Syftet med examensarbetet har varit att undersöka om klassråd och elevråd är fungerande demokratiska fora. Arbetet innehåller en enkätundersökning på tre skolor där vi vänt oss till elever i årskurs fem. Vi har även intervjuat klasslärarna i respektive klass. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att elever och lärare upplever klassråd och elevråd som bra demokratiska fora, men att den demokratiska processen upplevs som enklare i klassråd än i elevråd..

This essay is a case-study of a phenomenon called ?ostalgie? which could be described as GDR-nostalgia. ?Ostalgie? is a compound of the two German words ?ost? (east) and ?Nostalgie? (nostalgia.) It is, like a similar phenomenon referred to as ?communist nostalgia?, a type of nostalgia. However, if one were to define ?ostalgie? as ?communist nostalgia? important aspects of the phenomenon would be left out.

ABSTRACTSince Robert D. Putnam first wrote about the causes behind the regional differences in economic and political development in Italy, the theory of social capital has truly flourished in the fields of social science. This days you constantly hear politicians and scholars stressing the important role of the quality of the social fabric to a society?s wellbeing. There all looking at ways to construct policies and institutions that help the spread of social capital.

This essay sets out to compare political participation in two e-petition systems: The Malmö initiative in Malmö, Sweden, and Better Reykjavik in Reykjavik, Iceland. The main question of the essay concerns the aggregative and deliberative qualities of the Malmö initiative and Better Reykjavik, as well as the relationship between aggregation and deliberation. This main question is divided into four subqueries that lead the empirical analysis. These are: (1) Which similarities and differences in terms of design are there between the Malmö initiative and Better Reykjavik? (2) To what extent have these systems mobilized an aggregative political participation? (3) What similarities and differences are there concerning aspects of deliberation? and (4) What is the correlation between aggregation and deliberation like in the two e-petition systems?The method in use is a comparative cross-sectional study with a 'most similar research design'.

From a democratic viewpoint, the way in which the media frames politics is essential. Should issue frames be left out in favor of other types of frames, it could result in voters struggling to make informed decisions come Election Day. What is more, research shows that game frames may cause lack of confidence in politicians and declining political interest. Against this background, the present study aimed to find out how two broadsheets, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet, and two tabloids, Aftonbladet and Expressen, framed politics in connection with the 2014 Swedish parliamentary elections. The thesis also intended to identify possible differences between the two newspaper types and to make tentative comparisons with previous studies so as to be able to comment on framing developments.

Bachelor essay in political science by Marie Åberg, autumn 2011. ?Harm or benefit? A critical view of the theoretical grounds of the international development aid?. Supervisor: Professor Mats Lindberg. The first of the dual purpose of this essay is to present international aid policy ideas and the theoretical grounds of international development aid.

This paper concerns the freedom of speech in our democracy and the principles underlying the restrictions. The study is aimed at using a descriptive theory to provide a useful basis for analyzing a justification of the role behind freedom of speech and its limitations. The analysis is made on the basis of the Swedish parliament debate in the form of motions and the non-governmental organization Swedish Helsinki Committee's report. The study has a focus on the law of hate speech and will be done with an idea centred analysis. On the basis of democratic theory, the central role of freedom of speech was clarified on the basis of a clear need for a reliable communication.

The purpose of this essay has been to study the comprehensibility and the plainness of chapter 1 and 2 in ?Läroplan, examensmål och gymnasiegemensamma ämnen för gymnasieskola 2011? that is one of the governing documents of Swedish upper secondary school. The Swedish government approved a national language policy in 2005 which involved an aim that the official Swedish language would be refined, easy and comprehensible. Plain language has since the eighties had a prominent place in Swedish research and science and is now a thought-out principle at almost every public authority. This essay has performed a linguistic text analysis, a plain language analysis, a plain language test and a critical discourse analysis on the two chapters from ?Läroplan, examensmål och gymnasiegemensamma ämnen för gymnasieskola 2011? that is common for all upper secondary school programs.

This thesis examines the conditions for participation in the decision making process of a possible mine establishment in Storuman municipality in the north of Sweden. This is done through a case study where the main actors are the mining company Nickel Mountain AB, the municipality Storuman and the Sami village Vapsten. As a theoretical framework Cecilia Eriksson?s division of democratic theories is used as a starting point. Methods as described in deliberative democratic theory, such as discussion by effected community members, are seen as a method within the participatory democratic tradition, not a theory of its own.

Syftet med detta arbete var att jämföra den officiella bilden av demokrati i Kuwait, såsom den beskrivs i konstitutionen från 1962, med den bild som externa oberoendeaktörer ger vad gäller demokrati i landet. Den externa bilden hämtades från olika FNrapporter, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International och The Bureau ofDemocracy, Human Rights and Labour. Dessa kompletterades sedan med en analysav det politiska systemet i Kuwait. Arbetet grundade sig på en demokratiskanalysmetod som utarbetats av International IDEA (Institute for Democracy andElectoral Assistance).Det visade sig att konstitutionen innehöll många demokratiska och individuellarättigheter och garantier ofta i linje med IDEA:s principer. Konstitutionen beskrevinte en fullvärdig demokrati, men många av dess komponenter fanns ändå där.

Abstract In the following text we analyse different perspectives in a meeting between a theatre and a visiting school class from grade six in the Swedish Primary School, in order to investigate the conditions for children?s participation and for making children?s own voices heard in professional theatres. Though it is common for Swedish theatre artists to try to understand and interpret children?s perspectives, it is rare for children to be given the opportunity to show their own perspectives in professional theatres in Sweden (Davet 2011 p. 18).

Barns inflytande i förskolan - Children?s influence at the preschool This essay concentrates around teachers work with children´s influence at the preschool and how that affects the days there for the children and the teachers. The purpose of the essay is to present how four educationalists placed at two different preschools work with childrens influence at the preschool and their point of wiev of the matter. With that I also wanted to expose how the educationalists work with childrens rights at the preschool and to that I added how democracy is used at the preschool. The investigation´s starting point was the questions: What does childrens influence at the preschool mean for the educationalists? How do the educationalists think regarding childrens rights? When can the children be included in dessisionmaking at the preschool? When is it not possible for the children to be included in the dessisionmaking? The four educationalists were intervjued seperately to get the most honest answers.

Discussions about the democratic deficit of the European Union have gotten more intense and the criticism usually points towards a great gap between the citizens and the EU politics. In this study the political communication policy is being put under the scope to investigate to what extent the policy is designed to counter the democratic deficit, supported by the theory of deliberative democracy. The analysis examines three aspects of the deficit ? decentralization, participation and the distribution of information ? and makes research into the communicative measures that have been implemented. The importance for EU to make deliberation possible is stressed throughout the essay and in the conclusion I argue that improvements still need to be made.  .

The purpose of this study is to determine if and how municipal consultative entities through influence may affect the legitimacy of the Swedish democratic model. The study aims to do this through analysing the opportunities for influence present with the Youth Council and the Council of the Retired in Karlstads municipality, to determine how the councils may affect political participation and the role of elected representatives. To do so, the study asks the following primary research question:"What requisites for influence are present for participants of municipal consultative entities, as found for the representatives of the youth and the retired within the framework of their participation in the Youth Council and the Council of the Retired in Karlstads municipality?"The study answers this research question by dividing it into one question of policy and one question of democratic perspective, and investigating these matters through nine snowballing interviews with the decision makers, organisational actors and participants of the councils. The information from the interviews is then analysed per council through a framework of democracy theory, policy process theory and organisation theory.

The aim for this essay is to investigate students attitudes to a local schoolboard with student majority to determin the level of functionality, relevancy and interest for this schoolboard among the students in a Swedish gymnasium in Örebro. This is done by distibution of a questionnaire form to a third of the students in the third grade . The results show that the attitudes overall amongst the students are positive, although the level of interest is low. One explanation for this low level of interest could be the lack of information from the school board to the students..