Partikulturer och politisk selektering : En kvantitativ studie av svenska kommunpolitiker

Prior research has shown that the parties in the Swedish Riksdag demonstrate differences in party-culture, constituted by collective self-images and norms. The aim of this study is to investigate if politicians in the Swedish municipalities, from seven different parties, express the same party-culture as their counterparts in the Riksdag previously have. In addition, the study seeks to find out if adherence to the respective party-cultures have implications for the selection of politicians to top positions. Three themes of party-culture is studied, namely political ability, feelings of political responsibility and the party’s strength in relation to individual party members. The themes are investigated by studying a selection of data from the survey KOLFU 2012, which was addressed to all politicians in Sweden’s municipal and county councils. These data were studied mainly through regression analysis. The results demonstrate that there appears to be accordance between the party-cultures on the municipal level and the national level in several respects, but that adherence to party-culture does not generally matter for political selection to top positions.