The aim of this paper is to map and analyze what role Swede's played in King Leopold II's colony in the former Congo Free State. Letters and messages that arrived at the Congo Consulate in Sweden between 1895 and 1906 have been used as the paper's primary sources. Application letters from 32 different Swedes, seeking to join the Congo Free State Army, to the General Consul of the Congo Consulate, Hans Hugold von Schwerin, have been used as primary sources, and constitute the basis of the paper's analysis. The letters arrived at the Congo Consulate in Sweden between 1895 and 1906. The applicants were all men of different social classes, and were between the ages of 20 and 30 years old. Their chief reasons for applying were primarily for own financial gain or because they did not get a chance to serve in the Swedish army.

Valen 2006 var de första fria valen i den Demokratiska Republiken Congo sedan självständigheten på 1960-talet. Med valen föddes hopp om ett demokratiskt styre och en fred. Vår uppsats är en fallstudie av Congo utifrån kvalitativ textanalys. Vi försöker besvara frågan om valen har haft någon betydelse för en demokratisering, samt om de har haft någon effekt på ett fredsbyggande. Detta gör vi genom att analysera valen utifrån viktiga demokratiska kriterier, och genom teorier om vilken roll demokratisering kan ha i konfliktlösning.

The members of the OECD have agreed on giving aid assistance to developingcountries in a way of promoting their own capacity of handling the challengeof poverty and development. The members also cooperate and coordinate theiraid to recipient countries in the purpose of giving as effective assistance aspossible. The aid from these countries is often intended to human rights,democracy and has a humanitarian idea. This is the way from the OECDcountries. The Chinese way of giving aid mostly aimed at the industry of therecipient to promote the economic growth to lift the country out of poverty.The Chinese way do not aim or intend their aid at promoting human rights ordemocracy, often just industry and infrastructure.

The transition from having been under another country?s control to becoming a democratic country can, many times, pose difficulties, which has proven itself to be quite common. Estonia and Moldova?s processes towards a democratic regime are two examples of countries with varied success in the final transition phase.When the USSR (Soviet union) fell and collapsed in 1991 Estonia was well on their way from having a communistic ruling to a democratic one due to the fact that their democratic work had already begun a few years prior to 1991. After the collapse Estonia continued with their democratic work and in 2004 the country became a EU member state.

The transition from having been under another country?s control to becoming a democratic country can, many times, pose difficulties, which has proven itself to be quite common. Estonia and Moldova?s processes towards a democratic regime are two examples of countries with varied success in the final transition phase.When the USSR (Soviet union) fell and collapsed in 1991 Estonia was well on their way from having a communistic ruling to a democratic one due to the fact that their democratic work had already begun a few years prior to 1991. After the collapse Estonia continued with their democratic work and in 2004 the country became a EU member state.

Is there any truth in the saying ?no news is good news? or is there a reason to question whether media actually do reflect the world?s worst conflicts proportionally? The communication technologies have seen major developments in recent years, and more and more people choose to read their news on the Internet. With smartphones and other devices, one could imagine that there would be easier to cover more conflict areas than ever ? but is this what has happened?In this study we aimed to investigate how three chosen Swedish newspapers reflected five of the on-going conflicts of 2012 and how this can be explained with the theories; the CNN effect and Stealth Conflicts. We started out with studies of the two theories.

The transition from having been under another country?s control to becoming a democratic country can, many times, pose difficulties, which has proven itself to be quite common. Estonia and Moldova?s processes towards a democratic regime are two examples of countries with varied success in the final transition phase.When the USSR (Soviet union) fell and collapsed in 1991 Estonia was well on their way from having a communistic ruling to a democratic one due to the fact that their democratic work had already begun a few years prior to 1991. After the collapse Estonia continued with their democratic work and in 2004 the country became a EU member state.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka civil-militär samverkan vid fredsoperationen i Kongo 1960-1964 ur ett kulturkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv. Detta har gjorts i form av en fallstudie där litteratur av personer verksamma på plats i Kongo 1960-1964varit dominerande. Ur fallstudien framkommer att många samverkansproblem förekom trots ett genomtänkt koncept ochinsatser för att förbättra samverkan mellan civila och militärer. Vidare framkommer att militärer och civila i huvudsak upplevde likartade problem. I uppsatsen har kulturkonstruktivistisk teori använts som analytiskt verktyg och skillnader mellan civilaoch militära aktörers kollektiva identiteter, världsuppfattningar och normer utgjort grunden för attförklara samverkansproblemen.

In this thesis I will examine Willy Brandt's new Ostpolitik with the help of Robert Putnam's analytical framework of two-level games perspective and the theory of social constructivism. Firstly, I will briefly set out the development of Germany's history before it was divided into the Federal Republic of Germany and German Democratic Republic in 1949. After that I present West Germany's foreign policy from 1949 to 1969 in order to show how Willy Brandt continued and broke with different foreign policy doctrines. Finally, I want to illustrate his new Ostpolitik and the international and domestic factors, which contributed to its realisation. The main question of this essay is: How significant were the changes of the West German society for the realisation of the new Ostpolitik from 1969 to 1973? One of the most important findings in this essay is that on the one hand that many West Germans had accepted that their country was divided and on the other hand that many groups in the society such as the significant newspaper Die Zeit and intellectuals supported the new Ostpolitik.

The purpose of this essay was to analyze the collapse of democracy in the Weimar Republic. This was done by analyzing some of the most turbulent crises in its history like the communists attempt to take power in 1919, the kapp-putsch of 1920, hyperinflation 1923 and the economic depression 1929-1933. The method that I used in this essay is called methodological individualism. It was an analytical framework which helped to understand the citizens view on democracy and legitimacy. The theoretical framework was based on Juan J.Linz and Seymour Martin Lipsets ideas on legitimacy and efficacy.

This essay is a textbook study where I aim to review four textbooks regarding some historical events in the subject History. The textbooks are used in junior high school and the historical events are as follows: the genocide that happened in Congo during the leadership of king Leopold II, the genocide on Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, the Holocaust and the Vietnam War.By performing this study I wanted to answer these three questions:What differences and similarities can be found in how the events circumscribed?How much space do the various events have and has it evolved through the years 1980-2009?How can this be explained?The study has been analyzed from a post-colonial perspective and the recurring patterns that appear show how the texts are post-colonial. This means that the authors of the textbooks are writing about the same subjects, but in very different ways..

AbstractSince democracy was developed in the ancient Greece it has come to be used within a small city state, within the national state and as today used within a bigger perspective. After the end of the second world war political leaders wanted to make sure that there would never be a war between European countries again. Now, about 60 years later this type of cooperation now involves 27 of the European countries and goes under the name of the Euroapean Union. This means that democracy is no longer used just within the nation state, but within a big organisation that is responsible for almost 500 million Europeans lives. This also means that the European Union need to make some institutional reforms to be able to handle all the future challenges.

This paper?s purpose is to examine a Swedish missionary activity from a human rights perspective. As a scope I have chosen the Swedish evangelical mission to Congo-Brazzaville, from its establishment in 1909 to the congolese church's self-determination in 1961. I consider certain elements of the missionary activity that affect human rights, to discover wether the activity was in order with modern day human rights standards or not. During these years, Congo was part of the French colony Equatorial Africa, so the missionaries? part in the colonial discourse is taken into consideration.

Central African Republic has partly been portrayed in the media as a forgotten crisis, but also as something that is completely natural for how it is in Africa. The society has perceptions about Africa, which has been reproduced and reconstructed in the selected articles. The discourses in particular have appeared in articles are discourses about: us and them, the confidence in experts, social representations especially (emotional roots), ideological inequities and power relations between different parties..

The aim of this study is to illuminate and discuss a case of political steering, specifically Managment-By-Objectives (MBO) in Swedish municipalities, from a democratic perspective. The essay examines a discrepancy between MBO in the Swedish municipalities and democratic theory.To fulfil the aim of the study one leading politician and one leading civil servant from five municipalities have been interviewed on this matter. This material is discussed in the light of a democratic theory constructed specifically for this essay. The democratic theory consists of three main democratic values in the democratic process: debate, transparence and the ability to demand political accountability.The main conclusion is that there is a contradiction in the use of MBO and the democratic values of debate, transparence and the ability to demand political accountability. MBO has resulted in a lack of debate and transparency and furthermore, it has made it increasingly more difficult to demand political accountability..