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This article focuses on the Swedish literary canon debate preceding the Swedish government elections in September 2006. The debate was instigated by an article written by liberal politician Cecilia Wikstrom, in which she suggested reinstating an official Swedish literary canon. Wikstrom's article sparked an inflamed debate that took place in all major Swedish newspapers, stretching over a period of more than two months in the summer of 2006. Due to the article and the debate that followed, questions concerning culture and cultural politics were more prominently featured in the 2006 election campaign than in previous campaigns. In addition to analysing the different positions of the debate, this article also suggests that Wikstroms's article is an expression of an ongoing process in Swedish politics towards a more openly instrumental view on (national) culture and cultural expressions. Adapted from the source document.

The editorials, of daily newspapers are very powerful instruments of pol'al influence. We have tried to measure their influence on the occasion of the last 3 Swedish elections; the legislative elections of 1952 & 1956, & the municipal elections of 1956. We found that the editorials in a number of newspapers & the space devoted to pol'al articles were greater in socialist & peasant newspapers than in the liberal newspapers. Econ & soc questions are given special attention in peasant newspapers, & to a lesser degree in socialist newspapers, but receive little notice in the liberal press. On the other hand, the liberal press gives the greatest attention to cultural questions, while conservative papers also do the same, to a somewhat lesser extent. Foreign affairs are dealt with in a similar fashion by these papers. The conservative press is the one most prone to engage in polemics while the socialist press is least inclined to do so. It should be kept in mind that the present study has not answered the criticism of putting major newspapers at the same level as provincial publications. Similarly, limiting the study to editorials was necessary for practical reasons, though other articles undoubtedly also influence PO. Tr by J. A. Broussard from IPSA.

This article focuses on political talk in the media. Taking the point of departure in discourse & conversation analysis the aim is to study relations & methods on a micro level in two forms of staged talk; the interaction in live interviews & the practices of quoting in edited news reports. The study of live interviews is based on programs broadcasted during the Swedish election campaigns 2002 & 2006. The study shows how relations of power are negotiated in interaction. Methods used by the politicians to deal with delicate situations created by the questions asked are analyzed. The analysis of edited news reports shows how techniques of quoting have been part of a process moving the stage of the political debate more & more into the media. Quoting is a flexible resource frequently used by journalists in the dramatization of news stories & the re-contextualization of others voices. Adapted from the source document.

While the Right has, since the turn of the cent, seen the number of its voices & seats in the 2 chambers of the Swedish Parliament diminish regularly, 1928 seems to be exceptional for the success of this party in the elections for the second Chamber. The propaganda that was used may explain this revival. The study was made using 3 conservative journals which are considered to be representative. Pol'al & soc events of 1928 were presented as evidence of collusion between the socialists & the Swedish & Russian Communists. The question of royal succession, the opposition of the socialists to gov projects for labor legislation, the strikes in the pulp paper industry & in the mines (the latter supported by Russian unions), the issue made by the socialist of the mobilization of dockworkers, & the attitude of the socialists in matters of national defense-all of these were stressed in the 3 journals. All of them were used as evidence of the close regard for Sweden of the Soviet regime. During the election campaign, this attempt to magnify the issues took 3 forms: (1) the cooperation between socialists & Communists was violently denounced, (2) a social-democratic victory was considered to be a means for Communists to control the gov, & (3) the other bourgeois pol'al parties were also attacked because of their attitude in the preceding legislature. Tr by J. A. Broussard from IPSA.