The process of European Integration and creation of the single market revealed many questions and boundaries on the development and improvement of the European Social Policy. Pension?s sustainability has become the priority issue especially during the EU enlargement processes. Different policy instruments and institutions available to governments of Member States in realization of social objectives resulted in a growing diversity of pension polices which produced different combinations of public and private provisions - ?private-public hybrids? , with the state exercising different degrees of influence in their development.

The aim of this essay was to describe what some Macedonian men had to say about their own and the Swedish alcohol culture and which alcohol culture they identify with.I did five qualitative interviews with Macedonian men that had moved to Sweden. Some of the questions that were asked are whether or not age, country and culture is of importance when it comes to the alcohol culture you have? The most important question to be answered is whether or not the Macedonian men had changed their alcohol consumption after moving to Sweden.The answers to the questions and the result of the essay is that there is no ideal type of alcohol culture but that the Macedonian men all agreed that they still drink as their fellow countrymen and they dislike the Swedish way of drinking..

As most developed countries Norway has an ageing population meaning that the number of pensioners is predicted to grow rapidly over the coming years. As a consequence the Norwegian pension system will not be able to provide for these future pensioners. Meanwhile, a rising number of early retirees and disability pension claimants is diminishing the real retirement age. Also the individual pension amount is growing while the pension system itself reaches maturity. In short, major reforms are needed in the Norwegian pension system.

The purpose of this essay was to compare the Swedish and the Japanese pension system and see if there were any big differences or similarities. I was looking for answers to such questions as if the systems were modelled with the problematic demographic situation in mind and also how these two countries had tried to manage the problems. Path dependency was also a central conception when I studied the reforms of the two pension systems. I mainly used literature and Internet sources in my study. There were many books on the Swedish pension system and the debates that had been going on since the 80's.

Background: In 1999 the Swedish pension system was reformed with an aim to create a stable and high return on pension assets. First, Second, Third and Fourth general pension funds, hereby referred to as AP1-AP4, had an important part in the reform. AP1-AP4, also called the buffer funds, was assigned to secure long-term, big parts of the pension capital. The funds objective is by law, to manage the fund's assets in a manner that provides maximum benefit for the state pension. The funds will also invest pension assets with an overall low level of risk while achieving a sustainable high return.Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the First-Fourth AP-Funds is meeting its objectives regarding risk and return according to Swedish law.

The aim of this thesis is to spread some light over the coming into being of the 2005 Pension Reform in Norway. The point of departure lies within an interest in Welfare State politics and the development in this field. Pensions constitute a cornerstone in the Welfare State. Making use of J. Kingdon´s Theory of the Agenda Setting Process, Discourse Theory and Institutional Theory the thesis seek to visualize the implications of structures, central actors and discourses on the reform processes.

Genom en traditionell juridisk metod avser den här uppsatsen att studera det svenska allmänna pensionssystemet över tid (igår, idag och imorgon) för att utreda den rättsliga grunden för allmän pension. Den allmänna pensionsrätten är en del av de tre pelare som idag utgör det svenska pensionssystemet. De andra pelarna utgörs av den privata pensionen och avtalspensionen. Allmän pension har sedan början av 1900-talet erbjudits den svenska befolkningen. De första lagarna om allmän pension kan inte jämföras med det allmänna pensionssystemet som idag finns.

In 1988 the Swedish Social Democratic Party decided to reform the tax system. In this essay I analyse the motives behind their acting on a basis of the party strategic theories of Przeworski and Sjöblom. The reform commonly referred to as the tax reform of the century, was although they considered that it was a high risk project pursued together with the Liberal Party. The new tax system implicated a less progressive income tax scale, actions against tax avoidance and raised value-added tax. The empirical analysis is primarily based on memoirs written by the key actors.

The purpose of this study was to try to understand the Swedish population regarding the perceptions of the Swedish welfare system, based on the reactions that occurred after Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's statement about raising the retirement age. Our results demonstrate that the reactions on changes in the pension system in fact rooted in a safety factor and not the change in the pension system itself, through which the Swedish welfare system acts as a safety net for the population. Further the results shows that these safety factors create a form of egoism. With an interaction between empiricism and theory, where the starting point of the material was of an inductive approach, the material abstracted into different levels from which the result emerged. The focus of this study lies in the understanding of how human beings act according to one's need for security in major changes, which may be of importance to a comprehensive understanding of changes in social structures..

This thesis treats the normative power of the European Union and its affect on Macedonia. The main purpose has been to look closer with the use of the application of Ian Manners theory of normative power on the Macedonian case. The focus will be to answer the following questions: Does the European Union act as a normative power in relation to Macedonia, if so, how are these values diffused? Has there been any effect of the spreading of these values? Based on six interviews and the available material of European Union strategies for the Macedonian membership I have attempted to understand to what extent the European Union?s normative power has had an influence in Macedonia. The result of my analysis is confirmation of the European Union as a normative power in Macedonia and the understanding of the methods of application..

This thesis treats the normative power of the European Union and its affect on Macedonia. The main purpose has been to look closer with the use of the application of Ian Manners theory of normative power on the Macedonian case. The focus will be to answer the following questions: Does the European Union act as a normative power in relation to Macedonia, if so, how are these values diffused? Has there been any effect of the spreading of these values? Based on six interviews and the available material of European Union strategies for the Macedonian membership I have attempted to understand to what extent the European Union?s normative power has had an influence in Macedonia. The result of my analysis is confirmation of the European Union as a normative power in Macedonia and the understanding of the methods of application..

Trenden i samhället idag är att det tillbringas kortare tid i arbetslivet samtidigt som det finns ett hot om en framtida arbetskraftsbrist. Syftet med studien var att undersöka faktorer som är av betydelse för äldre medarbetares beslut om tidpunkt för pensionering. Variablerna krav, kontroll, stöd, ekonomisk situation, hälsa och attityd till pension undersöktes genom ett frågeformulär. 117 assistenter i Örebro kommun deltog i undersökningen. Resultatet visade att attityd till pension hade ett negativt samband med hälsa, civilstånd samt ålder.

Mothers of small children often work part-time in Sweden. Since old age pensions are based on lifetime income, part-time work leads to lower pensions, as long as there is no compensation from non-actuarial benefits such as minimum pensions. In this paper, I investigate whether different components of the Swedish pension system provide incentives for part-time work among women. The analysis is performed through a simulation of future pensions for 9 typical women in a certain cohort. For three levels of education, I compare pensions of women with different labor market participation rates in different growth scenarios.

Syfte: Denna studie syftar till att undersöka vilka variabler som påverkar olika frågor gällande pension. De frågorna angående pensionen som undersöks är:Vilka människor?? har tänk på sin pension?? har ett privat pensionssparande?? tänker jobba och ta ut pension samtidigt?? planerar att gå i pension tidigt respektive sent?Metod: Undersökningen utförs med en kvantitativ metod. Enkätundersökningen som analyseras kommer från en tidigare undersökning gjord av Finseraas och Jakobsson (2013). Uppsatsen följer en induktiv metod.Slutsats: Studien visar att variablerna som ingick i grundmodellen, vilka är kön, ålder, utbildningsnivå, civilstånd och inkomst, alla var signifikanta i en eller fler av frågorna som undersöks.

On 1 January 2007 abolished Sweden as one of the last countries in EU the wealth tax. This wealth tax was in Sweden for almost 100 years. As the great debate in the context of tax reform in 1910 was not so much about the introduction of a wealth tax. The discussion was instead on the wealth tax would be proportional or progressive together with the income tax.When the government with and there finance minister, Carl Swartz, presented its government bill, 1910:88, 11 March 1910, the draft regulation on income and wealth tax was said, that now they had finally made a shift in the direct tax to the state. A change had been sought and it would have been great difficulties to be overcome and it would have been deeply entrenched ideas about this tax reform impossible.Despite all the protests from the wealthy in society, so continue this conservative government through reform with the strong support of many conservative politicians who had most to lose from this tax reform.