With the increased significance of information technology (IT) in today?s society the term ?electronic democracy? (e-democracy) has gained much importance within the democracy theory. Naturally, there are several competing views on how the technology should be used for democratic purpose. One aspect of this is the somewhat revitalized claim for direct democracy in accordance with the hypothetical opportunity to finally realize it as a democratic system. The ideal of direct democracy combined with the almost total credence in the potential of technology constitute the idea of a ?push-button democracy?.

The aim of this study is to examine some teachers and assistants? perception of conditions for students? democratic participation in the compulsory school for learning disabilities specialization training school. In order to deepen and more clearly describe the purpose of the study, three issues have been selected. Firstly, how do teachers and assistants perceive the concept of participation? Secondly, how do teachers and assistants perceive students opportunities for participation in teaching? And finally, do teachers and assistants perceive students? opportunities for participation in democratic activities of school? It is a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews.

The purpose of this study is to examine how adolescents can participate and have influence in the society, by making obstacles and opportunities that are considered central for their possibilities to power visible. National and international research indicates that adolescents opportunities to participation and influence are limited by the structures of society. A qualitative method was chosen, in which group interviews were made with 14 youths in development areas in Örebro. Theories are presented which constitute tools for analysis of the obtained results and has been chosen based on power- and participation perspective. An analytical model has been used to illuminate what kind of participation adolescents have in different parts of the society, where the concepts from the theoretical perspectives, power and participation are inserted.

In recent years the liberal representative democracy has been subject of a substantial critique because of its inability to accommodate difference and createa genuinely democratic political process. One such critique comes from the theory of deliberative democracy. Supporters of deliberative democracy try to promote a model of democracy that take its vantage point in free and equal deliberationbetween all relevant actors in a political community. This model has with some success opposed the aggregative model of democracy, and in important ways turned the attention to the potential of deliberative processes.However, the deliberative model is still somewhat underdeveloped when it comes to issues of diversity and difference. This essay deals with such deficiencies by analysing deliberative democracy in the light of the critiquelaunched by difference- and radical democrats.

The aim of this essay was to study the European Union?s (EU) role as a democracy promoter and its impact on Croatia?s democratization process. Croatia is a candidate country for membership in the EU which creates a possibility for impact and democracy promotion. The aim is met by studying the following questions:  In what way has the EU promoted democracy in Croatia? How did Croatia respond? To what extent has the EU contributed to Croatia?s democratization process?  Croatia is treated as a case study of the EU?s democracy promotion and the method used was qualitative text-analysis.

AbstractTitle: A democratic organisation - one click away? A quantitative content analysis which studies the potential of democratic communication through intranet use.Authors: Stina Gabrielsson and Jill Johansson VennelinPurpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is potential for democratic communication within the NGOs through intranet use.Key questions to be answered were: To what extent is authority versus members represented on the intranet Klick?s discussion forum? What/which communication-related functions out of social function, knowledge transferring and debate are featured in the posts published on the intranet Klick?s discussion forum? Are deliberative discussions being practiced in the discussion forumthreads on the intranet Klick? The thesis is based on the theory of deliberative democracy. In order to substantiate the theory has theoretical perspectives concerning participation and involvement also been applied. These perspectives are derived from organizational theory and internal communication.Method/Material: This study consists of a quantitative content analysis of the 477 posts and the 129 discussion threads available on the NGO RFSU?s intranet Klick the 29th of november 2012.Main results: The results show that 63, 4 percent of those who were active in the discussionforum represented the category authority, while the category members were formed by 36, 6 percent.

In contemporary Sweden political participation among foreign-born Swedes is viewed as low and it is well known that foreign-born individuals do not use their voting rights to the same extent as the general population. At the same time there are numerous ethnic associations around the country who work with various activities involving political, democratic and integration issues. This study aims to study how four members of a Somali association regard, relate to and work with politics, democracy and integration. The study is based on these four people, but also on their relationship with authorities and other agencies in the community. The conclusion of this study shows in brief that the desire to participate politically is great, but that democracy and politics is accessible to all, depending on the level of language skills and what political knowledge the individual has.

The aim of our research in this study, which has a qualitative attempt, is to investigate participation concerning to a few co-workers in the old-age care. The co-workers experience of participation and their definition of participation, and how participation is related to our different themes. Our themes are the present and wanted assumptions, to make participation possible. Further more does this study discuss participation in relation to the themes communication, competence education and to physical and psychic health. The method we used was primary semi-structured interviews and some observations.

The potential of information technology as a means to invigorate democratic practise is constantly under discussion. Regardless of the differing opinions as to the most suitable way to utilise IT, there are certain democratic core values that have to be considered. One of these is freedom of information, defined by us as the right of every citizen to seek, obtain and express information. The aim of this study is to explore whether the use of IT as a means to enhance democracy can strengthen the citizens right to freedom of information. As an instrument for analysis we use an article by Jan van Dijk, professor of communication science.

In modern, Swedish political science there are different ways of looking at ?democracy?. A very common distinction is that between three groups of democratic theories: electoral democracy, Participation democracy and deliberative democracy.The nowadays frequently used concept of electoral democracy is often used as synonymous with the older concept of repre­­­­sen­tative or indirect democracy ? frequently regarded as a contrast to the direct democracy of ancient Athens. However, there are also important differences.

The purpose of this study is to describe and understand how children?s participation and influence is described in the curriculum of preschool. The purpose includes how educators perceive, working with and what opportunities and challenges they believe that there is in the process of participation and influence. The methods I used were qualitative text analysis and e-mail interviews. I studied text in the curriculum and interviewed four educators to find out their views on children's participation and influence.

The European Union is struggling to maintain democracy and tries to increase the participation among the citizens in Europe. The European Citizens? Initiative, ECI, is a platform established by the European Commission to allow citizens to propose new legislation. ?Water and sanitation are a human right! Water is a public good, not a commodity!? is the first ECI that has met the requirements.

The purpose of this study is to examinehowdemocracy andstudent participation hasbeen developed inthethree curricula for upper secondary school. To find this out, I have used the following questions:?Howare the conceptsof democracy and student participationformulated in the various curricula Lgy70, Lpf94 and Gy11? ?What changes with regard to these formulations have been made between the curricula Lgy70, Lpf94 and Gy11?The essay is written so that I have interpreted my empirical material to make a discourse analysis in which I analysethe three curricula of upper secondaryschool with the intention to highlight how the ideal of student participation was supposed to look like. The source material that I use in the essay arethe three curricula;Lgy70 , Lpf94 and Gy11 .Student participationhas had a major role in allthecurricula,but ithas changed in how it was madeand how it would be implemented. Lgy70stresses thatformal and collective participation is important, but there are indications of ashift to a more personal and informal participation forthe students.

The organisation of the municipalities is based on the principle of representation. It has previously been impossible to give the citizens more influence through direct democracy, but the information technology gives new possibilities and the choice of democracy model might no longer be obvious. Representation can be interpreted in many ways and there is a need for a more distinct definition of the rule that the municipalities shall be governed according to the principle of representation. It should also be further investigated how the new technology can be used to increase the use of direct democracy. The municipalities ought to work to supplement the representation with direct democracy in the form of active discourse with the citizens.

The purpose of this study is to highlight how Swedish primary school teachers teach of and about democracy and based on this then compare with how the primary school teachers in South Africa teaches of and about democracy. This comparison will then highlight what can be developed in the teaching of and about democracy in Swedish schools. The method used in this study is mind maps because it gives a greater depth in the way teachers look at teaching democracy. The result of this comparison is that South Africa's history pervades the entire democracy education in school but both Sweden and South Africa use methods as dialogue and discussion in teaching of and about democracy. Furthermore, the community, curriculum, teacher and cooperation with other teachers also have an influence on how democracy's teaching looks like in schools.