Mindre partier och nedslående opinionsundersökningar : En kvalitativ studie om hur dåliga opinionssiffror påverkar små riksdagspartier och deras ageranden

Sammanfattning

The purpose of this thesis is partly to analyze the influence of opinion polls on minor parties in the Swedish parliament and partly to study how those minor parties react to poor results in opinion polls. Previous research in the field has been conducted by researchers such as Per Oleskog Tryggvason, who constructed four arenas; internal, electoral, media and parliamentary, in which parties tend to respond to changes in opinion polls. This thesis contribution is to test the results of previous research with the choice of a qualitative method, in contrast to the large amount of quantitative research already conducted in the field. In addition we also found and examined a research gap about how minor parties strategically respond to changes in the arenas, through nine in-depth interviews with mainly former party secretaries. The results show that our study confirms what previous research has said about how opinion polls have affected political parties. Our analysis also shows that minor parties react to poor opinion polls in different arenas, for example they tend to work harder internally, clarify their policies and seek more visibility. Horewer, more research is needed to increase knowledge about the parties' actions against opinion figures.