After the fall of the Iron Curtain the European Union was challenged partly by an institutionalized organization of the union, as well as by a socio-psychology awareness concerning the meaning of the European Union. The increase in European integration has generated a political collaboration where national understandings in identities are constantly being exposed for reconstruction. This results in a collective European identity where states are united in diversity.National identities are created when boundaries are set up in a relation to other states. In these identity constructions there are thoughts and questions raised such as who we are and who we are not. Ukraine and the European Union has, during a long time, had diversified preconceptions concerning who has been the others.

This essay presents an alternative approach to the predominant democratic analysis of the European Monetary Union. As the Treaties stipulate the political conduct within Monetary Union and put certain restrictions on the European politicians they are to some extent constitutional in their character. Essential for constitutional theory is the concept of precommitment; according to which a decision is made in t1 purposing to obstruct certain actions in t2. In light of this the aim of this essay is to investigate whether or not delegating monetary responsibility to the ECB can be seen as an example of constitutional precommitment and if so, if this constitutional perspective can add something to the predominant democratic analysis of the EMU. According to the author the EMU is by and large a form of precommitment as the leading politicians in Europe figuratively have tied their hands from intervening in the common monetary policy.

This paper is a critique of the hegemonic democracy ideal in France today, the myth of the Republic. Based on critical theory, the paper also contains a normative attempt giving the chance to subaltern groups to tell their, less often heard, version of the "truth".The theoretical foundation is the ontological narrative perspective, where identities and actions are understood as being constructed by the telling of stories. The interdependent relations of different narrative dimensions are analyzed. The power over who gets to tell the story of the "truth" is understood as decided in the interaction by dimensions of metanarrativity, public narratives, ontological narratives and conceptual narrativity. The author argues, inspired by Chantal Mouffe, that consensus is an illusion based on exclusion of those that differ.

Denna studie understryker den sociala miljöns betydelse för enäggstvillingars identitetsskapande. Hur utvecklas identiteten hos två genetiskt identiska individer som växer upp i samma miljö? Undersökningen bygger på kvalitativa intervjuer med tio enäggstvillingar, som även vill ge en inblick i hur enäggstvillingar upplever sin relation till sin tvilling och hur de upplever att de uppfattas av den sociala omgivningen. I vår teoretiska referensram har vi använt oss av diverse identitetsteorier som betonar interpersonella- och grupprocesser, Cooleys teori om spegeljaget samt den sociala jämförelseteorin som presenteras av Festinger. I resultatet framgick det hur enäggstvillingars identitet uppfattas i förhållande till sin tvilling, där omgivningen hade en betydande roll i enäggstvillingarnas identitetsskapande men även hur jämförelser direkt påverkade den egna självkänslan.

The following essay is a descriptive and analyzing study in how the local Tanzanian NGO MVIWANYA works to disseminate sustainable agricultural technologies to the farmer households in Rorya District, Mara. It also presents and analyzes the reception and impacts these new technologies have on the households. Information was gathered during two weeks of field work at the organization in Tanzania. It was conducted empirically through interviews with and observations of small-scale farmer members of MVIWANYA and the staff of the organization. The gathered material is analyzed and presented with the help of a theoretical model designed by Birner et al.

In Sweden, the labour movement historically had influenced both society and politics. In recent times, it is considered a change in society with a stronger employer party while the unions weakened by reduced unionisation. This study aims to highlight the presence of individualistic and collectivistic approaches to the labour market in relation to union density. The different approaches are investigated in the labour market by means of a quantitative survey. The study's survey items are workers in the timber industry.

The main purpose with the essay is to look into NATO and annalise how the organisation haschanged it´s security policy work process today 2015, seen from two different world eventsduring the period 1989-2015, the collapse of the Berlin wall and war in Afghanistan. Purposeand issuses also apply based on two theories Anarchymodel and World society model. In orderto highlight two different ways to see NATO:s security policy work process over time untilthe present day.Issues:? How did the fall of Berlin wall in 1989 change NATO:s security policy work process?? How did the war in Afghanistan in 2001 change NATO:s security policy work process?The essay is a qualitative method literature review describing NATO as an organisation andworld events that had impact on NATO over time.The result show that NATO has shifled it´s borders further fast because ?new? membercountries from the former Soviet Union are party members. NATO has moved closer toRussia, and increased in momentum.

Today Europe is faced with an identity crisis concerning its borders. Turkey stands at the threshold for an EU-membership while the EU-Commission is trying to formulate what constitutes a European identity. This identity seeking process will determine the future not only for Turkey, but also for immigrants now living in Europe.In this thesis a discourse analysis, underpinned by socialconstructionist theory, is conducted to explore how the European identity has been constructed throughout history up until today. A starting point is that identity always is defined through a dialectical relationship to "otherness". Therefore the analysis is focused not only on what a European identity consists of but also what and who it excludes.

Since Sweden became a member of the European Union (EU) several constitutional reforms has been taking place. During this time, Sweden has also changed its view on democracy,from a collective to an individual perspective of democracy in the politics. A reasonable hypothesis and the purpose of this essay is to investigate if the Swedish government has beendeveloped towards an Europeanization.The Swedish state audit changed in a pioneering way after the EU- entry, with the formation of Riksrevisionen. Another constitutional change is that the Swedish EU- membership is being instituted in the Swedish constitution. The role of Swedish courts has also changed since the EU- entry.

In this essay a social perspective on the mind is explored and argued for. The essay moves from a discussion of a social collective foundation for the individual mind to a discussion ofthe main alternative ways of describing the shared social world, namely an action-centred perspective and a power-centred perspective. It is shown that these two perspectives are combinable. A combination of the two perspectives is therefore recommended for a more balanced way of describing the shared social world. In this essay it is argued for that the individuals? mind and her identity is dependent on the surrounding community.

This paper addresses how political parties make decisions. Parties often have to choose between conflicting objectives such as influence on policy, control of the government, and support among the voters. This paper examines the behavior of the two Swedish parties on one of their particular policy positions: Swedish withdrawal from the EU. The aim is to describe why the Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) and the Green Party (Miljöpartiet) retain thisspecific policy position when it on one hand seems damaging to their chances of getting into government, and on the other seems to be an unrealistic policy to realize. I undertake a twocase study of the two Swedish parties, which I assume to represent a population of Nordic parties critical to the EU.

ABSTRACTCitizendialogue in the District of RasboA Case Study in the Municipality of UppsalaAuthor: Camilla ÖstlundSupervisor: Stig MontinThe essay is written inside the scope of Örebro Universitys evaluation of the new organisation in the municipality of Uppsala.The purpose of this essay is to study the citizendialogue in the district of Rasbo. This will be done partly by an examination of how the participants themselvesperceive citizendialogue. Their descriptions are put in relation to deliberative democracy and its critics amongst other. Partly by study how those involved have choosen to put it into practice. The opponents of the reorganization chose to start a non-profit association, Rasbo in co-operation, to carry on local mobilization and it will be compared with other similar groups.

There is an ongoing discussion amongst Swedish politicians about how the Swedish police will be able to handle increased organised criminality represented in the growing threats of terrorism. In May 2006 representatives from the seven parties of the Swedish parliament debated the question whether the Swedish security service and Swedish police should be permitted to use increased surveillance with the purpose of preventing severe criminality.The question of increased surveillance is a matter often connected to matters of personal privacy. The aim of this master?s thesis is to study which arguments are being used for and against the proposed law that would permit surveillance with the purpose of preventing crime, as well as examine members of Parliaments view on privacy.The methodology used in this thesis is both argumentation analysis and rhetoric analysis. These two tools are used to examine the minutes from a parliamentary debate about the bill mentioned earlier.

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.

As computerized communication and the Internet have evolved, the possibility to express and affirm one?s identity in new ways has also been created. Facebook, which has taken a leading role among the social fora on the Internet and succeeded worldwide, is my choice of study due to the number of people that actively choose to present themselves on it. The purpose of this thesis is to study the identity construction on Facebook through the activities a member partakes in, as well as how the presentation of oneself is written and if it is a result of a self-reflective process of the individual.The rationale for the qualitative study has been personal interviews in order to get an insight into how the individuals use and present themselves on Facebook and - in the interaction with others ? how they construct their own identity. My hypothesis has been that we, in the interaction with others, have a great possibility to create and understand our own identities. The study results show that identity formation is a constant process and that it is indeed a self-reflective project.