| Summary: | During the last centuries the alleged democratic deficit in the European Union has been discussed within the area of European studies. This deficit is, according to previous research, present on the national political arena where parties fail to discuss European issues. To describe the democratic link between national political parties and their voters, this essay answers the following question: How do the Swedish political parties discuss issues concerning the European Union in their manifestos for the Swedish parliamentary election of 2018? This is answered by a text analysis of the election manifestos of the Swedish parliamentary parties of 2018. The result is that the “second-order national elections”-hypothesis fail to explain the discussion about EU on the Swedish political arena. Furthermore, the essay finds that the Swedish parliamentary parties to a large extent act as predicted by the theory regarding “issue evolution” presented by Hobolt and de Vries.
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