The policy process of debates in the Swedish Parliament regarding cigarette smoking- 1971 and 2011 : A policy analysis

Abstract: In 2003 a WHO treaty presented the use of cigarettes and tobacco as an international tobacco epidemic: a public health concern that needed to be diminished. Decreasing smoking prevalence can be an effect of individual choice, the social context or of governmental interventions. This master thesis originated in an interest in governmental measures aimed at decreasing the population´s smoking prevalence. The data used in this thesis include records of parliamentary and governmental bills as well as the parliamentary debates in the Swedish Parliament 1971 and 2011. Discourse analysis was used to analyse how the hazards of cigarette smoking in a public health perspective were of any interest to the national political arena of the Swedish Parliament. Fivethemes developed from the documents. The essence of the themes evolved to vision, society structure and tools for policy making. To conclude: forty years of policy making resulted in legislation; a smoking ban was put into place and shift of societal norms.The agenda of tobacco policy making expanded, what was politically acceptable and possible to add to the agenda during forty years varied. There were changes in discourse as well as development of new discourse.