In 1974 the three municipalities of Åsele, Dorotea and Fredrika were amalgamated despite of hunger strikes, mass protests and a serious threat of violence. But after six years the marriage shattered as Dorotea left the other two after years of continued struggle. In 2005 the idea of an amalgamation of Åsele, Dorotea and Vilhelmina municipalities was brought to life by an older and ever declining population.By creating a democratic ideal type consisting of the three variables ? legitimacy, participation and identity ? this study assesses what impact an amalgamation of the three municipalities might have on local democracy.Combining a qualitative and a quantitative approach this study concludes that amalgamating the municipalities today could create a democratic unit lacking legitimacy, having a weak identity and impeding participation. But the study also brings forth that the impact of an amalgamation upon the variables of the ideal type as defined is not written in stone.

In January of 2014 a newly founded company held a press conference in central Stockholm. The purpose of the conference was to inform about Lexbase, the largest database on the Internet with legal information about the Swedish general public. The aim of this particular paper is to use news reports about Lexbase as material to identify the theses and their types presented in Swedish newspapers, and to examine the ideology constructed and presented by the theses in the said news reports. The questions asked in the paper are 1. What the distribution of different theses looks like and is there a type of thesis that more often invokes an implicit argumentation? 2.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate what it means to be a punk in Linköping, Sweden today. This is done by interviewing four informants on a number of topics. The topics being discussed are appearance and values. The topics ?values? contains a number of sub-topics, but the emphasis is put on D.I.Y-ideals and equality.D.I.Y-ideals (Do It Yourself-ideals) are important.

The following study was undertaken in the spring of 2005 in Helsingborg, Sweden.It presents a study of the experience and values six young couples have related to parenting and gender equality. Twelwe people, six women and six men, were interviewed about the above mentioned topics related to their new found role as parents. How did these women and men choose to assign or elaborate their role as parents in terms of household chores and parental leave? Did they consider their parenthood to be equal or did they feel that their role as parents had already been assigned based on their gender? What were the decisive factors, if any, that determined their parenting roles?Although this study is relatively limited, the results are compatible with other published studies and indicate that young parents of today, without consideration to their gender, have a traditional view on parenting. The study also indicates that the attitudes seem to be established by traditional values, norms as well as sexualgender.

Lack of political interest and will to deal with human rights violations carried out under the civil- military dictatorship, has characterized the transition and post-transition in Uruguay. The systematic use of torture, arbitrary imprisonments and forced disappearances in the relatively small country created a culture of fear that has been present through out the post-transition phase. Human rights groups have been central actors in the fight for truth and justice and against impunity. This study analyzes how these groups multiple democracy-building functions have contributed to democratic development. It also analyses how the democracy-building functions have been constrained by the political context.

AbstractIn this study, the conceptions of a number of teachers in the Swedish primary and lower-secondary school about cultural pluralism, the values connected to this pluralism by the Curriculum for the Compulsory School System, the Pre-School Class and the Leisure-time Centre, Lpo 94, and the possibilities for pupils to gain knowledge about these values, were studied. The conceptions of the teachers were regarded and interpreted as ideology, since the study was made from a point of departure containing an assumption about how the content of the curriculum is of importance for the development of relations of power and dominance between different groups in society. The purpose of the study was to interpret the statements of a limited number of teachers about cultural pluralism, values and knowledge, regarding the ontological, axiological and epistemological assumptions and conceptions expressed therein. The empirical data of the study was gathered through qualitative interviews with eleven teachers working in six different primary and lower-secondary schools in the Mid-Sweden region. The conceptions expressed in the statements given by the respondents were categorized.

In the thesis we discuss South African teachers? conceptions of democracy in general and school democracy in particular. The essay is based on interviews with twelve teachers, working in South African high schools. We have asked questions concerning different views of democracy, such as what the term means to the teachers and how they define a democratic school. We take our stand in different theoretical approaches such as school being the ultimate link between a state and its people to make the citizens think and act democratically.

ABSTRACTEssay in political science, C-level by Cecilia HolmbergSpring semester 2006, Tutor: Arne Larsson- Ideological similarities between the Swedish Socialdemocratic and the Swedish conservative party- An idealanalysis of different political issuesThe purpose of this essay is to examine wheater the political ideologies have lost their importance in the Swedish political system. The study will focus on the ideological similarities or differences between the two largest parties in Sweden, the socialdemocratic and the conservative party. Therefore, the main research question is:? Are there any ideological similarities or differences between the socialdemocratic and the conservative party?To be able to answer this question, I have used Herbert Tingsten?s idealanalysis. This type of analysis examines how someone, in this case a political party, describes reality.

Nordmaling is a small muncipality that has gotten a lot of critic in media over the last two years. In order to regain a good reputation and to communicate a strong message towards external groups, Nordmaling have decided to develop a branding platform that can represent the organization in both external and internal communications. In order to develop a brand the organization must understand its identity.The purpose of the study was to examine the employees? thoughts of their organization in order to be able to define the organizational identity and give recommendations of core values that the organization can apply to their brand. To understand how the employees perceive their organization and what they think the organization stands for, the main focus was to study their view on values, standards, goals and vision of the organization through focus interviews and a survey.

Background: Cerebral Palsy is usually divided into three subgroups: ataxic, spastic and dyskinetic, where children and adolescents can, because of misestimation in nutrition and energy intake, suffer from weight problems.Aim: To compare calculations with equations with the individual's measured RMR in the subgroups, to see if any equation is more suitable. This could be used as a tool to calculate the resting metabolism at times when it is not possible to perform clinical measurements.Method: The RMR has been measured in 37 children and adolescents aged 3-15 years through indirect respiratory calorimetry. Those values have been compared with calculations from five equations. The results were then analyzed in order to find if any equation is better to apply for calculating resting metabolism for each subgroup.Results: The ataxic group was overestimated by 56.5% of the calculated values. WHO/FAO/UNU?s equation indicates a significantly strong correlation between the measured and calculated values (r=0.85, p<0.05).

The purpose of my study is to study Social Democrats immigration policy over the period 1990 and 2013. My material consists of party programs and motions that social democracy has raised in Parliament. As a research method I used McGee´s ideograph theory. I use a cluster analysis inspired by Kenneth Burke to analyze the meaning of those found ideographs. I also present and use Bitzers rhetorical situation in my analyzeWith help of Burke´s rhetorical situation I could see how the Social Democrats' rhetorical approach to immigration policy in the different periods in society.My investigation of the Social Democratic Party program and motions / propositions revealed the following ideographs: Democracy, solidarity, equality and freedom.

This is a study about the relation between the Swedish school and the political system of Sweden. I wanted to see if the relation had changed since the election of 2010 as it was in that election the Sweden Democrats got over five percent of the votes and took seat in the Swedish parliament. The thing that is unique about this election is that it was really the first time a right-wing party had been elected into the Swedish parliament. Many experts argue that this is the first xenophobic party that has been elected into the Swedish parliament. This led to a problem for schools and their principals and a difficult question to answer because xenophobia is contrary to the school?s core values and the school?s democratic mission.Should the school still be open for political parties? How do schools manage to distinguish between political information and political propaganda? If parties still are welcome into the schools, which parties should be allowed? The equality ombudsman has said in a report that the schools have to comply with the principle of objectivity, which stipulates that the public sector has to be unbiased.I have chosen to make use of a qualitative method because I think the study then gets a deeper understanding of the topic.

The purpose of this graduate work is to seek knowledge about how children?s right to participation and influence is interpreted and understood in a specific context and also to examine how this right can be conditioned and shaped by the pedagogical practice of early childhood education.The focus of this study has been to examine the arguments and attitudes towards the right to participation and influence as a pedagogical practice as it is understood in early childhood education. Additionally, I have been interested in studying the affordances and restrictions that early childhood educators experience when dealing with children´s right to participation and influence.The platform used for data collection is Facebook and the informants recruited were active participants in forums regarding democracy in preschool education. In the second phase of the study I conducted online focus groups with these participants.For the analysis of the material I have adopted a poststructuralist perspective, starting from Jaques Derridas philosophical texts and use of deconstruction.The results show the complexity in early childhood education´s democratic mission. What becomes clear is the importance for the teachers to adopting an open, ethical and democratic approach in order to make children´s right to participation and genuine influence possible in the everyday reality of early childhood education. .

On the 8th of May 2007 a local power-sharing goverment consisting of Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) was formed in Northern Ireland. The aim of this dissertation is to explore why the DUP, who in the past have opposed all forms of power-sharing decided to form a goverment and take active part in a power-sharing agreement. The study is based on a consociational theoretical framework developed by Arend Lijphart and further developed in a Northern Irish context by John McGarry and Brendan O'Leary. Using this theory the study seeks to understand the broad conditions surrounding the DUP's power-sharing. After a description of consociational theory and the road leading up to the Belfast Agreement,three possible explanations for power-sharing, based onconsociational theory are discussed.

The aim of the study has been to find out children?s librarians? views on and management of media that contains topics with a controversial nature and also to find out how this affects the public library as a democratic institution. We have conducted the study by interviewing six children?s librarians. By using Vestheim?s terms value rationality and instrumental rationality, we have been categorizing the answers from our informants and thus identified two different points of view.