For the last decades, Sweden has transformed from a state with strong elements of corporatism, to a governance of pluralistic character. This development has opened up to a new form of participation ? lobbyism ? which since has spread and commercialized. Because of this, a report on the state of Swedish democracy ? Demokratiutredningen ? was issued to examine the phenomenon of lobbyism as it was feared to challenge the functioning of a representative democracy.

This thesis aims to study obstacles which Turkey faces regarding EU accession. The main focus will be at the historical context and background information to clarify Turkey-EU relationship and institutional aspects such as; the Copenhagen criteria will be analyzed. Interaction between identity politics and Turkeys Europeanization project will be examined by analyzing arguments regarding this issue. The historical context is important for realizing in how Turkey's negotiation process is affected and how the process is evolved. By examining this, a more transparent understanding is going to develop in the issue of why Turkey never will be able to identify itself with the EU.Analysis regarding why Turkey as a secular state develops into an increasingly Islamized state is highlighted.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine and analyze why, in the case of Afghanistan, the government chose to establish a highly centralized political system, when from a democratic standpoint a less centralized system would be preferable.The time period that is examined span from 2001 when the so-called Bonn-Accord was signed, to the parliamentary elections held in 2005, a period often referred to as the Bonn-process.The theoretical framework examines both the complex relations between federalism and democracy, as well as the relation between federalism and the role of existent ethnic minorities. The theoretical framework is then used in order to explain why it would be problematic to create a federal system in Afghanistan under the present circumstances.The conclusions that can be drawn are the following: In case of the republic Afghanistan the creation and implementation of a highly centralized political system was the only possible way for the government to be able to cope and practically deal with the problems of existent ethnic antagonism and regional warlords in order to create a stable political situation in the country..

The purpose of this study is to analyse the discourse on political exclusion in the official report Demokratiutredningen. It has been my ambition to relate the analysis of the report to a critical academic discourse on political exclusion and thereby make visible hidden norms and structures which functions to exclude certain individuals and groups from political participation.My paper point out that the report establishes a strong link between democracy and participation and that it, therefore, makes a strong case for a process of democratic inclusion. Though, in my study I suggest that that there is an unawareness of the importance of norms, hegemonic conceptions and structures and that inclusion, therefore, is unlikely to take place. Furthermore, I criticize the focus on deliberative democracy in the report. With insights offered by Mouffe in her argumentation on the necessity to acknowledge the dimension of antagonism present in all societies I underline that the focus on this democratic model is problematic.My conclusion is that the analysis presented in the report is insufficient if we want to create a democratic system characterized by equality..

It is the aim of this paper to examine, and analyze at a discursive level, the Swedish Democrats' interpretation of the term 'human rights', as this is presented in the material available on the party's official website. The goal is then to investigate in what manner the party portrays its political ambitions in relation to 'human rights'. The theoretical foundation for this analysis is discourse theory as it is presented in the works of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe.Furthermore, the aim is also to examine whether the Swedish Democrats? interpretation of 'human rights' is compatible with the established understanding of the term, such as this is presented in the international UN treaties on human rights. This will be done by thoroughly examining and comparing certain aspects of the Swedish Democrats' political ambitions, such as they have been portrayed in the analytical section of the paper, with relevant sections of the UN treaties..

The purpose of this study is to examine how some people who do not want children construct their identity in a context where children is the norm. The study therefore focuses on how they legitimate and present their identity in this context. 4 women and 2 men with the intention to remain childless have therefore been interviewed, and from these interviews I analyze and describe how intentional childless people construct their identity. My theoretical framework is built up by discourse psychology and gender/heterosexual hegemony theories. The thesis shows that it is hard for the intentional childless to construct their identity as once and for all given, the identity is constructed as a ?norm? against the norm, as well as affected by the norm.

Liberal theorists typically argue that state action should not favor any particular conception of the good or meaningful life. On this view the defining characteristic of the liberal state is neutrality among rivaling ideas of the good. This thesis argues that state neutrality is impossible to maintain in practice. Two different versions of state neutrality; neutral justification and neutral aims, are used to analyze a wide range of political issues. It is concluded that far from being neutral, the liberal state favors individualistic and market oriented conceptions of the good life.

The aim of this qualitative study was to examine and understand how teachers see and handle the signs of child poverty within a classroom context. The paper is based on an interview study involving 8 teachers in 2 Swedish schools for children between the ages of 6 to 12 years old. Poverty is a complex word and there are many definitions of it. What do teachers interpret as signs of child poverty in the school context? How do they act when they think it?s necessary to protect a child from being affected by it, and how can we understand their choice of action with the help of action theory? We discovered that the teachers notice different things as signs of child poverty, and they all react in both different and similar ways.

Title: Under the surface - Fredrik Reinfeldt and Stefan Löfven in a comparative photo studyAuthors: Jon Demred, Fanny Wijk & Olivia WikströmLevel: Bachelor of JournalismLocation: University of GothenburgLanguage: SwedishNumber of pages: 39This thesis compares how Stefan Löfven was being portrayed in Swedish media the week after the generalelection 2014 with how Fredrik Reinfeldt was portrayed in the first week after 2006?s general election.There has been made a lot of research on how politicians are portrayed in the media, but most of theresearch focus on text portrayal. This thesis focus on something different, it compares how the two ?winners? were portrayed in news photos.A semiotic approach was used to analyse news images in the newspapers Aftonbladet, Expressen, SvenskaDagbladet and Dagens Nyheter. It was important to not only look at the pictures, but also the outer context, i.e the headlines, had to be analysed to come to any conclusions.Fredrik Reinfeldt was portrayed more positive and more as a winner than Stefan Löfven was.

The Swedish alcohol policy has by tradition a restrictive composition, with high taxes and the Swedish Alcohol Retailing Monopoly as important elements. The Moderate Party has been powerful critics of the alcohol policy and has advocated a reformation. However, today the Moderate Party seems to have changed the attitude towards the alcohol policy and it even supports the Swedish initiative to create cooperation about alcohol matters at the EU level.This thesis examines why the Moderate Party has changed its attitude towards the restrictive alcohol policy. Three aspects have been considered: the rise of a European public policy, strategic choice, and the influence of the political environment. The paper discusses the problem from a strategic perspective, which means that the political change is viewed as a result of strategic considerations.The party has indeed been affected by all of the three aspects, although to different extent.

The current planning philosophy is based on a political utopic modernism founded during the first part of the 20th century. The focus is, in planning a defined area, to maximize the internal efficiency and to create a competitivesociety. During the latter part of the former century globalization changed the context, thus creating the need for a new way of approaching physical planning. This paper shows that the historical and philosophicalmetaphor of flow can be applied to meet the demands in the global city. It also shows how the edge, as where interaction takes place, is an important part of the content that has to be defined.

This thesis has aimed to study steering process and institutionalization in the context of educational policy work. This has been conducted by using empirical material from the political decision-making process that preceded the implementation of a new national program on how principals should be educated and certified. By using an aggregated theoretical point of view containing new institutionalism and traditional Swedish curriculum theory, the process was analyzed from different perspectives. The results depict a process that contained several actors who tried to shape the principal education program differently. From the theoretical perspectives, the decision-making process could be understood as an act of both self-interest as well as trust in their own beliefs and cultural values.

The consociational democracy model in Macedonia, which came out from a warcrisis and a peace agreement from 2001, in addition, putting an end to the violent conflict, actually admits the division of the society along the ethnic lines. Paradoxically, there is an attempt to bridge the ethnic gap with this model. As a result, the consociational democracy model holds solutions that can be abused if somebody misuses its power and desires to disintegrate the country. The future development depends therefore on the moderate attitude of the citizens, and first and foremost, on the political elites and their commitment to the values of democracy and human rights instead of their nationalistic goals. Furthermore, thepresent democratic consolidation in Macedonia is established on the execution of the peace agreement and the improved effectiveness of the institutions.

The word crisis is often used in everyday language, but according to political theory it actually refers to a crisis situation within a country where national interests suddenly are at stake demanding that important and complex decisions must be made within certain time constraints. These decisions can in turn lead up to most fatal consequences. USA, being one of the world's superpowers is most certainly involved in crisis situations directly or indirectly, frequently or more seldom. Amounts of people get suddenly involved and even more people can be drawn in by the decisions that are made thereby. Research has shown that the character of a leader affects decision-making.

AbstractThe aim of this thesis is to investigate how the Swedish political parties have been discussing gender politics since 1970 to nowadays, in order to see which problems and solutions that have been suggested by the parties to increase the representation of women and the equality between the sexes. The theoretical framework is constructed by theories of women´s representation, gender politics and women?s interest.To describe how the discussions about gender politics have been between the different parties, the methodological foundation consists of an ideology critical textual analysis of the political programs from the Swedish parties.The analysis confirms that the discussions about gender politics and the political representation of women increase over time. The most important issue of equality is the lack of women´s rights and possibilities in the labor market as a consequence of women´s responsibility of home and childcare. The analysis also shows that parties which discuss women as a category and the underrepresentation of women also point out the importance to increase equality between men and women..