This article discusses desirable political representation within the framework of representative democracy. In the desirable representation it is the responsibility of the politician to balance authoritative decision making with responsiveness towards the voters. The article intends to make visible the ethical complexity within representative democracy. Ethically the commission to represent is further complicated because the political parties constitute a central role in the political life and request loyalty of the politician. At the same time the politician is elected by the voters and thus the representative has to balance the dual representation.The politician can meet supplementary but also contradictory norms of action in decision taking.

The aim of the study is to examine how the executive leadership and the decision-making process are shaped by the leadership environment in a transition democracy as Venezuela. The questions I intend to answer are: What kind of leadership environment surrounds the leadership and what kind of consequences does it have on the leadership and the decision-making process in Venezuela? To answer my questions I will use the literature: Political Leadership in Liberal Democracies (Elgie, Robert 1995, London: Macmillian), together with the method ?The cultural determinist school of history? by Tomas Spencer, later reproduced by Kellerman. The leadership environment provides unique opportunities for a leader to gain control over the decision-making process. Institutional structures and the needs of the society are major parts in determining how the political leadership is exercised.

A vivid democracy requires participation from those who live in it, including children. Unlike adults, children have special laws and regulations to ensure them their democratic rights. Librarians? decision on what to buy makes an impact to someone else, which puts the librarian in a hegemonic position. Therefore, the purpose of this bachelor thesis is to, out of the child librarian?s perspective, view children?s participation at the public library in the matter of purchasing literature.

Democracy is now a legitimate claim not only in the society but even in the classrooms. According to the 1994 Curriculum for the Non-Compulsory School System, Lpf 94 in Sweden, are all pupils in all types of schools ought to have a high level of possibilities to be able to influence their education. But many studies have led to unsatisfactory results about the actual situation in schools. Swedish students are critical of the limited opportunities they have in influencing their own learning process. This essay is only one among the many studies that have dealt with school democracy during the last 50 years.

This papper i about trying en educational method called writing connected to dialog. This is tried on adult students studying to work in Swedish day care. The purpose was to see if this method could make a difference in classroom democracy..

Ever since Lipsky wrote about street-level bureaucrats in 1980 the main belief has been that certain characteristics of their jobs make it exceptionally difficult to severely reduce their discretion. However, discretion comes at a price and if public servants abuse their power the legitimacy of government is at risk and ultimately even the democracy.This thesis address this question by analysing the Swedish employment service which in the beginning of 2001 started a project called ?Af Sverige? trying to improve internal rule of law. By comparing two local and fairly equal jobcentres and how the street-level bureaucrats within use their discretion, I seek to find support for my hypotheses that organizing local jobcentres according to the principles of machine bureaucracy plays a significant part in reducing discretion.My findings show that a jobcentre characterised by strict rules, few units, good communications and a forthright manager who delegates formal power to the employees results in a stricter and more uniform application of regulations among the street-level bureaucrats. My conclusion is therefore unambiguous.

The purpose of my study was to see what kind of relationships there were between the youth and the social workers in the treatment home Hassela in Klintehamn, Gotland. The social workers work for six weeks day and night by living together with the youth. I also wanted to examine what happens when there were conflicts between them as signs of tensions in the relationships. In addition to this I wanted to study the relations between power and influence in their relationships where Hassela strives for democracy. My questions were the following; How do the youth and the staff describe the relationships between them? How do conflicts work between them at Hassela? What does the relationship between power and influence look like?The study is based on qualitative interviews with four clients and four social workers.

The representative democracy has become weakened during the last decades. At the same time the United Nations declared at the Rio de Janeiro meeting in 1992 that environmental problems can best be solved by involvement of all concerned citizens in decision-making. The main purpose of this study has been to examine if citizens panels is a possible way to involve citizens in environmental decision-making and what the outcomes can be. Furthermore the study has investigated what the participation has contributed to environmental politics and how representative the results have been. This has been carried out by investigating the Piteåpanel in the municipality of Piteå by conducting interviews.The result of the study shows that the involvement of the citizens in the decision-making influenced the environmental politics of the municipality.

Title: Digital christmas greetings - the viral communicators, public sphere and democracy(Digitala julhälsningar - de virala kommuniktörerna, offentligheten och demokratin)Number of pages: 41Author : Anna-Sara TorgnysdotterTutor: Ylva EkströmCourse : Media and Communication Studies DPeriod: Spring, semester 2010University: Devision of Media and Communications, Department of Information Science,Uppsala UniversityPurpose: The purpose of this study is to see if social media could be an arena for the usersto increase democracy and the public sphere. Studying the role and possibilitys of the individual.Is there a space for any one to act and debate?Method: A qualitative analysis based on interviews with ten users of social media - viralcommunicators. They were discussing public and private sphere, democracy, norms andbehavior in social media.Theoretical platform: The theoretical basis has its roots in sociology: Ervin Goffman´sidea on self-presentation and social interaction, Manuel Castels´ theories of the networksociety and Jürgen Habermas idea of the public spehere.Main result: The viral communicators are ambivalent in their use of socialmedia. They are users because they want to be but also because they feel forced to - professionalor private.

This master thesis aims to describe and examine Haninge cultural centre, inaugurated in 2002. We study the centre from an organization theory point of view, with focus on the buildings physical appearance. The question we want to answer is to what extent, and if, Haninge cultural centre fulfills the underlying vision, formulated by the municipality of Haninge. Is the centre the symbol of a new era of Haninge and a vivid democracy as it was meant to be? Is there a congruency between the image the building creates and the vision that was formulated by the municipality? We also seek out to see how the cultural centre relates to an older tradition of cultural centres.

My paper, ?Us and Them ? an analysis of the creation of ?the Other? in The Reluctant Fundamentalist and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas?, aims to examine Mohsin Hamid´s and John Boyne´s novels from the years 2007 and 2008. The paper tries to answer the following questions: How is ?the Other?and?Us and Them?created in the novels? And: What consequences does the thinking in terms of ?the Other?and?Us and Them?lead to in the novels? The examination is done through the method of close reading and by applying the theory of Orientalism and Edward W. Said?s analysis of the theory to the reading.It is, I believe, of utmost importance for teachers to create unity among their pupils, and peaceful and democratic classrooms where co-work is promoted.

AbstractBachelor thesis in political science by Alexander Hassan, autumn 2008, ?Effects of external factors on a nations democratisation process during the transition from authoritarian to electoral democratic rule ? A categorical analysis?Supervisor: Tomas SedeliusIn recent years globalization has become a hot topic in understanding the world we live in today. Globalization has indeed had a great impact on international relations and with it a great influence on the domestic conditions that determine a nation?s possibilities. It is therefore rational to hold true that this also would apply to a nation?s democratic process.

Syftet för uppsatsen var att undersöka om klienter med tidigare narkotikaberoende upplever att de har möjlighet till inflytande inom vården som de tar del av. Syftet var även att ta reda på hur socialarbetare inom samma vårdprogram arbetar för att möjliggöra brukarinflytandet för klienterna. Vi utförde semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem klienter och två socialarbetare från samma behandlingshem. De teoretiska perspektiv som stod till grund för analysen av empirin var brukarinflytande och demokrati. Resultatet visar att klienterna upplevde stor delaktighet inom vårdprogrammet samt i kontakten med socialarbetarna på behandlingshemmet.

Earlier studies shows that democracy within the preschool is an important and on-going work, but could implicate certain consequences. For example that goals regarding democracy and influence in the preschool, rarely is done in practice but instead remains just words on a paper. It could also mean that the pedagogues lack education and knowledge within the area, but also how they react to the influence of children. Preschool is expected to be a place for all children, no matter what luggage the child is carrying. The luggage is filled with the life experience, the personality and in this case the needs that the child has. The needs could be anything from nearness to physical and psychological disorders that requires more pedagogical attention.

In recent years, the right-wing extremist site Avpixlat (?Unveiled?) and the anti-racist blog Inte rasist, men... (?Not a racist, but??, IRM) have established themselves as political actors and platforms for political discussion in Sweden. However, we know very little about them and their impact on democracy.