The aim of this thesis is to examine the Swedish model with attention to core values over time, as well as, explain recent changes. It examines changes of the social insurance system, with focus on political reforms in the unemployment insurance, health insurance and family policy, during the last two decades. The thesis is empirical but although a discourse amount political theories and normative conceptions.Conclusions are that the normative basis in the Swedish model contains general equally and uni-versally designed rights and consensus on growth and development as well as a strict focus on an employment oriented society. Important values have also been dialogue between actors as well as accountability, even if these facts appear to have declined in recent years.Relating to three leading theories in political philosophy - utilitarianism, Rawlsian communitarian-ism - explores the directions in later year political reforms. The results show that later years changes seem to go in relative strongly utilitarian direction.

This paper concerns the divide between secularist and anti-secularist groups in Turkey, which is related to a greater antagonism between a Kemalist and an Islamic political discourse, dominant in Turkish politics since the 1980s. The main aim of the paper is to analyse the causes of the conflict using the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe. The second aim is to analyse the contents of each discourse and identify the main points of conflict between them. The empirical material used in the study consists exclusively of secondary sources treating the topic, and these are analysed using the theory of identity conflicts, which is part of Laclau and Mouffe's theory. It will be argued that the attempts of Kemalism to impose strict secularism by hegemonising the concepts of ?modernity? and ?Islam? led to the creation of an alternative political discourse based on political Islam.

Målet med studien var att låta tre autonoma ungdomsorganisationer (Megafonen, Pantrarna samt Rörelsen Gatans Röst och Ansikte) komma till tals angående sina verksamheter. Organisationerna är etablerade i svenska förorter och arbetar för att höja förortens status och att engagera ungdomar i det som påverkar deras liv och närområde. Frågeställningarna löd: Hur kan organisationernas verksamhet och dess mål beskrivas? På vilket sätt kan organisationernas verksamhet tolkas som socialt arbete? Genom intervjuer med de aktuella organisationerna samt dokumentanalys av nyhetsartiklar och hemsidematerial som organisationerna medverkat i eller själva producerat ville vi ta del av och framföra organisationernas egna röster. Genom teorin om empowerment samt begreppet claims-making fördjupades förståelsen för och förklaringen till organisationernas arbete och de sociala problem organisationerna framhåller.

Denna uppsats har till syfte att studera den debatt som uppstod efter den 9:e december, då en rapport om CIA:s användning av tortyr som del av kriget mot terrorismen släpptes. Detta sker igenom en kritisk diskursanalys av amerikansk media, specifikt med en metod kallad förklarande kritik, med fokus på vad politiker citeras säga och vad opinionsskribenter själva säger gör tortyr rätt eller fel att använda. Igenom analys av sådant material ges här både en inblick i de ställningstaganden som görs i debatten, där censur av rapporten bidrar till att en debatt där båda parter kan göra starka sanningsanspråk om effektivitet och politisering, samt även förklaringar av de pragmatiska och affektiva argument som används i media för att legitimera CIA:s tortyranvändning..

AbstractEssay in Political Science, autumn 2010. ?ALBA ? A regional integration project with good conditions?? Autor: Anna Sjögren. Course: Political Science, C-level, Tutor: Sten Berglund An essential part of the political science research on regional integration has been about why states join economic unions and what forces drive the process of integration. This essay is a case study on the Latin American regional integration project called ALBA.

Care and solicitude about Swedish documentary heritage has varied substantially throughout the years. The main purpose of this essay has been to investigate what efforts have been made to preserve rare book collections at public libraries. These cultural policies have been studied from both a national as well as local perspective. What we have tried to explore can be condensed into three questions: What national initiatives have been taken in the past century to preserve the municipal documentary heritage?What initiatives have been taken in the past century to preserve thedocumentary heritage of what is presently the municipality of Jönköping? What value do rare book collections at public libraries represent? The results indicate few national efforts were initially made to preserve rare book collections in the timeframe we studied.

Det är sällan man läser i tidningar om det goda sociala arbetet som utförs av socialtjänster i Sverige. Den enskilde medborgaren vänder sig inte heller ofta till media för att få berätta om stödet och det goda bemötandet de fått av myndigheten. Däremot kan klienter kontakta media för ett sista försök till att få uppmärksamhet samt upprättelse i ett beslut. Denna kontakt i kombination med journalistens sökande efter nyhetsvärde kan resultera i artiklar där socialtjänsten arbete framställs negativt. Således kan en missvisande bild målas upp i media, särskilt hos människor som aldrig själva haft kontakt med myndigheten.

The purpose of this study was to examine how the foster parent's need of support is provided. The study was built upon a qualitative method with interviews with ten foster parents. More specifically, its aim was too find out how the foster parents themselves looked upon how their need of support, and from whom the support was provided. According to the law, it is the social services obligation to provide the foster parents with all the support they could need. The picture the media sends out is different from what it should be because according to them, the social services fall short in the follow-up and also the support of the contact with the foster parents.

Title: Images of Sweden in ItalyNumber of pages: 5252 (589 including enclosures)Author: Oskar GustafssonTutor: Martin NilssonCourse: Political Science C level ? Bachelor?s ThesisPeriod: Spring term 2010University: School of Social SciencesLinnaeus UniversityPurpose/Aim: The purpose of my research study is to, through the use of political science theories on soft power and marketing theories about nation branding and in comparison to previous studies on the image of Sweden in Italy, gains a better understanding of the image of Sweden in Italy, with special focus on national political institutions and young Italians.Method: The method of analysis is a combination of qualitative methods: interviews where information about the image of Sweden amongst national political institutions were gathered and a survey where information was gathered about the image of Sweden amongst young Italians.Main results: On the basis of the results I have gained it can be concluded that a positive and well informed image of Sweden emerges when it comes to cultural and social factors but a more restricted and somewhat negative image come to light when asking national political institutions and young citizens in Italy about their views and knowledge on Swedish domestic and international politics and economics.Keywords: Soft power, Public Diplomacy, Nation Branding, Images of Sweden, Italy..

As the numbers of immigrants to Sweden and the EU are ever increasing even the right-wing populist parties grow faster in number. Sweden, Germany and France are three European countries that receive 90 percent of all asylum seekers and should therefore have a well-established and talked about immigration policy one can think. Yet the political parties in Sweden do not mention much about the immigration policy apart from the political party Sweden Democrats. This study aims to analyze eight different political parties in the Swedish parliament through a textual analysis to see what kind of immigration policy they share. Carl Dahlström has a theory to determine what type of policy a certain party has and whether they want to assimilate or integrate immigrants.

ABSTRACTEssay in political science, C-level by Cecilia HolmbergSpring semester 2006, Tutor: Arne Larsson- Ideological similarities between the Swedish Socialdemocratic and the Swedish conservative party- An idealanalysis of different political issuesThe purpose of this essay is to examine wheater the political ideologies have lost their importance in the Swedish political system. The study will focus on the ideological similarities or differences between the two largest parties in Sweden, the socialdemocratic and the conservative party. Therefore, the main research question is:? Are there any ideological similarities or differences between the socialdemocratic and the conservative party?To be able to answer this question, I have used Herbert Tingsten?s idealanalysis. This type of analysis examines how someone, in this case a political party, describes reality.

This Bachelor?s thesis is related to the area within library and information studies that focuses on information seeking and information practices. The study deals with how politically engaged young people seek information in relation to their political interests. The purpose of the study is to create an understanding of the roles that different forms of information-related activities play within the framework of political interest and of the feelings, experiences and challenges that such activities may give rise to for those involved. The study also discusses purposes and motivation for information seeking and use in political engagement.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitude of teachers regarding including democratic behaviour when grading students in social science. The purpose is also to investigate whether the teachers consider there to be a conflict between the right of freedom of speech and the democratic values that the school is supposed to make sure the students have when they graduate. The study also investigates the problems political decisions encounters when going from theory to reality.The theory of Ulf Petäjä on why the freedom of speechs is important, Robert Dahls theory about the democratic process and Anders Sannerstedts theory about converting political decisions to reality is what this study is based on.The study was carried out at three different schools; Teleborg Centrum, Växjö, Dackeskolan, Tingsryd and Centralskolan, Virserum ranging from the spring of 2006 and the spring of 2007. The method used except from litterature studies was interviews with active teachers.This study shows that teachers don?t think it?s acceptable to grade students based on their political ideology.

The aim of this study is to explore how sports journalism can include and/or exclude athletics from a national community. This study put emphasis on finding patterns from articles by Swedish sport media on non-ethnic Swedish athletics. The theories central to this study are ethnicity and nationalism, as these concepts contain reflections on why certain groups of people are excluded and/or included. Norman Faircloghs critical discourse analytical model has been selected for the study method that analyzes texts in three levels: the text level, discursive practice and social practice. Four non-ethnic Swedish athletes have been chosen to explore how they were portrayed in the media.

The aim of this essay is to investigate and evaluate the arguments made by municipal politicians in Ulricehamn, regarding the planned Knowledge and Culture Centre. A part from the search for these arguments, I also investigated the attitudes among politicians regarding municipal culture investments in general. I furthermore investigated whether any national, regional, or local culture-political strategies were important in the local debate. The time frame within which the local political culture debate was investigated was from 1997 until present time 2002. The investigation methods used were partly a study of official documents such as political protocols, two articles from the local newspaper, and a clean copy from a web chat, and partly a qualitative study I sent a question regarding the planned Culture Centre to every political party active in the Ulricehamn municipal assembly.