European identity is a topic constantly debated around Europe. There are many takes on whether there is a European identity and what the European identity consists of. In the European Union the Commission has worked towards developing a common European identity since the middle of the 1970?s. The development of a European identity is an important part in the commission?s quest to tie the union and its people closer together.

This essay revolves around two questions: what is the nature of politics, and what kind of political order ensures a high rate of citizen participation? By using Cantal Mouffes theory on the political this essay shows how different understandings of the nature of politics can lead to diverging views on what forms democracy should take. Two such understandings are identified; one that sees the nature of politics as characterized by conflict and power, one that sees it as a space for cooperation in search for the common good. I trace these different ideas about the political in the parliamentary debate concerning Swedish constitutional reform. I conclude that the left-of-centre parties hold a view of the political closer to the conflict-perspective, while the green party together with the liberals/conservatives lean closer to the opposite view..

The main purpose of this study has been to examine and analyze what kind of discussions that takes place in the commentary fields of swedish online newspapers. We started by collecting nearly 2000 commentaries from three newspapers and then used a quantitative content analysis to interpret the material.We divided the comments into different categories like arguing, media criticism and opinion on other comments in order to see which categories were most common. The results of the analysis shows that there is a discussion in the commentary fields where most of the commentaries stick to the subject, where media criticism is unusual and where arguing is quite common. The discussion however is usually negative. The results can be connected to the theories of deliberative democracy, flaming and earlier research on commentary fields.

The aim of this essay is to see how the IOGT, local politicians and the local newspaper acted in the city of Hedemora in Sweden in connection with the referendum held in 1922 whether or not to ban the use of alcoholic beverages. To accomplish this I have examined protocols from local IOGT-groups, the town council and the local newspaper Södra Dalarnes tidning. I find that the local IOGT not only worked with the issue of alcohol but served as an institution that deepened democracy and education in the local community through discussions, study circles and applying pressure on local politicians. The locally elected bodies in turn were generally in favour of the good work the IOGT did, although not always overwhelmingly so. Many of the local politicians that handled the issues of alcohol were themselves active members in organisations promoting absolutism.

The focus of this thesis is the group as a pedagogical tool. It investigates whether and how what is known of group size can help further schools in fulfilling knowledge and democracy goals and moreover how such knowledge can influence the principals? management. The mission of school education is to provide the basis for each pupil?s individual development and in the end it is pupils? individual performances which are graded.

In the process of globalization, identity has become one of the central factors.An understanding of the difference that makes up our society has made thequestion of weather is it possible to envision a society where difference is thecommon ground, one that has been up for contest. To answer this we need to seeif this kind of democracy is possible at all. For this I?m turning to the socialmovments who while they are working close to the reality also can give us somereal answers. Therefore I have looked at how social movements adress identity,difference and conflict and concluded that three things are crucial in organizing ongrounds of difference.

This is a study about the transition process and the consolidation of power in Belarus. In this paper the concept of "authoritarian state building and the sources of regime competitiveness in the fourth wave" is the major theory used. After giving a description of the theory?s concepts a short historical background of Belarus follows. Chapters four describes and explain the political situation in Belarus during five periods.

Abstract Youths and adolescents have for a long period of time, and at a high degree, beenabsent from the party political stage. The causes for this have been discussed inthis essay through a quantitative survey made in an upper secondary school class,consisting of some 19 subjects in the municipality of Kalmar. Tied together withrelevant literature and discourse on the subject, the essay has dealt with thepossible societal-, system- and individual barriers for political interest andinvolvement. Central questions for this essay has been for instance; age, gender,social background, geographical domicile, as well as the decline of ideology, theforms of current party politics, political interest, political engagement and soforth. The concluding remarks contain not only a mix of these barriers existing,not exclusively, for young and adolescents but different ground for them as well.On the one hand, there exist barriers which exclude youth from the conventionalpolitical life, but on the other, the more individualised youth of today, prefer to agreater extent not to participate under the conventional circumstances that partypolitics has to offer.

Fokus i uppsatsen är begreppet mångfald och svenska Amnesty. Utgångspunkten är dels det oproblematiserade och positiva talet om mångfald som kommer till uttryck i den offentliga debatten i Sverige och dels det faktum att den svenska sektionen av Amnesty International nyligen tagit beslut om att införa ett"mångfaldsperspektiv"i syfte att genomsyra all organisation och verksamhet.Syftet med uppsatsen är formulerat i två steg: som ett första steg analyserar jag uppfattningar och föreställningar om Amnesty som organisation, och om dess medlemmar och som ett andra steg gör jag - med särskilt fokus på etniska och kulturella aspekter - en analys av hur mångfald förstås i intervjuerna och hur denna förståelse relateras till svenska Amnesty som organisation. Kvalitativa intervjuer med sex aktiva medlemmar inom svenska Amnesty utgör grunden för analysen. Ett socialkonstruktionistiskt inspirerat synsätt används som teoretisk referensram och begrepp som etnicitet, kultur, mångkulturalism och kategorisering är centrala och används som teoretiska verktyg i analysen.De huvudsakliga slutsatserna av analysen är att den bild av Amnesty, och dess medlemmar, som kommer till uttryck i intervjuerna är nästintill uteslutande positiv, vilket får till följd att en diskussion om utanförskap och diskriminering i rörelsen inte ges något direkt utrymme. Mångfald förstås i mångt och mycket i termer av en representation av olika"kategorier"av människor såsom "män", "kvinnor", "invandrare", "icke-akademiker".

In this study we have examined how men and women are heard on Sveriges Televisions program Debatt. Debatt broadcast on Sveriges Televison which is a public service broadcaster. Through the use of a quantitative content analysis and a dialogical approach, we have documented how many men and women who speak, how they speak, how long they have the word and the subjects they will be heard in, in the program Debatt. We have investigated the ten last broadcast programs from the fallseason 2011. Every program is 45 minutes long and contains from two to three discussiontopics each time. By categorizing our survey and enter the result in four different tables, we found that the majority, 63%, of those that are heard are men.

I Sverige infördes år 2005 nya regler för redovisningen i börsnoterade företag. Från och med den 1 januari blev dessa företag enligt lag tvingade att följa det regelverk som International Accounting Standards Board författar. Dessa standarder blev då gällande i hela EU.I vår uppsats inriktar vi oss på en av dessa standarder och dess amerikanska motsvarighet, nämligen IAS 38 som behandlar redovisning av immateriella tillgångar. Vi fokuserar på den typ av immateriell tillgång som uppstår genom forskning och utveckling. Den amerikanska motsvarigheten till denna standard heter FAS 2.International Accounting Standards Board är ett av två ledande organ som på ett internationellt plan definierar hur redovisningen ska se ut.

Denna studie a?r utfo?rd vid Mondelez International i Upplands Va?sby som vill ta fram ett transportplaneringsverktyg fo?r att underla?tta sin transportplanering. Detta genomfo?rs genom att studera hur transportplaneringen bo?r bedrivas och hur ett transportplaneringsverktyg kan vara utformat. Syftet med denna studie a?r att utforma en flexibel modell fo?r transportplanering som minimerar transportkostnaderna.Studien testar och ja?mfo?r tva? sa?tt att bera?kna transportkostnaden.

Internet är fullt av udda företeelser som ingen skulle känna till om det inte vore för att Internets tekniska uppbyggnad skapade en ?lika för alla?-miljö. 1998 fick svenska väljare möjlighet att kryssmarkera bredvid en kandidat om väljaren ansåg att partiet hade placerat denne för långt ner på partilistan. Detta i kombination med Internets potential för aktörer att göra sig hörda utan att det kostar några större summor skapar nya utrymmen i den svenska demokratin.I detta arbete tittas närmare på de politiker som blev invalda i riksdagen enbart tack vare personkryss i valet 2002. Jag har koncentrerat mig på deras webbnärvaro och utreder huruvida denna uppfyller demokratiska kriterier eller ej..

The essay deals with adult education from a local perspective more specifically that ofthe IOGT lodge Leon Garnbetta in Varberg. The material that has been used covers a limited period of time, which stretches from 1883 to 1926.This temperance lodge was founded in 1883 and is still active. The essay provides a historical survey of the temperance movement in Sweden and depicts the ideas behind adult educa­tion, but it also gives a more general historical account of the town of Varberg and its popu­lar movements.By studying handwritten records from the lodge it is possible to establish a picture of its work, activities, discussions, its striving for democracy, educational activities and the principles behind these and finally the lodge's own library which was started at an early stage. All these aspects are then treated in a historical and a political context..

The aim of our study is to explore the empowerment process among micro-business owners in Kayamandi, a black township of Stellenbosch in South Africa. What are the positive and negative implications for the empowerment process? Another aim is to find out the role of local and international support in this process. The theoretical framework of this study revolves around the concepts of gender, power and empowerment. Our methods are qualitative interviews and observations.