Why are social democratic parties losing voters to right-wing populist parties? For decades, social democratic parties across Europe have been in decline. Much of this decline can be attributed to voters leaving in favor of right-wing populist parties. Despite extensive research on the growing support for these parties, researchers are yet to agree on even the most fundamental causes. In Sweden this phenomenon is seen in the voter flow from the Social Democrats to the Sweden Democrats. In this study, Sheri Berman's theory of social democratic success factors is used to explain the decline of the Social Democrats in favor of the Sweden Democrats, by conducting interviews with Sweden Democrat politicians who used to be Social Democrats. Results suggest that respondents' decisions to leave the Social Democrats were preceded by prolonged disappointment with the Social Democrats' political direction. According to respondents, the Social Democrats have lost focus on social unity within the Swedish population, down-prioritized social democratic politics and ideology in favor of political power and become an elite party lacking representatives that workers can identify with. Interestingly, respondents' decisions to leave the Social Democrats are not attributed to any essential shift in their personal values, but to the social democratic party abandoning social democracy. Migration, while mentioned by some respondents, is tied to welfare and economic politics as well as a lost sense of community. While social democracy used to be the only ideology combining communitarianism, the primacy of politics and democratic ideals, results indicate that these earlier social democratic traits now constitute success factors for today's right-wing populist parties.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-505146 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Backlund, Karla |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga 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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