Glorious past and future risks : History consciousness and history use found in the policy programs for Sverigedemokraterna from 2005 and 2011

The subject for this thesis is to analyze the Swedish political the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) through the use of history theories. The purpose is to examine the following two questions: 1. what types of history consciousness is present in the source material 2. the use of history (historiebruk) shown in the source material The source material has consisted two official party publications, Sverigedemokraternas principprogram from 2005 and 2011. The main theoretical frameworks for the analysis has consisted of the typology for use of history as presented by professor Klas-Göran Karlsson together with selected theories connected to history consciousness, not the least the model presented by Bernard Eric Jensen. The result of the analysis shows frequent examples where the use of history and history consciousness is present in the rhetoric used in the source material. By tracing the use back to the theories selected Sverigedemokraterna’s deployment of use of history and history consciousness is interpreted and discussed