The Case for Increased Working Class representation: A study of Swedish Working class attitude change from 2002-2021
(2024) STVM25 20241Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- This paper studies Swedish working class economic and cultural attitudes from 2002 to 2021 in order to discern whether increased radical right support has led to attitude change, and whether or not these changes complicate working class representation. The results suggest that whilst the working class has become slightly more left-leaning in its economical attitudes, cultural attitudes have become increasingly similar to those of the radical right. By including a variable for economic marginalisation, I find support for economic hardship being a contributing factor for increased radical right sentiment and inclination to vote for the Sweden Democrats. Through a Marxian conceptualisation of interests, this thesis concludes that increased... (More)
- This paper studies Swedish working class economic and cultural attitudes from 2002 to 2021 in order to discern whether increased radical right support has led to attitude change, and whether or not these changes complicate working class representation. The results suggest that whilst the working class has become slightly more left-leaning in its economical attitudes, cultural attitudes have become increasingly similar to those of the radical right. By including a variable for economic marginalisation, I find support for economic hardship being a contributing factor for increased radical right sentiment and inclination to vote for the Sweden Democrats. Through a Marxian conceptualisation of interests, this thesis concludes that increased representation of working class interests is desirable, but that the Sweden Democrats do not represent the substantive interests of the working class. This thesis contributes to the continuing study and understanding of new cleavages in Western European politics and how they affect party preferences among voters. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9152229
- author
- Lekberg, Olle LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- STVM25 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Working class, socioeconomic preferences, sociocultural preferences, descriptive representation, substantive representation, radical right parties
- language
- English
- id
- 9152229
- date added to LUP
- 2024-07-18 14:02:00
- date last changed
- 2024-07-18 14:02:00
@misc{9152229, abstract = {{This paper studies Swedish working class economic and cultural attitudes from 2002 to 2021 in order to discern whether increased radical right support has led to attitude change, and whether or not these changes complicate working class representation. The results suggest that whilst the working class has become slightly more left-leaning in its economical attitudes, cultural attitudes have become increasingly similar to those of the radical right. By including a variable for economic marginalisation, I find support for economic hardship being a contributing factor for increased radical right sentiment and inclination to vote for the Sweden Democrats. Through a Marxian conceptualisation of interests, this thesis concludes that increased representation of working class interests is desirable, but that the Sweden Democrats do not represent the substantive interests of the working class. This thesis contributes to the continuing study and understanding of new cleavages in Western European politics and how they affect party preferences among voters.}}, author = {{Lekberg, Olle}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, title = {{The Case for Increased Working Class representation: A study of Swedish Working class attitude change from 2002-2021}}, year = {{2024}}, }