This essay revolves around two questions: what is the nature of politics, and what kind of political order ensures a high rate of citizen participation? By using Cantal Mouffes theory on the political this essay shows how different understandings of the nature of politics can lead to diverging views on what forms democracy should take. Two such understandings are identified; one that sees the nature of politics as characterized by conflict and power, one that sees it as a space for cooperation in search for the common good. I trace these different ideas about the political in the parliamentary debate concerning Swedish constitutional reform. I conclude that the left-of-centre parties hold a view of the political closer to the conflict-perspective, while the green party together with the liberals/conservatives lean closer to the opposite view..

This thesis deals with non-wanted political parties e.g. right wing populism. How should a democracy handle these opinions? So far these parties have been neglected and not even considered as real parties. By excluding them from the debate and the political arena, media and more established parties have seen them merely as a threat than as democratic parties.

Our purpose was to study how care managers in practice evaluate needs in eldercare. A specific focus was set on elderly persons' sex, an area where former research show that decisions vary considerably. Were the care managers influenced in their decision making by the elderly person's sex? If so, in what ways? Were there variations in the definition of eldercare needs between the four chosen municipalities. And, finally, how did the care managers handle set criteria and priorities in their evaluation of such needs?The study was based on literature as well as interviews with eight care managers, chosen from four Scanian municipalities.We arrived at the conclusion that there is no specific difference in how the care managers evaluate eldercare needs in relation to sex..

Conflict prevention is a term which has gained much influence during the last decades. To prevent conflicts from occuring have both humanitarian and economic incentives as the cost for war are much greater than the cost of acting preventive. To act in this matter has been regarded a priority for the United Nations during several years, and the European Union have also expressed a wish of playing a more active part. The essay compares the actions taken by the international organisations in Macedonia, a country which headed toward a violent conflict. The UN acted through the mission UNPREDEP and the EU through the mission of Concordia.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka faktorer och orsaker som kunde ha spelat en betydande roll i Taiwans demokratisering efter andra världskriget. De demokratiseringsteorier som vi fördjupar oss i är välkända men är skrivet utifrån ett Taiwanesiskt perspektiv. Var det den snabba moderniseringen som påskyndande Taiwans demokratisering? Eller var det enskilda individer med makt som kunde påverka Taiwans utveckling åt det positiva hållet. Inte direkt av välvilja utan istället på grund av att dessa individer ville överleva och var därmed tvungna att införa reformer.

This Master Thesis investigates changes in Thailand's foreign policy towards its neighbouring country Burma. It argues that Thai foreign policy towards Burma has experienced major changes during four periods between 1945 and the present. The thesis investigates these foreign policy changes during the four periods. What changes occurred? What were the reasons for the changes? What reasons dominated during what periods? The four periods of Thai foreign policy changes towards Burma and the common history of the two countries since their respective foundations does not suggest a stable peaceful relationship or a bitter hostile relationship leading to war.

In this thesis I discuss and analyze different factors, and different circumstances, that influence identity negotiation among the north american indians. I do this mainly by using two models.The first one is Druckmans three dimensions of identity; negotiating identity, durability of identity and spread of identity. Depending on how the identity fits in these dimensions one can se if, or how, they influence the negotiability.My second model for analyzing is Reeds ?fasteing and unfastening identity?, using this model I have tried to understand during what circumstances the identity is negotiable. The identity is more or less negotiable depending on where the indians live, who they are living with and also on their inheritance.My results shows that the indian identity is changing and developing over time but the main characteristics still remains the same.

The state of Israel is known as the only democracy in the Middle East. The purpose of this study was to examine if there is aspects in the Israelis society that can be questioned in terms of liberal democracy.Areas of concerns in the study are the Israeli official policy's concerning inclusion and exclusion of their citizens in areas of property owning, personal status and the duty of military service.The results show that the Israeli society distinguishes their citizens in these areas by their ethnic origin, in favour for the Jewish population. The law prohibits changes in the states Jewish character. One clear example how this is presented is that a Jew is prohibited to marry a non-Jew. The results show also that this official policy by the Israeli state violates important principles of liberal democracy.

The prospect of Turkish accession to the EU has sparked controversy in many of the member countries. It has highlighted the different ways in which European as well as Turkish identity is being defined in the debate, with some politicians seemingly trying to draw on old prejudices in order to make the case against membership. By utilising discourse analysis as advocated by Thomas Diez, this thesis seeks to explore the debates regarding the Turkish accession bid in the British House of Commons. Its purpose is to analyse how ?EU? and ?Turkey?, understood as contested concepts, gets described in different ways.

The care for the elderly in the municipalities has recently seen the need for a formalized system for quality assurance. Under increasing demands for monetary efficiency while bound by law to retain acceptable standards in health care, there is need for efficient and at the same time quality-assured management. The municipalities often solve this puzzle by introducing systems and standards influenced by theory-clusters such as NPM (New Public Management), TQM (Total Quality Management) or other quality management theories.This essay focuses on how the public administration in the municipalities defines quality and designs and implements system for formalized quality assurance. Our basic view of organizations is institutionalist and our theoretical framework includes theories about quality, NPM and TQM..

This study examines the equity cost of capital between two periods distinguished by substantial differences in IPO activity. In light of the stemmed IPO flow to the Swedish stock exchange in 2012, this study regards the conjecture that the IPO count is related to the prevailing cost of equity capital for certain periods. By application of the Residual Income Valuation model the cost of equity capital is abstracted from sampled stock prices and compared at two points in time for which extreme highs and lows of IPO activity were observed. Using randomized samples from 1999 and 2012, significant differences between the estimated costs of capital are established. The findings indicate that the equity cost of capital, much as it may help influence, nevertheless plays a subordinated role in the going-public decision..

Teorier om kön och ledarskap framhåller att könsordningen, sociala och kulturellauppfattningar om kön samt stereotyper om manligt och kvinnligt försvårar förkvinnor att nå högre ledande befattningar. Genom samtalsintervjuer med fempersoner vilka är involverade i rekryteringen av förvaltningschefer i Helsingborgs,Lunds och Malmö kommun har vi undersökt vilka uppfattningar ochföreställningar som kan påverka rekrytering av förvaltningschefer ur ettkönsperspektiv. Vi har funnit att könsrelaterade värderingar och fenomen somhomosocial reproduktion har en inverkan på rekryteringar av förvaltningschefer ide tre undersökta kommunerna. Vi har dessutom funnit att kommunerna betonarreflektion och handlingskraft avseende köns- och jämställdhetsfrågor irekryteringsprocesserna i olika utsträckning. Att det är nödvändigt med en balansmellan reflektion och handling anser både vi och de befintliga teorierna är enförutsättning för att jämställdhet ska beaktas i rekryteringen..

MST, eller O Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurias Sem Terra (Rörelsen för Lantarbetare utan Jord), är en av latinamerikas och kanske världens största och mest inflytelserika sociala rörelser. Rörelsen är dessutom verksam i en av världens största politiska, ekonomsika, kulturella och sociala smältdeglar.I vår uppsats vill vi undersöka, dels vilka metoder som en social rörelse kan tillämpa när det gäller att driva frågor om demokrati framåt. Som teoretiskt ramverk tillämpar vi befintliga teorier i kombination med egna begrepp. För att kunna svara på frågeställning har vi genom en bred empirisk bas försökt åskådliggöra den kontext i vilken MST arbetar och utifrån denna information dragit våra slutsatser..

The civil war in Sierra Leone was a very complicated conflict, both in its origin as well as in its realization. Many actors, along with the diamond trade, played vital parts in making the war carry on for a decade. In this paper I will try to clarify the relations between the actors and the diamonds, first and foremost the part the diamonds played in the conflicts start and continuation. I will also show what has happened in the country and in the diamond industry after the wars conclusion. What I find is that diamonds did not play the only part in the origin of the conflict but that the poor economic state the country was in had its part.

In 1994 it was decided that a new network based organizational model was to be initiated to face the problems of some of the gender inequalities in Sweden. The organisation structure was named Resource Centre for Women (ResursCentrum för kvinnor).This essay constitutes a qualitative case study of governing, with this organisation structure as my field of inquiry. My ambition has been to outline and explain what kind of governing has been used and how it works. I have also tried to identify potential changes of the ways of governing over time. To help me out with that task, I have applied a theoretical framework, characterized of a governance perspective, and have used terms as: governing with networks, partnership, projects and visionary government to interpret my empiric material.My result shows that there have been various changes in the ways of governing, from a more hierarchal government form of governing to a more governance based one..