Title: Det nya Ryssland - En inblick over Rysslands utrikespolitik under 2000-taletAuthor: Tim Balder and Jens KindhLinnaeus UniversityDepartment of Political ScienceAutumn term 2011The purpose of this thesis is to gain a better understanding of how the Russian foreign policy is, how it is conducted and how it may develop in the future. To do that, we are going to try to answer the following questions:What characterizes Russia's official foreign policy?What theories are there for the Russian foreign policy?How can the various theories explain the Russian foreign policy actions at the international level?Our theory is to try explaining how the Russian foreign policy is continuing its development during the 21st century through three theories known as the Western liberalism, Pragmatic nationalism and Fundamental nationalism. Furthermore, to explain Russia's foreign policy and their behaviour, we are going to use the two foreign policy doctrines from 2000 and 2008. In addition, books and articles will also be used to explain how Russia's foreign policy is conducted and developed..

Background and Problem discussion: Strategic evaluations are important as they providecrucial information regarding Swedish development assistance and recommendations on howto face problems and inadequacies found in the evaluations. Therefore, the follow up ofrecommendations is of great significance as well. Unfortunately, SIDA?s ManagementResponse system for follow-up of strategic evaluations has not been functioning in asatisfying way and needed actions have not been taken. Thus, Swedish developmentassistance has been criticised for the lack of implemented actions and the public has startedto question the work carried through by the organisations.

This essay is about persons who have had social assistance and the individual?s experiences of social assistance. The focus is on how the individual develops in a new life situation and if and how they are motivated to get out of it. The essay has an individual perspective where the relation between society and the individual is important. The result is based on four qualitative interviews with a hermeneutic perspective.

The general purpose of this work is to study how social welfare offices organization affect accessibility for those seeking immediate financial assistance in the municipality of Stockholm. Accessibility in this study is principally defined by Swedish Law. The study is based on an empowerment perspective. Data was collected by qualitative interviews of officials in eight social welfare offices. Search path to reach the officials was registered by participant observations.

Purpose: The aim is to investigate the mechanisms behind the destructive entrepreneurship in the assistance industry.Method: To investigate the destructive entrepreneurship in the assistance industry, we conducted a qualitative study in the form of semi-structured questions. In total, we interviewed four authorities and an employer organization.Theory: Theoretical framework: The study is based on Baumol's (1990) theory of productive, unproductive and destructive entrepreneurship and rent-seeking by Murphy et al (1991), but the study's principal theory that we have chosen to apply is the routine activity theory of Cohen & Felson (1979) that describes three elements that must come together in order for a crime to be committed.Conclusions and discussion: Our study shows that it is clear that there is both fraud and abuse within the assistance allowance, which can be done in different ways. Some users simulate their illness that they exaggerate their need for assistance. Some assistance providers have abused the compensation by paying lower wages and empty false wages etc. The study showed that there also exists a type of human trafficking.

The role of cultural policy within the general political planning of a community can vary both historically and regionally. The aim of this study has been to explore the cultural policy plans, during the 1990's, in the recently formed geographical region of "Västra Götaland". This is a qualitative study, carried out during 1999, and based upon structured interviews with five representatives of the cultural-policy sector in the "Västra Götaland" region. In order to identify connections and tendencies in a more general social context the aims of the five representatives regarding cultural policy have been explored from the perspective of three cultural policy paradigms, namely Dorte Skot-Hansen, Olav R. Spilling and Göran Nylöf.

The purpose with this study was to investigate how parents experience their situation in life, having personal assistance at home to support their small children with disabilities. Different areas were investigated. What made them apply for personal assistance? How does the support affect the family and their parenthood? What would it mean if their children would not have personal assistance? The study was made using a qualitative method and the material was gathered through interviews. A combination of symbolic interactionism and system theory were used as theoretical perspectives.

This thesis aims to describe and characterise the foreign policy change the United States has experienced towards Europe. This thesis claims that the United States is presenting a more supportive attitude today towards the development of the European Union. This more positive attitude has developed during successive U.S. administrations and has become visible since the end of the Cold War.Washington is today less ambiguous and less ambivalent towards the integration of Europe. The United States appreciate that a common foreign- and security policy in Europe is in accordance with American interests.

Title: Det nya Ryssland - En inblick over Rysslands utrikespolitik under 2000-taletAuthor: Tim Balder and Jens KindhLinnaeus UniversityDepartment of Political ScienceAutumn term 2011The purpose of this thesis is to gain a better understanding of how the Russian foreign policy is, how it is conducted and how it may develop in the future. To do that, we are going to try to answer the following questions:What characterizes Russia's official foreign policy?What theories are there for the Russian foreign policy?How can the various theories explain the Russian foreign policy actions at the international level?Our theory is to try explaining how the Russian foreign policy is continuing its development during the 21st century through three theories known as the Western liberalism, Pragmatic nationalism and Fundamental nationalism. Furthermore, to explain Russia's foreign policy and their behaviour, we are going to use the two foreign policy doctrines from 2000 and 2008. In addition, books and articles will also be used to explain how Russia's foreign policy is conducted and developed..

What Places Adolescents and Adults, Respectively, in Need of Social Assistance? A Qualitative Study of How Social Workers Whom Administrate Financial Assistance for Adolescents and Adults, Respectively, Describe Reasons Behind the Need of Social Assistance Amongst Their ClientsThe purpose of this essay was to study and compare how social workers whom administrate social assistance for adolescents and adults, respectively, describe reasons behind the need of social assistance amongst their clients. This was done due to the use of qualitative interviews with a total of six social workers. Of these six, three administrated social assistance for adolescents while the other three did the same for adults. Prior research of poverty attribution greatly inspired this essay.

Background and Problem discussion: Strategic evaluations are important as they providecrucial information regarding Swedish development assistance and recommendations on howto face problems and inadequacies found in the evaluations. Therefore, the follow up ofrecommendations is of great significance as well. Unfortunately, SIDA?s ManagementResponse system for follow-up of strategic evaluations has not been functioning in asatisfying way and needed actions have not been taken. Thus, Swedish developmentassistance has been criticised for the lack of implemented actions and the public has startedto question the work carried through by the organisations.

The aim of this thesis is to study the cause of Egypt´s failed development of the transition to democracy and vice versa, the reason why Turkey succeeded in democratic transition. Thesis methodology is a comparative analysis between design units Egypt and Turkey. Thus, the most similar design used in the investigation.European Commission began in 1998 to review Turkey´s political and economic reforms to fulfil the Copenhagen criteria. 2005 began negotiations on a Turkish- EU membership. U.S and Egypt have enjoyed close economic, security and democratic cooperation since 1975.

In 1998 Sweden accepted the Treaty of Amsterdam which contained a development of the common foreign and security policy (CFSP) towards a European security and defense policy (ESDP). This thesis aims at studying the decision making process behind the Swedish foreign policy decision to further develop its security policy within the European Union. The purpose is to explain which factors and conditions that did affect and influence the Swedish foreign policy decision. The research applies foreign policy analysis, a theoretical perspective that analyzes both domestic and international conditions using different levels of analysis. The research methods being used has been qualitative as well as quantitative, complemented by interviews, since the research is a process tracing case study.The thesis conclusion is that the Swedish decision is explained by several factors.

The focus of this essay is Swedish bilateral development aid. With the help of organization theory I analyse the development aid strategies and policies of the 1990s, in order to examine how and why they were introduced. I investigate three different types of aid organization, namely structural adjustment programmes, political conditionality tied to aid co-operation, and equality policy as part of development co-operation. I analyze the introduction and subsequent use of these three co-operation forms to see whether they were applied and adopted into Swedish development aid because more efficient measures were required or because they were the most recent and modern ways of dealing with development co-operation.Organization theory presents these two ways of analyzing organization. They are occasionally competing and sometimes complementing each other in explaining organization.

This study is about the child?s perspective when it comes to work with financial assistance. The purpose of the study was partly to describe how social workers regard the child?s perspective in their work with financial assistance and partly to look into whether they impose a child?s perspective in their practical work. To fulfill this purpose the authors used a quantitative method and sent out a web based survey to all the social workers actively working with financial assistance in Stockholm town.