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Is EU policy taken out of competition? – A newspaper analysis of government-opposition conflict in Swedish EU politics

El-Saghir, Hassan LU (2023) STVM23 20231
Department of Political Science
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the level of conict in the media between the government and the opposition at dierent time periods, and specically regarding EU policies. Opposition towards policy is a crucial ingredient in democratic systems of government that do not only allow the people to send dierent personalities to represent them in government, but rather dierent policy agendas that are, in the end, implemented in their name. To what extent can readers of one Swedish quality newspaper take part in a policy debate over EU policy? The thesis aims to answer this question by specically utilizing the cartel party thesis, in which mainstream parties cooperate to limit policy competition, and iIt proceeds by operationalizing... (More)
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the level of conict in the media between the government and the opposition at dierent time periods, and specically regarding EU policies. Opposition towards policy is a crucial ingredient in democratic systems of government that do not only allow the people to send dierent personalities to represent them in government, but rather dierent policy agendas that are, in the end, implemented in their name. To what extent can readers of one Swedish quality newspaper take part in a policy debate over EU policy? The thesis aims to answer this question by specically utilizing the cartel party thesis, in which mainstream parties cooperate to limit policy competition, and iIt proceeds by operationalizing ‘opposition’ and researching 1 092 days of Dagens Nyheter, spread over six half-year periods. I use political claims-making as method to identify relevant articles. Across the investigated time-period I identied just 45 expressions of opposition regarding EU policy, leading to the conclusion that it is all but dead, which has implications for the state of democracy in the EU. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
El-Saghir, Hassan LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVM23 20231
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
opposition, EU policy, representative democracy, the cartel party thesis, policy alternatives
language
English
id
9115473
date added to LUP
2023-08-27 16:22:42
date last changed
2023-08-27 16:22:42
@misc{9115473,
  abstract     = {{The purpose of this thesis is to examine the level of conict in the media between the government and the opposition at dierent time periods, and specically regarding EU policies. Opposition towards policy is a crucial ingredient in democratic systems of government that do not only allow the people to send dierent personalities to represent them in government, but rather dierent policy agendas that are, in the end, implemented in their name. To what extent can readers of one Swedish quality newspaper take part in a policy debate over EU policy? The thesis aims to answer this question by specically utilizing the cartel party thesis, in which mainstream parties cooperate to limit policy competition, and iIt proceeds by operationalizing ‘opposition’ and researching 1 092 days of Dagens Nyheter, spread over six half-year periods. I use political claims-making as method to identify relevant articles. Across the investigated time-period I identied just 45 expressions of opposition regarding EU policy, leading to the conclusion that it is all but dead, which has implications for the state of democracy in the EU.}},
  author       = {{El-Saghir, Hassan}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Is EU policy taken out of competition? – A newspaper analysis of government-opposition conflict in Swedish EU politics}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}