During the last decade a number of studies have been published that investigate how the most fundamental aspect of political organization, the regime type, affects population health. The results unanimously show that citizens of democracies live longer and healthier lives than citizens of non-democracies. Many explanations for this have been suggested, among these are that democracies redistribute more and invest more in salutogenic resources, and that the tendency of dictatorships to control the media negatively affects the ability to spread information crucial to public health. When these mechanisms are controlled for, however, it turns out that democracy has a large residual correlation with for example life expectancy, which suggests that other mechanisms are also involved.In this paper two new mechanisms regarding the possible psychosocially mediated health effects of the regime type are investigated, namely political repression, and the possible negative effects this might have on the levels of chronic stress, and autonomy, which connects to a large previous literature in social epidemiology. In the paper an ecological cross-country design is used and country-level data, provided mainly by the World Bank and Freedom House, is analyzed with a simple multiple OLS-regression model.

The aim of this thesis has been to analyze and interpret several different discourses in Japan and from the findings see how the Ainu people and their existence in Japan have been defined in today's Japan and in who's interest it is to keep it this way. My findings was that the Japanese nation in all channels of society are reinforcing and perpetuating the belief that it constitutes an ethnically homogenous nation and that there exists no ethnic problems in the country. I found that schoolbooks don?t give adequate information about the Ainu people and its history, and the Japanese press is reinforcing the status quo by their selective silence and limited coverage on issues concerning the Ainu. The government has defined and legitimized the problem of Ainu within the framework of culture and tradition.

Sustainable development is often pictured as containing of three interlinked dimensions- namely environmental, economic and social. ?Social sustainability? is a vague concept that is often thought of as highly context-dependent. This thesis sets out to investigate the meaning of ?social sustainability? in a given context.

Turkey has taken part in regular negotiations to gain membership in the EU since 2005. At the same time is Turkey a candidate that stands out from those of earlier rounds of enlargement, and its possible membership got both supporters and critics amongst the Unions member countries. The aim of this thesis is to, trough a textual analysis, investigate the prospects and obstacles Turkeys candidature faces. The material consists of documents from a number of think tanks connected to the European Commission, as well as the Commissions own documents regarding Turkeys negotiations.A recurring picture is that Turkey is treated differently then earlier candidates, and that the Commission has a hard time keeping an unambiguous line in its negotiation frame. The material of the think tanks attributes the public opinions distrust of the member countries of EU as a hindrance, and Turkeys meddling in the conflict on Cyprus is problemized.

In this thesis we have examined Västra Götalandsregionens ways to lobby and network in the European Union. Our aim was to examine which kind of methods the region uses to lobby in a successful way in Brussels. We found that the region uses both formal and informal methods of lobbying to gain advantages in Brussels. We also wanted to locate various networks which the region is involved in to more easily have their interests satisfied. We found that they had a lot of different alliances and that it is necessary to be involved in different networks to have a chance to lobby the EU institutions.

Libraries all over the world struggle against the threat of decreased funding and a lack of governmental interest. In countries with an under-developed library sector the interest from the government is often minimal or non-existent. Since the 80´s Sida, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency has contributed to the library development in Central America through the Royal Library of Sweden. Nicaragua was the first country to be counterpart in the project. For a period of eight weeks I have completed a field study in Nicaragua and visited the National Library Rubén Darío and public libraries in the country.

How should a fair income tax system be designed? Since Estonia became the first country to introduce a flat tax on incomes in 1994, this question has been in focus of public debate. The aim of is this thesis is to show that a flat income tax system, combining a proportional tax rate on all incomes with an allowance exempt from tax, is consistent with the demands of justice. In order to achieve this I construct a two level argument using normative method. The first part consists in the justification of a specific ethical theory which is derived from to notion of human dignity.

There is a growing awareness that multinational companies have opportunities to influence political conditions. Ethical activities made by multinational companies and ?Corporate Social Responsibility? (CSR) can therefore function as a positive input in society. The primary purpose of this master thesis is to investigate CSR´s contribution to strengthen human rights, and thereby to democratization. The research questions are listed below:1.

AbstractDetta arbete är en fallstudie på Lund's kommun och det som skedde där under nittiotalet. Huvudfoku's ligger på två kommunreformer som innebar kommundelsnämnderna's införande och avskaffande. Vår frågeställning har varit; Vilka förändringar har Lund's kommun gått igenom? Och; Hur kan man förstå dessa förändringar? Teorin består av flera olika vinklar där man problematiserar de moderna kommunerna's arbete. Även mer klassisk organisationsteori med ett foku's på kulturperspektivet har använt's.

Uppsatsens analysområde är uppkomsten av regional integration och prägeln på samarbetet inom den Afrikanska unionen. På en kontinent som ofta betraktas av omvärlden som ett hjälplöst problemområde har unionen uppstått som ett forum för samarbete och enighet. Kontexten ur vilken Afrikanska unionen uppkom skiljer sig från tidigare afrikanska samarbeten. Med hjälp av integrationsteorin neofunktionalism och systemteorin neorealism undersöks, utifrån sex hypoteser, faktorer som har bidragit till unionens existens och vad den präglas av idag. Fokus ligger på unionen i sig och inte på teorierna.

The aim of this study was to explore and gain understanding of the situation between managers in different forms of human service organizations. I chose to use a qualitative method and conducted semi-structured interviews with five professional middle managers in the public sector. To accomplish my purpose, I worked on the basis of several questions. The questions dealt with the role of middle management and what it involves, how it is perceived and what the middle managers think of the specific requirements for them and their leadership in organizations that provide services relating to people.  As a result of the analysis I have used the theory of social roles that describes the meaning of the different roles and role conflicts that arise in connection with various and conflicting expectations. The review of the results shows that middle managers in human service organizations experience to have to deal with a complex leadership role.

This paper seeks to clarify the attitudes and positions of five Swedish Christiannewspapers in relation to the Suffrage reform (1907-11) and the Courtyardcrisis (1914). Furthermore I try to investigate the reasons behind their attitudesand positions. The five newspapers examined are: Göteborgs Stifts-Tidning,Församlingsbladet, Vår Lösen, Svenska Morgonbladet and Wecko-Posten.The results of my research show both convergence and divergence. Commonfor the newspapers is their criticism of the political agitation on the basisof ethics and that they all, except for Göteborgs Stifts-Tidning, recognizedemocratic principles. Divergence is evident, for example, in the reactions tothe consequences of the Courtyard crisis.I have distinguished three main factors that may help to explain the attitudesand positions of the newspapers?: nationalism versus internationalism,confessionalism and polarized political positions, and have found that the conceptof a ?Christian press? can be defended as well as put into question.

The Swedish working-class author Ivar Lo-Johansson (1901-1990) wrote a collection of one hundred short stories between the years 1968-1972. His other productions, generally speaking, have partially different social reform purposes, but, according to himself, these short stories were written with the intention to be totally free of tendencies (even though he himself doubted that he succeeded with this).During the same period that these short stories were published, the Swedish social democrats were under the challenge of radical movements that, mainly on the radical left?s ideological foundation, had a relatively strong influence in Sweden, among other countries, from the mid 1960?s to the late 1970?s. Since Lo-Johansson mainly seemed to have supported the politics of the social democrats, the purpose of the investigation in this thesis has been to see if he ? in the three short stories: Vikingakärlek (1970), Rikslögnaren (1971) and Ansgars resa till Sverige (1972) ? is conveying an ideological use of history and basic political values that were used by the social democratic party during this time period.

After the last election Sweden has got a government that claims to be feminist. This thesis discusses whether the change of labels has also brought along policy formulated in a feminist way, arguing that the way policy is expressed affects how people see a certain problem. Three policy proposals are analysed, and in only one case the government seems to have been influenced by feminist ideas. The other proposals partly support claims made by new institutionalism that norms and routines in an organisation work to resist policy change, but also shows that feminist ideas are resisted more actively. The fact that so called policy entrepreneurs was present in the policy process at a certain period in time, probably counts for one explanation to the exceptional policy.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att söka utröna huruvida etnicitet kan försvåra införandet av de villkorade flerpartival som är ett resultat av politisk konditionalitet. Inledningsvis genomförs en presentation av de teoretiska ramverk som omger den politiska konditionaliteten samt valbeteende i förhållande till politiserad etnicitet, och därefter söker jag applicera dessa på Zimbabwe och Kenya. Syftet är att avgöra huruvida det föreligger någon markant skillnad mellan länderna gällande den politiserade etnicitetens påverkan på de, medelst politisk konditionalitet, villkorade representativa flerpartivalen. Metoden är empirisk utifrån sekundärlitteratur, men i förlängningen även komparativ. En diskussionsdel, vari valen i förhållande till de teoretiska ramverken problematiseras, leder fram till slutsatsen att politiserad etnicitet kan få negativa konsekvenser för villkorade val om det finns en etnisk grupp som är i synnerlig majoritet..