Since July 2005 the major companies listed on the Swedish stock exchanges are required to apply the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance. The code states that companies shall have a Nomination Committee responsible for nominating new board candidates and seek to obtain gender equality in the Board of Directors. This paper examines the trend of board as well as Nomination Committee composition among Sweden's 60 largest publicly traded companies between 2005 and 2008. Our overall finding is that neither the board nor the Nomination Committee composition has changed to a notable extent during the period and that the share of newly appointed female board members has actually decreased. However, the trends vary between different sectors.

With the introduction of the Swedish Code for Corporate Governance in December 2004, most companies listed on the major Swedish stock exchanges were required to have a Nomination Committee responsible for, among other things, evaluating the incumbent board and nominating new candidates. This master thesis aims at analyzing the effects of these Nomination Committees on institutional investors in their corporate governance, through a qualitative study of 13 interviews. We have found that institutional investors have become more active through their participation in Nomination Committees and that they have gained more influence over the companies in which they own shares. We believe that in reality Nomination Committees have more influence over the selection of the board than was intended when the Swedish Code was written..

This paper discuss the possibilities to improve the Swedish political nomination system. It brings up some of the values and norms that can be used to change the existing system. Values as openness, the demand of responsibility and also if there is values from the American spoils system that can be used in the Swedish system. A minor purpose is to discuss the part of the parliament within the nomination process. To investigate this I have some theoretical starting points and a self constructed analysis tool.

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.

The aim of the study is to examine different statements for and against regional identity in the research of the new organisation of the Swedish society. The aim is also to observe in what extend the Swedish committee of responsibility has had an awareness of the identity politics in its effort to improve the presumptions for the new, successful regional division.The questions are:1. In which ways do the opinions of the participant of the work of the committee of responsibility, coincide and differ when it comes to the importance of the regional identity in the case of a new regional division?2. How has the committee of responsibility worked on development of consciousness and mobilisation for the creation of the regional identity in its final report?A method called the argumentation analysis was used in this study.

In the beginning of the twentieth century in Sweden the laboring class grew and became more established. This entailed both a change in housing conditions and the design of the social policies. The purpose of this study is to show how the Child Welfare Committee in Kalmar conducted its work during 1911-1918. The aim is to show on what grounds they made their decisions and how the interaction between the committee and the families functioned in practice. This will be accomplished by giving examples from the protocols written by Kalmar?s Child Welfare Committee.

The purpose of this masters thesis is to examine the arguments that are being used when closing and establishing peoples libraries. During the 90:ies, in the community of Gothenburg, 4 public libraries were closed and another 3 public libraries were opened. A possible reason for this change lies in the reform from the city Committee that split the community of Gothenburg into 21 pieces; all with one centrally appointed political Committee. The library activity has since the reform was implemented got worse in some areas, foremost in the already neglected city sections, and better in some areas, which where able to establish new libraries. Argumentation analysis indicates that the arguments used at closure where mainly economical and neither the number nor relevance and validity of the arguments where good.

In May 2007 a committee called ??Ansvarskommittén??, assembled by the Swedish government, came with a proposal of changing the Swedish regional structure. The committee which consisted of representatives from all the sitting parties in the parliament proposed that the present regional structure consisting of 20 county council districts and 21 counties would be reduced to between 6-9  regions called ??regionkommuner??.The purpose of this study is to analyze how the committee?s proposal balances democratic and economic values by using a qualitative method. The committee?s proposal is analyzed by a comparison in five political areas with two differentiated regional theories called old and new regionalism.

AbstractThe OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm requires all large companies to apply the Swedish Code ofCorporate Governance. A revised code will be applied from July 2008. The purpose of this paper is toidentify the accessibility of information on corporate governance and in particular how the compliance,concerning the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance in the perspective of an internet active generalpublic.This paper is a complete census of the companies at the OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm whocomplies with the code. Each company website has been visited and a comparison between the sectorsat the OMX Exchange Stockholm has been performed.Results: 96% of the companies present the members of the Nomination Committee. 94% presents theNomination Committees proposal of the company board members, though only 33% of the companies inthe Energy sector.

The purpose of this study is to examine how parliament executes its responsibility of oversight against the government. In Sweden, parliamentary oversight of the government rests with a standing committee of parliament known as the constitutional committee.Drawing on general principal-agent theory I construct a model in which members of the constitutional committee are seen as agents in double and conflicting agency assignments. This constitutes a problem for the agent. Since it is the party group in parliament that controls the fulfilment of the agents? objectives, the agent is presumed to follow the party assignment to the detriment of the parliament assignment.The model generates two hypotheses concerning they type of oversight we should expect the members of the constitutional committee to perform against the government.

AbstractThe recruiting of lay judges to the district courts is managed by the political parties. Despite repeated efforts the parties do not succeed in recruiting lay judges that reflect the structure of the inhabitants. Why not? This is the fundamental issue of this essay.This study is a multiple case study of two parties with different success in their recruiting work. The purpose is to study the process of nomination regarding lay judges at the district courts, at the latest election (2006).

Title: Lobbying in the Swedish parliament - a qualitative study about experiences and attitudes of lobbying among the members of the Swedish parliament, from a communication perspective.Author: Bodil Hassel and Kristofer PerssonTutor: Emma SvenssonPurpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study lobbying towards members of the Swedish parliament. We aim to study their point of view: what experiences and attitudes they have towards the phenomenon. Key questions to be answered are: What experiences and attitudes do the members of the Swedish parliamentary Committee on Environment and Agriculture have towards lobbying? What skills does a successful lobbyist possess, according to the members of the committee? How do the organizations Skogsindustrierna and Naturskyddsfo?reningen lobby?Method/Material: The material used in this study consists of interviews with nine respondents of the Committee on Environment and Agriculture in the Swedish parliament. Additionally, two informant interviews with the organizations Skogsindustrierna and Naturskyddsfo?reningen were made.

This essay deals with Swedish unemployment politics during the period 1918-1932, and can be seen as a contribution to earlier research of how the policies, established by the State Unemployment Commission, was carried out at a local level. This study bears upon  Uddevalla municipality, a town in the southwestern part of Sweden, which had about 13,700 inhabitants in 1920.The research was conducted in Uddevalla municipality archives, and the sources used are above all municipal records and documents from the local unemployment committee. The measures taken by the local committee to reduce the effects of unemployment have then been compared with the directives of the State Unemployment Commission.The survey shows that the local unemployment committee, at least during the first half of the 1920s, was very keen to follow the directives of the State Unemployment Commission, and they also tried to charge the municipality's economy as little as possible. The local policy was often even more restrictive than the demands from the State Unemployment Commission. During a few years in the middle of the 1920s, when the unemployment was relatively low, most of the unemployed did not recieve any help at all.The restrictive policy, however, led to an increasing distress among the unemployed, and the poor relief had to give financial help to a lot of unemployed and their families.

The purpose of this Master's thesis is to examine the decision-process concerning public art in Borås municipality. My questions have been from where the initiatives come, who the decision-makers are, how the decisions are taken and which questions are discussed. I have examined this through partly interviews with the members of the deciding organ in Borås municipality, partly through literary studies. I have also analysed texts such as debates and protocols from the Swedish parliament. I have also been present at two of the committees meetings.

After World War II a rapid expansion of the Swedish health care took place. Theexpansion was realised chiefly as a development of the hospitals and was bothproduced and financed mainly within the public sector. The financing consisted to ahigh degree of government grants from the state to the county councils.During the period for this examination (1945-1955) the public responsibility for thehealth care was expanded. This was expressed in the publicly financed system forhealth insurance and the cut down in the charges that the patients had to pay for thehospital care. These changes led to some discussions on the national level but reformscould on the whole, with exception for the suggested reform of the open health care,be implemented.This case-study performed on the county council in Värmland shows that the degreeof consensus was enhanced on the regional level.