”The new labour party? A study of the labor-market policy ideas of the Moderata samlingspartiet and their ideological change”Thesis in Political Science (C-level) at Karlstad University byJenny Ljung, Fall 2006Tutor: Susan MartonThe labour-market policy of the Swedish Moderaterna may have undergone changes in the liberal ideology. During the election the year 1991 Moderaterna focused upon questions that concerned the economic growth and the free market. In the election at year 2006 Moderaterna appointed themselves as “the new labour party” and were called social liberals by several critiques. The statement by the liberal think-tank Timbro’s head Maria Rankkas in the fall 2006 “the Moderaterna have never been neo-liberals” made me wonder if this was true or not and if Timbro’s foundation in the liberal ideology were close to Moderaterna´s or not.The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether an ideological change has occurred in the labours-market policy of the Moderaterna, and if the then has become more social liberal than neo-liberal compared to the election 1991 and to the think-tank Timbro.The main research-question, which I intend to answer, is:• In what way has the labour-market policy of the Moderaterna changed relative to their ideological foundation in the liberal ideology?To be able to answer the main question I also have two precise research questions that I intend to answer:• Has the labour-market policy of the Moderaterna gone from neo-liberal foundation to the benefit of social liberal foundation, compared to the liberal think-thank Timbro?• How does Moderaterna versus Timbro argue in their publications about the labour-market policy during the early 90`s and the year 2006?The material from Moderaterna that I have chosen to study the government’s declarations, the manifestos from the elections and the political platform. The material from Timbro includes articles about labour-market policy from Timbro’s website. The research method I used is the ideological text analysis.After analyzing the material I present an answer to the main research question: The Moderaterna has changed in their ideological found...
