Att lova eller inte lova väljarna - det är EU-frågan : En jämförande studie av de svenska riksdagspartiernas vallöften inför Europaparlamentsvalen 2014 och 2019

Sammanfattning: The European Parliament elections have for decades been described as 'second-order national elections', meaning that parties tend to have a national focus rather than a European one. Furthermore, the parties are often described as a weak link between the European Union and its citizens. Studies on the parties' election promises have mainly been done on national elections and show that election promises become increasingly important over time. However, no previous studies have looked at election promises in European elections. The purpose of this comparative case study is to compare the election promises that Swedish parliamentary parties present in their election manifestos for the European Parliament elections of 2014 and 2019, in order to contribute to both the discourse on European Parliament elections and the discourse on election promises. Two established fields of research that have not previously met in this way. Based on previous research, this study tests eight hypotheses on the material. By mapping and analyzing 1374 election promises from 16 election manifestos, the result shows a predominant share of election promises with a European focus, rather than national. The election promises are surprisingly specific rather than vague and mainly critical of EU-policy rather than the European Union as a political system. The conclusion of this result is that the European Parliament elections as 'second-order national elections' do not emerge when election promises are studied. The results of this study has shown that there is reason to revise the prevailing picture of European Parliament elections in this field of research.