Where the line should be drawn : A study of the parliamentary debate regarding conservation policies and property rights during the second half of the 20th century

This thesis deals with the subjects of conservation policies and property rights and how these two topics were discussed in relation to each other in the Swedish parliament during the latter half of the 20th century (1952–1998). How nature reserves were discussed in relation to the property rights of private forest owners is especially emphasized. The theoretical framework of the study is borrowed from the philosopher Ingemar Hedenius and further nuances and elaborates on the term property rights by dividing it into smaller constituent parts. Protocols from the Swedish parliament served as the primary sources for the study. Laws, bills and reports from different governmental committees were, however, also studied in conjunction with these protocols to contextualize and deepen the understanding of the subject matter. A qualitative text analysis was thereafter conducted to describe and analyze the gathered data. The results show that, generally, the right-wing parties tended to value property rights higher than the left-wing parties. The left-wing parties therefore also tended to value conservation policies higher than the right-wing ones. The liberal parties in the political center tended to value both property rights and conservation policies in an equal manner. All parties in the parliament did for the most part, however, agree that conservation policies to some extent needed to impede on certain property rights in order to be effective. It was rather to what extent that this was deemed acceptable that the parties had differing opinions. All parties, regardless of political affiliation, would also gradually focus more on political issues relating to conservation and environmental problems as time went on