In September of year 2006, a young boy was brutally killed by a girl, age sixteen, in Örebro, Sweden. Girlgangs became a frequent subject in media. Professionals? working with adolescents claims that girlgangs notis an existing phenomena in Sweden as it is in for example in the United States. The aim of this thesis was to investigate if teenage girls in Sweden have a tendency to join gangs as they do in the United States.

The aim ofthis study was to examine how economic growth affects the level of democracy inauthoritarian states. Some of these states have experienced high economicgrowth. However, one can discuss how it affects the country?s democratization-process.For that reason this study was needed to contribute to a clarification of howeconomic growth can affect authoritarian rule and democratization. This wasdone through an examination of the development in China.

This paper develops a theory for understanding negotiation situations involving states and indigenous peoples. Using relevant constructivist theory as a starting point, the paper develops a theory about understanding the relationship between power and culture implicit in the concept of the state. This relationship is examined in negotiations situations involving states and indigenous peoples. States are constituted by social structure and are representatives of the national culture. At the same time states are actors within the international system and a part of the culture of Westphalia.

The aim of the following paper has been to test the democratic peace theory through applying it on the conflict between Russia and Georgia in 2008.  This to either falsify the theory or come to the conclusion that the states? democracy was not satisfactory in regards to the definition of liberal democracy. The questions asked are: Was Russia and Georgia democratic states? Is democracy a protection from war? And which aspects of the liberal democratic theory, if any, were not satisfactory in either of the countries? The results show that the democratic peace theory is valid in this case and that neither one of the states were democratic.

The terror attack in New York year 2001 was a turning point in international politics. New policies were reformed in both USA and EU to secure their citizens from terrorism. The power of the institutions has developed and the question is; how does the new security policy affect people?s freedom? Is it the agencies new policies that are restricting the freedom or the actions of a terrorist? The purpose of this study is to examine if the security policies in USA and EU are protecting their citizen?s freedom. Many individuals are not aware of how much the security policies are affecting their lives.

AbstractSyftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur bilden av ?moderskapet? gestaltas i den amerikanska TV-serien ?United States of Tara?. De frågor som ligger till grund för undersökningen är: hur skapas och definieras identiteten av modern i serien ?United States of Tara?? Hur konstrueras relationen mellan modern och de andra familjemedlemmarna i serien? Hur förändras framställningen av den kvinnliga huvudpersonen Tara från det första till det sista avsnittet?Analysen utgår från en metod för analys av TV-program som presenteras i boken ?How to Study Television? (1995) av Keith Selby & Ron Cowdery, med fokus på begreppen narrativ och konstruktion.Materialet består av första säsongens första avsnitt och sista säsongens sista avsnitt av serien ?United States of Tara?.De teoretiska utgångspunkterna som ligger till grund för undersökningen är en teoriblandning av begrepp som: representation, performativitet, identitet, identitetsordningar samt Rosalind Gills teorier kring den postfeministiska kvinnan.Resultatet visar på att i serien ?United States of Tara? presenteras en ovanlig bild av modern, en outsider-moder som, i enlighet med den postfeministiska synen på kvinnan, genomgår en tydlig förändring under seriens gång från en svag och förvirrad kvinna till en självsäker person. .

The following thesis is examining compliance with EU-law from a member state perspective. The variation in the compliance level between the member states from 1995 to 2005 is analyzed to prove the fact that the Nordic member countries during the measured time period experienced a low number of infringements. The infringements that did occur were resolved faster and more efficient in the Nordic countries then in the other member states. The theory used to explain the Nordic compliance rate is divided between external and internal pressure in a pull and push model. The external pressure is illustrated with argumentative persuasion from the EU-commission to the individual member states; how the state responds to the persuasion in order to act compliant.

The purpose with this essay was to examine how the European Union is working totransfer norms to states they signed an agreement with and provide support for inframe of the Barcelona process and the Tacis programme. The theory which weused was Ian Manners (PhD in Political Science) theory of "the EU as a uniquenormative power". The aim was to examine whether the EU - which Manners mean- has had a normative power to influence states to change. We used a qualitativeapproach through the use of a multiple case study and qualitative text and contentanalysis. The States which formed the basis of our study were within the BarcelonaProcess; Morocco and Tunisia as well as Azerbaijan and Armenia funded by theTacis programme.

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.

33 referendum has taken place in european states regarding the European Union since the fall of the Berlin wall. This thesis aims to initialy identify potential patterns in this group of referenda to launch and test a theory/hypothesis anchored in this pattern.The european states are differing in nature and the standard of living is chosen as the factor that can potentially have affected the outcome of the referenda held. The carrying thought here being that the voters in states with considerably lower standard of living than the european average would have a more positive attitude towards a deepened cooperation among european states.To try this connection between standard of living and how european citizens have placed their votes a main and principal quantitative test is undertaken. It is followed by discussion and arguments about the result of the test.The argumentation goes from being hopefull of the strenght of the hypothesis, to a more ciritical view of its' strength. The thesis is wrapped up in some argumentation about how and why it fails to explain what it was initially intended to do.

ABSTRACT:The aim of this essay is to analyze whether the development of the Principles of War in small states´ doctrine has been influenced by the doctrinal development of alliances after the start of an international cooperation.The author suggests that the development of the Principles of War can be understood through theories of doctrinal development. The theory used for this analysis states that small states depend on alliances, such as NATO, and therefore adapt their doctrine to better match the doctrine of the alliance. Since the Principles of War are the foundation of doctrine, such an adaption should lead to an adaption of the Principles of War as well.The analysis will be made using Swedish Army field manuals as a basis. These will be compared to NATO´s, in order to see whether or not Sweden has adapted its Principles of War following its membership of the Partnership for Peace.The results show that today the Swedish Principles of War are more similar to NATO´s than they were in 1982, which suggests that they have been adapted to better match those used by NATO. Although this essay does not analyze the reasons why, the results imply that theories of doctrinal development also include the development of principles of war.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the 9/11 attacks, the landscape of the freedom of religion has changed. The issues now facing freedom of religion varies greatly from the issues that the drafters of the universal declaration of human rights faced after World War II.In the light of the new issues that States face in the intersection of religion and societal interest, scholars have criticized the European Court of Human Rights to give too much leeway to the States in determining how the human rights should be implemented, by using the doctrine of margin of appreciation. Critics of the margin of appreciation claim that it is based on culture relativism and that the doctrine undermines the universality of the human rights. In order to decide if the margin of appreciation has indeed led to a relativization of the human rights I compared it to the jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee and its use of the Syracusa principles. My conclusion is that the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights cannot be considered to be based on culture relativism.

The European union started as an area of economic cooperation, but has developed into an area of cooperation in many legal fields. There are these days even cooperation when it comes to dealing with criminals. There is a new procedure called the European arrest warrant which goal is to make the extradition of criminals between the different member states in the European union more efficient. Sometimes when a state receives a European arrest warrant they have to extradite the person in question without doing any investigation of their own. The procedure is based on the principle of mutual recognition.

United States is one of the two countries in the world that have not ratified the convention on the rights of the child, and one of the few countries that sentences children less than 18 years to life in prison without parole. Besides this, corporal punishment is legal in all the states of USA. This essay is aimed at researching how these three factors affect one another in the American context and what consequences may come out of it. By the use of reports from NGO's and UN treaties together with various theories about the subject in question, I have looked into the juridical climate for today's young Americans.The conclusion of the essay shows that there is a tendency in the United States to control violence with violence, from a local level and further to a state level. As long as this attitude proceeds, the situation for children at risk for being sentenced to life sentence will not improve..

Essay in political science, C-level by Lisa Kringsberg, spring semester 2007. Tutor: Susan Marton. ?Democracy by force ? A case study of Iraq?The purpose of this essay is to examine how the new Iraq strategy, formed by the United States, is going to effect Iraqs possibilities to become a democracy. To come to any conslusions about this I ask two questions: 1) Did the United States take in considiration what researchers think should improve the possibilities for a country to develop democracy? and 2) Did the United states take in consideration researchers presumptions in relation to Iraqs possibilities to become a democracy?My examination is a case study of the Iraq strategy from 2007.