I have studied how network in a broad sense can affect decision-making. The primary purpose is to see if the political initiative somewhere disappears when it comes to understand the relations between power, actors and politics. The study discuss in a theoretical area that concerns the reliability in neoinstitutionalism to use as an analytical instrument. Some criticism is given to the theoretical standpoint in the sense that there is no power perspective included in the theory. I include a discussion about a concept of power, which I include to the theory.

Terrorism. A word that makes you think about different situations throughout the last decade that has passed. However, in this particular thesis the purpose is to examine both national and international terrorism from a Clausewitzian theory. The main point is to examine whether any of these types of terrorisms can fit in to this theory and as examples in this study are the terrorist organizations ETA and al-Qaida. The questions to be answered in this paper are if their aims can be explained as political and how far are they ready to go to have their way? Furthermore, the reason for this paper is to find an understanding for why the terrorist organizations act as they do.The result of this comparative study is that both terrorist organizations fit in to the theory because their goals can be seen as political and therefore can their aims justify their actions.

Title: Facebook ? a false utopia?Authors: Anton Furuland & Dominic ChennayaPrincipal research question: Is the political polarization increasing on and through Facebook?Theoretical frame: Identification theory, selective exposure theory, spiral of silenceMethod/Material: Semi-structured interviews which provided our materialMain Results: Our research has shown a tendency for increased political polarization on Facebook.Number of pages: 58Course: Media and communication studies CDepartment: Department of informaticsUniversity: Uppsala UniversityPeriod: HT 2014Tutor: Amelie HössjerKeywords: Political polarization, Facebook, political debate, selective exposure, identification.

Abstract Essay in political science, C-level, by Patrik Larsson, autumn semester 2007.Tutor: Susan Marton The battle over the agenda-Can media be regarded as an individual political actor? The purpose of this essay is to study to what extent media can be regarded to function as an individual political actor. In other words, do the media have more power over the political agenda than the politicians and do the media influence how the politicians make their decisions. This research is a case study and to be able to complete the intention of this study I have used Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaws theory, the agenda-setting theory. From this theory I have used four aspects to analyse my material which has consisted of editorials from a Swedish newspaper, interpellations and debates that belong to the interpellations. The aspect I have worked with are, how the problem is defined, who is responsible for the problem, what values and which solutions are expressed.  I have used a qualitative text analysis as my methodological approach which means that the results of my study are my interpretation of the material. My conclusions are that the media in this case shouldn?t be regarded as an individual political actor because there is no tendency that shows that the media has influenced the government in their decisions concerning the real-estate tax.

In this essay, we attempt to study and analyze the work towards equality between men and women at the university of Örebro, Sweden. By using discourse analysis we have the ambition to test organizational theory with a gender perspective as the explanatory model for the schools successful work. We also have the ambition to develop our theory and ad an organizational theme focusing on actors..

The aim of this essay is to examine whether democracy in St Petersburg isconsolidated or not. Since studies of democratic transition have been rarelyconducted on post-communist cities, this study seems fruitful. Using the Linz andStepan theory, where democracy is considered consolidated when it has become?the only game in town? and Orttung's three criteria legitimacy, politicalpolarisation and policy effectiveness; this essay analyzes people's attitudes,political behaviour, the rule of law and civil society in St Petersburg. Theory isused to interpret the material mainly consisting of two interviews and newspaperarticles.

This thesis examines political consumerism as a political tool for change. Consumers' attitudes and behaviour towards political consumerism is of special interest. The method used is a questionnaire with 59 participating students. Their answers are analysed both quantitatively and, to a lesser degree, qualitatively. The theoretical framework consists of Fishbein and Ajzen's theory of reasoned action and previously published research of essence.The consumers in this study generally rank corporate social responsibility (CSR) as important.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze two factors contributing to child labor in Ghana, one of the world's largest producers of cocoa. These two factors are: poor countries economic and political dependency on the rich countries, political leader?s ambitions and decisions. We will also describe and analyze the UN's efforts and measures to combat child labor. The method we used was a case study of child labor in Ghana?s cocoa industry together with interviews.

Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union a lot of hope has been put on civil society to help develop Russia into a more democratic society. This study explores the constructive elements in the relationship between civil society and the state in Russia, and how this enables the work toward political development. By using Julie Fishers theory about political development and organisational autonomy I discuss the varying and often complex ways in which civil society and the state interacts. These are often not mentioned in the liberal tradition, which believes that civil society's most important democratic function is to act as a watchdog for the state.There is very limited political space for NGO's in authoritative Russia. The existing oppositional NGO's are important for the political development, but they are few and their impacts on society are limited.

After the 9/11 attack the United States declared war against terrorism, which launched a conflict between indefinable transnational networks and states. In this war it became clear that the strategies used in traditional wars between states were not sufficient. New strategies have been discussed, but without any concrete results.In this thesis assassinations of terrorist leaders ordered by states is being presented as a possible strategy in the war against terrorism. Assassinations have been used in all times to shift political power but is today not morally accepted. This thesis aims to show that when used under the premisses of the just war theory, the strategy can be equally morally justified as any traditional war.

Bolivia is a multiethnic country where the indigenous people constitute the majority of the population. Despite two decades of attempts to take the democracy further is its foundation more volatile than ever. The aim of this bachelor thesis is to examine if exclusion is taken place in Bolivia from year 1982 until today and if so in which way political exclusion constitute problems of democracy in Bolivia. The answer depends on the understanding of democracy used in the analysis. In this thesis I use theories of process-, participation- and deliberative democracy.

The theory of deliberative democracy believes in collective decision-making to achieve an expanded legitimacy and rationality in the political process. It is argued that those good public dialogues best take places in public spheres between citizens, where the common interest is carefully thought about. This thesis was done with the assumption that theatre can strengthen the idea of the public sphere and create a meeting place in the civil society, where a good public dialogue can appear. To create a good public dialogue you need citizens that are corresponding and participatory. Citizens who participate in the political process develop an increased knowledge about the society and the more knowledge about the society the larger reason to participate.

In the political world of today the discussion of Just wars are very present, since the international law and the UN Charter provides certain rules about when it is justified to go to war (jus ad bellum) and how a justified war should be conducted (jus im bello). The discussion about jus ad bellum and jus im bello derives from the theory of Just war. Both in international law and the Just war theory, focus is on interstate wars were the actors are two sovereign states. Since the end of the Cold War there has however been a change in the way wars are conducted. From interstate to intrastate warfare, where the government in most cases no longer has the monopoly over the warfare.According to these facts, my conclusion is that the Just war theory has to expand and incorporate a focus on the human rights in order to be able to meet the new standards of the new wars.

What kind of international actor is the European Union and how shall we define it? These are questions that many have tried to answer often by addressing the apparent uniqueness of the EU itself. One of these theories is Normative power Europe. A theory whose main argument is that the EU is best perceived as a changer of norms. My aim with this thesis is to test this claim and to see if the Union should be regarded as a normative power.

The purpose of this essay is to study causes for the lack of political trust in Europe and especially in Sweden. The essay starts with a presentation of two theories about the reasons for low political trust. Robert D. Putnam among others presents a theory that gives social capital an important role when viewing the low political trust. As Putnam sees it a person that participates in any kind of organization, political or not, develop trust for other human beings that in the long run affects political trust.