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.

AbstractThe purpose of this theses is to compare three different political groups, The IRA, The Baader-Meinhof group and the Al Qaida, who have all used terroristic methods to achieve their separate goals.By finding out about their history, goals, structures and methods I have made a comparison to see what joins them, what separates them, what originated the birth of their movements and how they can or could proceed with their violent actions to the point that they had actual impact on international politics.It has all been done through a litteraturebased study.My focuse has been on Al Qaida since it's is the only one of the three who is still active today and who, through its cellstructure, represents a new form of global terrorism that may have great influence on the structural patterns of other political groups and criminal organizations in the future.Key words:Al QaidaBaader-MeinhofIRATerrorismCellstructure.

In order to fully grasp the phenomena 'City' we must understand its political structure as an integrated part of its physical structure and vice versa. This thesis focuses on one crucial element of the City, the public space, and discusses it in relation to the public realm, or sphere, of the City. The aim is to see if it is possible to conceive public space as a spatial dimension of power, and if so, how to analyse this. With the help of the theoretical tool of two ideal types of the configuration of public space, "The city as civic public life" and "The city as authoritarian control" an empirical study is carried out on the case of Prishtina, capital of Kosovo.Conclusions made are that function and use of a city's public spaces can be understood in relation to changes in the political climate of the society. Furthermore, a void in the asset of concepts offered by the ideal types is found ? and therefore also need for new concepts to describe and understand a public space undergoing a dynamic transformation, as being a part of a city in political transition..

The aim of this paper is to empirically examine the ideological trends and positioning of the Swedish liberal party with the Danish social liberal party. This paper also aims to analyze the reasons behind the trends. By examine the development in these two Nordic liberal sisterparties, this paper contributes to our understanding of why and how party change is initiated. The paper commences with an intuitive notion that the Swedish party has in fact, made a lurch towards the right, during the past ten to fifteen years while the Danish party has retained their social-liberal position in the centre of the Danish political spectrum. The questions then asked are: can this hypothesis be verified empirically? If so, how can this phenomenon of divergence, be explained?The method used in this thesis is process-tracing and the empirical material does to a large extent rely on interviews with central agents as they are specified in the theory of each party.

The main objective of the essay is to define the meaning of the termgovernance network on the basis of democratic values ? both normative andimperial - with the aim to analyse the prospects to develop an effective anddemocratic governance. Democratic values as well as civil participation,enlightenment, responsibility and approachability are discussed, but also moreeffectivness orientated values.It is clear from the presentation how normative and democracy models putdifferent values in focus, with the consequence that other values are played downor pushed aside. Compared to imperial research in partnership ? by definition atype of network arrangement - and with a starting point in democracy andefficiency, the networks are discussed as political formation.In what sense can the actual existing network arrangements meet and fulfil thedefined political values? As no straight forward answer exists, there is an ongoingconflict between the political demand for slowness and the effectiveness demandfor flexibility and mobility..

AbstractThis essay analyse, from a normative perspective, what can be exspected of an etical asylum policy. The theorical base is derived from Gerard Delanty´s notion of civil cosmopolitism.The ethical outlook is based on utilitarianism. The questions this essay answers are:1) Which are the basic premises for an ethical asylum policy?2) Does the Swedish asylum policy forfill these premises?The study analyses in general terms the Swedish asylum policy. It analyses both the asylum law and the work of the executive authority.The analyse also includes a brief look at two asylum cases.

This thesis explores the decisions behind swedish principals to permit or prohibit political parties from visiting schools. Through a series of semistructured qualitative interviews with five respondents from different high schools, insights were gathered into their motivations regarding political party visits to schools. The results indicate that principals view political party visits as significant for fostering civic engagement, aligned with the school's democratic mission. However, some principals opt to prohibit such visits due to concerns about non democratic values and potential disruptions. Practical considerations like safety, logistical issues, and conflict risks are also crucial in their decision-making, highlighting awareness of potential challenges posed by political visits.

According to the theory of elitist democracy civic political participation should be reduced to participation in the democratic elections. This essay examines whether a high rate of institutionalized political participation beyond the elections leads to: (a) that those who are included gets a more favourable treatment at the expense of the common interest, in other words that their self interest threatens the political equality, (b) reduced freedom of action for the politicians and the headmasters, (c) the emergence of vague conditions of responsibility. These hypotheses are examined in an empirical study of user-boards at four schools on three locations in southern Sweden. In these user-boards the parents are in majority and have the right of decision, which has been delegated to them from the local government and the headmaster. The main conclusion is that, based on this empirical investigation, there is no support in any of the hypotheses.

Abstract.

This thesis is about the effect of political efficacy on societal participation among youths aged 15 to 29. It takes a starting point in the gloomy view of the decline of political participation among citizens in the western world, especially pointing out youths as a threat to democracy. This is a broad subject to take on so my aim becomes a bit more specific. The aim of the thesis is therefore to investigate if belief in ones own capacity and in the responsiveness of the political system affects the actual participation among youths in Europe, independent of a set of alternative predictors. Moreover the thesis is divided into two sub-investigations, one qualitative and one quantitative.

The ambition of this paper is to study the construction of the categorization between ?us? and ?them? in a religious minority, represented by Jehovah?s Witnesses and a nationalist political party, represented by the Swedish Democrats. This will be done by a discursive psychology analysis of their official publications on each group?s website. By a deductive study using Henri Tajfel?s Social Identity Theory trying to disclose the psychological processes; social categorization, social identity, social comparison and psychological distinctiveness.

This study attempts a literature based reconstruction of the impact of globalisation and modernisation on the gender identities in Vietnam. Recognising the explanatory albeit normative capacity of critical theory ? specifically the feminist and globalisation critical approach ? this thesis argues that in spite of the economic benefits of modernisation, it enhances existing unequal structures. By focusing on women in the labour sector, simultaneously Vietnam's comparative advantage and one of its economically marginalised groups, a contradictory movement can be discovered. Notwithstanding the economic development, a regression in terms of women's possibilities to self-empowerment seems to cancel the benefits for the individual.

This thesis is set out as a testing of the crosscutting cleavages theory on twocontemporary cases. The aim is to test the explanation process of the crosscutting theory applied to the political and social situations in Belgium and Switzerland and furthermore to examine potential conflicts in pluralistic states. Our main questionis: How can the crosscutting cleavages theory explain the different outcomes ofsocial coexistence, even with the states numerous similarities? We have examined the two federal states through their social divisions of language, region, religion and socio-economy. Our findings show that both Belgium and Switzerland possess divisions in the above mentioned variables, which in most cases are cumulative structured.

AbstractBackground: The company that this report addresses is, at time for investigation, in the midst ofa change in organizational culture, where two departments with different core competencies arebrought together into one. The purpose of this study is to review the potential problems that mayoccur in the change process when one or more subcultures come into conflict with organizationalgoals.Purpose and methodology: The reason for performing this study and the objectives are toexamine how subcultures influence and respond to organizational changes. The survey isconducted with a bottom-up approach in which participation in daily activities with thesubgroups is the foundation. The management's perspective has been omitted in consideration ofpast literature in the field where focus most often has been on their thoughts and views on theprocess of organizational change. The method used is participant observation and interviews.Results and Conclusion: Subcultures exist and they do affect an organizational change.

Marks do not only work as an acknowledge of the effort that has been made under a long period of time, but also as a receipt for eligibility to further studies. Within the political debate, marks have often caused a big discussion among the political parties. That is due to the obvious difference between the political parties on the left, and their counterparts on the right. However, there is one thing that they all have in common. Everyone of them have plans of measure within their political agenda, regarding the use of marks.The aim of this study has been to try to understand the way pupils think about marks.