Liberal theorists typically argue that state action should not favor any particular conception of the good or meaningful life. On this view the defining characteristic of the liberal state is neutrality among rivaling ideas of the good. This thesis argues that state neutrality is impossible to maintain in practice. Two different versions of state neutrality; neutral justification and neutral aims, are used to analyze a wide range of political issues. It is concluded that far from being neutral, the liberal state favors individualistic and market oriented conceptions of the good life.

At the moment, democracy enhancing projects can be seen everywhere on the municipal level. The purpose of this thesis is to explain how the city of Lund takes on this challenge, why they have chosen to carry out citizen councils and if these are a good way to intensify democracy and open communication channels between citizens, the administration and the elected officials.The theoretical framework consists of seven arguments for gaining citizen influence on policy, and as a counterweight three critical arguments that opponents of participatory democracy often use are added.After a survey over both the Swedish national trends in municipal renewal and the last years work in Lund, the analysis goes on showing that most of the arguments point to the disadvantage of the citizen councils. Even though legitimacy possibly is enhanced by the project, there are probably better ways to open up for more communication and intensify democracy in the local community..

År 1999 erkändes romerna i Sverige som en av landets fem nationella minoriteter. Sveriges minoritetspolitik syftar till att ge stöd och skydd till minoriteternas språk, kultur och traditioner, vilket ska ske genom olika instanser i samhället. Den här uppsatsen fokuserar på om Sveriges minoritetspolitik gällande romer är ett fall av handling eller hyckleri. För att undersöka frågeställningen har vi fokuserat på relationen mellan romer och utbildning inom områdena resurser, frekvens och information.Med hjälp av huvudsakligen intervjuer av informantkaraktär har vi analyserat vilket av begreppen handling eller hyckleri som minoritetspolitiken är ett fall av. Vårt resultat är att minoritetspolitiken kan betecknas som ett fall av hyckleri, då romerna inte behandlas som en nationell minoritet på utbildningsområdet..

The purpose of this paper is to explore how practicing teachers have included their education in their teaching profession. The five teachers who were interviewed expressed that they lack experience in dealing with administrative issues, conflict management, parental contact and how to manage stress. There has been prior research on how teachers perceive their everyday working lives. Those results showed that teachers are becoming stressed by not knowing how to handle certain situations.My results showed that the teachers were to busy so they created their own methods on how to deal with phenomena that the education have not treated or discussed. The interviews were analyzed with the help of two constructivist concept, authenticity and activity .Authenticity focuses on knowledge is created and constructed by everyday situations.

The thesis of this essay is that the concept of governance is a product of the neo-liberal dominant ideology and that the implementation of governance ideas will lead to a weaker nation-state. Using critical theory the essay constructs an ideal type of neo-liberalism and compares its core values with these of the governance concept as treated by the main literature in the area. The essay then focuses on the issue of the state, and discusses whether the changes leading to a demand for governance have actually weakened the state. Furthermore, the essay presents the practical use of the term governance in the EU and Sweden and problemizes the changes that the neo-liberal domination has led to in terms of power and democracy. Finally the essay discusses alternative views on the changing role of the state.

Small companies have fewer resources which often result in an tendency to disregard  administrative tasks. A factor that influences the company?s revenues is the control of its inventories. The purpose of the current study was to analyze which of the two options, leasing or owning your inventory, that could be justified from an economical perspective. Furthermore, the purpose was to describe the optimal inventory level for each option. To meet these objectives representatives for the company was interviewed and a thorough investigation process was undertaken, during which methodological problems were solved.  It was found that leasing the inventory was the most expensive option for the company. Analysis demonstrated that optimal turnover inventory according to EOQ (Economic Order Quantity) would amount to 65,0 thousand Swedish Krona if the company leases their inventory in comparison to 56,0 thousand Swedish Krona if the company owned their inventory.

Before the general election 2006 all of the Swedish parties represented in the Parliament held their political party conference. At each political party conference, the leader for respectively party held their opening speech, a speech that was covered by the press. This essay deals with how the press covers these speeches. Analysing how the different speeches were covered by the press, some tendencies regarding how the press report could be visualised. In this comparison the ?quantitative content analysis? was used.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka Venezuelas möjligheter att bygga en deltagande demokrati genom att jämföra situationen och processen i Venezuela med statsvetenskapliga teorier om deltagande demokrati.Den venezolanska regeringens mål är ett fullständigt avskaffande av valdemokratin och ett införande av en allomfattande deltagande demokrati. För att uppnå detta byggs en deltagardemokratisk struktur upp vid sidan av den traditionella.Det som talar för en utveckling av den deltagande demokratin är de medborgarförsamlingar som byggts upp, och förändringar i landets ekonomiska system. Det främsta hindret är maktdelningen mellan nya och gamla strukturer. Många av de traditionella problemen med deltagande demokrati har övervunnits, mycket eftersom övergången till deltagardemokrati är planerad att vara mer djupgående och fullständig än vad de flesta statsvetenskapliga teorier utgår ifrån.Slutsatsen är att det finns goda möjligheter att utveckla en deltagande demokrati i Venezuela, men att utvecklingen på många sätt är osäker..

Utvärdering har idag blivit något av ett ledord i offentliga verksamheter, såväl i Sverige som i andra västländer. Resultat och kvalitet skall mätas, bedömas och redovisas i en aldrig tidigare skådad omfattning. I denna uppsats ställer jag mig frågan om vad de ständiga utvärderingarna får för konsekvenser för de offentliga organisationer som utvärderas och gör en genomgång av aktuell forskning på området. Det visar sig att det finns en rad olika teoretiska perspektiv som har anlagts på problemet ifråga men egentligen inte särskilt mycket empirisk forskning. En del forskare har lyft fram positiva effekter i form av ?upplysning? av debattklimatet i vilket beslut har att fattas och lärningsprocesser som sätts igång i de utvärderade organisationerna, medan andra pekat på problematiska bieffekter och utvärderingars legitimerande och meningsskapande funktioner..

Drawing on a broad theoretical framework that includes theories about globalisation and honourculture, this thesis aim is to demonstrate that globalisation and honourculture, constitute a conceptual network, i.e a structural relational matrix in which concepts are embedded. Being part of conceptual network, these concepts are related to each other ontologically. The idea of conceptual network, and the thesis as a whole, draw upon what has been called ?relational perspective?This study aims to show the impact of globalisation on honourculture. The study shows the importance of narrative in the construction of discursive boundaries.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how municipalities handle planning of megaprojects. The term megaproject here refers to a large project in terms of time, space, investments, numbers of agents etc. With an increasing importance of the phenomena the need of discussing the role local politics could take in this process is important.How do municipalities handle the difficulties that come with megaprojects and what roles do they take in their work with megaprojects? These empirical questions are tested on a case where the municipality of Lund works with the megaproject European Spallation Source (ESS). A theoretical question discusses the megaproject in the light of governance and government, and structures the analysis around these two important terms.Different parts of the municipality handle there part of the planning from there own logic.

This essay is a qualitative study concerned with questions about disability. I set out from a definition of disability which highlights non-disabled peoples´ participation in making a disabled person ?the Other?. My aim is to contribute to an understanding of the experiences of disabled people as well as problemize the way that normality and disability is socially constructed. The empirical material of the essay consists of qualitative interviews with disabled men and women and the essay is written with a critical perspective.

The liberal state, it has been argued, must be neutral between different conceptions of the good. Embodying ideals such as fairness and impartiality, state neutrality is intuitively appealing, but working as a restraint for state actions it is somewhat unsatisfactory. People make mistakes about their lives and people live less valuable lives than they could do. To then restrain the state from doing as much good as it can seems just as unappealing as neutrality at first seemed appealing. In this paper, a possible solution to this dilemma is presented.

The disciplinary role of madness in the European society was major during the17th century rise of the national state.By studying the view on madness in Swedish governmental investigations duringthe modern years of the Swedish psychiatry, 1950 to today, it's possible to seehow madness function in society have changed. The study is based on a discourseanalysis and done in three important aspects of Michel Foucault's philosophy:terms of existence, control and knowledge.Based on Foucault's theories of self-discipline, exclusion mechanisms and adetailed investigation on the concept of power, the empirical survey shows howthe ?crazy? Swede changes from a disciplinary object of society into a drone toserve under the structures of capitalism. In a psychological condition previousscience has judged as animal..

AbstractIn this thesis I will discuss the relationship between the European Union and the regions of Europe. The development of the European Union has meant that many decisions are taken in Bruxelles. Many actors participate in the policyprocess ranging from national goverment to policynetworks of different kinds. An emerging actor has been the regions of Europe. Their influence on the policyprocess have grown and today almost all of them are represented in Bruxelles through Region Offices.