Abstract

In the paper, democracy's development and change are studied in Swedish textbooks related to social science. The study’s starting point is that the picture of democracy provided to students has changed over time. The study aims to see how the view on democracy has altered in Swedish textbooks in social science. In order to examine this, I have studied seven textbooks, from 1945 to 2006, in social science. The nature of the study is qualitative text analysis. In order to respond to the issue: How has the picture of democracy provided to students in textbooks in social science changed over time? I have used two analysis tools. What is the basis of the textbook writer’s theory for the texts? What is the textbook’s democracy theme? Two of the democracy theories I have started from are political democracy and democracy as a lifestyle.

The survey shows that all textbook writers base their texts in political democracy, however the textbook from 2006 also describes democracy as a lifestyle. The result shows that different factors have contributed to democracy's development in society, and this development is found in the textbooks. The democratic concept and the views on democracy that are produced in the textbooks have become wider and richer over time: from describing democracy as political democracy alone, to describing it as both political democracy and as a lifestyle.

Keywords: Democracy, textbooks in social science, change