The Sweden democrats are a political party that has had a time of success duringthe last year. However many people believe them to be a racist party, in contrastto how they view themselves and their political message. How is it possible thatthe views of the same party differ to this extent, it seems to be a large ambiguityin their message. Rhetoric is a tool that everybody uses in some way or anotherand can be crucial to how a political party is perceived by people. Can thereforethe use of rhetoric be a factor that has contributed to the different perception of theparty and if so, in which way?With the help of theories such as semiotics, classical rhetoric and antiestablishmentstrategy, different texts, such as motions, and pictures published bythe Sweden democrats can be analyzed to find ways they use rhetoric.In the analysis it was obvious that they used rhetoric, even though therhetorical quality differed between the leading persons in the party and the peoplewho represented the Sweden democrats in the local government.

This thesis is a study of social movements and their possibilities to effect politics by infuencing values in society through framing. I've looked upon social movements from a functionalistic-structuralistic perspective, as if they were carriers of values from people that otherwise won't be represented in the political life. The values that the social movements are struggling for can affect both the opinion and the decision-makers since the social movements in an active way are trying ti influence the society. The thesis examines the political opportunities that social movements hav to mobilise and grow. I have looked at different factors that either improve or make the political opportunities worse.

Studiens huvudsakliga syfte var att undersöka och förklara begreppen ?jihad? och "heligt krig" och svara på ifall dessa begrepp kunde användas för att rättfärdiga terrorism, samt förklara den politiska islam, al-Qaida och det Muslimska Brödraskapets kopplingar till terrorism idag. Undersökningen gjordes med hjälp av kvantitativa metoder och framförallt genom litteraturstudier. Resultatet visade att det inte finns någon definitiv förklaring till begreppet jihad, utan det finns åtminstone två sätt att tolka det på, samt att våld genom jihad kan rättfärdigas genom att tolka och ta koranverser ur sin kontext. .

During a political election the public?s interest in politics and political journalism increases significantly. During the American presidential election in 2012 a big amount of articles on that topic were published in two of Sweden?s largest newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet and Aftonbladet. Political journalism tends to frame politics as sports, game and scandals rather than focusing on the political issues.

The question of direct citizen participation in politics and administration is a contestable one. Its proponents claim that it has positive consequences even for the more "traditional", representative democracy, since participation leads to an increased political knowledge and increased political interest, and thus creates a revitalised democracy. Critical voices have however been raised to the validity of this claim. Critics have also pointed out direct participation as problematic, because it leads to problems of political inequality: a difference of political influence between ? on the one hand, the citizens participating directly and those that restrict their political participation to voting, and ? on the one the other hand ? between the institutions, for example schools, that employ, and don?t employ this method of direct citizen influence.In this essay, these two points of criticisms are tested in the context of user-boards in elementary and secondary schools.

During the last years a discussion has emerged around problems with Swedish state boards trying to influence the public opinion and even political bodies through different kind of information efforts. Several observers inside and outside the academy have studied how state boards increasingly use information as an instrument and also how political bodies increasingly have given such instructions to state boards. This essay put those studies into the context of both information political history and previous theoretical interpretations in that field of research.The analytical tool consists of four ideal typical ways ('state opinions') to arrange relations between the state and the citizen. Some critics focus on problems with too much political steering and how political majorities uses state boards to spread ideological propaganda. Others highlight problems with autonomy and bureaucratic organizations taking initiatives by themselves to spread normative information.

Hör slöjan hemma i en demokratisk stat? Det är inte helt lätt att avgöra eftersom slöjbruket beror på så många olika faktorer. I denna uppsats presenteras bakgrundsfakta om kvinnan i det muslimska samhället, jämställdheten, Islam och demokrati och slöjan i världen. Vad gäller slöjan så är det i grund och botten en sedvänja som inte direkt har med islam att göra.  Trots det så väljer många kvinnor att bära den som en symbol för sin religion.

Det övergripande syftet med detta examensarbete har varit att inhämta forskningsbaserad fakta för att få fram varför den muslimska kvinnan använder slöjan. Avsikten har också varit att undersöka om lärare i årskurserna 4-6 pratar om slöjan i sin undervisning om islam och vad de anser om det. Respondenterna undervisar i tre olika skolor, i två olika kommuner, och två av dem arbetar även på samma skola. Genom en litteraturstudie och kvalitativa forskningsintervjuer med lärare i årskurserna 4-6 samlades kunskaper som gav ett lämpligt underlag för att kunna uppnå syftet med arbetet och kunna besvara mina angivna frågeställningar.I arbetet har jag utgått från dessa frågeställningar som behandlas genom arbetet:Varför bär kvinnor inom islam slöja?Går lärare i årskurs 4-6  igenom den muslimska kvinnans slöja när de undervisar om islam i skolan, och i så fall hur? Frågorna ligger som grund till arbetet och besvaras fortlöpande i arbetets intervjustudie samt forskningsstudie för att sedan knytas samman i diskussionen där jag också utverderar hur jag lyckats uppfylla dem.

Abstract:The aim of this study has been to investigate (theoretically as well as empirically) the problematic notions of state neutrality and political perfectionism and, in particular, the potentially vast continuum existing between these concepts both in theory and in actual political practice. In order to accomplish this, a conceptual analysis has examined (some of) the arguments for and against state neutrality and political perfectionism, different aspects of neutralism and perfectionism as well as the exact definition of the concepts of ?neutrality of justification? and ?conceptions of the good?. Using a specific (though not entirely uncontested) definition of these concepts, an empirical analysis was made of Swedish parliamentary parties and their cultural policies. The empirical part of the study seemed to confirm one of the basic premises of this study; that state neutrality and perfectionism are often (as has indeed been recognized by critics of state neutrality) intertwined in the business of everyday politics..

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 examine witch factors lays behind political decisions when reforming upper secondary school. Three major factors are used: political, economical and structural. These factors become visible by comparing the school reforms 1965 and the coming one in 2009. An analytical scheme is used to find the factors in the primary information. The study is based both political inquiries and on debate articles from newspapers and political papers.The results show that two factors are more visible than the third, and that is the ideological and structural.

During the last few years the countries in the African continent have experienced an enormous increase in female politicians on a national level. Rwanda is even the country with the highest number of female politicians in its parliament in the world. Despite this development in Africa, the quantitative research on women's political representation in the world has not yet paid attention to the situation there. Some of the surveys that have been done have even excluded countries that do not fit the homogeneous pattern ? which is precisely the problem with African countries ? for it to be possible to explain the situation with existing theories.The intention of this paper is therefore to, with all of the 53 African countries included in the study, examine whether the already existing explanatory factors regarding women's political representation also can be applied to an African context to explain the situation there.

Unga muslimer i Sverige kan via Internet möta muslimsk kultur och genom mediet känna gemenskap med andra muslimer. Att förena två kulturer är inte alltid enkelt och här kan svenska islamiska webbsidor vara till hjälp. I studien undersöks fem sådana webbplatser utifrån innehåll och utseende genom observationer och textanalyser. Innehållet på sidorna skildrar hur det kan vara för en muslim att växa upp i Sverige, men interaktiviteten och möjligheten till att träffa likasinnade som är karaktäristiskt för Internet som medium saknas. Studien visar att webbplatserna främst tillhandahåller information om islam på olika sätt men att interaktivitet inte främjas..

People are given better opportunities to participate in polity today. Democratic equality entails that all individuals are equal and therefore they should be included in the process of making the decisions. How can participation be defined and does it mean that having the possibility to participate means that people can influence the process of making the decisions in polity process?This paper focuses on participation and influence in polity and examine the relationship between having the possibility to participate and having the possibility to actually influence polity process on more local level. Therefore I have been examining the citizens? participation and influence in Helsingborg which is my case study.

The first of the dual purposes of this work has been to describe the research that has been done regarding the root causes of terrorism and second, using a general causal theory and examining the political dimensions of it, to discuss whether or not general causal theories (grand-theories) are helpful for researchers and policy-makers when reacting to social developments in the form of terrorism. The essay is a qualitative literature analysis and I have based my studies on mostly new books treating root causes of terrorism. I have concentrated on discussing international terrorism and how political dimensions may impact the occurence of this form of political violence. The conclusions I have made is that there is no widespread consensus among researchers and scholars as to what really causes terrorism. Neither can the general model examined in chapter 5 be used to predict when and where terrorism will occur next.