ABSTRACTDuring the last decades, environmental impacts have increased significantly, much due to the great traffic flows within cities. Therefore, to reduce these impacts and encourage a healthy way of living, it has in recent years become vital to generate safer and more sustainable and flexible modes of transportation. In order to do so, authorities and physical planners must work together to find viable solutions to incorporate in the infrastructure and offer alternative transport modes ? such as walking, cycling and public transportation. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the development of the cycling infrastructure in the city of Västerås and whether it is possible to expand bicycle commuting alongside public transportation. The thesis consequently aims to study how different physical planners within Västerås municipality work with traffic related questions.

The main purpose of our paper is to reconstruct the intervention logic of the Swedish government's proposal to introduce a tax deduction for homework help. Furthermore, we also intend to outline the perceived impacts of this tax deduction in the municipality of Linköping. Our material consists of the government bill regarding the tax deduction, the parliamentary debate which preceded it as well as interviews with key people in the municipality of Linköping. In our study and in the light of Matthew Clarke?s theory of neo-liberalism within education policy, we also ask ourselves if the intervention logic behind the tax deduction and its perceived effects can be seen as a manifestation of neo-liberalism.

This essay has an aim to map out the discourses in the debate around local self government and national equivalence, which are both essential democratic values. The essay is delimited to the area of the comprehensive school. Interviews have been made with key persons in different positions in a selected municipality. I also use material that has been written in the context of Ansvarskommittén. The material is analysed using an integrated discourse analysis.

Torstensson, Niklas (2012): Anledningar till olikheter mellan Svenska kommuners skolkvalitet (Causes behind the differences in Swedish municipality´s quality of school) Örebro University.This essay is an explorative case study that will compare four Swedish municipalities quality of local school system against the municipality ´s backgrounddata and a governing document: Skolplan. This study begins in a previous benchmarking study made by one of Sweden?s teachers unions Lärarförbundet. This is a statistical study that ranked the Swedish municipalities against each other?s according to their accomplishments in a number of areas related to their school systems.

The purpose of my essay is to analyse the antiziganism imparted by the Swedish Governement during the 1930´s and 1940´s. The starting points are the text in the first published chapter of the Governement´s White Paper and other political texts refered to concerning surveys of the gypsies. My sources will be these texts important for the time period of my essay. The White Paper recites in chronological order for the repeatedly made surveys and registrations of the gypsies made by the authorities during the 1900´s. My analysis will apply the theories of Michel Foucault being about biopower/biopolitics and the method for ideological analysis by Sven-Eric Liedman.

Gender and politics, how well do they match? An interesting way of studying gender and politics is therefore to look at the legislation proposals from the government. In Sweden when the government make a legislation proposal it have to have a chapter that consider the aspect of equality between men and women. This paper aim to study the language in the gender aspect of the legislation proposal. This is done from a gender perspective.

The essay aims to compare Swedish and Finnish decisions regarding refugee policies by tracing them back to the critical junctures when the policies were established, in order to explain why there are big differences prevalent today. The questions asked involve the motivations of the refugee policies and how they have changed over time.The theoretical framework employed is based on historical institutionalism and path dependency. By using a most similar system design and process tracing, material in the form of government declarations and government bills are studied and summed up in two analytical models. The results show that there might be a weak path dependency in the case of Finland. However it is more apparent in the case of Sweden, with frequent statements of a generous refugee policy that is characterised by humanity.

In this thesis we investigate the level of deliberative democracy in the current implementation of the 24/7 Agency in the local government. We are interested in how the combination of the two seemingly opposing ideals of Demokratiutredningen and the 24/7 Agency is solved. Our analysis is based on interviews with civil servants from three kommuner in Skåne and a schematic overview of their websites. As a theoretical framework we use New Public Management Theory, Deliberative Democracy Theory, and Citizen Theory.We have found that the local 24/7 Agency is initiated and implemented by public servants. Their experiences and worldview is mirrored in both process and result.

In this essay, I investigate Swedish possibilities to influence the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union (CAP). After having summarized my findings, I try to explain the structure of influence by using Multi-level governance theory.Ten years have passed since Sweden joined the Union, and many changes have followed in the agricultural sector. By investigating the small country of Sweden's possibilities to influence CAP, I hope to be able to get a notion of the possibilities to influence the EU in general. The essay examines four possible paths for agricultural interests to influence the policy process in Brussels:* Through elected representatives of Sweden in the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and in the Swedish Parliament* Through subnational institutions, such as the local authorities and regional representatives.* Through the Swedish Agricultural Office* Through the Swedish pressure group within the agricultural area, LRFThese four groups all have very different channels to the policy process on agricultural issues. The differences are mostly in terms of decisive power or advisory power and institutional contacts or lobby contacts.

With this master thesis we wanted to find out in which way the concept of public service is connected to different perspectives, ideals, visions of the future and forms of organizations. The purpose with our thesis was to do an analysis of different concepts regarding to public service. To the analysis of concepts we used Swedish newspapers and analysed the issue of public service that had been discussed in articles written during the last five years. From this material and other papers about public service we developed a model of public service ideals. We wanted to find out what the different perspectives thought about the Swedish television and their commission.

The aim of this thesis has been to examine how the risk for the swine flu was represented in the Swedish Radio news broadcast Ekot 16.45 during different phases of the pandemic in 2009. We wanted to study how the risk was described in different discourses and periods? Were the participants in the reporting calming or warning the listeners in relations to different aspects of the swine flu? What consequences for the community were reported in the broadcasting?To find the answers to our questions, we analysed 13 features about the swine flu broadcasted in Ekot?s main news broadcast Ekot 16.45. We used critical discourse analysis inspired by Norman Fairclough.We identified four types of discourses in our text, a journalistic discourse, a medical discourse, a nationalistic discourse and an authority discourse. The main discourse was the medical one.

Background: Municipalities are organizations facing a turbulent environment characterized by social, economical and political changes. It is the responsibility of the topleaders of the municipality (the municipal manager and the chairman of the local government board) to manage the situation and to make sure that the organization continuously develops. Purpose: To explain, from a leadership perspective, how the municipal topleaders'duties have developed during the past 25 years. Results: The municipal topleaders have nowadays got more issues to handle. Cooperation, networks and projects have increased, like international issues.

This empirical work and base has been to analyze the government?s investigation (SOU 2008:27): the future road ? a reformed high school, which led to the high school reform that the Swedish government introduced as proposition (2008/09:199) about: Higher demand and quality within the high school. Skolverket (part of the Swedish government) has worked with the development of this steering document within their own mission Gy2011 in connection with the high schools during the transition. The reform comes into effect 1 of July 2011. This led to the main purpose to ask questions what high school principals and teachers think of the reform and to what extent it effects the high school programs, the examination system, what impact they see on the individual and the demand from society, and to some extent what the respondent´s answers about the government?s definition of what the higher demand and quality in the reform signify.

Torstensson, Niklas (2012): Anledningar till olikheter mellan Svenska kommuners skolkvalitet (Causes behind the differences in Swedish municipality´s quality of school) Örebro University.This essay is an explorative case study that will compare four Swedish municipalities quality of local school system against the municipality ´s backgrounddata and a governing document: Skolplan. This study begins in a previous benchmarking study made by one of Sweden?s teachers unions Lärarförbundet. This is a statistical study that ranked the Swedish municipalities against each other?s according to their accomplishments in a number of areas related to their school systems.

The aim of this essay is to explore the lived citizenship and its ideal. First, the form and expression of citizenship practice and ideal is explored through a qualitative interwiev study of ten citizens in the southern suburbs of Stockholm. The perception and expectations of the nature of citizenship, presented by the informants, is then compared to their citizen ideal, as well as to the ideal presented and promoted by the Swedish government. The point of departure is theory of democracy. The essay calls attention to an observed lack of empirical studies in the field of deliberative theory of democracy as well as studies that more broadly bring the theory down to empirical earth.