The fact that we apprehend certain phenomena as more convenient than others generate questions about what constitute and decide what we think of as normal and appropriate. The aim of this thesis is to explore the immense conception of power and authority through a narrower approach that focuses on the EU.With this in mind I examine the penetration of the neo-liberal ideology in the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe to see if there are any implications for hegemony. This is achieved through a discourse analysis which is strengthened with empirical cases of EU policies.The result of the discourse analysis of selected parts of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe reveals that there are in fact tendencies which indicate that our society and reality is dominated by a neo-liberal hegemonic discourse. Subsequently the contemporary discourse broadly infiltrates the entire European Union, and therefore also its member states..

This study explores the notion of class and social inequality as expressed in the Swedish election campaign of 2006 and in the reception of the Swedish conservative party as a "worker's party". Inspired by Fairclough's critical discourse analysis I have carried through an investigation of the debate. My sources consists in a collection of articles, mainly leader columns and contributions to the debate, from a selected number of Swedish newspapers.I found that an explicit discussion about class, or use of the concept as such, was largely absent. In cases where the concept occurred it was often used in a purely descriptive sense or dismissed as outdated. Furthermore, I have drawn the conclusion that the traditional understanding of class is being challenged by a discourse which aims at establishing a new understanding of social inequality as lack of paid work.I take my point of departure in the belief that class continues to be one of the most important bases of social inequality.

Genom en litteraturbaserad teorikonsumerande metod undersöks konsekvenserna av att konsociationalismen tillämpats för att nå konfliktlösning i Nordirland som om mycket realiserats genom förvaltningsstrukturen. Både konsociationalismen och förvaltningen visar sig besitta inneboende problem. Då konsociationalismen inte uppfylls till fullo kan detta komma att påverka det fortsatta samarbetet och därmed fredssituationen negativt. Förvaltningen å andra sidan kan i dagsläget inte uppnå grundläggande demokratiska principer såsom folklig medverkan. Tillräcklig uppmärksamhet har inte riktads mot vikten av en väl fungerande förvaltning, trots att denna besitter förmågan att påverka både attityder och den grundläggande motsättningen i ett konflikthärjat samhälle.

The aim of this Master's thesis was to examine the political and cultural reasons for making music materials compulsory at Danish public libraries by the new library act of 2000. The aim was also to examine how the public libraries have responded to this reform. To answer these questions a literature study was conducted as well as interviews. The results of the literature study indicated that the main reason for making music materials compulsory is to increase the influence of the library users. The study of the debate concerning the new library act showed that a majority of the Danish political parties as well as the Danish library organizations had a positive attitude towards the new obligation.

This study aspires to find an answer to what makes a negotiation for peace successful. In our pursue to do so we have chosen two cases to compare with each other through a set of different theories. The theories we believed could be relevant were ripeness/readiness, asymmetry, the strategies of mediation, intra-state conflicts and personal actors.The case-study consists of two negotiations that both took place in Camp David. The first one was between Egypt and Israel, 1978, and serves as the example of a successful negotiation. The second case was, again, with Israel but the counterpart was Palestine and took place in year 2000.

The purpose of this research is to survey and describe some science teachers? conceptions of which assessment criteria they use at the marking process. Questions which are relevant for this research are the following: 1. Which assessment methods form the basis for science teachers? marking process? 2.

This paper focuses on the employers? responsibility as described in the 11th section in the Employment (co-determination in the workplace) Act of 1976. The questions asked are to determine whether the law in the 11th section is followed in real life and if the consequences for breaking the law are a deciding factor. This paper summarizes the law as it is interpreted today and in what situations it is applicable. Since the law and especially section 11 affects certain individuals and organizations, the paper also describes who these individuals and organizations are and how they are affected.

The aim of this paper is to make an investigation of how authoritative conceptual framework about immigrants as a group is being constituted in the discourse regarding Swedish language for immigrants. I will also examine what connections there are to the overarching integration discourse. While doing this I try to establish the contrasting relationship between the ?Swedishness? and ?the Other?. My theoretical framework consists of discussions regarding groups and the relation to homogeneity or heterogeneity in various ways and how We tend to construct the discourse in relation to the Other.

Piratkopiering i Kina har varit ett ämne som flitigt debatterats internationellt de senaste åren. Denna uppsats ämnar analysera åtgärder vidtagna för att implementera immateriella rättigheter i Kina i en ekonomisk, politisk och historisk kontext. Sedan Kina gick med i WTO har landet varit tvunget att ändra sin lagstiftning inom många områden, speciellt rörande immateriella rättigheter. Positiva och negativa aspekter av full implementering av dessa regler i Kina analyseras även..

Although Sweden has democracy implemented in its Constitution, because of being a monarchy, it has a non-elected Head of State. The purpose of this thesis is on the one hand to show if it is possible to normatively legitimate the Swedish monarchy and on the other hand to display if and how the three biggest Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter and Expressen justify monarchy by making a content-oriented analysis of their coverage of King Carl XVI Gustaf's political statement during his state visit in Brunei 2004.By using consequentialism and deontology as perspectives I will show that it overall is not possible to normatively justify the Swedish monarchy compared to a Swedish republic with an elected Head of State. This is mainly because democracy is implemented in the Swedish Constitution. In all three newspapers there is only little debate on the Constitution. Most commonly journalists criticize the King's statement but not monarchy as an institution.

In this study, the aim is to show how the social services fails to implement a specific rights law (LSS) wich is supposed to have the function of protecting the wellfare and provide specific rights to people with severe mental disabilities. By applying chritical theory on this case the aim is to provide an alternative answer on why it is possible for the social services to ignore these peoples rights.By revealing the power structures in the encounter between the system and a person with mental dissablilities, I conclude that people with mental disabilities does not fit in when it comes the social sevices way of implementing the law and further more that a private person is extreamly exposed to the systems arbitrariness..

An employee that informs on illegal or unethical behavior in the workplace is what has been called a whistleblower. Employees that have become whistleblowers have often faced tragic consequences, like threats from the organization, unemployment, bankruptcy and divorce. The purpose of this paper is, on the basis of different ethical perspectives to describe the justification of the whistleblowing phenomenon and apply this to the Swedish whistleblower Ingvar Bratt who ?blew the whistle? when he found out that Bofors AB, the company he worked for, were smuggling arms to the countries Dubai and Bahrein. The method that has been used in this paper is what Björn Badersten call a normative ?givet att?- analysis.

Uppsatsen behandlar frågan huruvida dagens Ungern bör kunna betraktas som en konsoliderad demokrati. Frågan utgår ifrån teorin om för att ett lyckat demokratiskt samhälle ska kunna uppnås måste fem dimensioner vara uppfyllda: ett väl fungerande och demokratiskt institutionaliserat civilsamhälle, politiskt samhälle och ekonomiskt samhälle samt en rättstat och statsbyråkrati. Uppsatsen tar tre av dessa samhälleliga arenor i beaktande samt medborgarnas och politikernas attityder och utgår i huvudsak från artiklar, böcker och tidsskrifter. För att åskådliggöra Ungerns utveckling från demokratisk transition till dagens situation har en viss historisk tillbakablick varit nödvändig för att ge perspektiv åt landets sociala, politiska och ekonomiska händelseförlopp..

This thesis deals with the concept of soft balancing, traditionally defined as the diplomatic means of restraining a dominant state's ability to exercise its military power. As the dominant power in today's unipolar system, the United States, and other states? behaviour towards it, is the focus of analysis. The aim of this thesis is to explore the possibilities of developing the concept of soft balancing so as to include strategies to restrain also the political and economic capabilities of a dominant power. The thesis also considers the possibilities of soft balancing that small states ? to a large extent overlooked in existing theories on the subject - can possess.As a state with policies that aim to reduce the U.S.

The Swedish political organization is subject for the investigation of this thesis, with regard to the realization of universal human rights. There is a discrepancy between the Swedish state's international undertakings in legally binding treaties and theactualization of human rights by local authorities. The local authorities are ruled by a complex function of both national and local government. Of interest here, is the effect that these, and other organizational aspects, between the national and the local, have for the realization of human rights in local authorities. Also, the discrepancy between the national and the local is attempted to be understood.