Denna komparativa studie behandlar regionaliseringen i Skåne och Västra Götaland.Med fokusering på befolkningen's egen uppfattning undersök's de förhållandensom definierar och formar dessa regioner. Uppsatsen grundar sig till stor del på deundersökningar som gjort's av SOM-institutet.Genom att tillämpa ett centrum - periferi försök's sedan delar av utvecklingen inom regionen förklara's. Även identitet då primärt i anknytning till regionenundersök's och kontrollera's jämte andra faktorer.En kort del som undersöker de två regionerna's demokrati arbeten konstaterar att arbetet går framåt men att mer arbete kräv's..

In this thesis I discuss about economical and political transition in countries that is consecutively being induced by influential external actors. Looking closer on the role of the EU as a dynamic transitional force, with the intention of examining to what extent the EU can pursuit its interest and modify the economical as well as the political structures of transition countries. With relations to four transition states on the Western Balkans, more precise Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro and Macedonia (FYROM), I have examined the influential position of the EU. Another feature that is discussed is the approach of the EU and the cause of it in respect to the Western Balkans. Since the end of the crises in Kosovo the EU was given the leading roll in stabilizing and reconstructing the Western Balkans.

The thesis analyzes the making of Nordic identity after the cold war which brought an end to Nordic exclusiveness of emphasizing ?soft power?. A need for a revitalization combined with an effort to enter History as an active subject, created constructivist project of a narrative style.My study relies on contemporary literature, focusing mainly on the construction of Nordic identity and regional cooperation in the 1990: s.I argue that Nordic identity was, and still is, determined of its comparable weakness in regard to the superpowers of the cold war, and, nowadays, to the EU.The architects of establishing a new Nordic identity, able to challenge a new Europe, fails in their effort, and what is left of their endeavour are separate states, each following their own agenda..

The base for the study is laid during an internship at a regional office in Brussels. The study initially concentrates on the function and activities of different regional offices located in Brussels, in order to answer the core question.The main focus is to reveal an eventual change of cooperation patterns between different regional offices, and in particular the eventual redirection away from a main cooperation between offices deriving from the same national state.Through an empirical material, based on a series of interviews, an analysis is made using three hypotheses concerning the patterns of cooperation among regional offices.The notion of a coming change stated by, in particular, two older studies is used as a theoretical steppingstone with the conclusion that a change, in the way offices collaborate, has taken place..

Today Europe is faced with an identity crisis concerning its borders. Turkey stands at the threshold for an EU-membership while the EU-Commission is trying to formulate what constitutes a European identity. This identity seeking process will determine the future not only for Turkey, but also for immigrants now living in Europe.In this thesis a discourse analysis, underpinned by socialconstructionist theory, is conducted to explore how the European identity has been constructed throughout history up until today. A starting point is that identity always is defined through a dialectical relationship to "otherness". Therefore the analysis is focused not only on what a European identity consists of but also what and who it excludes.

Den 11 september 1973 avsattes den chilenska presidenten Salvador Allende under en militärkupp. Senare har det kommit till känna att den amerikanska regeringen under lång tid varit inblandade i motarbetandet av Allende. Den amerikanska underättelsetjänsten CIA var den organisation som genomförde de olika hemliga operationerna som utgjorde en stor del av den amerikanska utrikespolitiken mot Chile. Vi har i detta arbete undersökt hur pass autonomt CIA kunnat agera i genomförandet av den amerikanska utrikespolitiken samt hur man skulle kunna förklara detta. Vi har kommit fram till att CIA:s autonomi har varierat över tid, men varit som mest påtaglig i samband med mordet på den chilenska generalen Rene Schneider..

Den här uppsatsen diskuterar expertproblematik inom organisationer. Olika kunskapsnivåer hos de anställda kan leda till att vissa inte har någon insyn i arbetet och en dålig uppfattning om var ansvaret finns. Samtidigt kan de som besitter en specialkunskap få ett för stort inflytande och utöva makt över andra inom organisationen. Vi har i den här uppsatsen undersökt hur problematiken ser ut i Lunds kommun genom att intervjua ett antal anställda. Intervjuerna har sedan analyserats genom ett antal begrepp som vi framtagit med hjälp av tidigare forskning.

During a political election the public?s interest in politics and political journalism increases significantly. During the American presidential election in 2012 a big amount of articles on that topic were published in two of Sweden?s largest newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet and Aftonbladet. Political journalism tends to frame politics as sports, game and scandals rather than focusing on the political issues.

In 1998 a new regional development policy was introduced by the Swedish government. A central feature in the policy was the formation of partnerships at the regional level. The partnerships were meant to consist of local and regional stakeholders, representing a great variety of interests, who would collaborate in order to improve regional development. The new policy was promoted, besides being more efficient, as a way to broaden political participation and to break male-dominated structures.This thesis discusses whether the regional partnership actually favours ?women's interests?, in terms of how the relationship of power between women and men is constituted by the model.

This comparative linguistic textstudy focuses on the relationship between a newspapers own outspoken political standpoint and it´s ambition of being an unbiased provider of objective information. This connection becomes particulary interestering in times of election when a newspapers role as provider of information is of great importance for the citizens. When a newspaper reports an event to the public, the reporter always has to choose from a small selection of possible linguistic forms when representing the story. Through linguistic analysis of these forms we can see that the final choice is often not a complete arbitrary one. We compared two daily newspapers, Dagens Nyheter and Dala-Demokraten, that stod on opposite sides in the Swedish EMU-elections 2003.

Den svenska sjukvården är i städig förändring. För att möta de ekonomiska och tekniska krav som ställs på verksamheten har sammanslagningar och storsjukhus blivit en vanlig företeelse. Något som har resulterat i en debatt angående huruvida detta är en lämplig organisering av sjukvård. I vår undersökning analyserar vi denna debatt och dess aktörer genom att belysa två genomförda sammanslagningar samt den debatt som förts kring en eventuell omstrukturering av sjukvården inom Region Skåne. Med hjälp av en argumentationsanalys undersöker vi de värdemässiga grunder på vilka argumenten är baserade.

AbstractIn the literature on multiculturalism and group rights there is a strong tradition that sees diversity as something directly paradoxal to unity. In this tradition, scholars put forward a view of multiculturalism as a divisive and exclusionary process which breaks down the cohesion and unity of society. Related to this notion is that of a neutral and universally valid frame of reference in which political dilemmas can be solved; for example a neutral civil sphere where the ?true essence? of society lies. In this essay I attempt to criticise these two notions.

Officially, the EU gender policy since 2000 has been guided by the strategy of Gender Mainstreaming. This strategy aims to promote gender equality and is informed by a feminist ontology which stipulates that women are structurally subordinated.In this essay, I examine whether the European Commission has adequately adhered to this gender policy in its free trade negotiations with the ACP (African, Caribbean, and Pacific) countries as part of the Cotonou Agreement. As a result of my text analysis of documents related to the negotiations, opinion pieces by interested actors and policy papers of the EU, I find that the Commission does not act in accordance to its stated gender policy.To explain this discrepancy between policy intent and actions, I employ postliberal feminist theory and Robert Putnam's Two-Level Game Theory Model. By analyzing statistics and published research, I explore how gender issues are being represented politically on a domestic and international level.My findings show that a key cause of this discrepancy lies in the low levels of female participation in the political institutions of the EU and ACP; a lack of participation that is especially pronounced in the area of international economics. In explaining the constraints on female participation and the prospects of full implementation of the EU's gender policy in the international political economy, I emphasize the role of culturally and historically gendered institutions..

Den här uppsatsen mål är att undersöka om ekonomiska sanktioner är ett försvarbart utrikespolitiskt medel. Sanktioners effektivitet utreds genom en kvantitativ studie av sanktioner utfärdade av FN och en kvalitativ studie av fallet Sydafrika. Uppsatsen konstaterar att ekonomiska sanktioner är ineffektiva och kostsamma och går därefter över till att diskutera dem i normativ analys och försöker sedan utreda vilka fördelar som kan identifieras och erbjuder konstruktiv kritik av ekonomiska sanktioner. En positiv faktor som identifieras är den psykologiska påverkan som sanktioner har på en inhemsk motståndrörelse för att visa omvärldens stöd. Slutligen konstateras att smarta sanktioner och vapenembargon kan vara komplimenterande åtgärder, men inte uppfyller sina mål utan hård bevakning..

Abstract:The aim of this study has been to investigate (theoretically as well as empirically) the problematic notions of state neutrality and political perfectionism and, in particular, the potentially vast continuum existing between these concepts both in theory and in actual political practice. In order to accomplish this, a conceptual analysis has examined (some of) the arguments for and against state neutrality and political perfectionism, different aspects of neutralism and perfectionism as well as the exact definition of the concepts of ?neutrality of justification? and ?conceptions of the good?. Using a specific (though not entirely uncontested) definition of these concepts, an empirical analysis was made of Swedish parliamentary parties and their cultural policies. The empirical part of the study seemed to confirm one of the basic premises of this study; that state neutrality and perfectionism are often (as has indeed been recognized by critics of state neutrality) intertwined in the business of everyday politics..