Ever since Lipsky wrote about street-level bureaucrats in 1980 the main belief has been that certain characteristics of their jobs make it exceptionally difficult to severely reduce their discretion. However, discretion comes at a price and if public servants abuse their power the legitimacy of government is at risk and ultimately even the democracy.This thesis address this question by analysing the Swedish employment service which in the beginning of 2001 started a project called ?Af Sverige? trying to improve internal rule of law. By comparing two local and fairly equal jobcentres and how the street-level bureaucrats within use their discretion, I seek to find support for my hypotheses that organizing local jobcentres according to the principles of machine bureaucracy plays a significant part in reducing discretion.My findings show that a jobcentre characterised by strict rules, few units, good communications and a forthright manager who delegates formal power to the employees results in a stricter and more uniform application of regulations among the street-level bureaucrats. My conclusion is therefore unambiguous.

This essay is based on a mission from Anna Schibli, Director of Tourism at Solliden Palace. The thesis aims to investigate the image that Solliden Palace has, and the picture that local and regional tourist offices have of the Sollidens Castle brand and what position Solliden include in these markets. A total of six in-depth interviews with tourist offices, at local and regional level, has been carried out and an initial in-depth interview with Anna Schibli of Solliden Palace. The responses of the respondents have since been interpreted and processed based on an inductive approach, in order to interpret the image that Solliden Palace has. Scientific papers have been studied and analyzed in order to generate an explanation and understanding of the research area.

Abstract Title:                       Grades at Primary School ? A study of local politicians' arguments in                       connection with the division into grades at Swedish primary schools.Author:                       Annie LinderUniversity of KalmarC-essay in Social StudiesAutumn 2011 The study aims to investigate local politicians' decisions since municipalities took overSwedish primary education in 1990/91. The arguments put forward in support of how stages are organised have been studied, likewise whether municipalities have acted rationally when making their decisions.Six municipalities are included in the survey. They were divided into three educational categories: lower, middle and high level schools; previous and recent schools and F9 schools with pre-schools and primary schools integrated.Minutes from politicians' and civil servants' meetings have been studied and categorised according to arguments for and against. The most common supportive arguments are about economy and organisation, others concern school premises, trends and the wish for a comprehensive compulsory school.

I wrote this essay with the aim to explore, understand and get some insights into what it is that effects the possibilities to plan for ecological sustainability and make it happen. There is no clear definition of sustainable development but world top meetings and reports have developed goals and strategies. I will present some of the theory at hand but most of this essay is based on six interviews with planners at local governments from around the country. Several of the local governments are using the goals issued by the state government by putting them into their large scale plans. During the interviews some obstacles were identified, like a lack of resourses, disadvantaging powerstruktures, conflicts with marketeconomy and simply different meenings about what ecological sustainability is in practice. My method of getting information through interviews and documenting them by taking notes had, as all methods, it?s weakneses.

För att ett företag ska kunna hålla sig flytande på marknaden idag krävs de att de har hundra procent koll på vad som sker i deras fabriker och att de strävar efter en mer hållbar tillverkningsprocess. Att försäkra konsumenterna om att fabrikerna inte använder sig av barnarbete eller dåliga arbetsförhållanden räcker inte längre utan det krävs en bredare kunskap inom miljö och hållbar utveckling för att den trogna kunden ska stanna. Syftet med denna rapport är att kontrollera det nyuppstartade företaget DENIM IS DEAD?s produktion och utvärdera om hur man kan förädla de olika processtegen samt skapa transparens gentemot kund.Metoden som arbetet utformades efter var genom en fallstudie som är baserad på en mestadels deduktiv metod men med inslag av induktiv metod. Där grunden lades genom en utförlig faktainsamling för att i rapportens senare del kunna analysera de hypoteser och problemformuleringar som ställts.Målet med rapporten var att ta fram en metod eller produkt som ska underlätta kommunikationen med DENIM IS DEAD?s kund.

Hydropower is the largest renewable energy source available in today's society. Operation and production is handled by high-tech electronics. This thesis is done on behalf of Statkraft Sweden AB who wants to explore the possibility of replacing the hydraulic cylinder with an electric actuator, generally as well as a case of a small power station on the river Nissan. Whether it is the chaplain or francis turbine vanes are actuated by hydraulic cylinders. Because of Gustavsberg hydropower is inconstant operation, this report is based on power calculations, which are read and computed according to the available hydraulic diagram.

At nuclear power plants, electrical valve actuators are important for ensuring that the reactor core is water covered and the pressure in the reactor tank and containment is limited. The electrical actuators are provided with overload protection in case of drawing higher current then the motors are rated for. When safety manoeuvres are needed, the overload protection must not trig and cause the valve to stop before completing the manoeuvre. Analyses have showed that the current settings of the overload protection may cause an illegitimate trig at the worst theoretically possible accident. A new method has been developed with conservative assumptions and applies overload protections for all electrical valve actuators at the three reactors in Forsmark..

There are differences today amongst psychoanalysts regarding if psychoanalysis should limit itself to being exclusively a hermeneutic discipline or if psychoanalysis should find points of contact with neurobiology. The purpose of this essay is to touch upon the larger issue that creates the different points of view: Can psychoanalysis become enriched by finding points of contact with neurobiology, and should psychoanalysis be regarded as belonging to a broader scientific field than being exclusively a human science? The question at issue is: Can modern neurobiology contribute to a development of the psychoanalytic concepts; compulsion to repeat, transference/countertransference and talking cure? The method used is a literature study. The result shows that: Freud?s theories regarding traumatic compulsion to repeat can be linked with LeDoux?s theory of "emotional memory".

The main purpose of this essay was to study the program "Nationellt stöd för kunskapsutveckling inom socialtjänsten" ("National support for knowledge development within the social services") from the National Board of Health and Welfare on the basis of how such a development, as represented by the program, could affect clients' possibilities to participation and influence within the social services.To respond to the purpose I used the following questions at issue:* How is client participation and client influence defined in the program?* What arguments for and/or against client participation and client influence are stated?* Which patterns and similarities/differences are possible to discern between the municipalities and universities that participated in the program when it comes to client participation and client influence?The study was conducted as a document analysis. I studied documents from the program both on a national and a local level. The essay uses empowerment theories and theories concerning client participation and client influence. The main conclusions were that on the national level the authors of the documents spoke with caution about their view on client participation and client influence and expressed that it had to be balanced against the rights of the citizens and the social workers for example.

In an effort to strengthen democracy in the union, the EU in 2005 took a new approach to communications policy to reach out to the citizens. The strategic document "Plan D for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate" was accompanied by two other documents, and the three of them were the core of this policy. Both democracy and communications work means at EU level a higher complexity than in the nation-state arena. Objective of this study is to examine how the implementation of Plan D has turned out in a democracy renewal perspective. To achieve that answers are sought to questions concerning the goals of Plan D, how they are still present today, what happened in practice regarding the efforts that are highlighted, and how the substance of the activities can be judged from a democratic theory perspective.

The aim of this work is to understand the recruitment of candidates to the local representative assembly in the municipality of Täby. The method used is qualitative interviewing, of a total of eight local politicians in Täby. The theory in which this work rest upon is based on a new-institutionalist perspective. Of great importance is the thoughts of the politicians involved in the recrution process, what do they think were the reasons that controlled the order of priority in the party list among the pool of candidates? Were there any obstacles for minorities in the politics like for example foreigners, women or young people? The study is taking it?s departure from the politicians who candidated in the election of 2002-2006 and the ones which are candidating to the election this coming autumn.In conclusion the aim is to understand the reasons that gives some of the candidates electable places to the assembly, and what the actors themselves think are the conclusive qualities that matters the most.

The purpose of this master thesis is to examine some information aspects of decision-making in Swedish municipal committees. Which are the information needs and how do they emerge? How is the needed information sought and received and which are the sources? How do the members of the committees use information when making decisions? To answer these questions qualitative interviews were conducted with four politicians (two chairpersons representing the political majority and two vice-chairpersons representing the opposition) and three officials in a municipality with a population of about 50 000. The politicians were interviewed in capacity of decision-makers, whereas the officials from the local administration are of interest through their decision-supportive role, which includes providing of reports and other information. The examination indicates that even if the conditions to some extent differ between the committees, the administration is highly influential: Notions and proposals about action may come from inhabitants, organizations, politicians etc., but are handled by the administration, which often is the problem formulating actor, through which the informational needs nearly always are canalized.

Today most people are in agreement that the media industry is in crisis. Many newsrooms cut down on staff. At the same time the PR industry is growing. We wanted to research if this could affect the unbiased and independent news in our news media today. Today's newsrooms receive a lot of press releases every day.

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that manifests as an increased level of glucose in the blood. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 347 million people have diabetes worldwide. In year 2004, 3.4 million people died from the consequences of high blood glucose. In the Swedish population the prevalence of diabetes is estimated to 3-4 %, out of which 85-90% are Type 2. Among senior citizens a prevalence of diabetes is seen in Sweden up to 14 - 15%.

Trycksår kan förekomma på alla typer av vårdavdelningar och tar lång tid att läka samt är en stor kostnad för samhället. Syftet med litteraturstudien var att undersöka åtgärder för trycksårsprevention. Metoden är baserad på en modifierad version av Forsberg & Wengströms modell för en systematisk litteraturstudie. Sökning i databaser PubMed och CINAHL utfördes och resultatet i litteraturstudien grundades på nio kvantitativa vetenskapliga artiklar. Författarna kunde identifiera olika preventionsåtgärder där framför allt evidensbaserade bedömningsinstrument som Modifierad Nortonskala och MNA-SF är viktiga att använda i trycksårsprevention, men även temperaturmätning, ?Continental anal plug? (CAP), god nutrition, aktivitet samt tryckreducerande underlag som fårskinn..