The aim of this study is to illuminate and discuss a case of political steering, specifically Managment-By-Objectives (MBO) in Swedish municipalities, from a democratic perspective. The essay examines a discrepancy between MBO in the Swedish municipalities and democratic theory.To fulfil the aim of the study one leading politician and one leading civil servant from five municipalities have been interviewed on this matter. This material is discussed in the light of a democratic theory constructed specifically for this essay. The democratic theory consists of three main democratic values in the democratic process: debate, transparence and the ability to demand political accountability.The main conclusion is that there is a contradiction in the use of MBO and the democratic values of debate, transparence and the ability to demand political accountability. MBO has resulted in a lack of debate and transparency and furthermore, it has made it increasingly more difficult to demand political accountability..

This essay is a study of the Swedish author Amanda Svensson?s novel Hey Dolly (2008). The aim of the study is to investigate the conflict that occurs in the storytelling because of the untruthful narrator Dolly. Using the terms story and discourse, from a method of narratology by Maria Nikolajeva, the purpose is to analyze how the narrator manipulates the reader?s comprehension of what is real and not in the text.

Global climate change is one of the greatest challenges in our history. As the average temperature is rising due to anthropogenic emissions, impacts such as floods, droughts and hurricanes, affect the lives of millions of people. Though the least developed countries are least responsible for emissions, they are the worst affected. This thesis focuses on environmental justice in the adaptation discourse. By outlining the adaptation discourse from the United Framework Convention on Climate Change principles, to the Marrakesh Accords, via the Kyotoprotocol my ambition is to analyse how environmental justice has been interpreted in relation to the adaptation discourse.

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.

The essay, which is solely theoretical to its form, presents a critical view upon the unproblematized usage of the concept of ethnicity in the Swedish mass media discourse. Theories of critical discourse analysis and post colonial nature is applied to and used to analyze what ethnicity really means. The essay also provides an insight in the functions and power of mass media in Sweden today to understand why ethnicity is so widely used, and what consequences it may bring upon the systematically excluded "other" and the society as a whole..

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.

The way in which media discusses religion has changed over time. Due to the separation of state and church in 2000, the Swedish state to a lesser extent legitimizes its political ruling with references to religious concepts. As a result, a higher tolerance towards religious minorities can be said to have taken place. This is an ambiguous change however, where critique raised towards religious practices and expressions of minorities also occurs to a higher extent. The public debate is in large part conducted through the media, but is also seen to be produced and reproduced through the media?s discourse.

Container Security Initiative was launched in 2002 by the US Customs and Border Patrol in order to secure the global flow of containers destined for USA. This thesis attempts to analyze Container Security Initiative in relation to a possible future scenario made by the weapons industry where the state's global traderoutes are being subject to militarization. A development which is partly based on the threat posed by global illegal trade. The latter is discussed and defined based on current research made by Carolyn Nordstrom, Moíses Naím and theories on the cosmopolitan perspective made by Ulrich Beck. Strategy documents concerning Container Security Initiative are then analyzed in terms of discourse to try to say something about what the program indicates.

The purpose of this paper was to describe how a phenomenon is constructed into being a social problem, by studying articles on honour killing in the Swedish daily press and in the technical journal Socionomen. The main questions were: can different discourses on honour killing be identified, and if so, have they changed over time, and are there differences between the discourses identified in the daily press and in Socionomen? The method used was a qualitative analysis of discourse influenced by Faircloughs Critical Discourse Analysis. The main conclusion was that honour killing has been textually constructed as a social problem in the studied media. There was one main discourse which clearly pointed out groups as bearers and victims of the social problem.

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.

The aim of this paper was to examine which discourses of women that could be found in Swedish policy documents concerning alcohol from the seventies until today. The questions asked were in which ways women?s drinking was described and how these descriptions could be analyzed and understood by critical discourse analysis and gender theory. The results indicated two main discourses, one replacing the other over time. According to the first discourse, most clearly expressed in the official report from the seventies, women were not consumers of alcohol to the same extent as men.

This is an essay about love and gender representation in Håkan Hellström?s and Veronica Maggio?s lyrics. The purpose of this essay is to investigate how lyrics of indie-pop music represent gender, sexuality and love. The lyrics used is from love songs performed by Håkan Hellström and Veronica Maggio. The method for examining the lyrics of the love songs is discourse- theory and analysis.

This is an essay about love and gender representation in Håkan Hellström?s and Veronica Maggio?s lyrics. The purpose of this essay is to investigate how lyrics of indie-pop music represent gender, sexuality and love. The lyrics used is from love songs performed by Håkan Hellström and Veronica Maggio. The method for examining the lyrics of the love songs is discourse- theory and analysis.

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..