Swedish design is known all over the world and is seen in national as well as in international arenas. There is only one design organization in Sweden that has the task to represent Swedish design in public. The organization is Swedish Form and it is the oldest design organization in the world. It has a huge influence in our society, within design and form. In the end of 1990 the association received its first government assignment, which still continues.

This paper's purpose is to examine the mandate and the role of the UN as an administrative actor. Today, we often see post-conflict territories in the need of governance. In the absence of local supported government the UN has the ability to fill that void. The paper will look at two actual examples where the UN has assumed the role as administrator; West Papua and East Timor. I will conduct the research by using books and scientific articles from journals..

In this study, I have examined the previous Social Democratic government?s communication with the voters, focusing on its promises during election campaigns, and the presentation of achieved results. The theories used are the mandate- and sanction theory; the first focuses on voters comparing manifestos to find the most agreeable, whilst the latter concentrates on voters evaluation the work of the previous government, to either discharge or support it. For the sanction theory to work, voters must have the necessary information to evaluate the government in progress. The question is; did the previous government provide the voters with such information?This has been done through scrutinizing the Social Democrats? election manifestos that was used between 1994 and 2006, to examine what the party promised to achieve in economics and the labor market.

Every year the Swedish government invests capital in different projects. In recent years the Swedish government has chosen to invest in design. The reason for this is that the government wants industry to use design as a competitive source. Two organizations, Svensk Form and Stiftelsen Svensk Indistridesign, have been assigned to improve industry and society?s under¬standing of design.

Abstract Essay in political science, C-level, by Patrik Larsson, autumn semester 2007.Tutor: Susan Marton The battle over the agenda-Can media be regarded as an individual political actor? The purpose of this essay is to study to what extent media can be regarded to function as an individual political actor. In other words, do the media have more power over the political agenda than the politicians and do the media influence how the politicians make their decisions. This research is a case study and to be able to complete the intention of this study I have used Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaws theory, the agenda-setting theory. From this theory I have used four aspects to analyse my material which has consisted of editorials from a Swedish newspaper, interpellations and debates that belong to the interpellations. The aspect I have worked with are, how the problem is defined, who is responsible for the problem, what values and which solutions are expressed.  I have used a qualitative text analysis as my methodological approach which means that the results of my study are my interpretation of the material. My conclusions are that the media in this case shouldn?t be regarded as an individual political actor because there is no tendency that shows that the media has influenced the government in their decisions concerning the real-estate tax.

This is a study of democracy on the local level. It?s a comparison between the municipalities of Mo?rbyla?nga and Mo?nstera?s in the region of Kalmar in Sweden based on most similar design. The question is if the structure of the political organisation affects the quality of democracy, with focus on the reorganisaton in Mo?rbyla?nga and the quality of the political process.

Frågeformulering: Vilka faktorer är det som avgör utvecklingen av offentliga e-tjänster?Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att utvärdera och undersöka nuläge och framtida behov av e-förvaltning inom kommunala myndigheter i stockholms området.Metod: Vi har använt oss av både en kvantitativ och en kvalitativ metod.. Dvs en intervju och en enkätundersökning.Teori: Vi har använt teorier som behandlar 24-timmars myndigheten och kundbeteende, samt organisationsteorier.Empiri: Empirin består av intervjuer som vi utförde i sex olika kommuner i stockholmsområdet samt en enkät som undersöker invånarna i två av dessa kommuner.Slutsatser: De avgörande faktorerna för utvecklingen av e-government är bland annat politiska påtryckningar och förändringar i omvärlden. Även om kommunerna ligger på olika nivåer, strävar de efter samma mål, för att uppnå den perfekta 24-timmarsmyndigheten..

Frågeformulering: Vilka faktorer är det som avgör utvecklingen av offentliga e-tjänster?Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att utvärdera och undersöka nuläge och framtida behov av e-förvaltning inom kommunala myndigheter i stockholms området.Metod: Vi har använt oss av både en kvantitativ och en kvalitativ metod.. Dvs en intervju och en enkätundersökning.Teori: Vi har använt teorier som behandlar 24-timmars myndigheten och kundbeteende, samt organisationsteorier.Empiri: Empirin består av intervjuer som vi utförde i sex olika kommuner i stockholmsområdet samt en enkät som undersöker invånarna i två av dessa kommuner.Slutsatser: De avgörande faktorerna för utvecklingen av e-government är bland annat politiska påtryckningar och förändringar i omvärlden. Även om kommunerna ligger på olika nivåer, strävar de efter samma mål, för att uppnå den perfekta 24-timmarsmyndigheten..

Under 2000-talet har begrepp som E-Government och 24-timmarsmyndighet kommit att fo?ra?ndra offentliga myndigheters sa?tt att erbjuda tja?nster och interagera med medborgare. Att genom e-tja?nster erbjuda medborgare alternativ till de traditionella kanalerna a?r na?got som de flesta svenska myndigheter och kommuner stra?var mot. Skelleftea? Kommun tog redan i bo?rjan av 2000-talet initiativ att erbjuda service inom ramen fo?r begreppet 24- timmarsmyndighet och erbjuder i nula?get en rad e-tja?nster riktade mot kommunens medborgare.

AbstractAt the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 the nations stated that traditional environmental policies were not sufficient to handle the multidimensional challenges posed by sustainable development. Governments needed to broaden their political decision making procedures in order to coordinate and integrate environmental, social and economic policies. Therefore a new tool was introduced in Agenda 21, National Strategies for Sustainable Development (NSDS). The aim of an NSDS would be to bring together actors from all parts of society to jointly reach a consensus on how to work towards the vision of a sustainable society. An NSDS would be seen as a strategic tool to help focus national policies for SD.

This essay is a normative analysis concerning the question of whether the government should be allowed to use taxes to finance the state. What kind of ethical problems arise when the government use taxation? If it is possible to justify taxation, despite potential moral issues, then what should the government do with the funds they have collected? What kinds of government functions are morally justified? Is it merely the kinds of functions that are supposed to uphold negative human rights; or should the government provide health care, education and even culture for the citizens? This analysis aims to answer those questions and also formulate a principle about what the government should be occupied with, if anything at all. In order to achieve this I mainly use the terms freedom and justice to analyse ethical problems. The ideas of John Rawls and Robert Nozick are essential in this project.My answer is that taxation is justified as long as the purpose is to maintain the most fundamental human rights and also under other special circumstances such as if an individual cannot find a way to finance basic education or necessary health care.

The aim and research questions of this study are concerned about how, and what kind of, problems and subjects that citizens raise during verbal interaction with politicians and officials in the field of participatory democracy. The theoretical framework of the study dominates by theories with a positive approach towards participatory democracy, but there is also a broader discussion on the phenomenon?s strengths and weaknesses.The case in focus of the study is a specific phenomenon of participatory democracy created by the municipality of Växjö. The empirical material that is analysed is consisted of written text based on the verbal interaction from these meetings between citizens and politicians/officials.The outcome of the study shows that most of the verbal interaction was held between citizens and politicians/officials in a vertical direction and that a major part of the responsibility concerning the raised subjects is estimated to be in the hands of the latter part. In the light of under what circumstances the meetings are practised, the democratic and collective minded performance of the citizens is argued to be in good condition, despite the dominating vertical interaction and estimation of trust..

The aim of this thesis is to study the conditions three public libraries have to be a resource for university students. The libraries are all situated at a distance from universities that allow the students to commute between the university and their homes. These students often make the same demands on the public library as they do on the university library. In order to conduct this study the frame factor theory has been used. This theory was developed by pedagogic scholars during the 1960s and focuses on how the framework surrounding the school affects the learning results.

The purpose of the present thesis is to investigate the interaction between the branches in the different villages and its users and the importance of the branches for democracy. To illustrate these points, I have focused on Högsby municipality, a local council in Kalmar county. Högsby municipality is of particular interest in this connection, since all seven of the branches have been closed recently; only the main library remains. Moreover, three of the closed branches were, in 2005, taken over by citizen organizations local to the part of Högsby municipality where the libraries were located. The specific issues that were addressed were:- What needs were satisfied by the local libraries in Högsby council and is it possible to satisfy these needs in other ways and then, how?- Does the absence of a local library affect democracy?Interviews were performed.

The aim of this study has been to explore local cultural policy documents in some municipalities in the geographical region of Västra Götaland. Do the municipalities have these kinds of documents for their local cultural activities, and how are they designed? These are questions which the study has focused on. The study has been concentrated on the library activity in the local cultural policy documents. The research has been a comparative one.