Allegience to....self?

A political party is used for many things. Of the most common is as a short cut to ideologies and decision making. We often don't want to research out all of the issues present (we're just lazy like that), but if we can find a political party that has many similar views on common issues, we might find comfort in aligning with a party as an easier way of accomplishing similar goals. In many ways, this is efficient. But what do you do when that party which you have aligned with suddenly makes a move that you don't agree with? Do you ignore it as an error that is but temporary, or would you choose to disavow your allegiance? Would you decide that your ideals are more correct? Or would you trust the party?

These are the questions that Political Scientists Thomas Carsey and Geoffrey Layman asked and a recent Swedish issue greatly highlights. Like America, Sweden is undergoing heated debates about the issue of immigration. Sweden is made up of 9 million people (less than New York City), and 1.4 million of those are immigrants. Most of the immigrants are Muslim. The populous is quite torn on the issue of allowing greater numbers of immigrants which would "keep up [their] welfare system], or refusing immigrants thus preventing some of the more radical to be admitted (Kellogg, 2011).

In simplest terms, the positions are divided by the two major parties. This is where the before-mentioned questions become interesting. In 1991, the Moderate party took control of Parliament, following a 60-year stint of the Social Democrats. Immigration had not become a major issue yet. By 1998, the Social Dems. had slipped further and further in the polls. It wasn't until 2002 that when the issues of Immigration and EU membership surfaced that the Social Dems had a sudden surge in popularity. The Moderates had taken up a position to import over 300k new immigrants, a costly process, and not at ALL popular. In this case, it was very clear that the Swedes would indeed choose their own individual ideals over their party's just as Carsey and Layman found.


Kellogg, Amy. 2011. Sweden's immigration debate. FoxNews.com. http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/10/28/swedens-immigration-debate/ (accessed March 17, 2012).

Encyclopedia of the Nations. 2012. Sweden - Political Parties. http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Europe/Sweden-POLITICAL-PARTIES.html (accessed March 17, 2012).