This thesis deals with the concept of soft balancing, traditionally defined as the diplomatic means of restraining a dominant state's ability to exercise its military power. As the dominant power in today's unipolar system, the United States, and other states? behaviour towards it, is the focus of analysis. The aim of this thesis is to explore the possibilities of developing the concept of soft balancing so as to include strategies to restrain also the political and economic capabilities of a dominant power. The thesis also considers the possibilities of soft balancing that small states ? to a large extent overlooked in existing theories on the subject - can possess.As a state with policies that aim to reduce the U.S.

The aim of this paper is to examine if the two latest Peace Plans in the Palestine-Israeli con-flict observes the sources of the conflict and presents measures in the purpose of solving them. The point of departure is William Azar?s theory of protracted social conflict (PSC). According to Azar, the internal sources of a PSC lies in three clusters of variables: the com-munal content of a society, the deprivation of human needs as an underlying source of PSC, and the role of the state in the deprivation or satisfaction of human needs. The study is de-signed as a multiple-case study where the units of analysis are the Roadmap to Peace and the Geneva Initiative.

The relational database model was defined in the 1970?s and is the dominating database type today.  The main difference between data from a relational database and a hierarchical data structure is that the relational database stores records in tables. The records have no particular order, but can include links in terms of relationships with other records. A hierarchical structure organizes data in the form of a tree structure  and  can for an example be found in organizational structures in which different levels involves different responsibilities. If the data stored in a relational database is to be presented in a hierarchically, a conversion of the data structure is required. The intention of this paper is to describe how such a conversion can be performed.  To investigate the conversion methods, case studies has been conducted on the basis of a specific organization?s hierarchical structure.

Construction projects are generally designed as a general contract or a complete contract. In a general contract the commercial contract that is being used is AB 04 and related advice and instructions, AMA AF 07. In AB 04 there is an insurance requirement that stipulates that the contractor shall take all risks and liability insurance for the contract where the client must be co-insured.Construction law is almost exclusively regulated by the various standard contracts, one of those is AB 04. The Construction Contracts Committe is an organization that has published the standard contracts in this area of law and also the advice and instructions to help the parties to understand the agreements. The insurance requirement occurs in an area of law that is complex and the meaning of the concept is not entirely clear, nor which of the parties? interests and responsibilities that are covered by the types of insurances that are provided by the insurance requirement.

Thirty years of gender equality politicsFrom women?s work to gender mainstreamingThis Bachelor thesis examines how the Swedish state has practiced gender equality as a political project during 1972 until 1999 through the budget bills, using a ?What?s the problem represented to be?? approach aiming to uncover which discourses policies are based on. The method also studies what assumptions underlie policy problems, what is left as unproblematic within the policies and what effects are produced by specific problem representations. A central question for the thesis is what has remained and changed within Swedish gender equality politics. The history of the Swedish welfare state is presented as a background on how gender equality policy has affected the everyday life of women and men.

AbstractWhy don't (some) regimes with formal democratic features undergo transition to democracy? Which are the internal dynamics of these regimes that can offer comprehension to this state of affairs? The main purpose of this thesis is to advance the above questions, and, on a lower level of abstraction, examine the case of Egypt. The Egyptian regime is characterized by, for instance, a multiparty-system, steps toward economic liberalization, and some level of persistent state opposition, and has been considered on the way to liberal democracy, but can still hardly be estimated as such.Thus, the thesis takes part in a theoretical framework on democratization, and further analyzes the case of Egypt on grounds of socioeconomic development, political culture, and class configuration. By this contextual approach, the thesis adduces that a low level of modernization, an incomplete democratic political culture, and a bourgeoisie supported by the state are impending significant factors. The thesis additionally remarks on the interconnection of the adopted theories, and discusses a potential need for new theoretical propositionsA secondary aim of the thesis also gives some insights into the concurrence of regime stability and the absence of democracy in, what often could be labelled, authoritarian regimes.

The purpose of this study is to examine immigrants' experiences of social services' treatmentand their expectations of social services. In this study we have used the following questions:how immigrants have experienced the treatment of the social service, the way in whichimmigrants would like to be treated by social services as well as what kind of beliefs andexpectations immigrants have concerning the social services' duties and powers. We haveused a qualitative method in the study that consists of ten semi-structured interviews. Thetheoretical concepts we have used are culture, ethnicity, cultural competence, professionalismand social psychology. The survey reveals a majority of negative experiences, such as afeeling of being ?tossed around?, suspicion and discrimination by the caseworkers due to theethnicity of the respondents.

The forest in the northern part of Sweden has changed dramatically during the last centuries. The forest has gone through a large-scale transformation, from it being only used locally for domestic purposes to becoming very important raw material for Sweden in the industrial age. The strategy by foresters during the second half of the 20th century has been to create pure production forests for commercial forestry. This has mainly succeeded and we have today homogenous production forests that give a high profit to the owners. The aim of the study is to compare the state of the forest in the former state forest Hällforsmarken in the years 1925 and 2000 and to interpret the changes which has taken place.

Bachelor thesis in political science by Malin Bergkvist, autumn 12.Title:Political governance for increased digital inclusion.Subtitle: Aspects of "governance" and "government".Supervisor: Joachim Åström. While digital inclusion is a hot topic in both academia and in policy circles, little research is done when it comes to governance issues. To help filling this gap, this essay asks which mode of governance is dominant in the field of digital inclusion. What aspects of governance "governance" or "government" is the dominant in the field of digital inclusion, and is it possible to see any difference in how the state governance is described by the government and perceived by other actors? To answer this overarching question, two sub queries are formulated and analyzed. First, what aspect of "governance" or "government" dominate when state governance of the area are examined based on how the government describes it? Second, what aspect of "governance" or "government? dominate when state governance are studied based on how the perceived by other actors and stakeholders active in the field.

All around the world there are several armed conflicts, where rape is used as a weapon of war against the civilian population. Many take refuge from their countries of origin and may end up in Sweden, where they build a new life for themselves. What preparation is there to welcome these women and help them obtain a deeper sense of psychological well-being? The aim of this study was to reach an understanding of how professionals view the meeting between themselves and women who have been subjected to rape in times of armed conflict, as well as how the work with this group could be improved. The study had a qualitative approach and has been carried out with semi-structured interviews.

C3LOOPS is an application for DJs and VJs based on surface interaction. A system is said to be based on surface interaction if it presents content on a two dimensional, endless surface that a user navigates through zoom, pan and incremental text filtering where processing is tightly coupled with the content without breaking the workflow. C3LOOPS is designed to encourage improvisation and collaboration. During improvisation changes occur rapidly. Allowing navigation through time as well as the two spatial dimensions of an interaction surface the possibility of unlimited undo operations opens up.

This paper studies, from a client perspective, how three Swedish municipalities work with information about a voucher system in homecare. The paper is a qualitative study using structured informant interviews and analysis of documents. The interviewees are responsible of information about the voucher system in the municipalities. The studied documents describe and clarify the voucher system of the municipality. Neo-institutional organization theory is used to analyse the result.

This investigation aimed to shed light on the terms of the dispensing and the retaining of municipal social benefits granted by Swedish social services, this in regard of a less visible societal subgroup; citizens who cannot attain or retain housing of their own.Through qualitative interviews with six municipal social workers in Skåne, the plight of these citizens is revealed from a policy-making perspective in respect of views on discretion and individual appreciation. How may the applicant impact the application process and how does social subletting operate as a service effort?Further analysis of the accounts of informants? views on change and the reasons for change, sketched an image of a society where public acceptance and tolerance are crucial factors for citizens hoping to achieve a homestead through means of municipal intervention.In conclusion, flexible attitudes towards job description are of major import to the possibility of offering client support in under-staffed municipal environs. Furthermore, reflexive social workers allying with the applicant throughout the process, from application to intervention are decisive for efficacious, long-term social work..

Citizenship is fundamental for participation in a democracy. It gives us rights but also responsibilities in the state that we are citizens of. Citizenship provides us with the opportunity to vote in order to influence who should govern us. However, not all living in a state are citizens. Some individuals are not included in the political life of the state.In recent years, there has been a rise of nationalist political parties in Europe.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the European certificate of succession, and how it affects Swedish inheritance law. The European certificate of succession is a European document that will be introduced in august 2015 in the EU regulation of succession. The certificate of succession is meant to simplify the current process of cross-border inheritance by legitimizing the concerned parties, which according to the regulation are: heirs, legatees, executors of wills and administrators of the estate. According to the regulation, the member state of which the deceased had habitual residence shall have jurisdiction to rule on the succession as a whole. Since the certificate is a European document, it will have legal effect in all member states.