Forging a narrative : Political narratives in Swedish parties

Abstract: The following thesis is an analysis of the self-narratives of the parties in the Swedish Riksdag and how these are used to construct the identities of the parties. For this purpose, we studied narrative theory and theories about identity in order to build a framework which would allow us to investigate the narratives of these parties. To identify the core narratives of the parties, we chose to focus on their respective party programs. Based on the results of our quantitative investigation, we chose four parties (Socialdemokraterna, Liberalerna, Miljöpartiet, and Sverigedemokraterna) to study in a more in-depth manner. Having selected these four parties, we utilized theories about narrative and identity in order to identify the constituent parts of the various parties' narratives contained in their party programs. The parties were found to adhere to our theoretical assumptions about how parties ought to construct narratives, albeit in different ways from party to party.