Foreseeing future changes in economic activity is of up most importance to a wide array of actors. The time lag in the presentation of official GDP statistics means that to somewhat accurately capture a tendency of where the business cycle is heading one need turn to qualitative sentiment indicators such as Purchasing Managers? Index (PMI) and official sentiment indicators for valuable clues. This thesis uses in-sample and out-of-sample methods to evaluate how well PMI and official Business Tendency Surveys (BTS) in Sweden and Denmark fair against the year-on-year growth rate of industrial production. Moreover, various Swedish regional sentiment indicators get examined and a case study of the indicator for the Öresund region is performed.

The purpose of this study is to analyze how the parties (USA, Great Britain, UN and the European Union) legitimize their intervention in Bosnia-Herzegovina as seen from without the conceptions of sovereignty and intervention. USA and the UN have legitimized their intervention on security reasons. The American president, George W. Bush, claimed that democracies never engage in war with each other and that democracies were prosperous just because they were democracies. According to the president, that is why it is important to democratise the whole Balkan region to protect the international community from terrorism which grows in unstable and undemocratic states.

Learning from traumatic events: a comparative case study of governmental close protection policies in the aftermath of the murder of Olof Palme and Anna LindhViolent and threatful crimes against politicians are as despicable as any other crime acts against citizen. However, if politicians are targeted solely due to their position ? the act can seriously damage the state and central government.This paper compares reports of government commissions and investigations which were initiated after the murder of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme in 1986 and secretary of state Anna Lindh in 2003. The purpose is to analyse and compare the conclusions and distinguish the main arguments that led to those conclusions and decipher similarities and differences through the lens of Tom Christensen?s instrumental perspective as well as Peter May?s social policy learning theory.

 Dissertation in political science, C-level by Niklas Andersson, Spring Semester 2009. Tutor: Arne Larsson?The Treaty of Lisbon ? The Defence against Globalization??In the modern world globalization have undermined the nation-state and left it without the right measurements to adequately deal with the social and economic unrest that follows in its way. The states, built on contract theories, have an obligation to protect its citizens from the state of nature which seems to have failed as globalization has changed the rules.The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the contract theories of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Rawls to identify the elements of a state and create a modern and ideal contract theory. The treaty shall then be used on the Treaty of Lisbon as it can be seen as a contract between the European states to create an entity in the shape of the European Union with the power to defend Europe from the unrest created by globalization.My question for this was as follows:Is the new treaty for the European Union acceptable as a new social contract according to the social contract theories?During my research the following criteria?s for a social contract was found:1.

This study looks at how probation, client experiences, and criminal policy decisions affect recidivism in Sweden. Gaining a thorough grasp of how social, organizational, and political issues interact and impact the chances of rehabilitation and reintegration is the goal. Three research questions are addressed in the study: First, what are the causes of recidivism? Second, how is probation perceived by staff and clients in terms of control and support? Thirdly, what effects do political decisions have on probation services' operations and clients' chances for recovery?? A qualitative study was conducted with semi-structured interviews with twelve respondents, eight probation clients, three probation officers and one parliamentary politician. There were six themes that discussed the issue of recidivism from different perspectives, the collected data was analyzed through thematic content analysis.

The purpose of this study is to find out how IOGT-NTO conducted the debate about the Swedish negotiations with EU concerning the accession. The essay investigates how the debate was conducted between the years 1993, 1994 and 1995. A further distinction lies in five requirements IOGT-NTO delivered before the negotiations.The material for this study lies primarily in the editorial pages of IOGT-NTO's magazine Accent. The background content comes primarily from secondary sources and deals with the temperance movement and IOGT-NTO, and dealing with the EU and the Swedish alcohol policy.In July 1991, Sweden submitted its membership application to EU and subsequently in the 1993 the negotiations began. During the same time IOGT-NTO began its debate on a possible EU membership in the Accent magazine.

This essay is a case-study of an ethnically homogeneous association, situated in an ethnically heterogeneous neighbourhood. The purpose is to examine the social capital of the members in this particular association. The theory of social capital claims that this form of association constitutes an example of bonding social capital, and is running the risk of becoming excluding towards non-group members. However, several scientists suggest that the ethnically homogeneous associations can assist immigrants in their new home countries to become a part of society, hence promote a more bridging form of social capital. This would be extra valuable in an ethnically heterogeneous context where the phenomenon of social capital often has a hard time.

The concept of quality is difficult to identify clearly. Many attempts to define quality havebeen made, but the resulting definition remains vague.The quality concept (in the artistic sense) has since 1974 played a leading role in Swedishcultural policy. In the spring of 2009, a publication, named ?Kulturutredningen? waspublished. This report suggested a number of changes for the Swedish cultural policy.

Crisis management planning is a relatively new policy area in the European countries. It has materialized since the fall of the iron curtain and because of the increased interest to prevent wide-ranging national emergencies. In Sweden, the county administrative board has a key obligation to perform risk analysis guidelines. This assessment involves identifying crisis, planning response to the crisis and, if necessary, confronting and resolving the crisis in the geographic area of the region. The purpose of my thesis is to examine if there are any differences in crisis management planning between the county administrative boards? risk analysis guidelines.

Cultivable land is a limited resource and agriculture contributes to some of the most serious environmental problems facing the planet like, global warming, eutrophication and loss of biodiversity. The specialized, industrial agriculture with monoculture and extensive input of external energy, commercial fertilizer, and chemical pesticides are all essentially unsustainable. An adaptation to other methods of production is necessary to preserve the environment for future generations. The aim of this study is to describe the factors that distinguish sustainable from unsustainable agriculture. The results will be used to examine if and how the European Union (EU) works in order to create a more sustainable agricultural industry and to analyze the preconditions for such development.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the institutional effectiveness of the environmental institutions Helcom and the Mediterranean regime, by using Haas, Levy and Keohane's "the three Cs"; governmental concern, contractual environment, political and administrative capacity. The method used is a comparative analysis.This study takes into consideration the specific structural and economic factors that are prevailing in each region where the environmental regime operates. This study also takes into account the influence of the European Union as a factor that affects the environmental progress.By focusing the study on the line of conduct concerning hazardous substances by respectively regime this study shows that the institutional effectiveness is fulfilled in neither Helcom nor the Mediterranean Regime, although Helcom has been more successful. The lack of state capacity is the most restraining factor for both developing countries and countries in the transition towards being developed, to achieve a good environmental status of the sea. This study also shows that the European Union sometimes has a greater impact on the environmental progress in states, rather than the environmental regime in countries that were/are aspiring members, thus showing the ineffectiveness of the regime..

Sex equality law within the European Union is well developed and has since the Rome Treaty, given rise to several directives and other judicial acts on this matter of community law. The concepts of direct and indirect discrimination emerge from the general principles of Equal pay and Equal treatment and have been codified and amended several times until present.The lasts years, authors within the field of Equality Law has been pointing out that there is a common desire for simplification of discrimination law in Europe. The question has arisen whether this simplification could be implemented trough the introduction of a general justification defence for direct sex discrimination.The concept of direct sex discrimination - when a person of one gender is treated less favourably, on the grounds of gender, than a person of the other gender would be treated in similar circumstances - leaves no possibilities for such justification today. Indirect sex discrimination ? which arises from the equal application of neutral rules that shows an adverse impact on one group ? can be justified if the rule answers to true requirements of the job.Does the proposition that direct discrimination should be justified find support in the inconsistency of the present legislation? This paper will examine this and other questions concerning the wish for a general justification defence through studies of case law from the European Court of Justice as well as differing opinions from authors within the field of equality law..

Regional European Offices with the purpose to represent regions and municipalities in the EU-system have had a substantial expansion over the last years. One example is the North Sweden European Office for the counties of Norrbotten and Västerbotten, consisting of seven different headmen who are representing both the private sector as well as the public system. This diverse leadership representation makes North Sweden a very good example on a so called Quango, organisations that stand under simultaneous influence from both public and private sectors. These Quangos opens up new possibilities to solve public problems, but they also bring together two different working models which is not always easy to handle for a Quango. According to earlier surveys some characteristic Quango problems within North Sweden exist, for example the ability to prioritize and thereby be as effective as possible.

I have in my thesis examined what a leisure pedagogue does in school. I have asked the questions how it is with interaction between leisure pedagogues and teachers according to policy documents and according to the interviews I did with three professionals. In the literature part I began by describing the historical background to the after-school and leisure pedagogue profession until the new teacher education in 2011th.  My theory section, in previous research and theory, focuses on interaction between leisure pedagogue and teacher. In the research part I describe the interviews I did with three leisure pedagogue on three separate occasions.

The law which makes the purchase, or the attempt to purchase, temporary sexual services a criminal offence has been implemented in Sweden for more than six years. It appears as if very few, possibly no, sex-selling women have used the law to report men who have bought their services during these years. How can this be understood? With this thesis I suggest a new way of thinking on agency. A way which questions the traditional view on action whereby agency equals to act in certain, predefined ways.