The Swedish Moderate party – on an ideological journey? : An ideal type analysis of the Moderate party’s political platforms 1984-2013

The Swedish Moderate party, often also called the Conservative party, was founded with conservatism as the dominant ideology. During the years, however, liberalism has gradually found its way into the party. The aim of this study is to analyze the Moderate party’s political platforms from 1984 to 2013 from an ideological perspective. Is conservatism still a foundational ideology in the Moderate party, or has the liberal ideology taken its place? The study is based on an ideal type analysis that illustrates the Moderate party’s argumentation in six political issues in the years 1984, 1993 and 2013. The political issues that have been analyzed are issues where the two ideologies traditionally take very different stands. The result of the study shows that the Moderate party in 1984, according to the six studied political issues, argued from a predominantly conservative perspective. In 1993 the ideological status of the party had changed and more of a mixture between liberalism and conservatism existed. The analysis of the political platform from 2013 shows that the Moderate party has adapted a liberal view in several of the political issues that has been studied. Even though they still use conservative argumentation in two of the six issues, an obvious journey towards liberalism has taken place