AbstractEssay in political science, C-level, by Julia Leonsson, spring semester 2007Tutor: Susan MartonFreedom ? The political philosophy of our time?An analysis of the ideas of the international debate aboutChávez socialistic politicSince more than 2000 years there has been an ongoing discussion about whether state interference is a good thing or not. Most international organisations on the international political arena are today founded on neoliberal values, and it has developed in to the hegemonic ideology of the world. The socialistic politics of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez is thereby a somewhat unusual strategy. The purpose of this essay is to examine to what extent the international debate about Chávez socialistic politic can be understood through a neoliberal perspective.

Background: The increasing globalization of business and research has led to an increased demand for international meetings. This is a market that a number of countries wish to access and the competition is fierce to get the chance to host major conferences. Stockholm has a pronounced good position in the international meeting market and this essay will examine what it takes to be a successful meeting destination for international congresses.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the fundamental factors that must be met for a meeting destination to be successful in the international market for conventions.Question at issue: How can a city develop into a more attractive meeting destination for international congresses?Method: Persons with key positions in the Stockholm meeting industry have been approached by qualitative interviews by the authors.Theory: As a theoretical framework the authors used the value of the physical meeting, generally on the congresses, the planning process for site selection for the meeting, the meeting platform and image.Conclusion: The authors' findings are based on the empirical material gathered during the study interviews. The results from these interviews show the importance of facilities and hotels, availability, and the image..

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.

The purpose of the thesis is to map the meaning of ?international competence? in Swedish company boards of directors. The study is divided in a qualitative part and a quantitative part. The qualitative study consists of a discourse analysis where variation in interpretative repertoires are identified to enhance the understanding of the nature of reasoning related to the meaning and importance of the issue at stake. The discourse analysis is conducted on an empirical material from 27 interviews with decision makers in recruitment processes to Swedish company boards of directors.

Title: School in Change : Good Grades = Good Democrat? Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Political Science Author: Marcos Castro Allende Supervisor: Per Strömblad Date: 2013 ? May Aim: The background to this study is a book published by Staffan. I Lindberg & Richard Svensson where they presented a hypothesis that the decline in trusting democracy within Swedish youth is a result of the deregulation of the education in Sweden. The aim of this study is to test this hypothesis and see if the declinne in democracy can be seen already before graduating from elementary school. Method: The method used in this study consist of a survey distributed to students at two elementary schools that differentiates in question of grades and social status. By comparing and analyzing the results of this survey with the claims of the hypothesis, former studies and Lipsets theory of the working-class authoritarism a conclusion is made of the hypothesis credibility. Result & Conclusions: The results showed that there may be a a difference trusting democracy between students with higher grades and those with lower grades.

Medier i Finland har skrivit mycket om vart pengarna går när det skänks till en välgörenhetsorganisation. Uppsatsen ämnar besvara frågor om hur välgörenhetsorganisationer arbetar för att öppna upp sin verksamhet för insyn för att på så vis synliggöra sitt ansvarstagande samt om det finns problem med att skapa transparens. Uppsatsens syfte är således att beskriva hur en välgörenhetsorganisation kan skapa legitimitet för sitt arbete genom transparens. Tre viktiga begrepp beskrivs: transparens, ansvarighet och legitimitet. Även olika kanaler beskrivs genom vilka välgörenhetsorganisationer kan öka öppenheten.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the discourse on political exclusion in the official report Demokratiutredningen. It has been my ambition to relate the analysis of the report to a critical academic discourse on political exclusion and thereby make visible hidden norms and structures which functions to exclude certain individuals and groups from political participation.My paper point out that the report establishes a strong link between democracy and participation and that it, therefore, makes a strong case for a process of democratic inclusion. Though, in my study I suggest that that there is an unawareness of the importance of norms, hegemonic conceptions and structures and that inclusion, therefore, is unlikely to take place. Furthermore, I criticize the focus on deliberative democracy in the report. With insights offered by Mouffe in her argumentation on the necessity to acknowledge the dimension of antagonism present in all societies I underline that the focus on this democratic model is problematic.My conclusion is that the analysis presented in the report is insufficient if we want to create a democratic system characterized by equality..

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the schools? pupils have the capacity to understand societal change through social consciousness. In order to investigate that a theory has been developed specifying what social consciousness means and how it is used. The theory has been used as a tool in an ideology critical analysis of the steering documents on which the schools? work is based.

The aim ofthis study was to examine how economic growth affects the level of democracy inauthoritarian states. Some of these states have experienced high economicgrowth. However, one can discuss how it affects the country?s democratization-process.For that reason this study was needed to contribute to a clarification of howeconomic growth can affect authoritarian rule and democratization. This wasdone through an examination of the development in China.

?Liberal Democracy? is a common term in political theory, and it is used as if it had a commonly accepted referent, with both normative and descriptive content. This is certainly the case in democratic theory, where it on the one hand seems to refer to a normative democratic model; on the other hand it is used descriptively, to refer to real-life democracies. The deliberative democratic sub-field is not an exception; on the contrary, the term is frequently used albeit rarely defined; yet the concept it refers to is supposedly developed enough to allow detailed propositions about its citizens?s political behaviour.This essay is an attempt to analyze how Liberal Democracy is used by three deliberative democrats (Jürgen Habermas, John Dryzek and Stephen Elstub), in order to understand the democratic model (or models), whether normative or descriptive, they refer to.

AbstractOil rich states all over the world share a common feature. They are less likely than other states, depending on other resources, to be ruled democratically. In this essay Saudi Arabia has been studied with the purpose of trying to find which mechanisms that lie behind why oil rich states do not have institutions or institutional change that promotes democracy.Saudi Arabia has the world's largest known reservoir of oil. The oil brings huge revenue each year to the Saudi Arabian government. Why have Saudi Arabia not developed democratically when their economic growth suggests that to be a natural step? Under the framework of historical institutionalism and path dependency theory, I have used process tracing trying to track the mechanisms behind Saudi Arabia's authoritarian rule down.

When the Soviet union collapsed at the beginning of the 1990s, a democratization began to develop. During the Jeltsin years, democracy in Russia was developing steadily, but since Putin became president at the turn of the century it has started to move back towards authoritarian rule. The purpose of this study is to explore the reasons for why the democracy in Russia never became consolidated and to understand why the country again has moved towards an authoritarian rule, like the one during the Soviet union.In order to fulfill the aim of this study, two theories were used. These were Linz and Stepan's consolidation theory, about the five arenas that have to be developed, and Samuel P. Huntington's theory about authoritarian nostalgia.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) har under modern tid växt fram att bli ettstandardförfarande bland företag och en strategi för att eftersträva legitimitet. Grundati ökade krav och förväntningar från omgivande aktörer, åtar sig organisationer ettsamhällsansvar utifrån ett miljömässigt, socialt och ekonomiskt perspektiv. Parallelltmed det stegrade ansvarstagandet inom organisationer öppnar det upp för fråganhuruvida detta fenomen är direkt applicerbart på alla branscher, så som kontroversiellaindustrier. Av den anledningen utreds i denna studie huruvida konsumenter anser attPhilip Morris International, ett företag verksamt inom tobaksindustrin, uppnårlegitimitet genom deras CSR- engagemang. Genom fokusgrupper och djupintervjuerhar konsumenters uppfattning om Philip Morris International CSR- engagemangkunnat fastställas och slutsatser har kunnat erhållas.

This thesis deals with the issues of participation and influence in the multicultural society. The aim with the study is twofold, first to identify determinants improving participation and influence in this context, and second to see if the ecouragement of a strong civil society in ethnic segregated areas is a possible way forward to a multicultural democracy. This is conducted through a case study of brobyggarna in Malmo, Sweden, and how they as an integration policy is working with these questions. Six qualitative interviews have been conducted with seven persons workning as brobyggare or in close connection with them. Toghether with readings of earlier research this material is analysed through an eclectic model with theories put together in five analythic dimensions, Multicultural democracy, Social milieu, Unequal possibillities to participate and influence and Local powerstructures.

Organizational democracy has been a popular research area in recent decades but the implementation in real organizations is slow (Kokkinidis, 2012; Verdorfer, Weber, Unter Rainer & Seyr, 2013). Several researchers (Schön Jansson, 2012; Falkheimer, Heide & Johansson, 2013) argue that communication practitioners have a key role in democratic processes and that because their job role is under constant change there are only a few modern studies regarding the subject. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how communication practitioners in private and public organizations experience their role in the process of internal communication and to what extent they are aware of, and work with internal organizational democracy.The practitioners we interviewed had a strong feeling that they were a support function for the business and the organizational management. As a result of the study it is clear that communication practitioners are very loyal to their employers and to the organization they work for. They are, therefore, not neutral in their professional role and argue that their task is to represent the management's interests.