This research addresses the issues of identity and culture in Latvia in the context of the upcoming European Union enlargement in 2004. Political self- determination of Latvia was historically indebted to culture. The phenomenon of cultural identity, so important 12 years ago when Latvian independence was regained, is largely ignored by politicians in the upcoming enlargement process. This is especially worth attention since the 8-th parliamentary elections took place in October 2002. The obvious lack of interest in cultural issues on the part of politicians is compensated by the apprehensions in the society (reflected in mass media) to loose Latvian specific culture and identity when joining the big European family.

The process of European Integration and creation of the single market revealed many questions and boundaries on the development and improvement of the European Social Policy. Pension?s sustainability has become the priority issue especially during the EU enlargement processes. Different policy instruments and institutions available to governments of Member States in realization of social objectives resulted in a growing diversity of pension polices which produced different combinations of public and private provisions - ?private-public hybrids? , with the state exercising different degrees of influence in their development.

From a democratic viewpoint, the way in which the media frames politics is essential. Should issue frames be left out in favor of other types of frames, it could result in voters struggling to make informed decisions come Election Day. What is more, research shows that game frames may cause lack of confidence in politicians and declining political interest. Against this background, the present study aimed to find out how two broadsheets, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet, and two tabloids, Aftonbladet and Expressen, framed politics in connection with the 2014 Swedish parliamentary elections. The thesis also intended to identify possible differences between the two newspaper types and to make tentative comparisons with previous studies so as to be able to comment on framing developments.

This paper examines the European Commission?s, newly established, ?Register of interest representatives? The analysis is divided in two parts, first I analyze the registers purpose, the kind, and detail, of information it contains and the different kinds of groups that are supposed to register. After that I analyze the organizations in the register more thoroughly, using a database of my own creation. The database was constructed with information drawn from the register, as well as information from external sources. Regarding the design and purpose of the register, I find that improvements in the design are needed, if the register is to fulfill its purpose.

The Pedagogical progression within MSI ? Based upon The Bologna Process and UPC.In a near future several of the European countries will begin working after new guidelines concerning a declaration called the Bologna process. Everything will be done one step at a time and the declaration will change the way the students are being graded, all this for the sake of making the European labour-market moreopened for all of its millions of students.In Växjö this process is in the making, but to adapt to the future demands the school must also change its ways of teaching.To increase its quality the University has put together a procedure of actions to improve the pedagogical working method in all its institutions. In this essay we would like to elucidate how the work with the Bologna process is proceeding within the institution of Mathematics and System Engineering and whatthey do improve their pedagogical teaching. By doing a qualitative case study on the student at the Computer Science Program we wish to find the answers to our questions..

In 1972 the regulations on tax surcharge were introduced. In the new system the sur-charge are imposed by the Tax Authority (skatteverket) and not the Court. Since 1995 the European Convention on Human Rights constitute law in Sweden, which means that Sweden is forced to guarantee its citizens the human rights in the Convention. Article 6 in the Convention states that everyone, in the determination of his civil rights and obligations or of any criminal charge against him, is entitled to a fair hea-ring within reasonable time. The Article also expresses the right for anyone charged with a criminal offence to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law (the presumtion of innocence).

One aim of this thesis has been to trace the driving forces among active members of the Swedish Pensioners? Interest Party (SPI), but also to render how party values and ideas are connected to the concepts of is-sue space, distrust, and New Party Politics (mainly populism). Since there are several pensioners? parties in other countries, my second aim has been to investigate whether the party is a result of a diffusion proc-ess of copying a successful equivalent party; in other words to find out whether a master frame has inspired the forming of a Swedish pension-ers? party. Through interviews and document analysis, I have found seven issue dimensions explaining the motives behind my respondents? engagement in the party.

The purpose of this essay is to study causes for the lack of political trust in Europe and especially in Sweden. The essay starts with a presentation of two theories about the reasons for low political trust. Robert D. Putnam among others presents a theory that gives social capital an important role when viewing the low political trust. As Putnam sees it a person that participates in any kind of organization, political or not, develop trust for other human beings that in the long run affects political trust.

Establishment can be described in many terms. This term is about a company that is establishing on the European market. For many companies, this can appear as a difficult, time- and resource taking process but to advance and develop it is not enough to have a good position on the Swedish market. The company Akzo Nobel Nippon Paint AB, which this composition is about, has taken the risk to leave the home country and explore the unknown. The process was careful and long-termed but also profitable.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to investigate how the image of the Public library is described in the Swedish national library politics, and compare it with the image given of the public library in the Danish national library politics. The method used for this analysis is a comparative discourse analysis of the homepages produced by the Swedish central government Regeringen and Kulturrådet and its Danish counterpart Kulturministeriet and Biblioteksstyrelsen. Theories on postmodernity have been used to analyze how the Swedish and the Danish central governments image of the Public library corresponds with a changing society and the changing behaviour of the public library users. Our analysis concludes that the traditional view of the Public library as an institution mainly concerned with literature and reading still is of great significance in the discourse of the Swedish central government. In contrast, the Danish central government presents a more postmodern view of the public library as an institution that is part of the Information- and the Knowledge society.

My thesis brings up the subject of power. In the 33 local authorities we have in Skåne, I have made a quantitative study, to see how many young people that are included in the power of politics, through local authorities parliament. This is the first of the two parts that I have devided my thesis into. The second part is qualitative and examines four young politicians, and their thoughts on holding a position that is so unusual to hold at their age. This is the basis for my analysis where I bring up age as a form of discrimination.

I denna uppsats analyseras de faktorer som ligger bakom beslutet att låta Turkiet inleda inträdesförhandlingar med EU. Dessa faktorer analyseras utifrån Allisons tre modeller: Rational Actor Model, Organizational Behavior och Governmental Politics. Modellerna beskriver olika komponenter som låg till grund för beslutstagandet.I vår analys belyses först de statliga aktörerna och deras motiv för att ge Turkiet kandidatstatus och ett datum för eventuella förhandlingar, enligt Rational Actor Model. Därefter belyses de organisatoriska strukturerna bakom EU och dess inverkan på det faktiska inledandet av förhandlingarna enligt Organizational Behavior. Slutligen nämns kortfattat Governmental Politics, som behandlar nyckelpersoner och förhandlingskonstellationer, eftersom modellen ej kunnat genomföras i sin helhet.Uppsatsen har som uppgift att tillämpa de olika modellernas styrka i den specifika fallstudien och utgör en ny syn inom europeisk integration..

Terrorattackerna 11 september 2001 kom att innebära dramatiska förändringar av den amerikanska utrikespolitiken. Syftet med denna uppsats är att med hjälp av två olika teorier förklara denna förändring. För analysen av George W. Bush används kognitiv teori och för att analysera förhandlingsspelet mellan de centrala aktörerna inom USA:s utrikesförvaltning används Graham Allisons modell Governmental Politics,Analysen visar att Bush efter 11 september omtolkar förutsättningar för USA i världen och sin egen roll som president. Han tar en mer aktiv roll i skapandet av en ny utrikespolitisk strategi.

Aims: Patient associations have been around for some time and research has shown that such associations can influence society, politics and how diagnoses are thought of. This study is a comparative analysis of two patient associations in Sweden. The first association called Attention represents people diagnosed with neuropsychiatric disorders such as ADHD. The other association called RSMH represents people diagnosed with mental illness such as depression. The aim of this study is to explore the social and political agenda of these associations and to explain their relation to biological, psychological and social models of explanation.Method and theory: The method used was a qualitative document analysis using documents produced by the associations themselves as well as documents from media and politics.

International organizations are important actors on the stage of world politics, and how these actors securitize the climate change issue is of importance for how it will be tackled by actors on global and national levels. The purpose of this study is to contribute to research on climate security discourses and how climate change is defined as a security concern amongst different actors. This study, in contrast to previous research, focuses on systematically mapping the definitions made by different international organizations by asking: whose security is at stake; who is responsible for responding to the threat; how is the nature of the threat defined; and what responses are suggested? By analyzing material consisting of a variety of documents and statements from five international organizations, I aim to identify differences between these actors ? in how the climate change issue is conceptualized from a security perspective. The result of the study shows that only one of the organizations shows clear elements of the national/geopolitical security discourse, while all of the other actors primarily use the human security discourse.