Researchers in the field of political corruption generally expect voters in democratic states to lose trust in corrupted politicians. However, there are cases where corrupted politicians maintain their popularity, a phenomenon studied in this thesis. Focus lies on three cases of political corruption: the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who has been the subject of several judicial investigations and court cases; the impeached former president of Lithuania, Rolandas Paksas; and the German Christian Democratic Union's (CDU) involvement in a party funding scandal. The cases are chosen based on the method of agreement. Berlusconi, Paksas and CDU have all, in spite of their corrupt behaviour, kept or regained popular support among a large group of their country's citizens.

During our teacher training, focusing on history and Swedish at further education level, we have noticed a discrepancy in the way history is portrayed in further education and higher education literature. Accounts of historical ideas, events and developments have often wrongly been depicted as non-gender specific, that is, of equal relevance to both men and women. To what extent is it made clear in further education textbooks that Rousseau?s treatise on education was exclusively aimed at the male gender, and how are the gender-specific aspects of his ideas described? What role and space are set aside for women in the accounts of the struggle for the universal right to vote in Sweden at the turn of the century in 1900, and how is the unions? initial exclusion of female workers portrayed? Focusing on the above historical events and developments, this study aimes to examine whether or not gender-specific issues are described as gender neutral in a selection of history textbooks for further education published in Sweden between 1982 and 2003..

This thesis explores the relationship between the Swedish autonomous left and the terrace culture of European football. It has its geographic starting point in Stockholm, Sweden and follows the three larges tStock­holm football clubs, AIK, Djurgården and Hammarby, and its supporters. The author has followed the football club Hammarby from the terrace for the entire 2011 football season, and has interviewed six political activists who visit, or used to visit, the terrace. The research context this study is incorporated into centres around the history of, and relationship between, the terrace cultures of AIK, Djurgården and Hammarby. Previous research has also focused on the radical potential of Ultras terrace culture (which is derived from Italian supporter culture) and the terrace culture from an intersectional perspective.

Groups that are often referred to as being dismissed in society in general is by some aspects also considered being so in political arenas. A recent compilation of existing research over structurally based objections of gaining power and positions within Swedish parliamentary politics highlight a lack of research considering whether sexual orientation could be such a discriminatory basis. Using a queer theoretical approach, and drawing on concepts such as heteronormativity and homophobia, the principal aim of this essay is to illuminate aspects of local parliamentary political areas where discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation become relevant. In order to do so six in-depth interviews with homosexual politicians have been conducted. Finding a queer potential in certain ideological parliamentary political environments that enable homosexual politicians to be open about their sexual orientation, it still relies upon the individual to be confident enough not to interpret the political context as homophobic and heteronormative..

Why participate? Many studies focus on explaning non-participation in politics. The political parties are loosing members and the particiaption of young people are given extra attention. This thesis is about young people who do participate in party politics. The question is how they experience their participation and how they feel that they can have a politcal influence by being a member of the youth section of a political party.

ICT and digital artifacts is an important resource in the society, especially in schools. That is why we have chosen to study if and how teachers uses ICT and other digital technology in their education in the history subject. We think that both subjects are important because history is a subject that has to do with the past, the present and the future.We made qualitative interviews with seven teachers from three different schools. We have analyzed if the teachers sees ICT as a burden or a resource in their education and also in which extend they have digital literacy. We have chosen to discuss different authors view on ICT in the education and digital literacy.

Abstract: The purpose with this study is to analyse the political debate about freedom of speech in Sweden and Denmark, after the caricatures of the Islamic Prophet Mohammed that the Danish newspaper Jyllandsposten published in September 2005. For this debate four political parties have been chosen. These are: Socialdemokratiska Partiet and Moderata Samlingspartiet in Sweden and Socialdemokraterne and Venstre in Denmark.An idea analysis has been chosen as method, and dimensions as an analysing tool. The overall result of the analysis is that right- and left political parties in Sweden and Denmark are more alike, than different in their political debate about free speech. They all wish for total freedom of speech, and see that as the foundation of the democratic society.

This essay is about use, misuse and non-use of history in politics. To recognize genocide is a use of history that has been established in politics, but also sparked debate. The position of non-use of history in international policy towards Turkey's denial policy has increasingly been replaced by recognition of genocide as a matter of making up with the story, moral consider, and where fundamental issues of culture, identity, history and morality has become guiding element in the discourse behind European expansion and integration policies. A breakthrough for this change is due to the Cold War's end; since the 1980s it has become possible to realize the humanitarianism which has its roots in the Enlightenment humanism underlying the United Nations, and later the EU conventions on human rights and genocide conventions. A genocide concept has become an important discourse in world politics that puts moral pressure on states to act.

The empirical material of this study consisted of tweets by four leading politicians in Sweden: Carl Bildt of Nya Moderaterna, Annie Lo?o?f of Centerpartiet, A?sa Romson of Miljo?partiet and Jonas Sjo?stedt of Va?nsterpartiet. The aim of the study was to examine how they use Twitter as a political tool and what that says of the mediatization of politics. What content did they publish, how did the content differentiate between them and what political messages and other subjects occurred in their tweets? Does the political debate become fragmented because they?re only allowed to use 140 characters on Twitter? The theoretical framework and method applied for the research was based upon critical discourse analysis (CDA), with special interest in ideology and mediatized discourse.The result of the study showed that the content they published consisted mostly of criticism towards political opponents, rather than of independent political opinions.

This paper has its aim to investigate in which way the theory about the dynamic of the triadic nexus, presented by Brubaker, needs to be revised. In the first place this theory is presented and after then applied on the triad formed by: the Hungarian national minority in Transylvania, Romania and Hungary. Through the empirical evidences, that are presented here by following up the political relations and its dynamics over time between the three fields, is shown that the theory is usable for the case in question. Further as we approach the more actual development of the political life in the triad appears a need to deal with one more field which would be for example the NATO or/and EU.This means that Brubakers theory has to be revised so it would take in account a forth field and that of an international organization/institution. The arguments for this needed change is put forth through empirical evidences on the political relations that the two states has with NATO or/and EU and the huge influence these have on the states..

A violent conflict emerged in the Indonesian province of Aceh in 1976, with the rebels of the Free Aceh Movement, GAM, on one side, and the Indonesian government on the other. GAM demanded Aceh to become independent, but the Indonesian government did not accept their nationalistic claims. The conflict therefore lasted for almost thirty years, and many civilians were killed during this period. This essay deals with this particular conflict; its causes and its solution. In the centre of the analysis we find theidentity of the Acehnese people, and the way in which this identity has beenconstructed and re-constructed throughout the history.

Taiwan's recent democratization seem to have rallied a wider support of the notion of a national identity amongst its citizens which in the year 2000 led to the election of the pro-independence party DPP and President Chen Shui-bian. Meanwhile, China insists on the "one country, two systems" formula, regarding Taiwan as merely a Chinese province, and continues to fight any Taiwanese initiative towards sovereignty. Through a narrative perspective, this essay analyzes the self-conscious national identity-building quest embarked upon by DPP and President Chen Shui-bian. The analysis consists of three parts. Firstly, a text-analysis of President Chen Shui-bian's speeches is conducted to examine in what way he enforces and legitimizes the identity-building-process through narratives.

The aim of this essay is to examine whether democracy in St Petersburg isconsolidated or not. Since studies of democratic transition have been rarelyconducted on post-communist cities, this study seems fruitful. Using the Linz andStepan theory, where democracy is considered consolidated when it has become?the only game in town? and Orttung's three criteria legitimacy, politicalpolarisation and policy effectiveness; this essay analyzes people's attitudes,political behaviour, the rule of law and civil society in St Petersburg. Theory isused to interpret the material mainly consisting of two interviews and newspaperarticles.

In this thesis I will examine Willy Brandt's new Ostpolitik with the help of Robert Putnam's analytical framework of two-level games perspective and the theory of social constructivism. Firstly, I will briefly set out the development of Germany's history before it was divided into the Federal Republic of Germany and German Democratic Republic in 1949. After that I present West Germany's foreign policy from 1949 to 1969 in order to show how Willy Brandt continued and broke with different foreign policy doctrines. Finally, I want to illustrate his new Ostpolitik and the international and domestic factors, which contributed to its realisation. The main question of this essay is: How significant were the changes of the West German society for the realisation of the new Ostpolitik from 1969 to 1973? One of the most important findings in this essay is that on the one hand that many West Germans had accepted that their country was divided and on the other hand that many groups in the society such as the significant newspaper Die Zeit and intellectuals supported the new Ostpolitik.

This essay is a case study based on two sources of empirical data, qualitative interviews and responses from a questionnaire, which examines upper secondary school students? attitudes to history teaching in a museum context. The students? answers are further analyzed in relation to the concept of historical consciousness. Thus, history teaching in the museum, from a student perspective, and the students? capacity of expressing a historical consciousness in their answers, constitute the core of this essay.