Path2Power: an Ethnographic Study of Political Leadership Education

Objective

Political parties are crucial in representative democracies, allowing citizens to influence political agendas and decision-making. A key aspect of this role is the education provided by parties, from orienting new members to training future leaders. Given the growing challenges of distrust, polarisation, and anti-democratic leadership in liberal democracies, examining the educational dimensions of political parties is essential. Despite extensive research on societal participation and democracy, the intra-party educational paths of politicians remain largely unexplored. This project addresses this gap by investigating the intra-party education of young political leaders within the labour movement in Sweden. It focuses on a leadership school that collaborates with the Social Democratic Party, its youth wing and the Trade Union Confederation. This setting is particularly relevant due to the Social Democratic movement's strong ties to Nordic popular education and its history as a mass party with significant member influence. Drawing on theories of adult learning and identity formation, the study examines how young political activists are trained for leadership and how they perceive their own learning processes. The project moves beyond seeing political education merely as a means of acquiring political skills, instead focusing on individual development and the formation of collective identities within political movements. Using ethnographic fieldwork—including participant observation, interviews with participants and alumni, and textual analysis—it explores how young leaders experience the leadership school as a transformative process and how they negotiate multiple roles within the broader movement. By emphasising these political educational journeys, the project contributes to understanding how new leaders are socialised and how power structures are shaped within political parties.