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Numerous studies show that education has a positive effect on political participation at the individual level. However, the increase in aggregate levels of education in most Western countries over the last decades has not resulted in a corresponding increase in aggregate levels of political participation. Nie et al. (Education and democratic citizenship in America, ) propose the relative education model as a possible solution to this paradox. According to this model, it is not the skills promoted by education that have positive effects on political participation. Rather, education influences individuals' social status, which in turn influences political participation. The relative education model expects that the individual-level effect of an additional year of education will decrease as the mean level of education in the environment increases. This article evaluates this theory using Swedish election surveys (1985-2006) and it thus provides the first in depth evaluation of the relative education model outside the US. On voting and political participation related to political parties, support is found for the relative education model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1999, Sweden passed a law criminalizing the purchase of sex and decriminalizing the prostituted person. The law was part of an omnibus bill against violence against women, recognizing prostitution as related to such violence. This article analyzes the reasons for the Swedish law and documents the law's impact, concluding that the law has significantly reduced the occurrence of prostitution in Sweden compared to neighboring countries. In addition, it addresses some important remaining obstacles to the law's effective implementation and responds to various common critiques of (and misinformation about) the law and its effects. Finally, this article argues that, in order to realize the law's full potential to support escape from prostitution, the civil rights of prostituted persons under current law should be strengthened to enable them to claim damages directly from the tricks/johns for the harm to which they have contributed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why is 'the immigration issue' rarely polemical for the Swedish mainstream when it divides parties across Europe? Several factors suggest fertile ground for conflict, yet parties hesitate to capitalise on anti-immigration cues. Based on interviews with Swedish MPs, the article discusses two interlinked issues. First, immigration crystallises conflicting ideological streams: market liberalism vs. value conservatism (for the centre-right) and international solidarity vs. welfare state/labour market protectionism (for the centre-left), and stressing the 'wrong' stream detracts attention from parties' core competencies. Second, since competition, when present, revolves around issue ownership, parties that are less trusted on immigration will divert attention to areas of higher competence. Whether immigration becomes politicised is not necessarily dependent on electoral grievances or a radical right presence but on parties' ability to handle and negotiate these conflicting streams and issue priorities. An appreciation of the party politics of immigration is thus central to understanding when, and why, immigration becomes an 'issue'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sweden is no longer a negative, exceptional case regarding the presence of radical right-wing populist parties. The Sweden Democrats has continually grown stronger, and in 2010 they won seats in the Swedish parliament. However, their electoral support varies considerably across Sweden. This study analyses their electoral support in 290 Swedish municipalities in order to explain this variance. Support is found for the social marginality hypothesis: electoral support for the Sweden Democrats tends to be negatively correlated with the average level of education and with the Gross Regional Product per capita, and positively correlated with the unemployment rate. The ethnic competition hypothesis, that there is a positive correlation between the proportion of immigrants and electoral support of the Sweden Democrats, is also supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Lien Social et Politiques is the property of Institut National de Recherche Scientifique (INRS) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article explores changes to the health care system in Sweden following the end of Social Democratic rule in 2006. The author reflects on the introduction of competition for funding into a nationalized system of health care delivery in order to reduce wait times for patients, lower costs, and increase patient satisfaction. Other topics include allowing choice of doctors, changes to the payment structure for doctors, the establishment of private clinics for specialized care, and comparisons to the health care system in Canada.

Sweden, where some 20 per cent of the population is either foreign born or second generation, has long been known internationally as the model of a tolerant, egalitarian, multicultural welfare state, which extended substantial citizenship, welfare and labour rights to all within its borders, including immigrants. However, under the twin pressures of neoliberalism and the EU’s commitment to ‘managed migration’, this Swedish exceptionalism has been, and continues to be, substantially eroded. The shortcomings of the earlier multicultural settlement of the 1960s and 1970s, a growing extremist populism, the growth of an unprotected, semi-clandestine sector of the labour market, combined with high levels of youth unemployment and urban segregation, have led to unprecedented rioting and violence in Swedish cities. The voices of minority ethnic youth, many of them Muslim, should be heeded as rejecting the exclusivism of current political trends. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article raises questions about how best to assess the performance of radical left parties participating in coalition governments. Drawing in part on interviews (see Appendix 1), it covers parties that have participated in coalition government (Cyprus, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Norway), or have acted as ‘support parties’ (Denmark, Sweden), or are debating the ‘pros and cons’ of coalition participation (Netherlands). It undertakes a comparative analysis of how radical left parties themselves evaluate the measure of their achievements and failings in coalition government — a critical exercise for such parties that can influence their tactical and strategic decisions about future government participation, as well as the ability of the parties to survive political and electoral setbacks. The approach we adopt is one that takes the policy, office and votes triad developed by political scientists seriously, but also factors in the principles, political outlook and goals of the parties themselves. It concludes that the experience of coalition government for radical left parties is far from encouraging to date. Their few achievements have to be set against many potential pitfalls. Whilst there may be no alternative to government participation if these parties wish to be taken seriously as actors, a more strategic and cautious approach to coalition formation seems advisable in many instances. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Committee on Constitutional Reform was appointed by the government to conduct duct a review of the Swcdish Constitution. This article focuses on the Constitution's chapter on Parliamentary Control, i.e. instruments for monitoring government activities. The Committee's discussion of this topic was limited and produced no real suggestion for reform. However, the parliament initiated a parallel reform aimed at the reorganization of the Swedish National Audit Office. The issue was investigated and decided upon, and the consequences of the reform were subsequently evaluated. The article points out that this way of organizing constitutional change is atypical of Swedish constitutional policy. Moreover, the changes have had greater constitutional implications for Parliamentary Control than has the work of the Committee on Constitutional Reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to study how Sweden's political parties handled the process of constitutional review from 2004-2008. In particular the analysis examines how parties choose between their office-seeking, policy-seeking and vote-seeking goals and the desire to maintain intra party agreement. Three expectations are identified: (a) parties' different strategic situations lead them to advocate different long-term goals; (b) different party levels will take different stands in order to increase their influence vis-a-vis other levels; (c) party leadership will try to increase their freedom to negotiate with others by avoiding extensive intra party debates or decisions. The study is based on 30 interviews with representatives closely involved in the constitutional-re-form process. The conclusion is that parties have self-interested goals as regards the question of how the political game should be regulated. The conflict between different intra-party levels is also obvious. However, due to party members' disinterest in the constitutional review, party leaders did not need to adopt a variety of strategies to avoid a large scale intra-party debate. It was enough for them to claim that the resulting compromise was actually something of a victory for each party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional level has been identified as the key institutional level for economic development policies. However, in Norway and Sweden regional economic development as a policy field is to a limited extent placed under the control of directly elected regional parliaments, whereas the most important instruments for stimulating regional economic development and innovation are controlled by national government and regional state offices. In this article we discuss the theoretical and normative arguments for centralizing or decentralizing instruments for enhancing regional economic development and the implications of the fact that strong instruments for enhancing regional economic development are controlled by national government in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although mediatization as a term is commonly used in the academic literature, it is rarely defined well and there are almost no studies that explicitly seek to investigate the mediatization of politics. Drawing on the literature on mediatization, media interventionism, political news journalism and related areas, the purpose of this article is to develop indicators of the degree to which news content is mediatized, and test these in a comparative content analysis of how Swedish and US television news covered the 2006 Swedish and 2008 US election campaigns. The results show that election news on US television is more mediatized than that on Swedish television, as expected. However, few differences were found across commercial and public service television news within Sweden. The study also suggests that the mediatization of news content may be moderated by national journalism cultures, political news cultures and political communication cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Swedish parliament has a strong position in the decision-making on the international use of force. Still, its role is affected by the rapid internationalization of the Swedish defence. More and quicker decisions have to be taken on Swedish contributions to international peace operations. The origin of the decisions of the Swedish parliament, moreover, can be traced to international decision-making bodies on which the Swedish parliament and sometimes even the Swedish government have no influence at all. Parliament is conscious of its important role and looks after its interests in the domestic decision-making context. Sometimes it challenges the government on specific issues relating to the operations, but in the end parliament always tend to agree and unanimously as well. This article studies the involvement of the Swedish parliament in the decision-making on the contribution of armed troops to international peace operations since the end of the Cold War. The article gives particular attention to the use - or not - of the law delegating the decision-making power over troop contributions entirely to the government. The issue of self-defence against armed attacks on the Realm is also taken up and the potential impact of an expanded notion of self-defence on the decision-making role of parliament. Concerns of democratic accountability form the background to the reasoning in its entirety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presented is a political survey of the country of Sweden for the year 2009. It is noted that the major issues of the year related to the European Union (EU) include the election of members to the European Parliament in June 2009 and the Swedish presidency of the EU from July to December 2009. A number of other events and developments are discussed including a proposal on posted workers to the EU suggested by the Swedish Social Democrats, the relative success in the European Parliament of the Pirate Party, a political party devoted to technology privacy, and the appointment of Herman van Rompuy as president of the European Commission.

The article discusses the problem of Islamic radicalization within the borders of Sweden despite the country's characteristics as a model of what a modern liberal democracy, an exemplar of tolerance, humanitarianism and diplomacy. It states that the phenomenon is a form called Stockholm syndrome which is self-deceptive, self-defeating and suicidal as the democratic values such as free-speech are sacrificed on the altar of political-correctness. It also states that for most of Sweden's modern history, it has been governed by socialist and leftist parties. It notes that there are 250,000-450,000 Muslims who are living in Sweden which has a total of about nine million inhabitants, in which Islam is estimated to be the country's second largest religion.

Flexicurity has become a prominent policy recommendation in recent years. However, little is known about the actual development of flexicurity in the country most often associated with it – namely Denmark. This is particularly the case for one of the three ‘pillars’ of flexicurity: low levels of job security regulations. This article fills this gap in the scholarly literature. It demonstrates that regime attributes are often not the result of policy making by wise policy designers, but unintended consequences of contingent choices made with the purpose of winning short-term political gains. Comparing the development of job security regulations in Denmark and Sweden, the article shows that the two countries followed a similar path until the late 1960s. In both, job regulations were part of collective agreements. However, in the 1960s the labour movement started to demand more restrictions, which resulted in the 1974 Employment Protection Act in Sweden. No such change happened in Denmark. Two crucial differences can explain this unequal development. First, societal pressure for regulation was larger in Sweden than in Denmark. And second, the Swedish labour movement was stronger and more unified. When the Danish trade union movement could have turned to the political arena, the 1973 ‘earthquake’ election and the resulting fragmentation of the party system closed the window for all-left majority governments in Denmark. Without reliable partners to the left and no majority of their own, Danish Social Democrats were not able to pass restrictive job security regulations against the will of employers' associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to compare the predictive power of overall political news consumption and media-specific news consumption, on perceived issue salience across different media channels and media types in the context of the 2006 Swedish parliamentary election. Findings suggest that overall consumption of political news is significantly more important than consumption of specific media outlets in predicting changes in issue salience. Although the study demonstrates that the Swedish news media collectively can exert considerable agenda-setting influence over their audiences, it could, however, not find any consistent evidence of differences related to media channels or media types. The reasons for and implications of the results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Leviathan: Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaft (Springer Science & Business Media B.V.) is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The motto of the Swedish EU Presidency "We accept the challenge" points to the fact, that most of the tasks facing the Presidency were the leftovers of previous Presidencies or part of the EU's running agenda. This article therefore focuses on the following priorities of the Presidency: economy and employment, the new climate programme, the Stockholm Programme, the EU strategy for the Baltic sea region, EU enlargement and security issues, and the preparations for the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon. The author assesses both the degree to which these goals are fulfilled and the importance of these results. She conducts this assessment from several perspectives, contrasting Swedish perspectives with those of other EU member states. Furthermore, some more general reflections as to the functions of the EU-Presidency - such as its mediatory or leadership role -, and the relationship between the smaller and the larger EU states - are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological innovations have made the sticker a popular means of communication. Through a study of stickers by Swedish extremist groups in 2008, it becomes clear that these stickers do not exhibit the traditional trademarks of political rhetoric. Instead, the stickers seem more directed at strengthening already established points of view through epideictic rhetoric. The characteristics of this medium make it a suitable vehicle for communication, where the act of communication itself is the most important part. The stickers thus function as tribal demarcation and confidence boosting for the activist—a sort of postmodern, political branding, one could say. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the politics of globalization and welfare state retrenchment have garnered much attention in recent years, scholarly research on public support for welfare state expenditure is comparatively sparse. Furthermore, new pressures, specifically international immigration and resulting ethnic heterogeneity, add a new challenge to the welfare state. In this article, I analyse support for social welfare expenditure in Sweden—the country that spends the greatest percentage of its GDP on social expenditure and, until recently, remained relatively ethnically homogeneous. Results from multilevel models reveal that multiple measures of immigration at the county-level have significant negative effects on support for the welfare state. Moreover, recent immigration has a negative effect on attitudes towards universal spending. Thus, this analysis provides clear evidence that ethnic heterogeneity negatively affects support for social welfare expenditure—even in Sweden. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The issue of unemployment and job creation dominated news coverage during the 2006 Swedish National Election campaign. The purpose of this study is to analyze individual-level agenda-setting effects in the 2006 Swedish National Election campaign. Apart from being one of the first agenda-setting studies conducted in Sweden, this study builds upon a panel survey with 1,007 respondents, which makes it possible to impose stricter control of the causal relationship between the media and public agendas. The overall findings show that agenda-setting effects were indeed present. Furthermore, attention to political news had stronger effects among people with low political interest compared with those who were highly interested. Education was not a contingent factor, though. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governance in the Nordic countries has a highly local character. Most public services are provided by locally elected bodies that enjoy a high degree of autonomy in relation to political institutions at the national level. In recent years, questions about the appropriate size of local government have re-surfaced, prompted, at least in part, by the current trend towards regionalisation within the EU. In this paper we investigate empirically the question of whether regionalisation in the Nordic setting can be said to reduce the democratic quality of governance in the area of health care. We do so by comparing conditions for democracy in a provincial governing unit (a so-called county council) in Sweden, with an average size of about 260,000 inhabitants, with those in a newly created region, populated by 1.5 million. We ask, thus, if it is true that governance in the smaller unit, i.e. the county council, is more democratic than in the region, and, if so, in what way? Our results point to that there is in fact little difference in democratic conditions between the region and the county council; a result that can be attributed to the fact that local institutions for decision-making and citizen participation were carefully re-constructed when Swedish county councils were amalgamated into regions. Hence, we conclude that institutions that facilitate direct democratic participation, such as the right of citizens to attend assembly meetings or submit proposals to the assembly are probably more important for the democratic quality of governance than size. 'Small' is not always more beautiful, at least not in democratic terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explains why the right-wing populist parties in Denmark have been successful but failed in Sweden. It mentions that the two countries share similar sentiments such as those related to immigration and disenchantment towards their political institutions. It also adds that these countries deviate in some ways such as the loss of the importance of the socioeconomic dimensions in Denmark while it remains highly salient in Swedish politics.

The article presents an overview of political developments in Sweden for 2008. It includes an analysis of the political motives of leading public figures, and commentary on trends in public opinion regarding the events described. Various legislative initiatives and noteworthy issues in national politics are discussed. These include the challenges faced by the government in handling the global financial crisis which began in 2008. The results of a debate over legislation involving electronic surveillance are also discussed.

Recent advances in game theory and experimental social science provide insights for the study of corruption and abuse of power in local politics. We survey the evidence from theoretical and experimental research and illustrate findings and problems with two examples from a survey among local politicians and officials in Sweden. The most simplified theoretical models, such as the prisoner's dilemma, fail to capture the distinction between group loyal behavior at different levels. There are several grey zones between pro-social behavior and corruption. These grey zones can be considered corruption danger zones. While Sweden is typically seen as a non-corrupt society, there are several situations where local politicians and officials must make choices in these corruption danger zones. Both formal institutions and informal norms influence these choices, and the views among politicians can vary substantially regarding what behavior is considered acceptable. Communication, openness and public debate can help the fight against corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political participation is higher among men than women in most parts of the world. However, earlier research has shown that this does not hold true in Scandinavia, including Sweden, where gender differences are remarkably small. This article studies the causes of the Swedish situation. A conventional hypothesis is formulated based on research from other parts of the world. It assumes that gender-equal participation in Sweden can be explained by the lack of gender differences in certain political resource and motivational factors that are often analyzed. However, this hypothesis is not supported by the data, which instead indicates a female disadvantage with regard to both resources and motivation. Two alternative hypotheses are developed and shown as empirically viable. The first assumes that women more often adhere to norms that emphasize the importance of being politically active, which promotes their participation in politics. The second focuses on collective mobilization based on interests specific to women. In line with this hypothesis, only women are shown to be members of women's organizations and hold more radical opinions on issues related to gender equality and reproduction. These factors have a positive impact on women's participation, and together they explain a noticeable amount of the male advantage with regard to conventional explanatory factors. Therefore they are important contributory causes of gender-equal participation in Sweden, although other factors, not discussed here, also contribute. Quantitative methods are used in the analyses, and the study material is the 1997 Swedish Citizenship Survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most prominent interest in the 'Swedish model' in Australian political history came after a high-level union delegation visit in 1986 produced a major report titled Australia Reconstructed, which had the nominal endorsement of the Labor Government then in office. However, at this very time, the characteristics of the Swedish policy approach which were most admired by the visiting Australian unionists were undergoing important changes, to which they paid little attention but which critics from the Right strongly emphasized in response. The Australian labour movement interest in Sweden in the 1980s had some distinctive features. It focused on manufacturing industry and skills training policy, reflecting priorities of the main participating unionists. It was also particularly concerned with industrial democracy and work design, as a result of important earlier links between Swedish, Norwegian and Australian industrial relations scholars and practitioners which were forged from the late 1960s. Increased interest in Sweden partly arose from the search for a new political vision by particular elements of the Australian Left following their disillusionment with the Soviet Union after the 1968 Prague Spring. This article presents the results of interviews with participants and extensive archival research to provide new information and perspective on Scandinavian influences on the Australian labour movement; and the political background of the main people involved. It also analyzes how discussion of the 'Swedish model' receded in Australia following the economic setbacks of the early 1990s amid a perception that 'the model' had collapsed, but how policy interest in the continuing evident achievements of Sweden and the other Nordic nations has gradually re-emerged in Australia since then, though in a somewhat different way to before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its creation in 1999, the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) has evolved rapidly. This new policy area presented Sweden, once a neutral state, with a challenge to its security policy tradition. In responding to the challenge, the Swedish government was initially reluctant about the ESDP, but today has become one of its staunchest supporters and active members. In this article, I examine Swedish participation in the ESDP since its inception, i.e. the impact Sweden has had on the ESDP, but also the extent to which the ESDP has influenced Swedish security policy. Furthermore, I seek to shed light on why the Swedish government has become so active and supportive of the ESDP despite initial reluctance. Drawing on Reuben Wong's multidimensional model of Europeanization and new research undertaken primarily through interviews with key officials, I argue that Sweden has embarked on a journey from sceptical and hesitant participant to one of its main driving forces. Although the ESDP has had a major influence on Swedish security policy, I argue that the Swedish government has had a major impact on shaping the current character of the ESDP. I point to an interwoven relation between European and domestic levels, thus confirming the bi-directional character of the process of Europeanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines shifts in the ways that immigrants were framed and depicted within Swedish HIV/AIDS policy discourse from 1985 to 2005. In particular, it examines whether, when and how immigrants were linked to understandings of risk and safety in sexual relations. Whereas, at first, immigrants were rather marginal to this discourse, they later held a central position. Moreover, there was a shift in how ethnicity and 'race' were conceptualised by the Swedish authorities — a movement away from cultural pluralism towards neo-assimilationism. Throughout this time, cultural differences, often defined in terms of different attitudes to gender and sexuality, were focused on as defining the boundaries between 'immigrants' and 'Swedes'. But, whereas the pluralist approach favoured respect and tolerance for these differences, the neo-assimilationist approach that replaced it argued that immigrants ought to assimilate to the more enlightened sexual values of Swedishness, in order to better prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article suggests that key bureaucrats play a decisive role in times of welfare crisis. It argues that key bureaucrats, through their advice, define both the type of welfare crisis and the range of possible solutions, which have at least two important consequences: First, it broadens the distribution of welfare cuts, as key bureaucrats—contrary to politicians—have no interests in targeting special voter groups. Second, it enables political compromises, as both the government and the opposition trust the key bureaucrats' expertise. These suggestions are tested empirically in a case study of Sweden in the 1990s. It shows that key bureaucrats did indeed influence both the distribution of the cuts and enabled a compromise between the center-right government and the Social Democratic opposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article suggests the model of social protection in Sweden as a political framework of Europe in addressing social problems. The model features benefits and services based on residence that are combined with earnings-related social insurance programs, emphasizing education and active labor market policies with flexible labor markets. The author describes the political project of social democracy in Sweden as specific, focused on liberating the individual from unequal relationships of dependency, and branded as statist individualism. It notes that Sweden prioritizes high employment and security for employees and social programs that cover both the poor and the rich. The author held that a social safety net is necessary for making a dynamic society and does not make people resist change.

Much of the literature on political corruption is based on indices such as the ones presented by Transparency International, but the reliability and validity of these indices are questionable. The main alternative approach – qualitative case studies – often lacks a theoretical framework allowing for systematic empirical analysis. To remedy this shortcoming, this article places qualitative case studies into the framework of principal-agent theory. The cases comprise two Swedish county councils (regional governments), both of which reorganised their administrations in similar ways in the 1990s. One experienced corruption scandals, but the other did not. In comparing them, the article links the propensity for corruption to institutional design – in particular, the mechanisms of delegation and control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the association between political trust (an aspect of institutional trust) in the Riksdag (the national parliament in Sweden) and self-reported psychological health, taking generalized (horizontal) trust in other people into account. The 2004 public health survey in Skåne in Southern Sweden is a cross-sectional postal questionnaire study that was answered by 27,757 respondents aged 18–80 yielding a 59% response rate. A logistic regression model was used to investigate the associations between political trust and self-reported psychological health adjusting for possible confounders (age, country of origin, education, economic stress and generalized trust in other people i.e. horizontal trust). We found that 13.0% of the men and 18.9% of the women reported poor psychological health. A total of 17.3% and 11.6% of the male and female respondents, respectively, reported that they had no trust at all in the national parliament, and another 38.2% and 36.2%, respectively, reported that their political trust was not particularly high. Respondents in younger age groups, born abroad, with high education, high levels of economic stress, low horizontal trust and low political trust had significantly higher levels of self-reported poor psychological health. There was a significant association between low political trust and low horizontal trust. After adjustments for age, country of origin, education and economic stress, the inclusion of horizontal trust reduced the odds ratios of self-reported poor psychological health in the “no political trust at all” category compared to the “very high political trust” category from 1.6 to 1.4 among men and from 1.7 to 1.4 among women. It is concluded that low political trust in the Riksdag seems to be significantly and positively associated with poor mental health. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Four groups made forecasts of the outcome of the Swedish Parliamentary election in the fall of 2006. They consisted of members of the public, political scientists, journalists writing about domestic politics in Swedish daily newspapers, and journalists who were editing sections of readers' letters in daily newspapers. They estimated, using a 12-step category scale, which percentage of the votes that they believed seven parties would get in the election. Data were then obtained on the outcome of the election, and on the two opinions polls closest in time to it. When median forecasts were compared across groups, it was found that the group from the public was most successful in forecasting the outcome of the election. This was in spite of the fact that the median error made by individual members of that group was about 50% larger than the median error made by members of other groups. The two polls were less efficient than the group from the public and overestimated the span between the incumbent government and the opposition by a factor of 2. The members of the public and journalists showed some wishful thinking in their forecasts. There were large and consistent individual differences in forecasting ability. Men performed better than women, as did those who expressed more interest and knowledge in politics. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an overview of political developments in Sweden as of December 2008. It includes information on the Alliance government's reform programs, such as the replacement of the property tax with a local property charge, and cuts in unemployment and sickness benefits. An alliance between the Social Democratic Party, Left Party, and Green Party is described. The resignation of Defense Minister Mikael Odenberg, due to his objections to defense budget cuts, is discussed. A scandal involving Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's aide Ulrika Schenström is also noted.

Theoretical expectations predict instances of party formation to be unusual. It is therefore puzzling that new ‘non-national’ parties became increasingly common in Swedish local councils between 1973 and 2002. This article sets out to answer why party formation became an increasingly popular strategy throughout these years. I show that previous research has not provided satisfactory answers, and argue that existing theories are of limited use explaining this development. It is suggested that a diffusion mechanism may explain why new parties became increasingly common in Swedish local councils. Theoretically, it is argued that an entrepreneur who creates a new party inspires potential entrepreneurs in neighboring municipalities to repeat this at later points in time. A geographical clustering of municipalities where these parties exist is therefore expected. Support is found for this assertion. The result is important since it outperforms the alternative ‘local contextual’, socioeconomic hypotheses previously tested in this empirical setting. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the 1990s, several public corruption scandals were uncovered in Sweden. This article focuses specifically on local corruption, and our purpose is to examine whether a case can be made that problems of public corruption in Swedish municipalities have increased. By applying instruments from the institutional rational choice framework, we reach the conclusion that there are indeed reasons to suspect that retrenchment initiatives and organisational reforms over the last two decades, often labelled 'new public management', have increased the risk of corruption. Although hard empirical data do not yet exist, the suspicion that public corruption in Swedish municipalities may have become an increasing problem cannot be disregarded. Hence, we conclude by calling for further empirical research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fleeing the horrors of an internal armed conflict constitutes a ground for subsidiary protection under the Qualification Directive and in the Swedish Aliens Act. However, what is to be defined as such a conflict is disputed. This is obvious within the European context from the inconsistent interpretations of for example the situation in Iraq amongst Member States. In Sweden, the Migration Court of Appeal established the situation in Iraq as severe, but as not amounting to an armed conflict. In France and Great Britain however, Iraq is regarded as such a conflict. The argument of this article is that the concept of internal armed conflict in the Swedish Aliens Law is incoherent and inadequate. This is due to the fact that the Swedish interpretation is based upon international humanitarian law, a law which provides an unclear and anachronistic concept of internal armed conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite indications of potential demand, no populist right party has yet broken through in Sweden. This article examines the biggest Swedish populist right party, Sverigedemokraterna [Sweden Democrats], which in 2006 came close to parliamentary representation. Originating from an extremist subculture, the party has been forced through a process of change to broaden its appeal. The article traces the party's background and history, and looks at the changes that have taken place to remove the extremist stigma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School vouchers might seem a natural feature of the liberal welfare model of the U.S. and American society generally. However, for social democratic welfare states in Scandinavia, school vouchers would seem to be a contradiction. Nevertheless, school vouchers have faced severe resistance in the USA, and the program has so far not been adopted as a national educational reform, although sporadic and limited state-level developments can be observed. In Sweden, however, the social democratic welfare state adopted a national, universal public voucher scheme in the early 1990s. The goal of this article is to explain this counter-theoretical empirical puzzle. It is argued that the varying output from political processes on school vouchers in the USA and Sweden is to be explained by the different ways in which political institutions affect political decision making in the two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s, the idea of "mobilization from below" has become a salient feature in Swedish debates on "multiethnic suburbs." In this article, the idea of "mobilization from below" is analyzed in three different policy areas-democracy, urban, and education policy. Following Michel Foucault and his theories of power and governmentality, the ambition of "mobilizing multiethnic suburbs" is analyzed as particular "technologies of government" creating citizens as "active" and "responsible" subjects. In the urge to "activate" citizens, it is argued, a neoliberal agenda has gained momentum in Swedish politics, further emphasizing the role of individual responsibilities and initiatives against public arrangements and interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reform of Swedish pensions serves as a case study to explore resistant institutions and logics shaping processes of financialisation in Europe. EU membership cemented the path towards neoliberal restructuring, yet Sweden remained an unlikely case for financialisation by the mid-nineties. Social Democratic principles and practices of de-commodification and redistribution remained dominant with pensions at the core. Reform aimed at changing this by subjecting pensions to financial market performance. The outcome of the project to, in a characteristically Swedish way, 'universalise' financialisation is however uncertain. If successful, those challenging the legitimacy of financialisation elsewhere in Europe lose a 'social democratic' reference point in their struggle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arend Lijphart's seminal consensus model of democracy does not only try to explain how democracy actually works. It also purports to be a ‘kinder, gentler’ form of democracy with regard to e.g. unemployment, disability, illness and old age. So far, this conjecture has not been brought to a systematic test which is the purpose of this article. We look into the consequences for one of the areas Lijphart singles out: disability. Does consensus democracy promote a more generous policy towards disabled people than majoritarian democracy? We transfer Lijphart's theory to municipality level. In Sweden, disability care is namely the responsibility for the municipalities, which are comparatively large and independent and with the right to tax their citizens; they are like small nation-states. There is, however, a considerable variation in disability support between them. Some give ten times as much support than others. Is it those governed according to the consensus model? Our approach helps controlling for the variation in political and cultural context and expands the number of observations. The statistical comparison of Swedish municipalities does not, however, lend any confirmation of the famous theory. Instead, there are reasons to doubt that consensus democracy promotes more generous policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two decades, the question of organization has been a matter of great interest in many Swedish municipalities, and remains so today. What are the ideas behind the way municipalities organize themselves and how are the ideas related to the municipality context? This is the focus of this article. The discussion is based on a broad study of organizing activities in four municipalities in Sweden. The ideas of organizing identified in the study are analysed in two institutional dimensions related to contextual circumstances. The first covers the way the ideas are influenced by two ways of thinking, termed respectively political and administrative logic. The second dimension covers the way the ideas are affected by local and national institutional thinking. We show how these dimensions influence organizing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article local governance in the Swedish context is discussed. A case study of a Swedish city is framed in its historical, national and international context. By locating the redevelopment of an old harbour within a historical context, new insights are brought into the understanding of local governance. Cities are indeed nested. Deteriorating public finances, the deregulation of the economy (nationally and globally), the changed status of the welfare state, the restructuring of industry and the neo-liberal wave all taken together form a formidable challenge. A radical questioning of the values, principles and forms of the Swedish welfare state has tangible impacts on local governance. It is concluded that Swedish municipal actors face the dual challenge of acting efficiently (being sensitive to the needs and demands of local elites), while keeping democratic legitimacy (being sensitive to the needs and demands of all citizens). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses accountability in governance of local energy and IT systems. The aim is to focus on accountability of local policy making regarding technical systems by comparing consequences when new forms of governance are developed. Governance steering demands and ensures a clear division of responsibility regarding what a network is responsible for, but not regarding who is accountable for the decision making and implementation. On the other hand, in a steering context characterized by government, it is clear who is responsible and accountable for decisions, but the specific issues for which different actors can be accountable are unclear. We argue that demands for clarifications of accountability emerges from the complex modern governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution analyses centre-right parties' attitudes and positions on immigration and integration in Denmark and Sweden. Despite the two countries being socio-economically and culturally similar, there are some significant political and structural differences which help to explain why immigration has played a much more prominent role in Danish politics compared to Swedish politics. The article argues that this can be explained with reference to, on the one hand, the stability of bloc party politics and, on the other, the extent to which centre-right parties have exploited 'the immigration issue' as a profiling tool. The findings suggest that even though Denmark has adopted a much tougher stance on immigration and integration compared to Sweden, the political climate in the latter has also undergone a number of changes in the past decade which have allowed centre-right and radical right parties to use immigration to challenge the prevailing cross-party consensus on the issue by suggesting a more market-oriented integration policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]