Centerpartiets ideologiska vandring: en idéanalys av centerpartiets partiprogram 1970 till 2013.

Ideological change for political parties has for some time been a controversial issue. Parties have for different reasons often refused to accept indications of ideological change, as there seem to be pride in keeping the same idea base for long periods of time. This thesis takes its basis in ideological theories, and aims to see whether the Swedish party centerpartiet indeed is a case of such an ideological change. Centerpartiet claims to be social-liberal, but several actors has of late stated that the party have moved to more of a neo-liberal stand. As of this background, I have chosen to study centerpartiets party manifesto in three different political areas (taxation, funding and privatisation) from 1970 to 2013 to see weather there has been an ideological change. The result shows that the party indeed have ideologically changed to a more neo-liberal view in all aspects, and this is sufficient enough to say that the party as a whole have changed to heavier neo-liberalist thinking. Nevertheless, the party still stays true to some essential social-liberal ideas