the welfare state. The view on the working class and capitalism also changed throughout the period. This resulted in a state of social neoliberalism. Social neoliberalism is a practice where conditions for austerity politics, a free market, and private influence in the welfare sector are created through a strong bureaucratic welfare state. This change from traditional social democracy to social neoliberalism is thought to be a result of the new economic and political environment and the party’s electoral losses in 1976 and 1979.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-187998 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Törnqvist, Isak |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för idé- och samhällsstudier |
| 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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