Socialdemokraterna och EG – en studie av socialdemokraternas omsvängning i frågan om svenskt medlemskap i den Europeiska Gemenskapen

Abstract

The Swedish Social Democratic Party was for a long time skeptical of Sweden’s opportunities to apply for membership in the European Community. Sweden’s longstanding policy of neutrality was until the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe 1989 seen as an obstacle to membership. These changes were an important factor to why the social democratic party changed their position on the EC and in October 1990 applied for membership. But from the middle of the 1980’s you can distinguish tendencies from the party, which shows that a more positive sight on the EC was rising. With this bachelor-thesis I will attempt to explain the social democratic reorientation on the EC membership in a longer perspective, and with that ambition show that the reorientation on the membership not was as sudden as it earlier has been described. By analyzing public documents from the Swedish Riksdag and memoirs by leading actors during this time, the purpose with this study is to give a plausible explanation of the social democratic reorientation on the EC membership. My results show that you have to see the reorientation in a longer perspective to better understand why the party changed their position on the EC.