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.

I denna studie testas tio hypoteser som relaterar till finansiell teori för att se hur väl teorin kan förklara skuldsättningsgraden i små börsnoterade bolag. De teorier som testas är avvägningsteorin (trade-off theory), hackordningsteorin (pecking order theory) samt teorier relaterade till asymmetrisk information och agentkostnader. Testen genomförs med multipel linjär regressionsanalys och de undersökta bolagen är samtliga bolag med färre än 200 anställda på tre av de mindre börslistorna i Sverige. Resultatet visar stöd för åtta av de tio undersökta hypoteserna och är i flera avseenden tydligare än i tidigare studier som testar onoterade små bolag eller ett bredare urval av bolag..

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..

Cittaslow is an international organization founded in Italy in 1999 by a few towns in Northern Italy, in order to stop the trend of people moving to bigger cities. The aim was to show the advantages of small towns and to strengthen their identities. Falköping is, since the certification in the summer 2008, the first Cittaslow in Sweden. Cittaslow is an international organization founded in Italy in 1999 by a few towns in Northern Italy, in order to stop the trend of people moving to bigger cities. The aim was to show the advantages of small towns and to strengthen their identities.

För att skydda den europeiska produktionen av bränsleetanol har EU satt upp höga tullar på importerad etanol. Vi har analyserat hur marknaderna för socker och etanol fungerar i Brasilien och EU, därefter försökt förutse vilka samhällsekonomiska effekter ett borttagande av importtullen i EU kan ha. Vi finner att etanolpriset i EU sjunker, därmed ökar efterfrågan. Bensinkonsumtionen ökar på kort sikt i både EU och Brasilien, då ett lägre etanolpris medför ett lägre pris på bensin via den inblandningskvot av etanol som finns i vanlig bensin. På längre sikt kan så kallade ?flex fuel?-bilar bli allt vanligare och bensinkonsumtionen kan avta.

Debate over Intellectual Property Rights ?IPRs? particularly patent and copyrights is mainly on forward-looking industries in computer software. As part of a trade deal reached in 1994, the member nations of the World Trade Organisation must adhere to a global agreement known as TRIPS, for the Trade- Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Rights.This study is to analyse the ethical conception of Intellectual Property Rights and in particular its implications on the developing countries in relation to TRIPS. The approach will be to analyse a broad philosophical theories of property to see if there is any justification for a software program to be treated as private property and also argue base on John Rawls two principles of justice in relation to TRIPS Agreement. Some reflections will be put on the use of open-source software by less developing countries.From the study it was asserted that, strong IPRs protection would hinder technological transfer and indigenous learning activities in the early stage of industrialisation when learning takes place through reverse engineering.

Infringement of intellectual property rights often causes significant economic damage. The problem with illegal activity concerning counterfeiting is constantly increasing. The development has lead to constitute an extensive international activity which is harmful for intellectual propery owners, consumers and the society in general. Competing products tend to be increasingly similar to each other, with rather similar marketing-, sales-, and pricingstrategies. As a result, the trademark strongly affects consumers? selection-process during purchase.

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.

In 1995, the World Trade Organization WTO was established. Today WTO has nearly 150 member countries, accounting for over 97 percent of the world trade. WTO has a number of agreements and one of them is the General Agreement on Trade in Services GATS. GATS control the service sector, and the public library is a small part of this sector. The purpose of this study is to examine the Swedish debate about GATSs possibility to affect the public library.

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 aim of this thesis is to identify some of the obstacles to trade, that occurs on the common market, and to analyse the errors that still occurs in the national authorities application of the principle of mutual recognition. Is the principle of mutual recognition sufficient for the creation of a common market, or is there a need for additional measures to cope with the obstacles to trade that still exists on the common market? The problems related to the incorrect procedures of the national authorities and the fact that undertakings prefer to bring their products in to line with the rules of every single member state must be solved, if the principle of mutual recognition is to become trustworthy. On some areas, harmonisation ought to be chosen above the principle of mutual recognition, but in other cases an increased administrative collaboration, mandatory training for the national authorities or information campaigns intended mainly for undertakings could be the answer. The possibility to help undertakings to sue member states for damages should also be investigated.

The market of fruit and vegetables develops continuously to become tougher and more complex. The fast development makes it difficult to keep up with all the changes. This is the case for apples and tomatoes. The purpose of this work is to explain what the trade routes are like for Swedish imports as well as the Swedish production of tomatoes and apples, both in the present and the past times. There is also an ambition to create comprehension of the trade routes.

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.

Denna uppsats undersöker en informationskampanj från Fair Trade Center (FTC) som drevs under hösten 2012 under namnet A wage to live on. Uppsatsens syfte är att utröna om Fair Trade Center har nått ut med sitt budskap till media och söker detta svar genom fyra frågeställningar; Har FTC nått ut med sitt budskap till de undersökta medierna (Aftonbladet, Expressen, DN och SvD)? Vilket budskap har FTC med sin kampanj (utifrån mål och material)? Verkar Kalla Faktas reportage ha påverkat medias respons? Är FTCs budskap samstämmigt i mål och material? Fokus för uppsatsen ligger på vecka 43 2012 då detta var fokusvecka för kampanjen. Mot en bakgrund kring teorier om budskapsstrategier, målgrupper och olika mål och tidigare forskning kring framgångsrika kampanjer har jag genom retorikanalys som huvudsaklig metod gått igenom utvalt material. Materielet består av Fair Trade Centers egna pressmeddelande och debattartikel samt utvalda tidningars respons under fokus perioden.

Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) is about women, peace and security. Since the resolution was adopted several countries has made their own National Action Plan for implementation of the resolution.Sweden and Denmark are two of these countries. Resolution 1325 is one of the documents that each countries armed force has to relate to in international work.These countries can get to work together in international operations within the framework of the Nordic Defense Cooperation, NORDEFCO. This study is done by looking at similarities and differences in the action plans and whether they can be an obstacle for the countries to cooperate in an international operation.In this paper a comparative analysis of Sweden and Denmark's plans for the Security Council resolution 1325 will be done. The comparison is made based on the clauses of the resolution relating to the member states actions.In this paper, a qualitative text analysis to be carried out with sections of Resolution 1325 as a model for the comparison..