Hvad vilja kommunaliseringspartiet? En beskrivande idéanalys om centraliseringstendenser i Socialdemokraternas skolpolitik

Sammanfattning: This paper examines the policy standpoints of the Social Democratic party during the period from 2013 to 2023 pertaining to the issues of funding, regulation and principalship of the Swedish school system. The principal question asks whether the party has changed its position on the aforementioned issues to a more centralistic stance from the decentralistic standpoint motivated the communalisation reform of 1989. Furthermore, it investigates whether there is an identifiable change in the party’s position before and after it entered the January Agreement of 2019. Source material for the analysis include records from the Swedish Parliament as well as party programmes of the Social Democratic party. A descriptive agent-centered idea analysis of the source material is applied, focusing on the aforementioned issues, through the lens of the theory of historical institutionalism as well as Kaare Strøm’s theory of party behaviour. The study found that the party has indeed moved toward a more centralistic stance over the course of the examined period. Furthermore, it was found that there exists a discernible difference in the party’s stance post the January Agreement, although a causality between the agreement and the change in position was not observed.