Rural perspectives in political debates are often dismissed as sentimental, narrowly self-interested, and irrational. This paper reports findings that challenge this view. Applying a deliberative systems approach, it examines how rural perspectives are articulated in Swedish public discourse. It identifies four coherent discourses that promote distinct political values: economic growth, rural conservatism, democracy and solidarity. The results of the study indicate a need for further examination of rural political deliberation. Beyond the pluralism of rural perspectives, they demonstrate that these are coherent political positions that share an overlapping interest in challenging an urban norm in political debate while being otherwise in tension with one another. The competition between them is, moreover, further indicated by the finding that political leaders' engage mostly with the discourse of economic growth, and to lesser extent rural conservatism and solidarity, while no party representative framed neglect of rural interests as a democratic concern.
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