Title: The battle of the budget ? Communication in a modern policy (Slaget om budgeten ?Kommunikation inom den moderna politiken)Numbers of pages: 39Author: Niclas KarlssonTutor: Peder Hård af SegerstadCourse: Media and Communication studies CPeriod: Autumn 2009University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science,Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: The purpose of the paper is to see how Minister of Finance Anders Borg andthe Social Democratic economic spokesman Thomas Östros communicate their messages tothe public.Material/Method: The material is the minutes of the budget debate in the SwedishParliament. The method is rhetorical analysis and content analysis.Main result: Trust making is very important for both of them, especially when the financecrisis reached Sweden. The most common rhetorical quality is ethos.Keywords: Strategic political communication, rhetorical analysis, political trust..

The ambition with this study is to look into and create an understanding for how an intranet can work as a support system in work processes in capacity as a source of knowledge. We want to enhance the understanding for which kind of knowledge that can be coded in and transmitted by an intranet, and which that is lost in this process. We also want to clarify what it takes to get this knowledge, in collaboration with the intranet, to support the work in an organization. It is a qualitative case study at a Swedish bank. It consisted of semi standardized, half structured interviews with five people in one of the bank?s local offices.

AbstractWhy don't (some) regimes with formal democratic features undergo transition to democracy? Which are the internal dynamics of these regimes that can offer comprehension to this state of affairs? The main purpose of this thesis is to advance the above questions, and, on a lower level of abstraction, examine the case of Egypt. The Egyptian regime is characterized by, for instance, a multiparty-system, steps toward economic liberalization, and some level of persistent state opposition, and has been considered on the way to liberal democracy, but can still hardly be estimated as such.Thus, the thesis takes part in a theoretical framework on democratization, and further analyzes the case of Egypt on grounds of socioeconomic development, political culture, and class configuration. By this contextual approach, the thesis adduces that a low level of modernization, an incomplete democratic political culture, and a bourgeoisie supported by the state are impending significant factors. The thesis additionally remarks on the interconnection of the adopted theories, and discusses a potential need for new theoretical propositionsA secondary aim of the thesis also gives some insights into the concurrence of regime stability and the absence of democracy in, what often could be labelled, authoritarian regimes.

The purpose of this master`s thesis is to examine how the contemporary changes in society display itself in the network Ecumenical Forum of European Christian Women EFECW and to increase the understanding of networks. My main questions are: What does the networks structure look like? What does the networks relationships look like? How is identity created in the network and what types of identities is created? The objectives are reached by using two methods, qualitative inquiries and document analysis. The inquiries were carried out to nine members in the network of different countries. The theoretical framework of the thesis is Manuel Castells theories of the network society, and the study is also placed in context by a presentation of previous research on the field.

Regionalism is a concept of extensive proportions and as such is complex to define. This phenomenon becomes much clearer by studying it from different perspectives. This paper focuses on regional political parties and description of their political ideas. The goal of this paper is to examine and compare regional political parties in two Swedish regions: Norrbotten and Skåne. By studying two biggest regional parties in these regions, namely Norrbottensparti and Skånepartiet, I will try to get an insight into the regional politics, as well as illustrate regionalism and its meaning.

What role should science play in democracy? Political scientists often assume that it is possible to demarcate between ?instrumental? and ?moral? knowledge, and argue that citizens and/or politicians should use their moral knowledge to agree upon political goals and then apply the instrumental knowledge of scientists to achieve them. This straightforward view is challenged by writers in science studies, who identify three major problems in the use of science in democracy: uncertainty, risk and hidden values. They suggest that these problems could be solved through citizen participation.In this essay I perform an analysis of the internal logic of their suggestion. Is it likely that citizen participation enhances the democratic decision making process so as to reduce the problems? The internal analysis shows that it is rational to advocate citizen participation by reasons of legitimacy.

The main purpose of this study was that, in the light of theories of how street level bureaucrats may affect the implementation of political decisions, examine and analyze the social workers interpretations of the child perspective's impact on the handling of social assistance, and what opportunities and/or limitations they feel that the organizational preconditions means for the application. The survey had a qualitative research approach and consisted of eight thematic interviews with a total of ten respondents operating in five different municipalities. Eight of the respondents were social workers dealing directly with social assitance and two had managerial positions. The results of the interviews were then analyzed with the help of an actor-structure approach to implementation and Michael Lipskys theory of street-level bureaucrats and their role as policy makers. The results of the survey showed that the respondents had relatively similar views on the child perspectives implications for work with social assistance.

The appointing of Swedish governmental officials has gone through a dramatic change the last nine years. The tradition of officials appointed due to their political experience has been traded against the appointing of experts. In this study I ask questions about this new way of appointing representatives effects how these officials interpret their role. An official that who has never been in the party before appointed, obviously cannot consider the principal of party. With the theoretical approach of normative representation theory (representational style) I perform case studies that shows some change.

The disintegration of the Soviet Union was a vast experience, not solely for the former members and inhabitants of the Soviet Union, but also for the rest of the world. This thesis examines Estonia and Uzbekistan's different experience with transition. By examining three different aspects of transition I seek to explain Estonia and Uzbekistan's different outcome of transition. Estonia has since their independence been fully aware of the process that started with their independence. They have reformed both the political and economic system, the industry is privatized, institutions democratic and Estonia is today a member of the European Union.

Currently, the whole globe is faced with serious problems which negatively affect people around the world: increased pollution, excessive waste, and weather pattern changes. ?Left? and ?right? wing political parties alike have embraced ?green? politics and for many of these parties, environmental issues have become a top priority that is very much reflected in their manifestos. This study examines the environmental goals of two of Sweden?s largest political parties and how these ambitions are reflected at a local level.

In recent years the liberal representative democracy has been subject of a substantial critique because of its inability to accommodate difference and createa genuinely democratic political process. One such critique comes from the theory of deliberative democracy. Supporters of deliberative democracy try to promote a model of democracy that take its vantage point in free and equal deliberationbetween all relevant actors in a political community. This model has with some success opposed the aggregative model of democracy, and in important ways turned the attention to the potential of deliberative processes.However, the deliberative model is still somewhat underdeveloped when it comes to issues of diversity and difference. This essay deals with such deficiencies by analysing deliberative democracy in the light of the critiquelaunched by difference- and radical democrats.

This paper concerns the question of how one can frame a political message. I investigate how a political frame is bound both to the line of argumentation connected with a certain discourse and to the audience closely related to that discourse.I have chosen to study a single case where the policy process was characterized by a framing contest. The case shows how negotiating the new Services Directive is affected by framing efforts made by the parties negotiating.My conclusions are that the question of a Services Directive lent itself to a definition in terms of "either/or"-arguments. Thus the Directive could be considered either a threat or a possibility. It was the very nature of the matter - the development of the internal market on services - that made possible a debate along the lines of a "left/right"-struggle and where a frame that drew from the European Social Model offered the better explanation thereby succeding in defining the new Directive as a threat.

In contemporary Sweden political participation among foreign-born Swedes is viewed as low and it is well known that foreign-born individuals do not use their voting rights to the same extent as the general population. At the same time there are numerous ethnic associations around the country who work with various activities involving political, democratic and integration issues. This study aims to study how four members of a Somali association regard, relate to and work with politics, democracy and integration. The study is based on these four people, but also on their relationship with authorities and other agencies in the community. The conclusion of this study shows in brief that the desire to participate politically is great, but that democracy and politics is accessible to all, depending on the level of language skills and what political knowledge the individual has.

Uppsatsen är en komparativ analys mellan Rwanda och Liberia. Syftet är hur ett kvinnligt deltagande i fredsuppbyggnad kan påverka kvinnans politiska representation?.

This thesis is a study of Parties as an outflow of societal changes where the aim has been to find out how parties are affected by societal changes and how they justify to new party formation. This is done by using a theory called Parties as an outflow of societal changes which is a theory developed by Swedish researchers in Political Science. To confirm the theory it is necessary to do an argumentation analysis of one external developed party?s electoral program. In this case the party selected is Feminist Initiative which brings a different view on how the society of Sweden should look like.Selected parts of the argumentative analysis will be examined with the purpose to give a perspective on how Feminist Initiative values the changes in society and how they describe their role as a new party.The main question of this study is; Are new parties an outflow of societal changes? The basic arguments includes that along with societal changes in Western Europe also changes the view of a representative democracy in which political parties play a central role.