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.

The aim of this Master's thesis was to examine the political and cultural reasons for making music materials compulsory at Danish public libraries by the new library act of 2000. The aim was also to examine how the public libraries have responded to this reform. To answer these questions a literature study was conducted as well as interviews. The results of the literature study indicated that the main reason for making music materials compulsory is to increase the influence of the library users. The study of the debate concerning the new library act showed that a majority of the Danish political parties as well as the Danish library organizations had a positive attitude towards the new obligation.

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 discussion regarding international aid tends to be highly debated for long periods of time. Some individuals are very positive towards aid and some individuals are less positive towards aid. This study aims to broaden the understanding of the aspects behind that. The previous research tends to focus on aid allocation within the EU, or which macro factors could influence which donor countries give to which recipient countries. This study aims to add to the research with which aspects at the individual level can influence the individual's attitude towards international aid from the EU.

This thesis deals with the concept of soft balancing, traditionally defined as the diplomatic means of restraining a dominant state's ability to exercise its military power. As the dominant power in today's unipolar system, the United States, and other states? behaviour towards it, is the focus of analysis. The aim of this thesis is to explore the possibilities of developing the concept of soft balancing so as to include strategies to restrain also the political and economic capabilities of a dominant power. The thesis also considers the possibilities of soft balancing that small states ? to a large extent overlooked in existing theories on the subject - can possess.As a state with policies that aim to reduce the U.S.

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.

In 1988 the Swedish Social Democratic Party decided to reform the tax system. In this essay I analyse the motives behind their acting on a basis of the party strategic theories of Przeworski and Sjöblom. The reform commonly referred to as the tax reform of the century, was although they considered that it was a high risk project pursued together with the Liberal Party. The new tax system implicated a less progressive income tax scale, actions against tax avoidance and raised value-added tax. The empirical analysis is primarily based on memoirs written by the key actors.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the institutional effectiveness of the environmental institutions Helcom and the Mediterranean regime, by using Haas, Levy and Keohane's "the three Cs"; governmental concern, contractual environment, political and administrative capacity. The method used is a comparative analysis.This study takes into consideration the specific structural and economic factors that are prevailing in each region where the environmental regime operates. This study also takes into account the influence of the European Union as a factor that affects the environmental progress.By focusing the study on the line of conduct concerning hazardous substances by respectively regime this study shows that the institutional effectiveness is fulfilled in neither Helcom nor the Mediterranean Regime, although Helcom has been more successful. The lack of state capacity is the most restraining factor for both developing countries and countries in the transition towards being developed, to achieve a good environmental status of the sea. This study also shows that the European Union sometimes has a greater impact on the environmental progress in states, rather than the environmental regime in countries that were/are aspiring members, thus showing the ineffectiveness of the regime..

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.

During the time of membership in The European Union Swedish domestic policy has gone through many changes. A lot more political areas are being influenced by the EU policy. Today every ministry has got some sort of EU office. Swedish politicians are functioning on two arenas, domestic and European. At the same time Swedish membership has gone from being highly discussed to being a state of normality.

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.

This essay captures the process toward a democratic transition in South Africa and tempts on analyzing the efforts made by civil society before the negotiation with the government in the beginning of the 90´s. The method used is a case study.By applying the theory of Elisabeth Jean Wood about the importance of continued mobilization, I try to answer the question: to what extend did civil society influence the democratization process. The focus of the study lies on the years of intensified popular mobilization, from the start of the 80´s until the beginning of the 90´s.The results following this study shows that COSATU, Congress of South African Trade Unions) and ANC(African National Congress) played both a crucial role for the democratization process in South Africa. UDF, however played a role in the process, but not in the same significant way that COSATU and ANC..

The democratic conditions in national states have change radically at the same time as the society has changed. Because of social and economic globalization processes, the states and government has lost power for the benefit of transnational and global institutions. That affects the democracy since the nation state earlier defined the domain of citizenship. At the same time, citizens? confidence towards political parties and politicians has gone down.

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..