Browsing by Author "Jansson, Anton"

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Introduction - On the analysis and critique of ideology
(LIR. journal, 2013) Falk, Hjalmar; Jansson, Anton; Pedersson, Anders
Liberty, Equality, Exclusion - Sverigedemokraterna and liberal anti-immigrant frames in western Europe
(2010-07-07) Jansson, Anton; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
In this thesis, I firstly present my view on how to define the anti-immigrant party family in Western Europe. I argue for a broad grouping including parties sharing resentment towards immigration and multiculturalism as central contents of their politics even though they have different origins and partially different ideologies. To assert that anti-immigrant parties are right-wing authoritarian and ethnonationalist is not always accurate; instead parties use frames that work in specific country contexts. Secondly, I analyse the anti-immigrant frames used by Sverigedemokraterna and claim that it is possible to see a diffusion of the liberal frames used by the Dutch Lijst Pim Fortuyn. SD is increasingly claiming to stand up for e.g. secularism, freedom of speech, gender equality and LGBT rights against perceived threats from immigrant groups in general and Muslims in particular. These themes, almost exclusively related to immigrants, are combined with themes like costs and perceived criminality of immigrants. This diffusion of liberal frames to the national conservative SD can be at least partially understood by the fact that Sweden and the Netherlands are both liberal countries. It can be seen as confirmation of the argument that anti-immigrant parties with different ideologies can be grouped as a family.
Religion as ideology and critique: Per Götrek’s Christian communism
(LIR. journal, 2013) Jansson, Anton
Since Karl Marx, studies of ideology have tended to treat religion as negatively ideological, as social cement hiding real conflicts. But throughout history religion has also been used as a resource for criticizing ideology. This paper investigates the latter function, combining a historical study of one religiously framed critique with a discussion of religion as ideology and critique. The focus is on the work of early Swedish communist Per Götrek, who was active during the mid-nineteenth century. I analyze four of his texts and summarize his Christian critique of society, going on to suggest that in a sociological definition of ideology, religion can function both critically as well as ideologically.
Revolution and Revelation: Theology in the Political Thought of Friedrich Julius Stahl, Wilhelm Weitling and Karl Theodor Welcker
(2016-12-15) Jansson, Anton
This dissertation deals with the political thought of three authors of the Vormärz era in Germany: the liberal Karl Theodor Welcker, the socialist Wilhelm Weitling, and the conservative Friedrich Julius Stahl, who were all central in the early formation of the modern political ideologies in Germany, in the decades leading up to the revolutionary year of 1848. The thesis proceeds from a critical discussion about how religion has been unsatisfactorily treated in much intellectual history, something also witnessed in research on Weitling, Stahl, and Welcker. The aim here is to deepen the understanding of the early evolution of the modern political ideologies in Germany, by investigating the intersection of political thought and Christian theology in the works of three leading thinkers of the time. The approach taken in this study is a contextually informed historical semantics, a text explication based on certain key concepts. Each thematic chapter proceeds from concepts dealing with crucial political topics important to the political thought of the period between the revolutionary years of 1789 and 1848. These topics are headlined as Religion, Society and History. This reading of Welcker, Stahl, and Weitling shows, first, that theological dimensions made up an important part in the discussions about and formulations of the meanings of central political concepts of the era, such as liberty and equality; second, that there was a prevalence of what we mainly recognize as theological concepts, such as revelation and the Kingdom of God in political debates; and third, that there was an intense political struggle around the very meaning of Christianity itself, connected to politics and to the state. The early development of the political ideologies should thus not be interpreted as a secular endeavor or a struggle where some were for and others against Christianity. In this Vormärz context, the case was rather that political thinkers tried to formulate their own vision of Christianity and public order. Concisely put, Welcker’s Christian order was one of individual moral autonomy, Stahl’s one of revealed divine authority, and Weitling’s one of revolutionary earthly material equality. While the political thought of modernity has often been conceived as standing in a dichotomous relation to religion, this study points to the need not to neglect, separate, or teleologically interpret religion, but to write an intellectual history which deals with religious and political thought as interacting and intersecting.