Regionalization has become a catchphrase in European countries during the last twenty years with the establishment of the European Union. An ideational development has occurred during time towards emphasing more politicially powerful regions with the idea of new regionalism. Sweden represents a deviant case study, where regions historically have been politically weak and where Sweden has been characterized as a strong unitary state. The aim of this paper is to analyze the political debate in the Swedish parliament concerning the implementation of a stronger regional level (storregioner) during 2007-2010 and to determine if the debate can be characterized as a case of depoliticalization. The theory of depoliticalization have been introduced by Richard Katz and Peter Mair to explain why political parties through external pressure from europeanisation and globalization tend to become more consensual with similar political agendas, leading to a diminished the lef-right scale.

I have studied the curriculum for the compulsory Swedish school, from the curriculum from year 1962 when the Swedish grundskolan became a reality, to the curriculum from year 1994, the one in practice today. My primary interest has been what the curriculum says about bringing up the Swedish youth. My theory has been the British analyst Norman Fairclough?s Critical Language Studies. His thoughts about actual discourse, type of discourse and order of discourse has led me through out this essay.

This essay compares the public debate in Sweden 1992 caused by the reforms introduced by the then government giving parents a free choice of schools for their children with the current debate in France about proposals for a similar law there. The study concentrates on the positions taken by the teachers trade unions, in Sweden Lärarförbundet and Lärarnas Riksförbund (LR) and in France SGEN-CFDT. To do so it is necessary also to study the arguments given for and against the proposals by the political parties.Some of the differences between the debates can be attributed to different circumstances. The Swedish reform was related to the opening up of possibilities to run private schools, which previously had been rare in Sweden. The French debate has no such connections.

This study in Public Administration uses feminism and historical institutionalism toanalyze a highly debated contemporary policy problem that concerns genderequality in the policy of parental leave. The parental insurance was introduced in1974 with the governmental goal of gender equality. In 1974 only 0,5 percent of thenumber of days of parental benefit was paid to men. Today, 40 years later, the goalremains the same and the numbers of days of parental benefit paid to men are 24,8percent.The debate that has characterized the Swedish policy of parental insurance andspecifically the design of the parental benefit is the debate of freedom of choiceversus quota.Our study focuses on ideas and arguments that influence the policy of parentalbenefit. The study assumes, with basis in the theories of feminism and historicalinstitutionalism, that a policy like parental benefit is slow-moving and that pathdependency has lead to a slow development of gender equality..

This thesis examines how power is constructed through language use in the Swedish mining policy with the legislative change proposition to enabling uranium mining. The aim is to analyze differences in how the government and municipalities formulate and justify their positions. The study adopts a qualitative case study design and applies Fairlough?s critical discourse analysis. The empirical material consists of a governmental press release and public consultation responses from municipalities.

Abstract This thesis is based on a case study of the drawn out legal process on the question of establish a limestone quarry in Bunge Ducker in north Gotland (Sweden). The current fields are located next to areas that are protected by virtue of being EU-certified Natura 2000-areas. Despite this, the Swedish governments and courts have not agreed in witch national interest that should be prevail when decisions are made on this issue. This phenomenon are reflected in the judicial process and different court have evaluate information differently in the case. A change among governmental actors where priority is given to the importance of national interest have occur in the later part in the process.

This thesis aimed to describe how the ideological dividing line concerning the welfare state has changed between the two largest governmental parties in Sweden, the Social Democrats and the Moderaterna, during 1990 to 2010. The scientist Mark Blyth points out that ideas are important instruments for structural and institutional change by identifying ideas as weapons, blueprints and cognitive locks, which were being used in the theoretical framework. The empirical data was made by a qualitative analysis of the parliamentary speeches and debates from both parties held every year. The results shows that the budgetary law passed in 1997 became a new institutional blueprint, which changed the political conditions for the Social Democrats. Furthermore, the results point to a change in the Moderaterna?s rhetoric concerning the welfare state to a more pragmatic view. .

In Sweden the latest curriculum, Lpo 94 was released in 1994. This document revolutionized the teaching profession. The school system was changed from a governmental control into a communal control. The earlier curriculums were controlled by rules; Lpo 94 is controlled by aims. This has led to a big spectrum of teaching styles which all of them agrees with the Lpo 94.Our purpose with this report is to illustrate two different leadershipstyles regarding the subject Swedish.

This essay discusses in a comparative way the Swedish and Norwegian legal system, mainly laws that contain adoption regulations. It also compares the administrative work that the government in both countries practices in relation to the individual person. In this essay, focus lies on the legal rights of the child in the adoption process and how well the government and its service meet the requirements from abroad.This essay has shown that the government has many rules and regulations that regulate their work and that all the sub processes are designed to ensure the child?s best in the adoption in both Sweden and Norway. Despite some differences in the investigation process, the work is very much alike.

This thesis takes a closer look at the USA Patriot Act and the literary debate that has followed the passing of that Act. The aim of the thesis is to define what freedom is for the two opposing sides using McCallum's freedom model.The literary analysis shows that the most common argument from authors who are pro Act is that in desperate times like these one must relinquish a part of the individual's freedom to ensure the safety of the collective. Amongst those authors who are against the Act concerns are raised for the possibilities of abuse as a result of increased government power such as the ability to detain immigrants for long periods of time, surveillance and increased exchange of information between federal agencies..

Swedish as a second language and special education are two topics that have a lot in common. I have chosen to in my study look at something that is covered by the two subjects: Swedish as a second language education that is taking place in a group segregated from the class. I have interviewed students in preschool, grade one and grade two to learn details of their experience of the segregation. Finding out that it is mostly bad planning and trouble getting the schedule together that?s affecting the pupils in a negative way.

The disciplinary role of madness in the European society was major during the17th century rise of the national state.By studying the view on madness in Swedish governmental investigations duringthe modern years of the Swedish psychiatry, 1950 to today, it's possible to seehow madness function in society have changed. The study is based on a discourseanalysis and done in three important aspects of Michel Foucault's philosophy:terms of existence, control and knowledge.Based on Foucault's theories of self-discipline, exclusion mechanisms and adetailed investigation on the concept of power, the empirical survey shows howthe ?crazy? Swede changes from a disciplinary object of society into a drone toserve under the structures of capitalism. In a psychological condition previousscience has judged as animal..

Overall aim of this master?s thesis is to describe and identify perceived barriers in Swedish businesses within solar energy field and analyze, based on four theoretical viewpoints, how these barriers can be handled. In other words how can the barriers be overcome or eliminated to better succeed in the commercialization process? The method applied is qualitative in which data has been collected through phone interviews originated from seven Cleantech businesses which operate within solar energy. Furthermore this thesis has a descriptive- and an explorative purpose.

The Swedish working-class author Ivar Lo-Johansson (1901-1990) wrote a collection of one hundred short stories between the years 1968-1972. His other productions, generally speaking, have partially different social reform purposes, but, according to himself, these short stories were written with the intention to be totally free of tendencies (even though he himself doubted that he succeeded with this).During the same period that these short stories were published, the Swedish social democrats were under the challenge of radical movements that, mainly on the radical left?s ideological foundation, had a relatively strong influence in Sweden, among other countries, from the mid 1960?s to the late 1970?s. Since Lo-Johansson mainly seemed to have supported the politics of the social democrats, the purpose of the investigation in this thesis has been to see if he ? in the three short stories: Vikingakärlek (1970), Rikslögnaren (1971) and Ansgars resa till Sverige (1972) ? is conveying an ideological use of history and basic political values that were used by the social democratic party during this time period.

The thesis explores how the category religion is used discursively in Swedish public debates and in what way the discourses can be related to debate-positions. The thesis also exploresquestions of power and how social identities are negotiated: which identities are madepossible ? and encouraged ? by the discourse, and which are being excluded?The specific cases chosen are: (i) the election of Omar Mustafa as a substitute member of the governing board of the Social Democratic party in April 2013, (ii) the appointment of Elisabeth Svantesson as Minister of employment in September 2013, (iii) the debate concerning male circumcision (2011-2013), and, (iv) the debate about Jewish home education(2012-2013).The theoretical and methodological perspectives used in the thesis are discourse analysis and Pierre Bourdieu?s theory of social fields, usually interwoven together. Discourse analysis is mainly used to explore how the category of religion is attached to central binaries in the debates such as faith/politics, private/public, secularism/fundamentalism, etc., and also how chains of equivalences are established. Bourdieu?s theory of social fields is used tocontextualize the discourses in the specific debates and relate them to orthodox and heterodox debate-positions.