Karl Magnus Johansson
Biographic Data
| ID | 4377632 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Karl Magnus Johansson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Karl Magnus |
| FAMILY NAME | Johansson |
| SIGNATURE | JOHANSSON K M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Södertörn University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3804-5020 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 163 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Normalizing Government Social Media Communication: A Swedish Case Analysis
Social media is transforming how political power is exercised through communication, functioning both as a critical resource and as a catalyst for institutional adaptation in executive government. This article examines how social media is integrated into government communication, distinguishing between two dimensions: structure and process. Drawing on a literature review and a case study of Sweden—based on interviews with government press secreta…
I am the gatekeeper”: Why and how ministerial media advisers have been empowered
Although policy advisers have been amply studied, far fewer studies have examined media advisers. And, so far, adviser research has offered few insights into the relationship between these two key groups of political staffers. This article claims that media advisers have been empowered. It offers a rational functionalist explanation, which emphasises concerns about functional efficiency. Media generates functional pressures for the institutional …
The Prime Minister-Media Nexus: Centralization Logic and Application
Prime Minister-Media Nexus: Centralization Logic and Application
Along the government–media frontier: Press secretaries offline/online
While the position of press secretaries to ministers has become routinized, we still know little about their everyday life in the political executive. This article, based on in‐depth interviews with press secretaries and an inventory of social media use conducted among ministers and press secretaries in Sweden, explores what press secretaries do and the roles and functions they fill. It addresses the overarching question of what it is really like…
Centralizing Government Communication? Evidence from Finland and Sweden
How governments manage their communication is one crucial indicator of the balance of power within the cabinet and inside the executive branch as a whole. Existing research offers few insights into the process by which governments come to choose one form of communication over another and about the factors driving centralization. This article addresses this gap through a comparison of two countries, Finland and Sweden, examining not only the organ…
The role of Europarties in EU treaty reform: Theory and practice
Europarty Influence and Its Limits: The Case of the European People’s Party and the Amsterdam Treaty
This article explores the conditions for Europarty influence. Europarties can be expected to matter when they are in numerical ascendance, relatively cohesive and able to mobilize their networks of political parties and leaders. The explanatory power of this argument is tested empirically through an in-depth case study: the role of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) in the negotiations leading to the adoption of the Amsterdam Treaty i…
Explaining moderation in nationalism: Divergent trajectories of national conservative parties in Estonia and Latvia
The Domestic Politics of European Union Presidencies: The Case of Sweden
This article aims to start filling a gap in contemporary research on the rotating EU presidencies. In particular, the article pays attention to the role played by domestic factors in the development and fate of EU presidencies. What is the level of conflict between the government and the opposition during EU presidencies? This question is central for us and we address it through an in-depth analysis of one single case, Sweden, through a comparati…
Organizing the Core Executive for European Union Affairs: Comparing Finland and Sweden
Examining core executive organization for EU affairs in Finland and Sweden, this article uncovers how change agents used European integration deliberately to strengthen their role in the domestic settings through taking control of EU policy co-ordination. In both countries, EU membership was an exogenous factor that enabled the offices of the PM to secure a more powerful position and advance their own institutional agendas. This strengthened thei…
Explaining Chief Executive Empowerment: EU Summitry and Domestic Institutional Change
One of the most prominent trends in the organisation of European parliamentary democracies is the empowerment of chief executives. This article submits that an important reason contributing to this development is summit decision-making in the European Union, which requires states to confer additional authority, discretion and resources on chief executives. The effects are long-term shifts in the domestic institutional balance of power between the…
External Legitimization and Standardization Of National Political Parties: The Case Of Estonian Social Democracy
This article argues that transnational engagement offers political parties legitimacy and reinforces tendencies towards standardization. EU accession brought many parties in post-communist Europe into Euro-parties and political groups. In this context, national parties are expected to adhere and keep to certain standards. The case in point is the Estonian Social Democratic Party, which took back this name shortly before Estonia joined the EU. The…
Chief Executive Organization and Advisory Arrangements for Foreign Affairs: The Case of Sweden
As prime ministers are drawn into international relations and the foreign policy process, they are in need of advisory structures for foreign affairs in their offices. This article examines the system and the role of foreign affairs advisers to the Prime Minister (PM), the chief executive, in Sweden. The article centres on the organization for foreign affairs, in general terms of institutional and staffing arrangements, and on leader—adviser rela…
Party politics in the European Council
This article explores the extent to which the growing party politicization of the EU extends to the European Council. We advance the argument that three central factors shape the extent to which party politics influences European Council outcomes: the salience of an issue along the left-right dimension, the partisan composition of the European Council, and the cohesion and mobilization of transnational parties. We explore the influence of these f…
Transcending the Boundaries of Political Science
The discipline of political science ought to be reoriented to capture the realities of multi-level politics, to understand better the dispersion and complexity of political authority, and to ameliorate its tendency towards fragmentation into separate sub-fields. International/supranational arenas and arenas within states intertwine. The EU, for one, is not something that is separable from the nation state. This article calls into question the app…
Regulating Europarties: Cross-Party Coalitions Capitalizing on Incomplete Contracts
Political parties organized at the European level, Europarties, have become more relevant actors in the European Union. Constitutional and legal rules have recognized their role in the EU political system, they now receive funding from the Union’s budget and the strengthening of the European Parliament offers them more opportunities for influencing the EU policy process. Drawing on extensive interview material, we explain why and how Europarties …
Party Elites in Multilevel Europe: The Christian Democrats and the Single European Act
This article addresses the role of party elites in the setting of European multilevel governance and transnationalization. Emphasis is placed on informal networks, elite socialization and policy coordination. The analysis focuses on the 1985 Intergovernmental Conference, which led to the Single European Act (SEA), and the political family of Christian Democrats, most notably party leaders' meetings. The research material consists of interviews an…
Another Road to Maastricht: The Christian Democrat Coalition and the Quest for European Union
This article breaks new ground in our understanding of the Maastricht outcome by examining the role of the European People’s Party (EPP) and its member parties. Special emphasis is placed on the meetings of Christian Democrat leaders. At the time of the 1991 parallel Intergovernmental Conferences, six out of 12 heads of government met in the EPP. The article argues that the Treaty on European Union was facilitated by the transnational coalition o…
Partisan responses to Europe: Comparing Finnish and Swedish political parties
This article analyzes party responses to European integration in Finland andSweden.We argue that such responses are shaped by seven explanatory factors: basic ideology, public opinion, factionalism, leadership influence, party competition, transnational links, and the development of integration. Each factor can lead to a positive or a negative evaluation of the European Union. In the empirical analysis, the sample includes all parties represented…
Tracing the employment title in the Amsterdam treaty: Uncovering Transnational Coalitions
This article traces the employment title in the Amsterdam treaty, with the aim of uncovering the role of transnational coalitions. The perspectives of transnational coalition-building and policy-making, in the European Union, are combined to shed light on transnational strategies of influence. Such strategies were employed by political parties and trade unions. They are treated as linkage actors in a transmission system, or belt, linking the dome…
Partisan responses to Europe: Comparing Finnish and Swedish political parties
This article analyzes party responses to European integration in Finland andSweden.We argue that such responses are shaped by seven explanatory factors: basic ideology, public opinion, factionalism, leadership influence, party competition, transnational links, and the development of integration. Each factor can lead to a positive or a negative evaluation of the European Union. In the empirical analysis, the sample includes all parties represented…
Tracing the employment title in the Amsterdam treaty: Uncovering Transnational Coalitions
This article traces the employment title in the Amsterdam treaty, with the aim of uncovering the role of transnational coalitions. The perspectives of transnational coalition-building and policy-making, in the European Union, are combined to shed light on transnational strategies of influence. Such strategies were employed by political parties and trade unions. They are treated as linkage actors in a transmission system, or belt, linking the dome…
Explaining Chief Executive Empowerment: EU Summitry and Domestic Institutional Change
One of the most prominent trends in the organisation of European parliamentary democracies is the empowerment of chief executives. This article submits that an important reason contributing to this development is summit decision-making in the European Union, which requires states to confer additional authority, discretion and resources on chief executives. The effects are long-term shifts in the domestic institutional balance of power between the…
Regulating Europarties: Cross-Party Coalitions Capitalizing on Incomplete Contracts
Political parties organized at the European level, Europarties, have become more relevant actors in the European Union. Constitutional and legal rules have recognized their role in the EU political system, they now receive funding from the Union’s budget and the strengthening of the European Parliament offers them more opportunities for influencing the EU policy process. Drawing on extensive interview material, we explain why and how Europarties …
Party Elites in Multilevel Europe: The Christian Democrats and the Single European Act
This article addresses the role of party elites in the setting of European multilevel governance and transnationalization. Emphasis is placed on informal networks, elite socialization and policy coordination. The analysis focuses on the 1985 Intergovernmental Conference, which led to the Single European Act (SEA), and the political family of Christian Democrats, most notably party leaders' meetings. The research material consists of interviews an…
Party politics in the European Council
This article explores the extent to which the growing party politicization of the EU extends to the European Council. We advance the argument that three central factors shape the extent to which party politics influences European Council outcomes: the salience of an issue along the left-right dimension, the partisan composition of the European Council, and the cohesion and mobilization of transnational parties. We explore the influence of these f…
Another Road to Maastricht: The Christian Democrat Coalition and the Quest for European Union
This article breaks new ground in our understanding of the Maastricht outcome by examining the role of the European People’s Party (EPP) and its member parties. Special emphasis is placed on the meetings of Christian Democrat leaders. At the time of the 1991 parallel Intergovernmental Conferences, six out of 12 heads of government met in the EPP. The article argues that the Treaty on European Union was facilitated by the transnational coalition o…
Organizing the Core Executive for European Union Affairs: Comparing Finland and Sweden
Examining core executive organization for EU affairs in Finland and Sweden, this article uncovers how change agents used European integration deliberately to strengthen their role in the domestic settings through taking control of EU policy co-ordination. In both countries, EU membership was an exogenous factor that enabled the offices of the PM to secure a more powerful position and advance their own institutional agendas. This strengthened thei…
The Domestic Politics of European Union Presidencies: The Case of Sweden
This article aims to start filling a gap in contemporary research on the rotating EU presidencies. In particular, the article pays attention to the role played by domestic factors in the development and fate of EU presidencies. What is the level of conflict between the government and the opposition during EU presidencies? This question is central for us and we address it through an in-depth analysis of one single case, Sweden, through a comparati…
The role of Europarties in EU treaty reform: Theory and practice
External Legitimization and Standardization Of National Political Parties: The Case Of Estonian Social Democracy
This article argues that transnational engagement offers political parties legitimacy and reinforces tendencies towards standardization. EU accession brought many parties in post-communist Europe into Euro-parties and political groups. In this context, national parties are expected to adhere and keep to certain standards. The case in point is the Estonian Social Democratic Party, which took back this name shortly before Estonia joined the EU. The…
Explaining moderation in nationalism: Divergent trajectories of national conservative parties in Estonia and Latvia
Chief Executive Organization and Advisory Arrangements for Foreign Affairs: The Case of Sweden
As prime ministers are drawn into international relations and the foreign policy process, they are in need of advisory structures for foreign affairs in their offices. This article examines the system and the role of foreign affairs advisers to the Prime Minister (PM), the chief executive, in Sweden. The article centres on the organization for foreign affairs, in general terms of institutional and staffing arrangements, and on leader—adviser rela…
Along the government–media frontier: Press secretaries offline/online
While the position of press secretaries to ministers has become routinized, we still know little about their everyday life in the political executive. This article, based on in‐depth interviews with press secretaries and an inventory of social media use conducted among ministers and press secretaries in Sweden, explores what press secretaries do and the roles and functions they fill. It addresses the overarching question of what it is really like…
Europarty Influence and Its Limits: The Case of the European People’s Party and the Amsterdam Treaty
This article explores the conditions for Europarty influence. Europarties can be expected to matter when they are in numerical ascendance, relatively cohesive and able to mobilize their networks of political parties and leaders. The explanatory power of this argument is tested empirically through an in-depth case study: the role of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) in the negotiations leading to the adoption of the Amsterdam Treaty i…
Centralizing Government Communication? Evidence from Finland and Sweden
How governments manage their communication is one crucial indicator of the balance of power within the cabinet and inside the executive branch as a whole. Existing research offers few insights into the process by which governments come to choose one form of communication over another and about the factors driving centralization. This article addresses this gap through a comparison of two countries, Finland and Sweden, examining not only the organ…
Tracing the employment title in the Amsterdam treaty: Uncovering Transnational Coalitions
This article traces the employment title in the Amsterdam treaty, with the aim of uncovering the role of transnational coalitions. The perspectives of transnational coalition-building and policy-making, in the European Union, are combined to shed light on transnational strategies of influence. Such strategies were employed by political parties and trade unions. They are treated as linkage actors in a transmission system, or belt, linking the dome…
Partisan responses to Europe: Comparing Finnish and Swedish political parties
This article analyzes party responses to European integration in Finland andSweden.We argue that such responses are shaped by seven explanatory factors: basic ideology, public opinion, factionalism, leadership influence, party competition, transnational links, and the development of integration. Each factor can lead to a positive or a negative evaluation of the European Union. In the empirical analysis, the sample includes all parties represented…
Party Elites in Multilevel Europe: The Christian Democrats and the Single European Act
This article addresses the role of party elites in the setting of European multilevel governance and transnationalization. Emphasis is placed on informal networks, elite socialization and policy coordination. The analysis focuses on the 1985 Intergovernmental Conference, which led to the Single European Act (SEA), and the political family of Christian Democrats, most notably party leaders' meetings. The research material consists of interviews an…
Another Road to Maastricht: The Christian Democrat Coalition and the Quest for European Union
This article breaks new ground in our understanding of the Maastricht outcome by examining the role of the European People’s Party (EPP) and its member parties. Special emphasis is placed on the meetings of Christian Democrat leaders. At the time of the 1991 parallel Intergovernmental Conferences, six out of 12 heads of government met in the EPP. The article argues that the Treaty on European Union was facilitated by the transnational coalition o…
Regulating Europarties: Cross-Party Coalitions Capitalizing on Incomplete Contracts
Political parties organized at the European level, Europarties, have become more relevant actors in the European Union. Constitutional and legal rules have recognized their role in the EU political system, they now receive funding from the Union’s budget and the strengthening of the European Parliament offers them more opportunities for influencing the EU policy process. Drawing on extensive interview material, we explain why and how Europarties …
Transcending the Boundaries of Political Science
The discipline of political science ought to be reoriented to capture the realities of multi-level politics, to understand better the dispersion and complexity of political authority, and to ameliorate its tendency towards fragmentation into separate sub-fields. International/supranational arenas and arenas within states intertwine. The EU, for one, is not something that is separable from the nation state. This article calls into question the app…
External Legitimization and Standardization Of National Political Parties: The Case Of Estonian Social Democracy
This article argues that transnational engagement offers political parties legitimacy and reinforces tendencies towards standardization. EU accession brought many parties in post-communist Europe into Euro-parties and political groups. In this context, national parties are expected to adhere and keep to certain standards. The case in point is the Estonian Social Democratic Party, which took back this name shortly before Estonia joined the EU. The…
Chief Executive Organization and Advisory Arrangements for Foreign Affairs: The Case of Sweden
As prime ministers are drawn into international relations and the foreign policy process, they are in need of advisory structures for foreign affairs in their offices. This article examines the system and the role of foreign affairs advisers to the Prime Minister (PM), the chief executive, in Sweden. The article centres on the organization for foreign affairs, in general terms of institutional and staffing arrangements, and on leader—adviser rela…
Party politics in the European Council
This article explores the extent to which the growing party politicization of the EU extends to the European Council. We advance the argument that three central factors shape the extent to which party politics influences European Council outcomes: the salience of an issue along the left-right dimension, the partisan composition of the European Council, and the cohesion and mobilization of transnational parties. We explore the influence of these f…
Organizing the Core Executive for European Union Affairs: Comparing Finland and Sweden
Examining core executive organization for EU affairs in Finland and Sweden, this article uncovers how change agents used European integration deliberately to strengthen their role in the domestic settings through taking control of EU policy co-ordination. In both countries, EU membership was an exogenous factor that enabled the offices of the PM to secure a more powerful position and advance their own institutional agendas. This strengthened thei…
Explaining Chief Executive Empowerment: EU Summitry and Domestic Institutional Change
One of the most prominent trends in the organisation of European parliamentary democracies is the empowerment of chief executives. This article submits that an important reason contributing to this development is summit decision-making in the European Union, which requires states to confer additional authority, discretion and resources on chief executives. The effects are long-term shifts in the domestic institutional balance of power between the…
Explaining moderation in nationalism: Divergent trajectories of national conservative parties in Estonia and Latvia
The Domestic Politics of European Union Presidencies: The Case of Sweden
This article aims to start filling a gap in contemporary research on the rotating EU presidencies. In particular, the article pays attention to the role played by domestic factors in the development and fate of EU presidencies. What is the level of conflict between the government and the opposition during EU presidencies? This question is central for us and we address it through an in-depth analysis of one single case, Sweden, through a comparati…
Europarty Influence and Its Limits: The Case of the European People’s Party and the Amsterdam Treaty
This article explores the conditions for Europarty influence. Europarties can be expected to matter when they are in numerical ascendance, relatively cohesive and able to mobilize their networks of political parties and leaders. The explanatory power of this argument is tested empirically through an in-depth case study: the role of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) in the negotiations leading to the adoption of the Amsterdam Treaty i…
The role of Europarties in EU treaty reform: Theory and practice
Centralizing Government Communication? Evidence from Finland and Sweden
How governments manage their communication is one crucial indicator of the balance of power within the cabinet and inside the executive branch as a whole. Existing research offers few insights into the process by which governments come to choose one form of communication over another and about the factors driving centralization. This article addresses this gap through a comparison of two countries, Finland and Sweden, examining not only the organ…
Along the government–media frontier: Press secretaries offline/online
While the position of press secretaries to ministers has become routinized, we still know little about their everyday life in the political executive. This article, based on in‐depth interviews with press secretaries and an inventory of social media use conducted among ministers and press secretaries in Sweden, explores what press secretaries do and the roles and functions they fill. It addresses the overarching question of what it is really like…
The Prime Minister-Media Nexus: Centralization Logic and Application
Prime Minister-Media Nexus: Centralization Logic and Application
I am the gatekeeper”: Why and how ministerial media advisers have been empowered
Although policy advisers have been amply studied, far fewer studies have examined media advisers. And, so far, adviser research has offered few insights into the relationship between these two key groups of political staffers. This article claims that media advisers have been empowered. It offers a rational functionalist explanation, which emphasises concerns about functional efficiency. Media generates functional pressures for the institutional …
Normalizing Government Social Media Communication: A Swedish Case Analysis
Social media is transforming how political power is exercised through communication, functioning both as a critical resource and as a catalyst for institutional adaptation in executive government. This article examines how social media is integrated into government communication, distinguishing between two dimensions: structure and process. Drawing on a literature review and a case study of Sweden—based on interviews with government press secreta…
Politics (20 works) · Political science (19 works) · Law (18 works) · Law (17 works) · Sociology (17 works) · European Union Policy and Governance (15 works) · Political economy (14 works) · Public Administration (14 works) · Public Administration (14 works) · Economics (12 works)