During Sweden's economic crisis in the early 1990s a governmental committe of prominent economic and political experts were gathered to produce an analysis of and suggestions to the solution of that crisis. The committe produced a report that became widely commented in the media and in parliment. The report anc the reception of it gives us insights in how the boundaries between social science and politics are created an how new fields of expertise is added to a science. This thesis uses a constructivist approach to explore how the techniques of the economic science were made into credible means of knowöedge production outside of the field where it traditionally holds epistemological authority. Working from the assumption that language does things to the objects that it describes I claim that the episode investigated in this thesis was shaped by the committee's ability to define the economic crissi and thus making it into a knowable object.

The Swedish election year of 2010 has just begun and the political actors are mobilizing their communication efforts to win the votes of the public. The political campaigns of 2010 have the potential to be the first where a new channel for political communication has the potential to make a difference ? the social media. This paper aims to describe in what ways a Member of Parliament, Nina Larsson (FP), together with the PR-agency Hello Clarice are using social media to conduct political campaigning on the web. It also aims to study if the professional consultants of Hello Clarice have any influence over Nina Larsson?s political communication.The theoretical framework which is the base for this study are theories of an extended public sphere in the age of mediation.

The thesis of this essay is that the concept of governance is a product of the neo-liberal dominant ideology and that the implementation of governance ideas will lead to a weaker nation-state. Using critical theory the essay constructs an ideal type of neo-liberalism and compares its core values with these of the governance concept as treated by the main literature in the area. The essay then focuses on the issue of the state, and discusses whether the changes leading to a demand for governance have actually weakened the state. Furthermore, the essay presents the practical use of the term governance in the EU and Sweden and problemizes the changes that the neo-liberal domination has led to in terms of power and democracy. Finally the essay discusses alternative views on the changing role of the state.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka Venezuelas möjligheter att bygga en deltagande demokrati genom att jämföra situationen och processen i Venezuela med statsvetenskapliga teorier om deltagande demokrati.Den venezolanska regeringens mål är ett fullständigt avskaffande av valdemokratin och ett införande av en allomfattande deltagande demokrati. För att uppnå detta byggs en deltagardemokratisk struktur upp vid sidan av den traditionella.Det som talar för en utveckling av den deltagande demokratin är de medborgarförsamlingar som byggts upp, och förändringar i landets ekonomiska system. Det främsta hindret är maktdelningen mellan nya och gamla strukturer. Många av de traditionella problemen med deltagande demokrati har övervunnits, mycket eftersom övergången till deltagardemokrati är planerad att vara mer djupgående och fullständig än vad de flesta statsvetenskapliga teorier utgår ifrån.Slutsatsen är att det finns goda möjligheter att utveckla en deltagande demokrati i Venezuela, men att utvecklingen på många sätt är osäker..

Lately information- and communication technology (ICT) has been seen as an important tool to vitalize democracy. What kind of democracy it generates is however debateable. The objective with this thesis is therefore to examine what democratic ideal that dominates the use of ICT in Region Skåne and Västra Götalandsregionen and what kind of citizenship it brings. The two case studies were chosen because the Swedish regional level is facing a reorganization with democratic ambitions which in relation to ICT is fairly unexplored. To fulfil the objective there are two perspectives; e-democracy and e-administration, which are defined and integrated with democratic theory including Premfors´ "Fast, Strong and Thin" democratic ideals and Marshall´s three citizenship rights.

Utvärdering har idag blivit något av ett ledord i offentliga verksamheter, såväl i Sverige som i andra västländer. Resultat och kvalitet skall mätas, bedömas och redovisas i en aldrig tidigare skådad omfattning. I denna uppsats ställer jag mig frågan om vad de ständiga utvärderingarna får för konsekvenser för de offentliga organisationer som utvärderas och gör en genomgång av aktuell forskning på området. Det visar sig att det finns en rad olika teoretiska perspektiv som har anlagts på problemet ifråga men egentligen inte särskilt mycket empirisk forskning. En del forskare har lyft fram positiva effekter i form av ?upplysning? av debattklimatet i vilket beslut har att fattas och lärningsprocesser som sätts igång i de utvärderade organisationerna, medan andra pekat på problematiska bieffekter och utvärderingars legitimerande och meningsskapande funktioner..

Drawing on a broad theoretical framework that includes theories about globalisation and honourculture, this thesis aim is to demonstrate that globalisation and honourculture, constitute a conceptual network, i.e a structural relational matrix in which concepts are embedded. Being part of conceptual network, these concepts are related to each other ontologically. The idea of conceptual network, and the thesis as a whole, draw upon what has been called ?relational perspective?This study aims to show the impact of globalisation on honourculture. The study shows the importance of narrative in the construction of discursive boundaries.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how municipalities handle planning of megaprojects. The term megaproject here refers to a large project in terms of time, space, investments, numbers of agents etc. With an increasing importance of the phenomena the need of discussing the role local politics could take in this process is important.How do municipalities handle the difficulties that come with megaprojects and what roles do they take in their work with megaprojects? These empirical questions are tested on a case where the municipality of Lund works with the megaproject European Spallation Source (ESS). A theoretical question discusses the megaproject in the light of governance and government, and structures the analysis around these two important terms.Different parts of the municipality handle there part of the planning from there own logic.

Since the breakdown of the Soviet Union, more than fifteen revolutionary yearshave passed. Estonia and Latvia have undergone a change from communist statesto members of the European Union. As in so many other post-communist statescorruption has been a problem. However, Estonia has since the independence hada lower degree of corruption than the neighbour country Latvia. The main purposeof this thesis is to explain why so.

The liberal state, it has been argued, must be neutral between different conceptions of the good. Embodying ideals such as fairness and impartiality, state neutrality is intuitively appealing, but working as a restraint for state actions it is somewhat unsatisfactory. People make mistakes about their lives and people live less valuable lives than they could do. To then restrain the state from doing as much good as it can seems just as unappealing as neutrality at first seemed appealing. In this paper, a possible solution to this dilemma is presented.

The primary aim of this essay is to analyse, contextualise and problematise the scientific and technological goals of android science. The starting point of this investigation is the history of automata and man?s attempts to recreate himself by technological means. Drawing on the no-tion of boundary work this essay also analyses the efforts of the proponents of android science to establish and demarcate a new interdisciplinary field. A secondary aim of the essay is to evaluate the scientific support for the uncanny valley hypothesis and to investigate how this hypothesis contributes to android science.

AbstractIn this thesis I will discuss the relationship between the European Union and the regions of Europe. The development of the European Union has meant that many decisions are taken in Bruxelles. Many actors participate in the policyprocess ranging from national goverment to policynetworks of different kinds. An emerging actor has been the regions of Europe. Their influence on the policyprocess have grown and today almost all of them are represented in Bruxelles through Region Offices.

Det råder brist på transparens och ansvarsutkrävande i många afrikanskaförvaltningar. Dessa demokrativärden är centrala för utveckling och de börinstitutionaliseras. Denna uppsats analyserar hur stigberoende och historiskafaktorer har varit avgörande för denna institutionaliserings framgång. Fyrafaktorers påverkan på transparens och ansvarsutkrävande undersöks. Dessa ärreformer och internationell påverkan, förvaltningens struktur, juridiska system ochinstitutionaliserad tillit.

This thesis examines the democracy theories that can be found in the internet websites of Region Skåne and Stockholm county council. Within the framework of deliberative democracy, participatory democracy and electoral democracy, the author tries to distinguish democratic aspects by empirically studying these websites and their communicative effect on the internet users.This research shows that Region Skåne is slightly better in implementing democratic aspects at their home page, which is probably due to an active work with these issues carried out by the politicians and the report on the democratic development from 2004. However, a great deal of work regarding democracy and the possibility of civic participation in the decision- making process is still to be done.The problems and challenges in using internet as a democratic tool shows that citizens run a risk of being neglected, due to their uneven participation in using internet in daily life. The conclusion of this thesis is that the politicians have to make an active choice in deciding to what extent the internet is allowed to be used when it comes to developing democracy. This work has to be done in cooperation with political scientists and IT experts, in order to assure a correct democratic model..

Uppsatsen utreder vilka faktorer som påverkade konstituerandet av en palestinsk identitet mellan 1870-1920. Med bakgrund av ett teoretiskt ramverk om nationell identitet undersöks fyra teman i uppsatsen som behandlar: i vilken kontext en palestinsk identitet utvecklades under Osmanska riket, hur den arabiska pressens påverkade etablerandet av en nationell identitet och vilken inverkan politiska faktorer och demografiska förändringar hade på processen, däribland vilken roll Storbritanniens utrikespolitik spelade. Det framkommer i uppsatsen att en nationell identitet förstärks när en folkgrupp upplever att den befinner sig i en situation som anses ansträngd. Faktorer som tycks hota gruppens sammansättning blir då vägledande för hur den sociala identiten framställs och framhålls i relation till vilka/vad som uppfattas att vara hotande..