The concept of political culture has its roots in the 1960´s as a subfield of political studies.193 Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba stated that: “The political culture is the particular distribu- tion of patterns of orientation toward political objects among the members of the nation.”194Po- litical culture encompasses the attitudes, norms, values, beliefs, views of reality, feelings for political phenomena, self-perception, and knowledge of political issues.195 All this in the form of Political Culture is tied to specific national contexts, and for this thesis it is sufficient to state the acceptance of a Swedish political culture. Politics on the other hand is in the context of this thesis viewed as the “constrained use of social power"196 The study of politics is therefore: "the study of the nature and the source of those constraints and the techniques for the use of social power within those constraints" 197. The existence of a Swedish way of political interaction and specific traits of Swedish political culture is relevant to acknowledge, as Politics is the greater context in which policy is developed. Policy "designates the behavior of some actor or set of actors, such as an official, a government agency, or a legislature, in an area of activity such as public transportation or consumer protection”.198 Security- and defence policy, as public pol- icy, is highly relevant to the study of strategic culture and the following case study of Swedish Military Strategic doctrine and is viewed in light of the definition: "… a relatively stable, pur- posive course of action or inaction followed by an actor or set of actors in dealing with a prob- lem or matter of concern”199 This is the point where we enter to examine the Swedish political subculture, in reference to security and defence policy as well as its relationship to doctrine. The matter of concern is the defence of Sweden, the course of action is stated in public docu- ments such as governmental whitepapers.
193 For an in-depth overview of the study of Political Culture see: Welch, Stephen: The Theory of Political Cul-
ture, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013.
194 Almond, Gabriel, A., Verba, Sidney: The civic culture: Political attitudes and Democracy in five nations, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1963, p.14-15.
195 Österud, Öyvind: Statsvetenskap: Introduktion i politisk analys, Natur och kultur, Stockholm 2002, p. 226. 196 Goodin, Robert E. & Klingemann, Hans-Dieter (eds.) A New Handbook of Political Science. Oxford Univer- sity Press, New York 1996, p. 7.
197 Ibid.
198 Anderson, James E.: Public policymaking eight edition. Cengage Learning, Belmont 2014, p.6. 199 Ibid., p.7.
The making of security and defence policy in Sweden in the Post-Cold War era has been ex- tensively studied by Eva Haldén.200 The before mentioned defence committee is a central secu-
rity and defence policy agent, but the SwAF also has its own role in policymaking. For instance the “Perspective Studies” made by SwAF are an influential tool in directing policy.201 The per-
spective studies offer an insight into how defence planning is and will be affected by policy decision made. The funding of the SwAF is a central factor which forces the SwAF to adapt its structure, armament and tasking sometimes with little or no regard to factual changes in the security environment. The funding of defence forces might be a dilemma shared by many na- tions worldwide, but in Sweden the funding issue has become quite problematic and a focal point for policy formation.
Haldén talks about black holes regarding the funding of SwAF.202 The mismanagement of funds allocated to the SwAF and a continuing cutting of funds from the political level ultimately lead to a loss of trust between the armed forces and their political masters. This has then led to changes such as establishing a post for a Director General in the SwAF in 2005.203 The Director General is a civilian post with the main task of overseeing the use of funds in the SwAF. But the most decisive change is the growing extent of micromanagement of the SwAF in policy papers and political decisions.204 In Sweden defence policy does not only guide the SwAF and
provide it with the funding required to meet its tasks. The policy papers manage the ends, ways and means of the SwAF to an extent in which little is left for the agency to manage for itself. Thus Swedish policy culture in security and defence issues is coloured by a degree of mistrust against the SwAF and a direct by micromanagement approach to political control of the main governmental agency tasked with providing security for the state. This policy culture is a part of the broader Swedish strategic culture. Such a strong policy culture would then inevitably affect the formation of doctrine. The influence of policy culture on doctrine might theoretically be either to incorporate policy guidance as given, or be seen as circumventing policy guidance in the writing of doctrine all the way to disregarding policy requirements in the doctrinal texts. In any event, policy affects doctrine, and policy culture as a dimension of policy could thus also affect doctrine.
200 Haldén (2007)
201 Haldén (2007), Perspektivstudier p. 67. for examples of perspective studies reports see: https://www.for-
svarsmakten.se/sv/om-forsvarsmakten/dokument/perspektivplanering/ with studies from 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2013 and 2018.
202 Haldén (2007), p. 98.
203 Director general for the SwAF, see: https://www.forsvarsmakten.se/sv/organisation/sa-leds-forsvarsmak-
ten/generaldirektoren/