Democracy is said to uphold the dearest values and be the most moral system. But it cannot be characterized as a rigid "syste" but a continuously changing political framework, under which aims and values can be fulfilled - and replaced.The increasingly diverse and ever-changing environment of contemporary democracies forces change upon the systems' natural evolution, which makes their future features uncertain and unforeseeable. A powerful change-force doctrine does however claim change is mainly (or merely) caused by the power of ideas; the elite power over ideas can thus provide a natural foundation for the analysis of the direction of development for democracy. This study aims to provide such a foundation by reconstructing empirical and normative descriptions of democracy at two certain points in time, following extensive government studies.As a tool for analysis, this study identifies values of substantial and procedural character central to democracy theory and discourse. It further creates ideal types of democracy based on these values, to which the nature of democracy is measured.

Management by contract is nowadays a common method within the public sector since the NPM overtook as paradigm with its mechanisms of control inspired by the private sector. The public agency is foremost a service provider where they interact with citizens in the service process. Swedish eldercare has significantly increased its expose to competition which means that eldercare can be executed not only by the municipalities own provider. Such an adaption increases the requirements to inspect quality and how the purchasers assure goal achievement by control. The outmost liability stays with the municipality to ensure that the service produces god care since their position as the service purchaser implies the responsibility to plan, precise and evaluate the required work that the executor has to accomplish.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how four Swedish retail companies describe their information management in connection to ethical trade. My purpose is also to examine how this information management relates to organizational learning. My questions at issue are ? ?Which activities related to information management in connection to ethical trade is described by the companies?? and ?How can these activities and statements be related to organizational learning?? My method of investigation is to perform qualitative interviews with representatives from the retail companies and relate the results to theories on information management and organizational learning, mainly theories of double-loop- and single-loop learning. The information management literature address issues such as information needs, information sources and information seeking.

In Sweden most public libraries give users access to databases. These databases are sometimes possible to reach outside the library by internet at any time and this provides a change for the library and the society. Librarians function as change agents when they give access to databases and when databases are introduced to users. However, reports show that the use of databases, especially those in English, is not high in reference work. This study aims at analysing attitudes of librarians to access and use of databases on and by public libraries.

In this thesis a possible cost effective runner change of some of the units in the hydroelectric power station Olidan is investigated. The possibility to drive a unit at the same efficiency point through a change of the turbine shaft speed and the rate of discharge is tested. Furthermore the theories behind model testing, determination of efficiency increase from model to prototype and efficiency measurements shall be discussed and analyzed with Olidan as a starting point.A predicted curve has been built on information from model tests and field measurements on the existing runners and runner data from the test of the new model. The predicted curve shows the difference in efficiency between an existing runner and a modern one. It is the difference in efficiency that is used in the calculations that are to show whether changing to a pair of new runners will be cost effective or not.

In this paper we investigate 67 Swedish buyouts in the manufacturing and retailing sector between the years 2004-2012. The purpose is to measure changes in a set of financial key ratios to see if private equity firms are able to improve performance in their portfolio companies compared to a peer group consisting of other firms within the same industries. Furthermore, we examine if there is a difference in the change of the financial key ratios between private equity-owned firms in the two sectors. The key results are that the private equity owned firms have not outperformed their peers with respect to the chosen key ratios. We also conclude that there is no significant difference in the change of the financial key ratios between private equity-owned firms in the two sectors..

Former studies have shown that a considerable part of industries? energy usage can stem from idle times in the production. This thesis, carried out at Siemens Industry sector, evaluates the potential for using the control system to automatically put machines into energy saving mode during idle times. The main part of the thesis consists of a case study performed on machine tools at a Scania production site in Södertälje. Through load measurements the potential for energy savings was determined.The results show that there is a great potential for energy savings during idle times at the site.

I begin my essay with a story that illustrates how a preschool activity organized on a modular work can be perceived. I describe how the environment has been rebuilt and modified to accommodate one large group of children instead of two smaller groups as before. Management´s justification for the change is that it is carried out to give the children better conditions for their learning, but my understanding is that it also hampers preschool-teachers´ abilities to implement their assignment.I try to understand what benefits module work by examining what well-known researchers believe is important for children´s learning in environmental and preschool teacher´s importance. When I use what I have learned to analyze my story, my opinion is that the change of the preschool activity not have just a positive impact but also entails that preschool teachers find it difficult to be present and in interaction with the children as several well-known researchers notes is important for children´s learning. I discuss how a large and rich environment at the same time can be perceived as incalculable for teachers, which can result in not all of the children being paid attention to in the preschool activity.

Title: The process of gentrification ?the transformation of declined neighbourhoods into attractive ones Gentrification = ?A social process of change where people with high socioeconomic status move into neighbourhoods which traditionally has been dominated by people from the lower classes or from ethnical minorities.? (Nationalencyklopedin 2010).In many cities around the world, disinvested neighbourhoods become the place to be, where everything happens. This usually occurs when different social groups, such as bohemians, homosexuals and artists, move into a declined and disinvested neighbourhood. After a while, people from the middleclass move in to the area due to its increased attractiveness, and start to renovate their properties. This usually leads to higher rents, which force some of the original inhabitants to leave the neighbourhood.

This essay investigates and compares the readability in two different schoolbooks: Eko Historia (the primary school grade 4-6) and Epos Historia (the upper secondary school). The questions of the survey are:- Which differences in linguistic and layout can be found between books meant for the primary school and books meant for the upper secondary school?- Are the texts easy to read according to the former research in readability?In order to answer the questions structural dimensions as lexicon, syntax, bounds between sentences and narrative voices have been studied. Also the texts disposition and typography have been examined.The results demonstrate that the book designed for the primary school has a verbal structure with an explicit vocabulary, lots of verbs and short sentences. A clear narrative voice gives an impression of spoken language.

Motives and reasons behind a decision to change the asylum process in Sweden are the central concern for this thesis. A symbolic political perspective will be applied in order to elucidate the symbolic factors that have influenced the decision process.The Aliens Appeal Board in Sweden will close down at the end of March 2006 and all pending and future cases will henceforth be decided by three administrative courts. This will be done in order to enhance the principles of legal certainty by making the process more transparent and oral. It is an extensive reform, but since very few amendments are made to the applicable substantive law it raises questions about the actual motives behind the change.One reason that seems to have had a major impact on the decision to close down the Aliens Appeal Board is the fact that the board is perceived as a symbol for an inhuman asylum policy. Transferring the process to the courts might ease the attempt to increase the legitimacy of the asylum process.

Zakrisdal and the west coast region of Karlstad was at one time a protected area where the ammunition factory AmF Zakrisdal 1941-1994 was situated. This factory manufactured explosives for the Swedish armed forces and for export. In this context it is an interesting paradox that the production of ammunition, mines and armorpiercing grenades for more than 50 years has preserved the environment surrounding the factory.The factory is now gone and the production is moved to Karlskoga. Plans are being made to build housing for 3-4000 residents and other enterprises within the area. The area now stands before yet another change, most likely the most profound to date.The inspiration for this work comes from the economic historic Jan Jörnmark.

The vegetation?s impact on erosion control is widely explored, even though research? results are scattered where it suggests a both positive and negative relationship between roots and erosion tendency. Research has measured the roots? impact on erosion by many different methods, hence the aim of this study is to offer a clearance of what factors play an important role in the choice of appropriate species controlling river bank erosion. I have therefore studied 17 articles concerning vegetation and erosion control, which were found in different databases such as: Web of Knowledge, Biological Sciences, Academic Search Elite and Google Scholar.

Today all buildings contain some form of home automation. It might be heating controlled by athermostat or motion detectors controlling outdoor lighting.This paper,The Intelligent House, deals with the planning of a house in Kiruna, in the north ofSweden and further immerses itself in home automation or intelligent control in single-familyhomes. The house has been entirely planned, from layout to structural design and plumbing.The purpose of the paper has been to investigate the possibilities in home automation in singlefamilyhomes and to choose a suitable home automation system for the house being planned.The system has been designed and the costs and energy savings have been calculated.The system chosen for the house is called KNX and is the largest system for home automation inSweden. It is used to control heating, ventilation, lighting and alarm systems in the house. Is hasbeen found that KNX is very expensive and that the amount of energy, possible to save in thehouse, using the system, is relatively small.

The study explored how a model for conversation partner trainingworked for family members of people with Parkinson's disease. Participants inthe study were three dyads consisting of persons with PD and their carers. Thepurpose of the study consisted in finding out whether the participantsexperienced a change in communication after the intervention, and in findingout if this potential change could be observed in the conversation. The resultsshowed that 4/6 participants experienced an improvement in communicationafter the intervention. This improvement was however not observed in theconversation.