Malena Rosén Sundström

The Swedish Green Party: from alternative movement to third biggest party

In the run-up to the 19 September 2010 election, the Swedish Green Party (Miljöpartiet de Gröna) unequivocally confirmed its aspiration to become a government party. Forging a pre-electoral alliance with the Social Democrats and the Left Party, the party meant to take on the incumbent centre-right coalition government. However, despite a solid lead in the opinion polls for much of the inter-election period, the Red–Greens failed to gain power. For the Green Party, this was partly offset by the fact that they achieved their best national election result ever and became the third biggest party in the Swedish parliament.

The state of the debate: A media analysis of the debates on liberalization and citixenship education in France, Sweden, and England

Over the last decades, many liberal democracies have experienced a tension between the education system’s expressed requirement to foster citizenship norms and the liberal (sub-)ideal of norm neutrality. This dilemma has been accentuated by, on the one hand, increased ethnical and cultural diversity and, on the other hand, liberalization of society in general and the schooling system in particular. This article provides a ‘state of the debate’ of this tension in France, Sweden, and England, through a media analysis of the period 2001–2010. Citizenship education was most prominent in the Swedish debate. The Swedish and English positions were most alike, arguing for ‘objective civics’ and promoting freedom of choice in the school system. In contrast, the French debate argued for a common, integrative state-managed school system that provides equal opportunities to all socioeconomic groups while inculcating loyalty to the State.