A majority of conducted studies connected to democratic socialization and the party-political education has primary affected students in higher education. In this study I intend to find out how primary school teachers handle controversial issues in social science connected to the political parties.  The Swedish Democrats are by many perceived as a controversial party and while the school?s mission is to educate students to think independently another mission implies that certain views are not to be uttered if they stand contrary to the basic democratic values. The aim of this study is to obtain knowledge in and about the teachers view on the dilemma between the more nurturing assignment versus the knowledge assignment and in connection to this how they approach the Swedish Democrats in the classroom. For further immersion the research treats the following questions:  How do teachers view their own role as intermediaries in democratic education?  How to teachers portray the Swedish democrats in education?The survey was conducted by using qualitative interviews.

Sustainable development is often pictured as containing of three interlinked dimensions- namely environmental, economic and social. ?Social sustainability? is a vague concept that is often thought of as highly context-dependent. This thesis sets out to investigate the meaning of ?social sustainability? in a given context.

Turkey has taken part in regular negotiations to gain membership in the EU since 2005. At the same time is Turkey a candidate that stands out from those of earlier rounds of enlargement, and its possible membership got both supporters and critics amongst the Unions member countries. The aim of this thesis is to, trough a textual analysis, investigate the prospects and obstacles Turkeys candidature faces. The material consists of documents from a number of think tanks connected to the European Commission, as well as the Commissions own documents regarding Turkeys negotiations.A recurring picture is that Turkey is treated differently then earlier candidates, and that the Commission has a hard time keeping an unambiguous line in its negotiation frame. The material of the think tanks attributes the public opinions distrust of the member countries of EU as a hindrance, and Turkeys meddling in the conflict on Cyprus is problemized.

In this thesis we have examined Västra Götalandsregionens ways to lobby and network in the European Union. Our aim was to examine which kind of methods the region uses to lobby in a successful way in Brussels. We found that the region uses both formal and informal methods of lobbying to gain advantages in Brussels. We also wanted to locate various networks which the region is involved in to more easily have their interests satisfied. We found that they had a lot of different alliances and that it is necessary to be involved in different networks to have a chance to lobby the EU institutions.

                                                  AbstractThe development of our society has in many ways changed the relationships between the political parties and the citizens. Fewer citizens are active in political parties, which has contributed to the fact that we see a form of catch-all effect and a development of parties that organizes more in forms of professional organisations. This paper has made a research of modells of democratic ideals and values between leaders and party-members in political parties in the local area. The purpose has been to show how these ideals and values can reflect back on the political development. The result shows that the development has created a form of catch-all effect and a professionalism in the parties.

The aftermath of colonization, culture diversity and the recognition of the ownidentity - living in a country which has the role of a former colonizer has got consequences in the multicultural French society. These consequences can be seen studying the politics, the education and the history of that country. In this bachelorthesis I discuss the aftermath of French colonization with a focus on how the French cultural identity can be explained in defining colonialism in French lawmaking. The aim is to understand the definition of the own cultural identity from a postcolonial perspective and what meaning the multicultural society has for this definition. This is an issue which can be seen in politics as well as ineveryday life, and to make an understanding of it, I study how French politicians are representing their country's role as a former colonizer in a postcolonial era.

How should a fair income tax system be designed? Since Estonia became the first country to introduce a flat tax on incomes in 1994, this question has been in focus of public debate. The aim of is this thesis is to show that a flat income tax system, combining a proportional tax rate on all incomes with an allowance exempt from tax, is consistent with the demands of justice. In order to achieve this I construct a two level argument using normative method. The first part consists in the justification of a specific ethical theory which is derived from to notion of human dignity.

AbstractDetta arbete är en fallstudie på Lund's kommun och det som skedde där under nittiotalet. Huvudfoku's ligger på två kommunreformer som innebar kommundelsnämnderna's införande och avskaffande. Vår frågeställning har varit; Vilka förändringar har Lund's kommun gått igenom? Och; Hur kan man förstå dessa förändringar? Teorin består av flera olika vinklar där man problematiserar de moderna kommunerna's arbete. Även mer klassisk organisationsteori med ett foku's på kulturperspektivet har använt's.

Uppsatsens analysområde är uppkomsten av regional integration och prägeln på samarbetet inom den Afrikanska unionen. På en kontinent som ofta betraktas av omvärlden som ett hjälplöst problemområde har unionen uppstått som ett forum för samarbete och enighet. Kontexten ur vilken Afrikanska unionen uppkom skiljer sig från tidigare afrikanska samarbeten. Med hjälp av integrationsteorin neofunktionalism och systemteorin neorealism undersöks, utifrån sex hypoteser, faktorer som har bidragit till unionens existens och vad den präglas av idag. Fokus ligger på unionen i sig och inte på teorierna.

The aim of this study was to investigate how preschool teachers think about preschoolscience, what they consider science to be and how they deal with specific curricular objectivesrelated to science.Science is a part of our everyday life, it is a prerequisite for understanding everydayphenomena and how the world is working. Nevertheless it is often dropped in favour of othersubjects in Swedish preschools.The eight preschool teachers participating in this study are all working in the samemunicipality in the western part of Sweden with children aged 1- 5 years. The method used inthis study was interviews. The interviews were recorded to facilitate the transcriptions.The results show that preschool teachers find that science is an important subject that shouldbe introduced to the children early on in life. They also show that preschool teachers considerscience to have a preventive effect on the learning to the children, and it is needed for them tounderstand everyday processes and phenomena.

After the last election Sweden has got a government that claims to be feminist. This thesis discusses whether the change of labels has also brought along policy formulated in a feminist way, arguing that the way policy is expressed affects how people see a certain problem. Three policy proposals are analysed, and in only one case the government seems to have been influenced by feminist ideas. The other proposals partly support claims made by new institutionalism that norms and routines in an organisation work to resist policy change, but also shows that feminist ideas are resisted more actively. The fact that so called policy entrepreneurs was present in the policy process at a certain period in time, probably counts for one explanation to the exceptional policy.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att söka utröna huruvida etnicitet kan försvåra införandet av de villkorade flerpartival som är ett resultat av politisk konditionalitet. Inledningsvis genomförs en presentation av de teoretiska ramverk som omger den politiska konditionaliteten samt valbeteende i förhållande till politiserad etnicitet, och därefter söker jag applicera dessa på Zimbabwe och Kenya. Syftet är att avgöra huruvida det föreligger någon markant skillnad mellan länderna gällande den politiserade etnicitetens påverkan på de, medelst politisk konditionalitet, villkorade representativa flerpartivalen. Metoden är empirisk utifrån sekundärlitteratur, men i förlängningen även komparativ. En diskussionsdel, vari valen i förhållande till de teoretiska ramverken problematiseras, leder fram till slutsatsen att politiserad etnicitet kan få negativa konsekvenser för villkorade val om det finns en etnisk grupp som är i synnerlig majoritet..

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the democratization process in Kurdistan on the basis of consolidation democracy with focus on arenas defined by Linz and Stepan (1997), namely economic, political, legal, civil society and arenas of state bureaucracy. Furthermore, I intend to explain Kurdistan?s road toward democratization in Kurdistan from 1991 until today, with a focus on the years 2003-2012. The main results are that Kurdistan has developed conditions that support a future consolidation of democracy. However, there are weaknesses in the economic situation, rule of law and the arena of bureaucracy.

This thesis is dedicated to analysing the relationship between Islam and democracy and the role played by Civil Society in a process towards democracy. This theme is further elaborated through a comprehensive study of three modern Muslim intellectuals: Abdolkarim Soroush (Iran), Hasan Hanafi (Egypt), and Tariq Ramadan (Switzerland), and their thoughts about and views on Islam and democracy. Islam has often been portrayed in a stereotype manner where all forms of change are seen as impossible. The aim of this study is to go beyond this vision and instead focus one the role of Islam in processes of development and new forms of interpretation concerning democracy.The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the relationship between Islam and democracy.

This thesis examines and evaluates user boards in Swedish public schools from a democratic perspective. In order to evaluate whether the democratic values are fulfilled five different democratic ideals are selected to serve as a theoretical fundament. These ideals derive from the Swedish Government Official Reports that preceded the reform of user boards in schools, and are identified as the following: participation, dialogue, trust, democratic schooling and influence. The study is based on cases and involves two schools with user boards and two comparative schools with informal parental influence, so called school advisory boards. The study concludes that the main difference between the two types of parental influence is the level of formality.