The purpose of this study is to investigate four students in grades six by interviewing them. It will find out how they personally perceive their own learning in group work and why they work in groups. In my investigation, I will rely on these two questions:How do my subjects reflect on their own learning during group work?Why do my subjects think that they work in groups?For my study, I selected four students from the same school, two girls and two boys, who are 11 to 12 years old. The interviews were individual because I wanted to get a deeper view of how students perceive their own learning in groups and why they are working with a group of other students.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect the Nazi threat had on the swedish labour movement between 1932 and 1939 and to enrich what kind of pre-understanding they had about the fall of the Weimar Republic and the upcoming and effects of the Third Reich.Brought by the development in Germany, a debate and struggle took place in the Social Democratic journal Tiden over the meaning of concepts and there ability, in the hands of demagogs, to overthrow democratic structures. The concept of socialism and its concepts attribute play a major part in this investigation. By establishing fields of tension such as - nation vs internationalism, socialism in theory and in practice, political democracy vs evolved democracy and the diverse principles of neutrality, the first principle meaning the defending of national boarders, the other meaning not only defending your own country but taking an active part in defending democracy in the world - I was able to observe the movement and change of concepts within this fields. The result showing that the concept of socialism and near related attributes, in the hands of national socialists had undertaken a wast change of meaning, which applied in the Swedish debate threatened to undermine the power and force of the Social Democrats applied in the political discourse in Sweden. To defend itself and strengthening the Social Democratic hegemony as well as maintaining the goal of evolved democratic expansion, they were forced to win the confidence and votes of the middle class.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the discourse on political exclusion in the official report Demokratiutredningen. It has been my ambition to relate the analysis of the report to a critical academic discourse on political exclusion and thereby make visible hidden norms and structures which functions to exclude certain individuals and groups from political participation.My paper point out that the report establishes a strong link between democracy and participation and that it, therefore, makes a strong case for a process of democratic inclusion. Though, in my study I suggest that that there is an unawareness of the importance of norms, hegemonic conceptions and structures and that inclusion, therefore, is unlikely to take place. Furthermore, I criticize the focus on deliberative democracy in the report. With insights offered by Mouffe in her argumentation on the necessity to acknowledge the dimension of antagonism present in all societies I underline that the focus on this democratic model is problematic.My conclusion is that the analysis presented in the report is insufficient if we want to create a democratic system characterized by equality..

This essay is a comparative research between pupils' experience of how the headmaster, teachers and other school staff interpret and apply the democratic education. The results are based on a survey carried out in senior high school, as well as interviews with the school staff. The democratic education charge has a long history of Swedish school system and is the basis for the maintenance of a democratic society. Both policy paper of state investigations and researchers in the field, regard to school as the primary and unique instance in order to promote and develop democratic skills in children and young people. However, it is shown that those who come out from school lack of knowledge and awareness of democracy and the will to speak their mind.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how administrative officers at the Swedish social insurance agency experience and deal with the goal conflicts they may experience. Furthermore, the purpose is to gain a greater understanding on how they perceive their role in the implementation process, and their position as the link between the citizens and the state. Two potential conflicts are examined; between quantitative goals and performance measures and those more qualitative and hard to measure; between economic values such as cost efficiency and productivity and democratic values such as the rule of law. The other conflict examined is that between implementing and following the laws set forth, take into account the individual needs and interests of the citizen. The theoretical framework consists of Lundquist?s theory on public officers as the guardians of democracy, which means that they should not only implement laws and rules according to political intentions, but also make sure that the democratic values and principles are followed in the relationship between state and citizen.

This thesis discusses the 2007 elections in Kenya, and its aftermath. The aim is to examine whether or not ethnicity played a major role in the outbreak of violence that followed the referendum. As well as different theories and discussions on ethnicity, I will also try to explain the course of events by using theories of increased civil violence during a democratic transition, and the fact that weak political institutions can cause violence. My conclusion is that ethnicity has played a part in the violence, but is too simple to blame the events following the election on just that. A number of different factors all contributed to the outbreak, but all to a different extent.

Croatia became an independent country 1991 and has since then strived to reach a democracy level, which can lead to membership of the European Union. The purpose of this essay is on the basis of consolidate democratic perspective to illustrate Croatia?s democratic development.In order to fulfil the aim, I have applied a qualitative text analysis technique. Through analysis of books and documents, data was collected to accommodate a valid result. I have used consolidated democracy, with its five areas (political, civil, economic, legal and bureaucratic), as my theoretical framework to the data, to provide answers and develop an analysis.The conclusions show that the consolidate democracy in Croatia has developed a lot since the independence, and Croatia is on its good way to turn into a democratic state like other West-European countries.

This study analyzes how civil society contributes to the democratic development in a Nicaragua governed by the sandinist party FSLN. The empirical focus lays at the relationship between state and the civil society. By using a conceptual framework outlined by Caroline Boussard, the civil society is being analyzed as an actor with a democracy-building potential that is supported or constrained by a political context.The civil society is divided between traditional social movement and more newly borned NGOs. Social movements tend to approach the government comparatively to NGOs, which adopt a highly critical attitude. In contrast to NGOs, the traditional social movements are improving their democratic functions as a counterpart while NGOs confine its democratic potential to an agenda setter drawing attention to democratic deficits.

During the 90?s, several reforms took place in order to change the educational system. The reforms intended to increase the freedom of choice and to facilitate the start-up process for driving independent schools. A broad alliance of political parties from left to right supported these reforms. Twenty years later, the independent schools constitute a substantial part of schools in Sweden.

It is said that libraries are the cornerstones of democracy.What is then the democratic mandate, and how is itperceived by the library staff? That's what I examine in thismaster's thesis. I?ve made 14 phone interviews with librarystaff, from assistants to managers, and examined what theirdaily work routine looks like and what they think belongs tothe democratic mandate. I found that all agree that there is ademocratic mandate, but it is not clearly stated in anydocument.I found seven areas that my respondents saw as part of themandate; availability, diversity, children and young people,equality, public education, free of law and cultural history.These are not sharply defined, but can often move into oneanother.

The Social Democratic Party and the Moderate Party are two parties with different ideological background. The parties have different opinions in issues of public and private matters. The Social Democratic Party profiles it self, through the local and national party programs, as a party for solidarity and security. The Moderate Party, on the other hand, profiles it self through their programmes as a party with a possibility for the individual to shape his or her own life. Through a survey on members in the local government, and two key persons at national level, the view of municipal self-government has appeared.

The ambition of this essay is to examine if groups on Facebook are examples of ?slacktivism? and discuss which qualifications these groups have in order to provide a democratic conversation. The results will be discussed relative to democratic participant, information overload, interactivity and previous research. By nethnographically observing three groups and analyzing selected posts and comments with the critical discourse analysis one can see that slacktivism spreads easily by people liking and sharing posts from the groups to their friends. The particular groups that has been analyzed in this essay are committed to save Swedish traditions that they believe is threatened.

Who is responsible for youth policy implementation?This thesis attempts to deepen our understanding of Swedish and Nordic youth policy. Youth policy is cross-sectoral and includes all the decisions and measures affecting the conditions of young people. National youth policy therefore concerns young people's life situations in a number of different areas, such as work, housing, education, health, leisure and influence. The purpose of the study is to increase the knowledge of youth policy work the last century by understanding the impact of youth research concerning adults' role in youth policy implementation. A mixed method approach has been applied to the study: interviews, documents and youth theory have been analysed.

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.

The purpose of the thesis is to examine the relation between art, politics and ideology in contemporary art, focusing on the drawings depicting Mohammed the prophet as a dog, made by the Swedish artist Lars Vilks. His work is contextual in accordance with current art practice, thus letting everything related to the artwork become part of it, a circumstance the thesis tries to grasp in the widest respect possible. The drawings were published and spread throughout Swedish media, where they were later defended and criticized by a number of writers. Many debaters argued that the art work represents Western freedom of speech, and that to criticize them is to criticize fundamental democratic rights. This discourse tended to disqualify all arguments that questioned why such force was put into defending and spreading offensive pictures.