Enfranchisement as a Tool for Integration : The 1975 Extension of Voting Rights to Resident Aliens in Sweden
In 1975, Sweden extended voting rights in local elections to immigrants without Swedish citizenship (resident aliens). In this essay, motives behind the reform are analysed and it is argued that these were based on a wish to speed up the integration of immigrants rather than on normative ideas about the nature of democracy. In fact, the reform was seen as a part of the emerging Swedish integration