Lund University STVM25 Department of Political Science Tutor: Michael Hansen/Moira Nelson Future party leaders or burned out? A mixed methods study of the leading members of the youth organizations of political parties in Sweden Elin Fjellman Abstract While career-related motives are not given much attention in studies on party membership, there are strong reasons to believe that such professional factors are important for young party members. This study is one of the first comprehensive investigations of how career-related motives impact the willingness of Swedish leading young party members to become politicians in the future. A unique survey among the national board members of the youth organizations confirms that career-related motives make a positive impact. However, those who experienced more internal stress were unexpectedly found to be more willing to become politicians in the future. The most interesting indication was that the factor that made the strongest impact on the willingness was the integration between the youth organization and its mother party. Another important goal was to develop an understanding of the meaning of career-related motives for young party members. Using a set of 25 in-depth interviews with members of the youth organizations, this study identifies a sense among the members that holding a high position within a political party could imply professional reputational costs because some employers would not hire a person who is “labelled as a politician”. This notation of reputational costs contributes importantly to the literature that seeks to explain party membership. Key words: Sweden, youth organizations, political recruitment, career-related motives, stress, party integration Words: 19 995 . Table of contents 1 Introduction: The puzzling partisans ......................................................................... 1 1.1 Purpose and research questions ........................................................................................ 3 1.2 Method, theory and data ....................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Delimitations ............................................................................................................................ 6 1.4 Outline ........................................................................................................................................ 6 2 Background ......................................................................................................................... 7 2.1 The changing political landscape oF Sweden ................................................................. 7 2.1.1 The young Swedish citizens’ relation to politics ................................................................. 8 2.2 The Swedish youth organizations ................................................................................... 10 2.2.1 How the youth organizations view recruitment .............................................................. 10 2.2.2 Party integration ............................................................................................................................ 11 3 Theory and literature review ..................................................................................... 13 3.1 What motivates party members? .................................................................................... 13 3.1.1 The rewarding party membership ......................................................................................... 13 3.1.2 The unclear importance of career-related motives ........................................................ 16 3.1.3 How career motives impact young and active members ............................................. 18 3.1.4 Summary and discussion ............................................................................................................ 20 3.2 The expectancy-value theory ........................................................................................... 20 3.2.1 Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 21 3.3 The eFFort-reward imbalance theory (ERI) ................................................................. 22 3.3.1 Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 22 4 Method and data ............................................................................................................. 24 4.1 The approach ......................................................................................................................... 24 4.2 Data ........................................................................................................................................... 26 4.2.1 The interviews ................................................................................................................................ 26 4.2.2 The survey ........................................................................................................................................ 27 4.3 Measurement ......................................................................................................................... 28 5 Analysis .............................................................................................................................. 31 5.1 Qualitative analysis ............................................................................................................. 31 5.1.1 Theme 1: Against professionalization of politicians ...................................................... 33 5.1.2 Theme 2: Possibilities that open and doors that close .................................................. 35 5.1.3 Theme 3: The work-life-politics balance ............................................................................. 37 5.1.4 Theme 4: Party membership as an education ................................................................... 38 5.2 Quantitative analysis .......................................................................................................... 39 5.2.1 Descriptive statistics .................................................................................................................... 39 5.2.2 Result .................................................................................................................................................. 43 6 Summary and discussion ............................................................................................. 48 6.1 Summary ................................................................................................................................. 48 6.2 Discussion ............................................................................................................................... 49 7 References ........................................................................................................................ 52 Appendix 1 ............................................................................................................................... 55 The survey ......................................................................................................................................... 55 Sample and response rate ......................................................................................................................... 55 Apendix 2 ................................................................................................................................. 56 Questionnaire ................................................................................................................................... 56 Introduction letter ........................................................................................................................................ 56 Questionnaire ................................................................................................................................................. 57 Appendix 3 ............................................................................................................................... 60 Variable coding ................................................................................................................................ 60 Tables and Figures Figure 1 Party membership in Sweden ........................................................................................... 8 Table 1 The Swedish youth organizations ................................................................................ 11 Table 3.1 Benefits for party members ............................................................................................. 16 Table 5.1 Willingness to future party activities .......................................................................... 40 Table 5.2 Three main types of incentives ...................................................................................... 41 Table 5.3 External and internal stress ............................................................................................ 42 Table 5.4 Willingness to become a politician, mean/organization .................................... 43 Table 5.5 Three types of motives for willingness to become politicians ......................... 44 Table 5.6 Three models testing predictors on willingness to become politicians ...... 45 1 Introduction: The puzzling