In May 2004 the European Union enlarged from 15 to 25 member states and it was the biggest enlargement since the foundation. Two years earlier Poland, as one of the new member states, finished four years of accession negotiations with the EU.This study focus on the case of Poland and how the accession negotiations with EU were conducted. According to the theoretical framework of asymmetric negotiations Poland was said to be a weak party and the EU was considered a strong party in the enlargement negotiations.The aim of the thesis is to examine Poland's negotiation performance and determine what Polish failure and success in the accession negotiations depends on. The research contains a illustration of the motives for enlargement, the negotiation process and structure, attitudes and behaviour and finally results of negotiations in specific areas.The study concludes that Poland's negotiation performance was influenced by the Polish negotiation team's unpleasant attitude, confused organizational structure, lack of coalition partners and the strong will to become a member state, in both positive and negative ways. Finally, Poland was most successful in negotiations that concerned specific issues which were of great importance for Poland but less prioritized by the EU..

The purpose of this study is to ? through a discourse analysis ? examine how the parliamentary committee ? Ansvarskommittén ? legitimizes the need for merging administrative regions. The committee?s investigation is what underlies the present debate on regionalisation and the merging of regions in Sweden. To carry out this discourse analysis, I have used ?What?s the problem represented to be??, by Carol Lee Bacchi as an analytical framework.

In January 2007 the Öresund committy changed its statutes to become a more politically oriented lobby organization. This change can be interpreted as one part of a continuously evolving process where the Öresund region is emancipating itself from the national states in a multi-level European environment. By focusing on this latest development the thesis puts forward the importance of political institutions, as well as politicians and civil servants as actors in them, as crucial factors in the process where the region is gaining political power. The thesis shows how the political cross-border cooperation in the Öresund region is being institutionalized which affects its power relations to other levels in the multi-level system, predominantly the national states. In other words, there is a connection between power and institutionalization.The Öresund committee has by gaining better access to policymaking agendas on the national levels proven that the organizational change has already started to bear fruit.

2005 was the year that all of the 25 member states in the European Union were to ratify the treaty of a constitution for Europe. The year did, however, offer a series of unexpected and slightly shocking events as both France and the Netherlands voted no to the constitution. Because of this the already planned referendums across many of the other member states were either postponed indefinately or the debates simply died down. The fact that two of the most pro-EU countries didn?t ratify the constitution was not only something that certainly raised the question of how future referendums in other, more EU-negative, states would turn out, but it could also be seen as harsh criticism against the EU as a whole.This is a theory consuming study, as it uses different theories of integration to explain the development of the EU, which in turn supports and strengthens the essay's conclusion.

On November 1989 the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. Today more than 20 years later the convention is ratified by all countries in the world except the USA. A question asked is however if the convention after 20 years of development work has in fact accomplished some positive effects for children around the world? The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in selected states and to reach this aim some questions need to be answered: What do the selected states do to realize the best interest of the child?What do the selected states do to guarantee all children?s right to survival and development?Do all children in the selected states have the same right to health and health services?Do all children in the selected states have the same right to education? The material studied in this thesis is those reports that are to be sent periodically to the Committee on the Rights of the Child by all states. The result of this study shows that the Convention on the Rights of the Child has made some positive progresses when it comes to the situation of the child in the world.

This paper concerns the freedom of speech in our democracy and the principles underlying the restrictions. The study is aimed at using a descriptive theory to provide a useful basis for analyzing a justification of the role behind freedom of speech and its limitations. The analysis is made on the basis of the Swedish parliament debate in the form of motions and the non-governmental organization Swedish Helsinki Committee's report. The study has a focus on the law of hate speech and will be done with an idea centred analysis. On the basis of democratic theory, the central role of freedom of speech was clarified on the basis of a clear need for a reliable communication.

During Sweden's economic crisis in the early 1990s a governmental committe of prominent economic and political experts were gathered to produce an analysis of and suggestions to the solution of that crisis. The committe produced a report that became widely commented in the media and in parliment. The report anc the reception of it gives us insights in how the boundaries between social science and politics are created an how new fields of expertise is added to a science. This thesis uses a constructivist approach to explore how the techniques of the economic science were made into credible means of knowöedge production outside of the field where it traditionally holds epistemological authority. Working from the assumption that language does things to the objects that it describes I claim that the episode investigated in this thesis was shaped by the committee's ability to define the economic crissi and thus making it into a knowable object.

The purpose of this essay is to examine if there is any difference in the style of conversation between a municipal politician and a politician in parliament? In order to answer this question I have created two sub-questions that are more precise. The first question is: Are the municipal politicians more open to cooperate with politicians from other parties than the politicians from parliament? And the second question is: Is the rhetoric between the politicians in parliament different than the rhetoric between the municipal politicians?My study is a comparative case study with two different groups of politicians. With the help of a survey I have tried to examine if there are differences in the use of language in the daily work for the politicians.

The characteristics of free movement is the elimination of obstacles to trade between Member States and thus by such, create free movement within the entire union. Therefore art 34 in the Treaty of Lisabon (FEUF) states that all quantative restrictions on imports and measures of equivalent effect are prohibited. The legal approach to measures having equivalent effect is still unclear and the purpose of this paper is therefore to propose a solution to that particular problem. What can be said when it comes to this rule is that the EU-Court has gone from applying a discrimination test to a market access doctrine.According to the Court´s case law, measures having equivalent effects to quantative restrictions are ?All trading rules enacted by Member States which are capable of hindering, directly or indirectly, actually or potentially, intra-community trade?.  The question of how to apply the test when it comes to a potential hinder to intra-community trade is still unclear.

This study examines whether the policy breadth and the alternatives in European politics affect variations in voter turnout between member states in elections to the European Union Parliament.The theoretical approach assumes that; a larger political polarization, an increase in EU-skeptical parties and a greater voting mobilization among groups with less means results in higher voter turnout figures. The study also consider four other variables; whether the election is held on weekends or weekdays, whether elections coincide with other national elections, whether a country has held the presidential of the EU during or the immediate term prior to the election and finally the turnout figures from national elections.The research design is based upon a quantitative analysis using data from EP elections, national elections and databases from the European Elections Studies (EES). Study unit is twelve member-state countries and their four latest EP elections (1994, 1999, 2004 and 2009). The selected member-states origin from the EU-15 excluding Belgium, Greece and Luxembourg due to their compulsory voting laws.The study found relationships between higher turnout figures in EP-elections and increase in EU-skeptical parties, greater mobilization among groups with less means, elections held on weekends, elections coinciding with other, national elections and an increase in voter figures in national elections..

After Sweden became a member of the European Union, EU, the debate regarding the Swedish participation in the EU?s currency co-operation, the European Monetary Union, EMU, has been intense. One of the biggest issues has been how our national economic politics will work within such a monetary union. What instrument will remain for the national economic politics within the EMU are highly uncertain. The question whether we will be able to affect our own economy or not has long been the essence in the Swedish debate.

We have examined how the dependence, identity and social bonds affect customer loyalty and attachment to a training centre. The method used is a survey on SATS Karlstad city where 128 respondents were asked, out of which 118 surveys were used in the final analysis. The data was analyzed using ANCOVA and multiple regressions.The result showed significant relationships on attachment between identity and dependence. Social bonds had no significant effect on the attachment a member have towards training centre. Customer loyalty was measured by how long the individual has been a member and his or her training frequency.

The aim of this study was to create a greater understanding of apostates, by analyzing narratives of five ex-members regarding their exit from Jehovah?s Witnesses. I conducted interviews to gather descriptions from specific individuals in relation to their experiences, mainly focusing on the role of an ex-member of a specific group. The informants in the study were 38-73 years old, three women and two men. The empirical data I collected was later coded through qualitative content analysis, where central topics and themes formed the basis for the analysis of the results.

Background: The board of directors is a key player in corporate governance. Their role is to ensure that the corporations are run with the interest of the shareholders as the main focus. In the beginning of the 21st century, a survey was made about the confidence of the Swedish business community and in which criticism was directed to the board of directors. The boards were deemed inadequate in their function and were often solely composed by members with similar experiences and competence, therefore lacking in diversity. In order to improve the competence and work of the board of directors, the Swedish code of corporate governance was introduced and its recommendations comprehend the boards? size and composition.

This study focuses on carpooling and how carpools can be better integrated into today's society. The purpose of the study is to investigate what affects the motorist?s decisions to become a member of a carpool. The study will highlight the barriers and drivers of membership in a carpool. It is important for the future to change the attitude of motorists and get more motorists to choose more sustainable modes, as is the concept of carpooling is a good solution.The study is based on a qualitative approach with six respondents from the Eskilstuna municipality.