Several previous studies have in different ways tried to explain how new social movements are affected by the different sets of political and social contexts within different states and societies. This essay asks the question how much the institutional aspects within the theory of Political Opportunity Structures (POS) have determined how the rather successful animal rights movements in the Netherlands and Great Britain have mobilized and acted to gain progress. Since the Netherlands and Great Britain contains different kinds of political and institutional contexts, these two states are found to be suitable for a comparative analysis of the theory's durability. A qualitative portrayal of both state's institutional political opportunity structures are presented. Then the mobilization, progress, and actions of the political party ?Party for the Animals? in the Netherlands, and a wide group of animal rights organisations in Great Britain are determined.

A question that is asked far to seldom is what it means to be a good leader. The answer is not all that simple. It is a comlex and multi-faceted question that varies between the values and what ethical perspective you choose to have. As the title indicates, this essay has one particular ethical-theoretical perspective in focus, virtue ethics. According to the virtue ethics perspective a good political leader is a virtuous leader.

This paper begins to observe two non-socialist parties in Sweden,Kristdemokraterna and Moderaterna, before and after they won an election. Thetwo parties formed an alliance with other parties and manifested a politicalprogram. The main focus lies on their campaign promises and their premierpolitical area as a single party before the election and what results that has beenproduced a year after. The method is a comparative analysis between the twocampaign programs and the result, parliamentary decision etc. The largest partyModeraterna has completed or started on their main political issue, butKristdemokraternas development has not been that successful.

The special relationship between Israel and the US has been subject to questioning, and good many theories have tried to explain why it is so strong. The most common explanation is rooted in the school of realism, where strategy and national interest decide who one's ally is. This essay aspires to examine another possible reason for allianceformation; identity. Several books, which make for the theoretical backbone of this study, have been written on the subject of sharing beliefs, identifying with others and the consequences of this. The question being asked is whether Israel and the US actually share beliefs and, if so, which ones.

Engblom, Gustav (2009) De nya riksdagspartierna och den politiska dagordningen ?The new parilament parties and the political agenda.?1988 and 1991 the swedish parties Miljöpartiet, Ny demokrati and Kristdemokratiska samlingspartiet made it over the 4 percent threshold and successfully entered the Swedish parliament. Sweden was once described as one of the most stable political systems in the world, but the parliament elections of 1988 and 1991 showed that Sweden was no exception from the growing instability in west democratic political systems.The stability and instability that followed in the west democratic political systems is believed to be explained by the political parties? efforts to adjust to changes in their political environment. This has lead them to cartelize and the cartel party is believed to prefer stability over triumph for various reasons.The established political parties are believed to be able to manipulate the political agenda in such a way that political topics that would have caused great turbulence in the political system, if debated, are kept away from the political agenda.

Political consumption is a manner of impinging politically that has become more frequent lately. Adolescents seem to be attracted by the idea of expressing oneself politically through ones wallet. The purpose of this analysis is to elucidate this essay?s participants? manner of expressing political consumption and analyze how they discuss motives against and for political consumption with a sociological perspective. To accomplish this, this essay will aim to answer the following questions: In what manner do the participants express their political consumption and what are their motives for and against political consumption?  In order to answer the essay?s purpose and questions, two focus group interviews have been made.

Title: Images of Sweden in ItalyNumber of pages: 5252 (589 including enclosures)Author: Oskar GustafssonTutor: Martin NilssonCourse: Political Science C level ? Bachelor?s ThesisPeriod: Spring term 2010University: School of Social SciencesLinnaeus UniversityPurpose/Aim: The purpose of my research study is to, through the use of political science theories on soft power and marketing theories about nation branding and in comparison to previous studies on the image of Sweden in Italy, gains a better understanding of the image of Sweden in Italy, with special focus on national political institutions and young Italians.Method: The method of analysis is a combination of qualitative methods: interviews where information about the image of Sweden amongst national political institutions were gathered and a survey where information was gathered about the image of Sweden amongst young Italians.Main results: On the basis of the results I have gained it can be concluded that a positive and well informed image of Sweden emerges when it comes to cultural and social factors but a more restricted and somewhat negative image come to light when asking national political institutions and young citizens in Italy about their views and knowledge on Swedish domestic and international politics and economics.Keywords: Soft power, Public Diplomacy, Nation Branding, Images of Sweden, Italy..

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..

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.

This thesis purpose is to investigate the socioPolitical factors and causes that led to why KB chose not to use the criteria and guidelines for their digitization activities are described in DIGSAM. To do this I focused on three research questions;- What factors (internal / external) led to the decision not to use the criteria guidelines for digitization, which is described in the policy document DIGSAM and what arguments and opinions formed the basis for the decision.- What is the Library's digitization activities, the factors, criteria and guidelines governing activity in the current situation? - Will KB's choice not to use DIGSAM as a whole in their digitization activities affect national library's role as a beacon for the Swedish libraries digital work? In what way and why? In order to answer these questions I interviewed three of KB:s librarians who had extensive knowledge of digitization and DIGSAM. I chose to also use a pilotstudy that was conducted at KB in the of spring 2010. The idea was to use this material as a basis to build on.As a theoretical framework, I chose to use a socio-political theory of Ingrid Mason.

This study investigates communication and data in information systems. The paper deals, more specificly, with communication in a CRM-system implemented in a Swedish-founded company in Beijing, China. It discusses cultural, political, linguistic and gender based dilemmas that can arise from the use of a CRM-system in an international and bilingual environment. Fifty-nine interviews were conducted in Sweden and in China, either in Swedish or English. The result of this study shows that communication in the information system is affected by factors, that are not originated in technical shortcomings of the system, but rather from cultural, political, linguistic and gender based pre-knowledge among individuals.

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.

Active environmental activity?? a comparative study of the municipalities environmental activityThesis in Political Science D-Level at Karlstad University byJenny Ljung Spring 2008Tutor: Michelle MichelletiThe threat against our climate is one of our biggest challenges today. The awareness of the problem has grown rapidly for the last years in governments on international, national and regional level. The Swedish government is recognized as one of the leading countries in the climate and environmental work internationally. The Swedish municipalities play a big role in this successful work.

The purpose with this disertation is to find if there are selected factors which can force companies to grow. We have chosen five factors which we think can force the companies; market, strategy, profitability, demographic and institutional factors. We want to examine if there are differences between small and larger companies, and if there are differences between the lines of business.The intention to growth is also influenced by different factors. The organization and the board have an effect on the development. There are also factors that can obstruct the growth, for example control.

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.