Utbildning har som regel inte fått hög prioritet av staten i Nicaragua. Det har bland annat medfört att analfabetism är utbrett samt att barn arbetar på gatan istället för att gå i skola. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka vad det civila samhället gör för att förbättra utbildningssituationen i Nicaragua. Det civila samhället i Nicaragua arbetar med en rad olika projekt där utbildning är ett av dem. Vi har med hjälp av teorier om demokratisering och det civila samhället kopplat samman vikten av utbildning för att ett land skall gå mot att bli en konsoliderad demokrati.

Den 1 januari 1994, samma dag som den Mexikanska staten blev medlem i frihandelsavtalet NAFTA, kunde man höra ett ?¡Ya Basta!? runt om i delstaten Chiapas i sydöstra Mexiko. Denna uppsats behandlar den Zapatistiska motståndsrörelsen utifrån gramsciansk och neogramsciansk teoribildning för att förklara deras kamp som en reaktion på den rådande neoliberalistiska ekonomiska globaliseringen. Genom att studera deras ideologi och handlingar så menar vi att de utgör en del av ett kontrahegemoniskt motstånd beläget inom den nya globala anti-globaliseringsrörelsen som i sin tur utgör en del av det globala civila samhället. Zapatisternas struktur och metod har, som ett resultat av den ekonomiska globaliseringen, omvandlats och anpassat sig för att kunna föra sin kamp och visa på att alternativ till neoliberalismen existerar..

The aim of my study is to critically analyse the discourse behind two different integration projects in Sweden, by using post colonial theory. My hypothesis is that many projects intended for increased integration includes a view of immigrants as the ?Others? which can be seen in how one talks about integration and culture in the discourse behind integration projects.The first of these two projects aims at increased diversity in the cultural sphere, organized on at state level. The purpose of the second project is to increase the communication and results for schools in areas with a high rate of immigrants in Malmö. In my study I make a discourse analysis of the discourse behind these two projects and study how they are motivated and how one conceptualise culture and integration in these documents.

Denna uppsats har som syfte att ta reda på hur människor socialt konstruerar och omkonstruerar sin identitet. Detta har vi gjort utifrån följande frågeställning; Hur kan muslimer i Landskrona socialt konstruera sina identiteter? Genom umma och/eller territoriell tillhörighet? I vår teoridel har vi utgått från ett konstruktivistiskt perspektiv där vi fokuserar oss på teorier kring konstruktion av identitet i allmänhet, av territoriell identitet och av muslimsk identitet, vilka alla är socialt konstruerade och kontextberoende samt att vi använt teorier kring föreställningen om ?den andre?, som är en grundläggande utgångspunkt för identitetskonstruktionen. För att kunna få veta hur människor själv uppfattar sina identiteter har vi gjort tre stycken intervjuer med tre olika muslimer i staden Landskrona, vilka utgör vårt primärmaterial. Dessa intervjuer har genom en narrativ analys visat hur våra respondenter har konstruerat och/eller omkonstruerat sina identiteter.

Following essay discusses the possibilities of using a gender perspective when studying local governance within a Swedish context. Governance is an international concept used to describe a more lose, informal and network based way of doing politics The main purpose for conducting this essay is that traditional theoretical frameworks used in the study of local politics are not enough to fully conceptualize the complexity of our changing political environment.After a broad summing up of what had been done in the recent decades within Swedish political science on the topic of local politics and gender I came to the conclusion that so far nothing had been written on governance. The next step was therefore to conduct a pilot study to cover the subject matter of governance and gender. The study was based upon interviews with five female politicians in Malmoe city.Results showed that governance, in terms of informal networks did exist, and had influence over the local politics. Some of the networks were male dominated.

Japan's foreign and security policy has seen some substantial changes as a result of events like the first Gulf war and 9/11th. This has been taken as proof, by some, that Japan is abandoning its antimilitaristic stance and pursuing a more traditional hard power role through military means. This essay aims to explore if these shifts have coincided with any substantial shifts away from antimilitarism, which has had a strong influence on the country's security policy since the end of WW2.To do this I use constructivist theory, specifically regarding the impact of norms and identities on states security policy and briefly look into the problem of actor designation. The thematic focus is on security policy, from a narrow perspective, and thus I examine areas like the input and output to the Japanese military and the actual applications of this force. State identity is used to explore the prevalence of nationalistic sentiments and support for anti militarism in the public opinion and the political elite.The result of this study points to the further relevance of constructivist theory and especially the application of norms and identity.

Ever since its conceptual birth, the questioning of consequences due to the implementation of ideas from the reformation doctrine, called New Public Management, has been a common occurance among those who have dedicated themselves to research in superior methods of Public Administration. What this thesis aims to do is shed light upon what value-conflicts may occur within public administration organisations when they begin to idealize the rationalization of economic issues. The goal of this thesis will be fulfilled through the creation of two ideal types of public administration that exist in opposition to each other. These two ideal types will show two different views on how decision-making and organisation will be managed in their respective sectors. By doing this, there will be clarification as to what conflicting values arise with the implementation of ideas taken from New Public Management, as well as defining the fundamental difference between which ethical decision model is used..

This thesis compares different justifications of human rights with the philosophy of Axel Hägerström. Hägerström´s philosophy uses a strict logic and discards the notion of the existence of absolute values and moral right and wrong. The justifications that are examined are those of Robert Nozick, Alan Gewirth and the postmodern view. Nozick emanates from arguments of natural law, which is rejected by Hägerström as metaphysics. Gewirths logical justification emanates in part from moral arguments and hence differentiates from Hägerström, but it can be used for constructing a practical application of Hägerström's philosophy and thereby motivate a legislation relating to human rights.

This thesis intends to examine the role of the city, Dublin, in the Irish economic growth during the 1990s. It is a case study where Dublin is compared with current theories on post modern cities as growth machines and increasingly prominent actors in the global context. The study has an interdisciplinary approach but focuses on political science issues such as power distribution, global-local governance and local political organisation. It is a theory driven study that also intends to add aspects to the understanding of the cities of our time. I argue that Dublin has faced a lot of changes during the last decades in accordance with the post modern city.

When it comes to investigating the motives behind activism, the members of political study have a lot to say. I aimed to critiqually rewiev this in my thesis. I asked the question ?What do the actor themselves claim lay behin their decision to become motivated?? To highlight this complex dilemma, I sought to discuss new social movement theory by comparing it to reality. This includes a literate examination on contemporary political science approaches, and a study of two organisations in the south of Sweden, choosen not to despise any excisting theory, but to give it a sense of reality.

The aim of the thesis is to examine how central collective actors in the Swedish subsystem of renewable fuels use their positions of power and influence to their own specific interests and needs. In particular the thesis looks at the problems of climate change and oil scarcity and how renewable fuels are described as a potential solution. Using agenda setting theory and Steven Lukes three dimensions of power as a framework, five actors are examined and analysed. The study has been done in two parts. In the first part policy documents are analysed concerning the actors general stance towards renewable fuels, and how this is communicated to the media, politicians and public.

Today Europe is faced with an identity crisis concerning its borders. Turkey stands at the threshold for an EU-membership while the EU-Commission is trying to formulate what constitutes a European identity. This identity seeking process will determine the future not only for Turkey, but also for immigrants now living in Europe.In this thesis a discourse analysis, underpinned by socialconstructionist theory, is conducted to explore how the European identity has been constructed throughout history up until today. A starting point is that identity always is defined through a dialectical relationship to "otherness". Therefore the analysis is focused not only on what a European identity consists of but also what and who it excludes.

I denna uppsats så tar vi upp frågan om individuell lönesättning för domare. Detta blev nyligen implementerat för Sveriges domare på initiativ av Domstolsverket. Frågan blev en konflikt då domarna ansåg att det var ett hot mot deras självständighet i den dömande verksamheten då individuell lönesättning skulle kunna vara ett verktyg för styrning. Vi har intervjuat domare och Domstolsverket och vi har gjort en argumentationsanalys av det som skrivits om frågan och jämfört parternas argumentation. Vi har även belyst frågan genom att använda Lennart Lundquists teori om demokratins väktare samt ett ramverk utvecklat av Björn Johnson om policyöversättning.

År 1980 startade Iran-Irak kriget som pågick i åtta år. Kriget utspelade sig mellan två starka makter i Mellanöstern. Jag har undersökt varför kriget kunde pågå så länge och koncentrerat mig på medlingens roll i att avsluta en konflikt.Under arbetet har jag diskuterat tre anledningar till varför medlingsförsöken i Iran-Irak kriget misslyckades. FN:s svaga handlingar, de konservativa mullornas utnyttjande av kriget och slutligen supermakternas ingripande i kriget är de orsaker jag funnit som svar. För att analysera konflikten och komma fram till mitt resultat har jag använt mig av teorier om medling.Resultatet i arbetet kan användas för att ge en inblick och förklaring till dagsläget i Iran och Irak och Mellanöstern i stort.

The purposes of this thesis is study the European Court of Justice from a non legal perspective and investigate the courts possibility to advance its own preferred goals rather that of the member states in cases of non-compliance. Drawing on general principal-agent theory I construct a model from which I derive certain hypothesis mainly about under what circumstances we should expect the Court to be more sensitive to member states preferences and under what circumstances we should expect the Court to be less sensitive. These hypotheses are then tested empirically against all cases of non-compliance initiated by the European Commission against member states between 1953-2000. The results from the study are rather positive. The most important result is that when the threat of sanctions against the Court increases so does the Courts sensitiveness to member states preferences and when it decreases so does the Courts sensitiveness..