Who are the people? : A qualitative content analysis of the Swedish politicians’ discursive construction of the people between 2014 and 2018 election

Sammanfattning: Speaking to the people is part of politics. But, who are the people? In populistic and nationalistic discourse, the people is constructed against either the elite or the people outside the nation, "the people" is created in opposition to those who are not the people. This thesis examines political manifestos in Sweden during the election years of 2014 and 2018 to investigate how the political parties in the Swedish Parliament construct and speak to the people, whom they exclude from the people and how the discourse changes between the two election years. During the year 2015, Sweden, together with the rest of Europe, had a socalled refugee crisis. An understanding of populism in relation to crises is that it is increasing. This thesis examines, without claiming a causal link, a potential discursive change between the two election years that took place before and after the refugee crisis.