The three post-communist states - Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine ? have gone different ways in terms of freedom and democracy since the breakdown of the Soviet Union 1991. During these years, the state and the civil society have been fundamental actors in the struggle against, and even for, authoritarianism.A strong state with great capacity in Belarus has undermined the chances for the civil society to fulfil its task as a watchdog of the state and link between the citizens and the government.Failed authoritarianism in Moldova has led to a situation where both the state and the civil society are weak. The major problem is lack of organization and cohesion; both the state and the civil society have often been divided by ethnical differences and are therefore not strong enough to promote democracy.In Ukraine, the dominance of a strong state ended in 2004 when the Orange Revolution took place, sometimes called a ?peak of democracy? where popular mobilization and protests succeeded in it's opposition against the state.

Since 1983 the people of Sri Lanka has endured an ongoing Civil war, however the intencity has varied over the years. The aim of this theses is to examine what influence the asymmetric relationship between the Sri Lankan goverment and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has on the process of negotiating a solution to the civil war. I am also examining whether the asymmetical relationship has changed over time and if these changes have had any effect on the process.To analyze the asymmetries I divide them into material and non-material. I measure the material asymmetries in economic and military resourses, and to measure the non-material I use indicators such as commitment, alternative, controll and legitimacy.The results show that the asymmetrical relations between the parties in Sri Lanka have changed since the 1990s. Factors like 9/11 and the recurrent suicide bombings by the LTTE has had a great influence on the singalese-tamil relationsship.

The purpose of this qualitative sociological law study is to examine the relationship between the social services and civil court to apprehend if knowledge about the child's best interest is transfered from social workers to the legal system. This have been done by investigating civil court cases concerning custody transition from biological parents to foster parents according to 6 chapter 8 paragraph in the law of parenting, built upon the legal principle of the best interests of the child. Eight cases has been examined by using a method of qualitative text analysis and categorised into five primary categories and three concepts linked to sections of the law. The material has been analysed through a sociological law perspective, social constructionist theory and attachment theory. The study shows that a variety of factors interacts when it comes to determining what?s in the best interest of the child .

The purpose of this essay is to illustrate the preparation of total and civil defense education in schools in the 1970s to gain insight into how the school looked and pondered the complicated world that existed outside the school's doors. By using the concepts of welfare state, welfare and civil defense culture, I have studied relevant materials to get answers to questions treating the total and civil education in schools after Lgr69, the way the state sees the subject and if it is possible to detect a civil defense culture in schools and if so, how it will be expressed.     The results show that the state emphasized education as incredibly important because knowledge of how to act in a crisis or war could be extremely crucial for the individuals and their survival. The education was so important that it got a role as a main factor in Lgr69. But even if the education was important the teachers had huge problems with the schedule and many teachers couldn´t educate all facts because they didn´t have enough time.

This paper examines whether the American officer?s education at West Point and the Swedish officer?s education at the Military Academy Karlberg have adapted their history of the military art education in accordance to the new requirements of the Armed Forces and its focus on the operational defense. Sweden is evolving towards an operational defense and so is the United States. This in turn requires that training and education keep up with the changes. The National Defense College in Sweden do not focus the teaching of advanced history, which happened beforet he invention of the engine, in the officer?s training program, while the American education is rather advanced, with special focus on events taken place in the 19th century up to the Cold War.

This essay examines masculinity in the Swedish military paper Värnpliktsnytt during 1971-1991. The purpose is to study the masculine norms and the hegemonic masculinity that Värnpliktsnytt conveys during these years. Värnpliktsnytt was handed out for free to all soldiers during 1971-2010.During the 1970?s the women were only allowed on non-combat posts and in the 1980?s they more and more were included and accepted as soldiers and staff in the military. In 1989 women were allowed to apply for active and non-combat duty in all military sectors.

In 1989 the United States choose, after years of conflict, to carry out a military intervention in Panama, to remove Manuel Noriega, convicted for drug dealing and for threatening the lives of the Americans living in Panama. The aim of this study is to examine whether George H. W Bush?s arguments for the military intervention comply with the principles of the just war.The method chosen for this study is a qualitative literature study, based primarily on secondary data. It is a case study with two complementing theories, the theory of the just war and the world system theory.The result showed that the American intervention both can be justified and unjustified following the principles of the Just War Theory.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate and increase the understanding of a present function of today´s public library, namely the function of meeting place; here called the social function or social space. Two small town libraries are included in the study, and the questions examined are:How is this function described at the two libraries and what similarities and differences are there between the two? How can one describe the relation between how the library as social space is described in research and at the libraries? The theoretical framework used in examining these questions, consists of three different discourses in culture policy (the discourse of state, market and civil society) and theories on civil society and the public library. A summary of current research makes visible eight different aspects of the public library as a social space. These aspects functions as parts of the theoretical framework as well.

There exist a number of different types of value transfers between companies in a group. Most of these transfers are undertaken on the basis of private law. These transfers also give rise to tax law consequences. Taxation is normally based on how the classifications of transfers are made in private law, which means that there exists a relation between private law and tax law. Despite this relation, the classification is not always made in the same way in private law and tax law.

This essay revolves around partnerships established between local authorities and civil society to promote integration in segregated urban areas. The main focus is on who is active in formulating the local integration policy in these partnerships. The analysis is based on qualitative interviews with representatives from the local public administration and from different parts of civil society in Rosengård and Södra innerstaden in Malmö. The conclusion is that local authorities to a large extent decide the content of integration policy. The authorities, in having the major responsibility of the integration projects, decide what parts of civil society to involve and what projects will promote integration.

This report describes the tactics used by the Swedish Air Force rescue services against crashed military aeroplanes and helicopters. The aim of the report is to study and analyze the tactics used by the different Air Force bases, standards, regulations and equipment. The report also discusses the different work environment problems and hazards around military ARFF. Much of the information gathered for the report comes from interviews with personnel working in and with the military rescue services. The overall conclusion is that the basic conditions for a good ARFF tactic are there, but a lot needs to be improved and optimized..

The increasing significance of social economy as a concept is linked to general global processes such as the crisis of the welfare state, neoliberal globalization, anti-bureaucracy tendencies and decentralization, but also to a growing political interest in human rights and social development. In Sweden the idea of the social economy generates wide support within civil society as well as within the government and across party political boundaries. Furthermore, what is problematic in this context is the fact that the discussions on the subject tend to be relatively uncritical and often it seems as if though the expansion itself is the main objective. The emphasis on cooperation and the third sector in terms of welfare production implies a set of risks in relation to state responsibility, democracy and the autonomy of civil society. This paper aims to explore those risks and how they can be dealt with within the Swedish context..

The aim of this essay is to examine how future upper secondary school teachers within social science comprehends their future proffessional role. The aim is also to see whether the education is of importance to their suspension for their future professional role. Focus will especially be on the teachers civil servant role, where the aim is to see how their identification suspends to the governmental expectations on their future civil servant misson. The essay is based on a qualitative method, which is focused conversational interviews.The result indicates that future upper secondary school teachers within social science, who are about to finish their education, have a somewhat deeper sense of identification with the teachers civil servant mission compared to those in the beginning of their education. The result also indicates that the future upper secondary school teachers identification are in line with the governmental expectations on their civil servant mission.

Denna rapport redovisar mitt examensarbete som gick ut på att jämföra två konkurrerande programvaror som används av vägprojektörer. De två jämförda är Novapoint Väg Prof och AutoCAD Civil 3D. Detta gjordes genom att projekteringen av ett av Tyréns avslutade uppdrag återskapades. På så sätt kunde deras funktioner utforskas och jämföras. Båda visade sig ha många likheter men även en hel del olikheter, t ex var Novapoint mer användbart vid projektering på obebyggdmark.

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the extent of the civil rights political participation on a municipality level. The starting-point is the participatory democratic theory. I have chosen to make a case study of the extent of participation among KPR ? the board of the pensioners in the municipality of Skara. KPR is represented by fourteen members from the seven existing associations for pensioners.