The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the democratization process in Kurdistan on the basis of consolidation democracy with focus on arenas defined by Linz and Stepan (1997), namely economic, political, legal, civil society and arenas of state bureaucracy. Furthermore, I intend to explain Kurdistan?s road toward democratization in Kurdistan from 1991 until today, with a focus on the years 2003-2012. The main results are that Kurdistan has developed conditions that support a future consolidation of democracy. However, there are weaknesses in the economic situation, rule of law and the arena of bureaucracy.

The objective of this undergraduate thesis is to study the Swedish Social Democatic Party?s standpoint of the law allowing asylum seekers to choose where to live (ebo) between 1994-2009. The study?s empirical material is being based on official documents from the Swedish Parliament, which is being analyzed by a method called ?process-tracing?. A research question has been formulated to supplement the objective:What arguments has the Swedish Social Democratic Party expressed pro and con the law of ?ebo?? The study?s theoretical framwork is based on two theories which explain incentives behind parties? decision-making, strategic or ideological, on three arenas. As the law was ratified the party took a positive standpoint, but later shifted to become stricly against it.

Liberal theorists typically argue that state action should not favor any particular conception of the good or meaningful life. On this view the defining characteristic of the liberal state is neutrality among rivaling ideas of the good. This thesis argues that state neutrality is impossible to maintain in practice. Two different versions of state neutrality; neutral justification and neutral aims, are used to analyze a wide range of political issues. It is concluded that far from being neutral, the liberal state favors individualistic and market oriented conceptions of the good life.

Before the general election 2006 all of the Swedish parties represented in the Parliament held their political party conference. At each political party conference, the leader for respectively party held their opening speech, a speech that was covered by the press. This essay deals with how the press covers these speeches. Analysing how the different speeches were covered by the press, some tendencies regarding how the press report could be visualised. In this comparison the ?quantitative content analysis? was used.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate how the Swedish media framed the political party, the Swedish Democrats, two weeks prior to the election of parliament in 2014. This essay starts with the historical background of the political party, the Swedish Democrats, and continues with the theoretical framework for the essay. The theoretical framework consists of three theories: framing, media logic and media?s role in the democratic society. The essay?s main problem is presented as the question: What media image was there of the Swedish Democrats before the election of parliament in 2014? The main problem is answered by using a quantitative content analysis on the essay?s empirical material, 68 news articles from four Swedish daily newspapers.

This essay is a qualitative study concerned with questions about disability. I set out from a definition of disability which highlights non-disabled peoples´ participation in making a disabled person ?the Other?. My aim is to contribute to an understanding of the experiences of disabled people as well as problemize the way that normality and disability is socially constructed. The empirical material of the essay consists of qualitative interviews with disabled men and women and the essay is written with a critical perspective.

The European Union is struggling to maintain democracy and tries to increase the participation among the citizens in Europe. The European Citizens? Initiative, ECI, is a platform established by the European Commission to allow citizens to propose new legislation. ?Water and sanitation are a human right! Water is a public good, not a commodity!? is the first ECI that has met the requirements.

The study shows how seven informants, all studying at a university in northern Sweden to become art teachers, perceive and relate to controversial contemporary art in the context of secondary school art education. The study is based on semi-structured interviews. The study contributes to a nuanced view of these informants opinions and thoughts regarding provocative contemporary art, in relation to the school's democratic values ??and founding mission. The seven informants' responses were compiled thematically linked to the study's purpose and issues to allow for comparisons and analysis.

The purpose of the essay is to investigate how the position of women and girls in society can lead to a valid infringement of the right to privacy (art. 8 ECHR) by allowing the storage of personal data belonging to people who have not been convicted of a crime. The essay uses the traditional legal method to determine the applicable law, but is also grounded in a feminist approach in order to enable an interaction between jurisprudence and societal phenomena. The essay revolves around Directive 2016/680 and relevant case law in order to analyze the set requirements to enable an infringement of the right to privacy. In order to be able to analyze whether the requirements can be met based on the need to prevent men?s violence against women and girls, the essay will also describe the life situations of women and girls in society. The essay argues that the conditions at hand fall under art.

This thesis analyzes the media debates generated by the election of Omar Mustafa to the board of the social democratic party, and the appointment of the conservative Minister of Labour, Elisabeth Svantesson. More specifically, the aim is to analyze newspaper material through a discourse analyze, to see if and how religious affiliation effects the possibilities to act as a political representative. Theories of othering and intersectionality serve as theoretical points of departure. Further, chains of equivalence from Laclau and Mouffe?s discourse theory are used to study how categories as ?us? and ?the other? are constructed in the material, and how these processes of categorization relate to the intersection of religion, gender and ethnicity.

The aim of this graduate essay is to elucidate and compare the approach to learning that emerges in texts about the two educational practices Montessori and Reggio Emilia.The guiding research questions in this study are:What do Montessori and Reggio Emilia that learning is about?The mean Montessori and Reggio Emilia that learning goes to?How do you describe the Montessori and Reggio Emilia justification why it is important to learn? Through a poststructural theoretical framework and text analysis the study focused on what has been written about learning in the traditions of Montessori and Reggio Emilia.The results of the study indicate that both Montessori and Reggio Emilia look at the child in a similar way in which the child have the desire to explore and learn. Both pedagogy traditions think that the child will develop into independent people who can change society in the future for the better and with a democratic basis.The study also reveals how the Swedish curriculum (Skolverket, 98/10) is inspired both by the Reggio Emilia and Montessori traditions through describing how preschool should stimulate and challenge the child's development and learning, utilize and strengthen the interests of children to learn to conquer new experiences, knowledge and skills..

The Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) has for a long time often been labeled a populist political party. It has however not been the subject of in-depth study to what extent the party really is populist. A study on whether the party and its supporters fulfill the criteria that a social science definition of populism would stipulate is therefore needed, in order to establish accurately whether the party is populist.    The definition used in my study accentuates three qualities that specify populist organizations: an antagonistic attitude against prevailing power structures, demands for increasing democratic influence and advocating a certain people?s rights ahead of others.The qualitative analysis of documents central for the party shows that it fulfills all of the criteria illustrated in the definition that is the basis of my study.

The purpose with this degree thesis was to investigate the preschool teacher´s view onchildrens´s influence in preschool routine situations. The target group for this study ispreschool teacher´s that currently are working with children that are 1 ? 5 years of age. To manage to answer the aim of this study semi-structured interviews were conducted. I have performed interviews with five preschool teacher´s that currently work in a preschool that is situated in a medium sized city, in the county Värmland, Sweden.

According to the theory of elitist democracy civic political participation should be reduced to participation in the democratic elections. This essay examines whether a high rate of institutionalized political participation beyond the elections leads to: (a) that those who are included gets a more favourable treatment at the expense of the common interest, in other words that their self interest threatens the political equality, (b) reduced freedom of action for the politicians and the headmasters, (c) the emergence of vague conditions of responsibility. These hypotheses are examined in an empirical study of user-boards at four schools on three locations in southern Sweden. In these user-boards the parents are in majority and have the right of decision, which has been delegated to them from the local government and the headmaster. The main conclusion is that, based on this empirical investigation, there is no support in any of the hypotheses.

The aim of this essay is to investigate the situation for democracy in China. The study raises two main questions. They are as follows: Are there obstacles to a democratization process in China? and Are there openings when it comes to a gradual change for democratization in China? The theoretical framework consists of Robert A.Dahl´s Polyarchy theory, and in addition , five factors promoting democracy. Also the notion of an MDP-society (a modern, dynamic and pluralistic society) is looked upon.