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The introduction to the thematic volume of Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift, which focuses on the role of political parties in democracies, outlines the scope of the volume. Adapted from the source document.

Why do people engage in high-cost political activities such as forming new political parties? Start-up costs are high. Moreover, rewards are unclear and uncertain. Since political parties are collective goods, people demanding new political parties face a collective action problem. It is therefore somewhat puzzling that new parties emerge. Drawing on theories from economics, sociology and political science, I argue that we, in order to understand the emergence of new parties, need to analytically move in on party-entrepreneurs to elucidate what motivates them. Methodologically inspired by the debate on bridging the gap between deductive and inductive strategies, I process-trace and compare three cases. The case studies identify individual level-mechanisms producing the decision toform a new party. People that voice demands within established parties, and face outright rejection, have experienced bad treatment from established politicians. These experiences contribute to disappointment, anger, and a sense of indignation - i.e. "intense emotions"- that mobilize entrepreneurs. Intense emotions create a lust for revenge, which becomes a psychological selective incentive, and is important for understanding why people engage themselves in high-cost political activities. ; Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv

Most studies of emerging Swedish parties and politics have mainly focused on the Swedish Social Democrats and their struggle for democracy and political power, most as a prelude to the so called "Swedish Model". Competing parties have received attention from historians on the national level, but their local origin remains to large extent an open field. The aim of this study is to investigate how local political factors shaped the emerging liberal party organizations in two small Swedish towns. By a case-oriented comparison two towns are contrasted, Skövde in Skaraborg county and Filipstad in Värmland. This thesis suggests that the distinction between national politics and municipal government, based on the interests of economic elites, was transformed during the period 1880-1920. During this period local elections and local government became increasingly sites for political struggle between different parties, with new agendas. With a framework that considered parties in light of their functions rather than organizational types and theoretical concepts borrowed from the sociology of social movements, the thesis main results suggest that political mobilization and liberal party-formation was depending on the local political traditions. The theoretical framework made it possible to pinpoint both similarities and differences between the cases. The results of the study indicate that the historical tradition is central to parties to emerge and flourish. This suggests that it is more meaningful to focus attention on local and regional processes to understand the historical development than has previously been done. ; De svenska partiernas historia är relativt väl känd på nationell nivå, men deras lokala ursprung är mindre utforskat och inte minst gäller det borgerliga partier. I den här avhandlingen undersöks hur lokalpolitiska faktorer formade de framväxande frisinnade, eller liberala, lokalorganisationerna i Filipstad och Skövde. Avhandlingen visar att politisk mobilisering och politisk organisering i städerna i hög grad formades av lokala och regionala politiska traditioner. Den visar också att kommunerna var politiserade långt före att de nationella partierna tog hand om valen och kommunala frågor. Studien visar att det fanns en kontinuitet mellan äldre lokala partier och de lokalavdelningar av nationella partier som etablerades efter sekelskiftet 1900. Det var en kontinuitet som återspeglades såväl ideologiskt som organisatoriskt. Avhandlingens resultat pekar på att det är mer meningsfullt att fokusera uppmärksamheten mot lokala och regionala politiseringsprocesser för att förstå den generella politiska utvecklingen i Sveriges historia än vad som tidigare har gjorts. Anders Forsell är doktorand i historia inom Forskarskolan i regionalt samhällsbyggande. Det här är hans doktorsavhandling.

The purpose of this thesis is to map and assess the organisational and ideological development of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform party, the ELDR. More specifically, it seeks to analyse the degree of integration between the members of the ELDR over time, to identify factors that may or may not generate integration, to relate the development of the ELDR to earlier research about European parties, and finally to contribute to the ongoing debate about whether or not the traditional national party families are about to establish parties at the European level. The thesis is based on the assumption that parties adapt to their environment, in this case, the system of multi-level governance that characterises the European Union. As the European parties are composed of national parties, they are also dependent on the member parties' opportunities and motives for cooperation. If there is integration, we can, however, not only expect the European parties to adapt to their environment. As they become independent actors, they may also influence their environment. In other words, we can anticipate interaction between the European and national levels that leads to mutual adaptation, or Europeanisation. To be able to capture the interaction between the two levels, theories from international relations and comparative politics are combined. Based on interviews, participant observation, documentary research and content analysis of European election manifestos, the analyses shows that the members of the ELDR have over time reached a rather advanced level of integration, both organisationally and ideologically. Although it is possible to identify constraining factors to this development, the ELDR has, at least from what is known from literature, reached about the same level of development as the two other European parties, the Christian democratic EPP and the Social democratic PES. The internal integration of the ELDR is the outcome of a successive transfer of power from the member parties to the ELDR. By now, the ELDR can therefore be defined as a rather independent actor and as a type of party at the European level. This type of party is, however, not comparable to national parties. It is instead adapted to the institutional structure of the European Union, with, at least partly, a different organisation and different functions from those of national parties. ; digitalisering@umu

Mellan 2002 och 2018 utvecklades Sverigedemokraterna från ett marginellt parti till en politisk kraft att räkna med: partiet fick cirka 18 procent av rösterna i riksdagsvalet 2018. Björn Fryklund och Sigrid Saveljeffs artikel är en analys av Socialdemokraternas och Moderaternas förhållningssätt till Sverigedemokraterna under denna period. En utgångspunkt är den amerikanska statsvetaren Bonnie Meguids PSO-teori (position, salience, ownership), vilken urskiljer tre huvudsakliga strategier som dominerande partier kan tillämpa mot nischpartier: avvisande, konvergerande och divergerande. Författarna visar att trovärdighet och demokratisk legitimitet har haft stor betydelse för vilka strategier S och M har valt. Det finns ett demokratiskt dilemma: väljarnas efterfrågan på partier med högerpopulistisk dagordning skapar motsvarande tillgång, och förr eller senare uppstår en konflikt med den liberala demokratins grundläggande värden. Det skapar ett strategiskt dilemma för de etablerade partierna: de tvingas balansera mellan att sträva mot sina egna mål och att hantera det demokratiska dilemmat. I Sverige har det demokratiska dilemmat blivit allt mer underordnat det strategiska dilemmat.Publiceringshistorik: Originalpublicering.(Publicerad 20 mars 2019)Förslag på källangivelse: Fryklund, Björn & Sigrid Saveljeff (2019) "Det politiska etablissemangets strategier gentemot högerpopulistiska partier", i Arkiv. Tidskrift för samhällsanalys, nr 10, s. 33–70. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13068/2000-6217.10.2 ; [The political establishment's strategies towards right-wing populist parties]Between 2002 and 2018, the Swedish right-wing populist party Sverigedemokraterna (the Sweden Democrats) developed from a marginal party to a political force to be reckoned with: the party received about 18 percent of the votes in the parliamentary election in 2018. Björn Fryklund and Sigrid Saveljeff's article is an analysis of the Swedish Social Democratic Party's and the liberal-conservative Moderate Party's approach to the Sweden Democrats during this period. One starting point is the American political scientist Bonnie Meguid's PSO (position, salience, ownership) theory, which distinguishes three main strategies that dominant parties can apply to niche parties: dismissive strategy, converging strategy or diverging strategy. The authors show that credibility and democratic legitimacy have been of great importance to which strategies the Social Democrats and the Moderates have chosen. There is a democratic dilemma: the voters' demand for parties with right-wing populist agenda creates the corresponding supply, and sooner or later a conflict arises with the fundamental values of liberal democracy. It creates a strategic dilemma for the established parties: they are forced to balance between striving for their own goals and dealing with the democratic dilemma. In Sweden, the democratic dilemma has become increasingly subordinate to the strategic dilemma.Publication history: Published original.(Published 20 March 2019)Citation: Fryklund, Björn & Sigrid Saveljeff (2019) "Det politiska etablissemangets strategier gentemot högerpopulistiska partier", in Arkiv. Tidskrift för samhällsanalys, issue 10, pp. 33–70. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13068/2000-6217.10.2

Citizens of a democracy have a two-fold task: Giving their representatives a mandate and holding those representatives accountable. Evidence is strong that voters greet such promises with a mix of hope and skepticism. The project described is aimed at adding to the body of knowledge on the subject of accountability in modern representative democracies. The project, which has drawn the support of the Comparative Party Pledges Group research network, has significance in ongoing normative discussions concerning representative democracy as well as empirical research in the field. Adapted from the source document.

It is pointed out that the current old fashioned method for distributing seats to political parties can he replaced by the Integer Method, which is a simple percentage calculation on the votes resulting in an improved proportionality. In comparison with traditional methods like the adjusted odd number method & the Integer Method, a number of disagreements are found with respect to the number of seats actually distributed due to a basic systematic mistake. In elections in large municipalities, the sub-division into constituencies gives rise to seat number disagreements with the effect that old-fashioned distributions overestimate right-wing numbers in relation to left-wing ones. Examples of actual distributions are listed. It is proposed that the traditional methods are reconsidered in favor of the Rounding Method & that each municipality be a single constituent all to the benefit of democracy. Appendixes, References. Adapted from the source document.