Democracy is said to uphold the dearest values and be the most moral system. But it cannot be characterized as a rigid "syste" but a continuously changing political framework, under which aims and values can be fulfilled - and replaced.The increasingly diverse and ever-changing environment of contemporary democracies forces change upon the systems' natural evolution, which makes their future features uncertain and unforeseeable. A powerful change-force doctrine does however claim change is mainly (or merely) caused by the power of ideas; the elite power over ideas can thus provide a natural foundation for the analysis of the direction of development for democracy. This study aims to provide such a foundation by reconstructing empirical and normative descriptions of democracy at two certain points in time, following extensive government studies.As a tool for analysis, this study identifies values of substantial and procedural character central to democracy theory and discourse. It further creates ideal types of democracy based on these values, to which the nature of democracy is measured.

The purpose of the paper is to show some possible factors that affect the animators? choices when working on photorealistic animation based on references. Research in computer graphics has since 1970 had as a main goal to achieve photorealism. When working on 3D-production for film, animation is a part of the process. This part aims to give life to digital characters, among other things.

Our purpose with this essay is to examine how staff that works with drugaddicts in compulsory-treatment institutions for women and men uses gender in their work. We are trying to get knowledge and understand how the staff is using their own and the client's gender in the work that they are doing. We have chosen to take focus within women's care in institutions and compare if the work is done in the same way with male clients.Our essay is based on interviews with treatment-staff. We have used a qualitative method. The interviews are made with both men and women.

The technical achievements that have occurred in recent years have led to a greater use of the Internet around the world. Today, more and more people are using virtual communities, a place where communication occurs with people who have similar interest. Due to the option of being an anonymous user, the concept of trust plays a big part in how virtual communities are working. It is therefore of interest to investigate how trust develops between users in virtual communities. This report asks the following question:"How is trust formed between users at a virtual community?"A qualitative and netnographical study was conducted to answer the question above.

This essay deals with the same task that utilitarians have tried to solve for a long time, what is happiness? In the eighteenth-century utilitarians suggested that happiness should be the base for social political decisions. But the lack of definition disposed so that GDP became the measurement of happiness, which proved to be wrong when the unhappiness continued to increase. More than two hundred years later scientists came up with a new definition of happiness and new ways to measure it. And during the last decade economists have taken the discussion to a higher level.So once again we?re dealing with the same old issue, if happiness ought to be the base of social political decisions.

The purpose of the essay is to analyze the welfare state from a gender perspective. Further, the paper analyzes and critically examines three different normative solutions provided by Irish Marion Young, Nancy Fraser and Jürgen Habermas for the realization of a welfare state that includes women.Habermas argues that the welfare state has created a situation of dependency and state paternalism which reduces both individual and collective self-determination. Young follows Habermas? argument. She argues for a political climate where justice is reduced to the distribution of material goods rather than the elimination of underlying relations of domination and gender specific patterns.

A clean and affordable energy source for cooking is deficient in developing countries. People rely on fuels that contribute to environmental, social and health problems.Biogas is an alternative energy source and an increased investment in small-scale biogas production can in several developing countries be found. Several projects have started to use the technology in developing countries because of the benefits with biogas. Some cases in the establishment of biogas plants have succeeded and some have not. The study is a literature review supplemented by two field studies.

Denna uppsats gör ett försök att skildra hur tre kommuner förhåller sig tillidrottsföreningars roll i det kommunala livet. Uppsatsen behandlar deförväntningar som de kommunala bidragen väntas generera för samhället, genomatt sätta fokusen på den bakomliggande policyn. Vidare försöker uppsatsen utrönaom det finns en gemensam syn på föreningarnas funktion i kommunerna.Detta görs utifrån en teori om hur idrottsföreningar vinner sin legitimitet tilloffentliga resurser.Studien har innefattat en komparation av tre kommuner, Lund, Landskronaoch Staffanstorp. I vardera kommun har även tre innebandyföreningars syn på sinroll undersökts..

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine nurses experiences of asking patients aboutintimate partner violence and what the nurses believed could be of help or hindrance whenasking the question.Method: The study design was qualitative. Nine nurses from four different divisions wasinterviewed. The participants worked at a Swedish university hospital with an action plan fortaking care of violated women. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews usingan interview guide. The results were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.Main result: The question about intimate partner violence raises a variety of feelings amongnurses, for example anger and empathy.

The European Union is originally an economic organization that has developed into including more social and cultural questions. These questions are especially important when the Union expands with so many different cultures and traditions to take into concideration.I have from an identity perspective studied the relation between the European Union and the candidate country of Turkey. Using theories including the Other I have discussed the relationship between us (Europe) and the Other (Turkey) and Turkey's possibilites to become a member of the Union. My conclusion will include a discussion on the basis of three dimensions; History, Economy/Politics and Religion. I believe there are hindrances for Turkey to become a member of the European Union.

Background: A majority of strategic alliances do not create value for the participants. One of the main reasons for the high failure rate is an inadequate process for partner selection. If the correct partner is not selected, it can have serious effects on the management of the partnership. This is a serious problem since failed alliances usually are very expensive for the involved companies. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate which theoretical factors are important when selecting a partner for a strategic alliance.

ABSTRACT Introduction: This study is based on Aantonovskys SOC-theory; Sense of Coherence. SOC can be described as a theory which describes how a person experience her existence and the theory is based on three key expressions; comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness. Aim: The aim of the study is to examine a group of elderly (>80 years) men and women who live alone to investigate how many percent of the group that estimate a high value of SOC. The study aims to investigate which factors contribute to the fact that a person achieve a high value of SOC and increase the understanding about how these factors concretely can appear in a persons life. Methods: Questionnaire (SOC scale) and Interviews.

Although Sweden has democracy implemented in its Constitution, because of being a monarchy, it has a non-elected Head of State. The purpose of this thesis is on the one hand to show if it is possible to normatively legitimate the Swedish monarchy and on the other hand to display if and how the three biggest Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter and Expressen justify monarchy by making a content-oriented analysis of their coverage of King Carl XVI Gustaf's political statement during his state visit in Brunei 2004.By using consequentialism and deontology as perspectives I will show that it overall is not possible to normatively justify the Swedish monarchy compared to a Swedish republic with an elected Head of State. This is mainly because democracy is implemented in the Swedish Constitution. In all three newspapers there is only little debate on the Constitution. Most commonly journalists criticize the King's statement but not monarchy as an institution.

The purpose of this report was to investigate what characterizes a good psychosocialwork environment, and whether it may have impact on a vessel's safe voyage. Thisreport is proposed to increase the understanding of what creates a good psychosocialwork environment and its potential effect on safety at sea. In order to find out thesuccess factors for a good work environment group interviews were conducted in socalledunstructured focus groups. During these conversations, the participants discussedfreely by the question "what is a good psychosocial work environment for you?? Thesuccess factors were thereafter applied on selected accident reports, to investigate theextent to which they were represented and taken into account.The results of the study show three categories of factors: colleagues, communicationand competence, where colleagues are the main contribution to a good psychosocialwork environment.

This thesis examines if commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) systems meet the needs in different types of organizations. This was investigated through a case study of a COTS system. The system is built for contact centers and used in different types of organizations. Contextual inquiries with users from six different organizations were held together with interviews with stakeholders of the system. This gave an understanding for how the system is used and the needs to be met in the different organizations were recognized.