The purpose of this study is to make a close and critical scrutiny of the EU Lisbon strategy and the assumption of `sustainable growth´. A basic question is to clarify what is meant by `sustainability´ in the economic and the environmental dimension respectively, and also, to analyse the meaning of `sustainable growth´. Secondly, I try to investigate the relationship between the economical and environmental dimensions of the strategy. Are the goals of the dimensions compatible and mutually supporting or are they conflicting? By illuminating these issues the study moves towards a final set of questions: What are the arguments that encourage or counteract the Lisbon assumption of `sustainable growth´? Is the European Union approaching `sustainable growth´ looking at different economical and ecological indicators? What are the prospects for the Lisbon strategy as a way towards global `sustainable development´?.

The social dimension in the EU, explored through the document texts of the Treaty of Rome, the Lisbon strategy, the Social Policy Agenda and the Swedish Strategy ReportThis paper explores the social dimension of EU social policy, except the aspects of the economic and labour market. The EU documents reveal an underlying line of thought stemming from the alignment of the six founding countries, spearheaded by France, with the conservative corporatist welfare model. As one of four European welfare models, the conservative corporatist model emphasises labour market issues, corporate social responsibility and the subsidiarity principle in EU social policy. It also influences how the texts define the terms social, social policy and social exclusion. The definitions determine how policymakers combat problems such as social exclusion and identify the policy issues to be included in EU social policy.The Swedish Strategy shows how the country is responding to the objectives that it has been assigned by the EU and how it plans to attain them.

AbstractSince democracy was developed in the ancient Greece it has come to be used within a small city state, within the national state and as today used within a bigger perspective. After the end of the second world war political leaders wanted to make sure that there would never be a war between European countries again. Now, about 60 years later this type of cooperation now involves 27 of the European countries and goes under the name of the Euroapean Union. This means that democracy is no longer used just within the nation state, but within a big organisation that is responsible for almost 500 million Europeans lives. This also means that the European Union need to make some institutional reforms to be able to handle all the future challenges.

This essay focus on the European Union and its democracy both from a national perspec­tive and from an international perspective. Furthermore, the essay center on the con­cept of democratic deficit, this in order to study the European Union´s status regarding the democratic legitimacy. This study intends to nuance the problems that previous research and previous researchers have de­fined as democratic deficits in the European Union and ends up in conducting a textual anal­ysis of the latest European Union treaty, the Lisbon Treaty.The aim is that by using previous research on the democratic deficit in the European Union examine whether the Lisbon Treaty has enhanced the EU's position regarding democratic legitimacy. In other words, my study aims to identify what the deficit is and if it exists.The results show that the Lisbon Treaty has been trying to improve the democratic legitimacy and that some practical adjustments have been made, but it also show that there is much that still can be improved before citizens have full democratic rights..

This bachelor thesis airns to examine change in Common Foreign and Security Policy towardsa Normative Power Europe irnplernented in the Treaty of Lis bon. The survey is conductedwith Ian Manners Norrnative Power Europe theory as the basis. U sing norms identified byManners in his article "Normative Power Europe: A Contradietian in Terms?" (2002) as thetools when analysing CFSP-staternents both from before and after ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon. The norms used in the analysis are Peace, Dernocracy and Human Rights.

The aim of this paper is to explain how the European Union?s common strategy for theCommon Foreign- and Security Policy (CFSP) will change with the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon. A comparative case study and qualitative method is used. On the basis of Smith?s theory of institutionalization we will analyze two member states: France and Denmark.

 Dissertation in political science, C-level by Niklas Andersson, Spring Semester 2009. Tutor: Arne Larsson?The Treaty of Lisbon ? The Defence against Globalization??In the modern world globalization have undermined the nation-state and left it without the right measurements to adequately deal with the social and economic unrest that follows in its way. The states, built on contract theories, have an obligation to protect its citizens from the state of nature which seems to have failed as globalization has changed the rules.The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the contract theories of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Rawls to identify the elements of a state and create a modern and ideal contract theory. The treaty shall then be used on the Treaty of Lisbon as it can be seen as a contract between the European states to create an entity in the shape of the European Union with the power to defend Europe from the unrest created by globalization.My question for this was as follows:Is the new treaty for the European Union acceptable as a new social contract according to the social contract theories?During my research the following criteria?s for a social contract was found:1.

This Bachelor thesis deals with the act of the British Labour Party when they recalled a referendum promised by former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Tony Blair promised a referendum on the Constitutional Treaty, but his successor Gordon Brown later recalled it when the Lisbon Treaty succeeded the Constitutional Treaty as the legal foundation of the European Union.The main purpose of this thesis was to with help from various theorethical frameworks explain why the Labour Party decided to do this, even if this decision gave the main opposition party, the Conservative and Unionist Party (the Tories), the chance to heavily critisize the Labour Party, and picture them as traitors.The research questions were:? What are the reasons that the Labour Party went from being a Eurosceptical party, to become more pro-European?? Why did the Labour Party cancel the promised referendum on the new treaty of the European Union?Various answers were found for the first research question. Among the most important was that it was a part of the over all transition which led to the launch of New Labour.The second research question was answered with three explanatory models based on actions of the Labour Party on three arenas; the electoral arena (based on power, this model claims that the Labour Party act as they do because the know the Tories would not act differently if they were in office), the parliamentary arena (based on ideology, this model claims that Labour want the Lisbon Treaty because it has a stronger social dimension than earlier treaties) and the internal arena (based on the problem of identification, this model claims that the Labour Party identifies itself with the British government, and not just the voters, and are afraid of damaging Britain?s influence in the EU and international politics if Britain says ?no? to the Lisbon Treaty)..

In this essay I want to investigate how the poodle strategy affects a person?s credibility when he or she uses it. The poodle strategy is a strategy, which someone uses when he or she is scrutinized by the media. It?s primary purpose is to suppress further media coverage but it is also a strategy for defending oneself and hence rescuing one?s reputation either as a private person or as an official.The essay?s research questions are:How has the strategy been applied for defensive purposes and what are the results?To which extent can the Stasis theory and Benoit?s theory on Apologia be connected to the strategy?Does the strategy affect the user?s credibility?To answer these questions four cases from the political sphere in Sweden where persons have been said to have ?done a poodle? have been analyzed.

Yahtzee is a popular dice game around the world. The complexity makes the game interesting to play and analyze. This report compares the effectiveness of the mathematically optimal strategy with a strategy that can be used for casual play. The rules used are those of the Nordic variant Yatzy, in which a few but important rules are different from the American Yahtzee. To evaluate the everyday strategy 100,000 games was simulated in a java program written specifically for this purpose.

In June 2006 the Council of the European Union agreed on the review of the EU sustainable development strategy. This renewed strategy voices a commitment to sustainable development that includes a diverse list of safeguarded interests. Sustainability is to be attained in the spheres of democracy, solidarity, the rule of law, gender equality and at the same time it should promote a dynamic economy. Given this multifunctional application of sustainable development, curiosity may soon give rise to questions such as; What is the legal significance of the concept? Is it to be considered a general principle of Community law? And can it be used as an instrument in adjudication and legal reasoning? Anyone who looks deeper into the concept of sustainable development is soon to find a labyrinthine complex of ideas, expressions and opinions.

Yahtzee is a popular dice game around the world. The complexity makes the game interesting to play and analyze. This report compares the effectiveness of the mathematically optimal strategy with a strategy that can be used for casual play. The rules used are those of the Nordic variant Yatzy, in which a few but important rules are different from the American Yahtzee. To evaluate the everyday strategy 100,000 games was simulated in a java program written specifically for this purpose.

In this essay I want to investigate how the poodle strategy affects a person?s credibility when he or she uses it. The poodle strategy is a strategy, which someone uses when he or she is scrutinized by the media. It?s primary purpose is to suppress further media coverage but it is also a strategy for defending oneself and hence rescuing one?s reputation either as a private person or as an official.The essay?s research questions are:How has the strategy been applied for defensive purposes and what are the results?To which extent can the Stasis theory and Benoit?s theory on Apologia be connected to the strategy?Does the strategy affect the user?s credibility?To answer these questions four cases from the political sphere in Sweden where persons have been said to have ?done a poodle? have been analyzed.

On December 1th 2009 the Lisbon Treaty entered into force, and through Article 13, the recognition of animals as sentient being was given a more visible part in the very core of EU law. This was an effect of a political decision to commit to the issue, partly because of the will to further harmonize the EU market, but also due to increased societal concern for the wellbeing of animals. Over the last decades, ethical awareness is growing in many countries, one reason being new scientific discovery. This influences legislators and policy makers to take proper action, and in this way, ethics and science often work together as the very basis for the development of new legislation and policies. There is yet to be seen what the actual consequences of Article 13 will be, since the legal obligation remains the same and there are still some reservations in it.

The aim of this study was to investigate what formative assessment means and get information about how teachers? assessment practice in formative assessment can look like, based on five key strategies. I have observed five teachers in grade 4 to 6 during a week of their mathematics teaching. Formative assessment is assessment for learning and has the purpose to support students? knowledge development.