Europaparlamentarikers agerande : En återspegling av partiernas kampanjretorik?

This study aims at describing if discrepancies can be found between the rhetoric in Swedish political parties’ electoral campaigns to the European Parliament elections in 2004 and their representatives’ actual behavior in the European Parliament and to develop plausible explanations to these possible discrepancies. The research method that is being used is content analysis, aiming to answer four research questions regarding the electoral campaigns to the European Parliament elections in 2004 and the behavior by the parties’ representatives during the following term of office. The main findings are that some discrepancies can be found regarding which questions are raised most frequently in the electoral campaigns and in the European Parliament, but that no discrepancies can be found regarding the positions taken in questions in the electoral campaigns and in the European Parliament. The plausible explanations that are presented are that the parties raise certain questions in the campaigns with the purpose of maximizing the number of votes and then raise other questions in the European Parliament, that size of the party group matters and that the individuals representing the parties might effect the coherence between rhetoric and actual behavior