According to many scholars America's soft power is in decline, a power resource whose importance has been increasing in world politics. This makes it interesting to examine if there is a difference between how Democratic and Republican administrations wield their soft power.This thesis is a hypothesis-testing study and the purpose is to test the hypothesis that Democratic administrations, to a greater extent than Republican, can create, utilize and defend soft power. My thesis is based on Joseph Nye's theory of soft power and the focus of this study is the aspects of the foreign policy resources. In order to measure this concept I have made my own operationalization where five different indicators serve as my guidance. I use the method of least likely-cases to select and motivate the administrations being tested, which gives me a comparative study of the Democratic administrations of Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton and the Republican administration of George H.

In subsequent to Post-colonialism the African nations have dilated into different political directions. While some nations have established well-functioning democracies, others are still under authoritarian regimes. The aim of this thesis is to examine if civil society has an impact on democratic development in West Africa. Therefore the theoretical starting point is Putnam?s theory of social capital, but this study will also examine other possible causal explanations for democratic transition.This study will be based on a comparative analysis of Ghana and Guinea.

The Swedish Social Democratic Party was for a long time skeptical of Sweden?s opportunitiesto apply for membership in the European Community. Sweden?s longstanding policy ofneutrality was until the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe 1989 seen as an obstacle tomembership. These changes were an important factor to why the social democratic partychanged their position on the EC and in October 1990 applied for membership.

Bakgrund: Personer med Attention- Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) har ofta svårigheter att hantera sin vardag på många olika plan. Arbetsterapeutisk behandling syftar till att underlätta det dagliga livet och därmed minska svårigheterna som personer med ADHD upplever i sin vardag.Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva arbetsterapeutiska åtgärder samt dess effekt och betydelse för personer med personer med ADHD.Metod: Studien är en litteraturöversikt där både kvalitativ och kvantitativ forskning ingår. Sökningen efter aktuell forskning utfördes i databaserna Cinahl och PsycInfo. Totalt 11 artiklar uppfyllde urvalskriterierna. Interventionerna i studierna kategoriserades efter liknande innehåll.Resultat: Interventionskategorierna syftade på att förbättra den sociala och motoriska färdigheten, anpassa miljön, förändra aktivitetsutförandet och att ge psykoeduktiv behandling till omgivningen.

Syftet med uppsatsen var att undersöka hur det kan vara att leva med ADHD som vuxen inom tre områden; arbete, fritidsaktiviteter och vardagsliv, och på så vis öka förståelsen för dessa individer.  Som underlag för studien gjordes kvalitativa intervjuer med tre vuxna män med ADHD-diagnos. Resultatet från dessa intervjuer analyserades med hjälp av teorier om copingstrategier och KASAM.  Intervjumaterialet visade på en stor spridning av hur funktionsnedsättningen ADHD påverkade livet. Det var främst symptomen uppmärksamhetsstörning och hyperaktivitet som ledde till svårigheter i arbetsliv, fritid och vardagsliv. Svårigheterna yttrade sig dock på väldigt olika sätt. Symptomet hyperaktivitet upplevdes i vissa situationer som en tillgång.

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.

By studying a place or a phenomena research contributes to the creation of the image of the thing that he or she studies. Also, planning is seen as a democratic tool, a way to ?make? democracy. In order to see what democratic ideals that is being express it becomes important to study the research about democracy in Botkyrka. It is from this thinking this study about democracy and research has been formed.

Partly as a reaction to a perceived crisis in contemporary democracy, the nineties witnessed an upsurge in different forms of citizens? fora, dedicated to the promotion of increased participation by the citizen in the political process. Youth councils are a special point in case as they entail the general characteristics of a deliberative forum, with an emphasis on political learning. This study aims to undertake an evaluation of a regional youth council in the region of Skåne in the south of Sweden. Through qualitative analysis, the study aims to portray the origin, purposes and consequences of such a forum.

The purpose of this essay is to present, from a theoretical framwork about regional democracy, possible methods to handle the regional democratic problems in Östergötland in Sweden and to investigate the opinion of the political parties regarding this issue. Both the national and the local/regional level are investigated. The contents of the essay is based on literature studies and interviews of politicians in Östergötland. Regional democratic problems that is discussed are the political responsibility and the power distribution between the political actors on the regional level. A solution of the problem could be to organize the regional society structure in accordance with one of the following organization models"Statligt regionalt ansvar","Kommuner i samverkan"or"Regionalt folkstyre".

Democracy is a term that has been researched, and still is researched, a lot. In my education to become a teacher it has been the subject that interests me the most and I would like to be able to contribute to this research. The starting point of this essay is that in my experience there is a difference in how the national curriculum describes democracy and how the students I have met describes it. Therefore I wanted to investigate whether this also applies to a wider context than the students that I meet in my everyday life. The purpose of this essay is; to examine whether students in the ninth grade has the same view on democracy as the national means of control. The result I have attained through my work is that they somewhat share the same vision.

The UN was established after the Second World War. The organization?s primary goal was to maintain peace among all nations. When the UN intervenes in other states affairs, it is violat-ing the principles it is set to defend, principles of non-intervention and respect for sover-eignty. The outcome from such interventions is very important, a result that can legitimize the action.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitude of teachers regarding including democratic behaviour when grading students in social science. The purpose is also to investigate whether the teachers consider there to be a conflict between the right of freedom of speech and the democratic values that the school is supposed to make sure the students have when they graduate. The study also investigates the problems political decisions encounters when going from theory to reality.The theory of Ulf Petäjä on why the freedom of speechs is important, Robert Dahls theory about the democratic process and Anders Sannerstedts theory about converting political decisions to reality is what this study is based on.The study was carried out at three different schools; Teleborg Centrum, Växjö, Dackeskolan, Tingsryd and Centralskolan, Virserum ranging from the spring of 2006 and the spring of 2007. The method used except from litterature studies was interviews with active teachers.This study shows that teachers don?t think it?s acceptable to grade students based on their political ideology.

Abstract: The purpose with this study was to explore different peoples preconceived opinions of three psychiatric diagnoses; Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). These designations are accompanied by a definite social stigma, which could have profound effects on a person diagnosed with either disorder. These designations carry the risk of excluding and labelling individuals and could provoke a feeling of abnormality and potentially segregate them from the Community. This study is a qualitative study of six individuals, (sample size equals six). The rationale behind the selection was to get a broad representation of different individuals? opinions.

Syftet med denna studie var att genom granskning av litteratur undersöka vilka typer av arbetsterapeutiska interventioner som görs för barn med ADHD i åldern 5-12 år, samt effekten av dessa. En litteraturöversikt valdes som metod för att undersöka kunskapsläget inom ämnet ADHD. Litteratursökning genomfördes via databaser tillgängliga vid universitetsbiblioteket vid Luleå Tekniska universitet och sju artiklar valdes ut. Analysen visade att interventionerna riktade sig främst mot att stödja barnen med koncentration, stillasittande och stärka kognitiva svårigheter. Resultatet av denna rapport beskriver exempel på typer arbetsterapeutiska interventioner gjorda för barn med ADHD.

Bakgrund: Barn med Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) har svårigheter med uppmärksamhetsförmåga samt impulsivt och hyperaktivt beteende. Arbetsterapeuter genomför interventioner med mål att förbättra barns förutsättningar för lärande och att utvecklas socialt, teoretiskt och aktivitetsmässigt. Studiens syfte är att beskriva arbetsterapeutiska interventioner och dess effekter på inlärningsförmågan hos barn i åldern 6-12 år med Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.Metod: Studien är gjord i form av en litteraturöversikt utifrån aktuell publicerad empirisk forskning. Resultatet bygger på 13 artiklar som beskriver effekten av arbetsterapeutiska interventioner.Resultat: Resultatet beskriver hur arbetsterapeuter arbetar med barn med ADHD genom att anpassa miljön, arbeta med barns förmåga att fungera i social kontext, påverka barns kognitiva kapacitet och anpassa aktivitet. Interventionerna beskrevs generellt ha en positiv effekt på den problematik målgruppen barn med ADHD har.Slutsats: Interventionerna påverkar och visar effekt på faktorer viktiga för barns inlärningsförmåga och utveckling.