This thesis is dedicated to analysing the relationship between Islam and democracy and the role played by Civil Society in a process towards democracy. This theme is further elaborated through a comprehensive study of three modern Muslim intellectuals: Abdolkarim Soroush (Iran), Hasan Hanafi (Egypt), and Tariq Ramadan (Switzerland), and their thoughts about and views on Islam and democracy. Islam has often been portrayed in a stereotype manner where all forms of change are seen as impossible. The aim of this study is to go beyond this vision and instead focus one the role of Islam in processes of development and new forms of interpretation concerning democracy.The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the relationship between Islam and democracy.

This studie explores how a promotive youth movement that aims to activate adolescents in economically and socially exposed areas, can affect the youth?s participation in society and oppose their experience of stigmatization. The youth movement, whom is being studied, uses urban art expressions as a mean to engage and motivate the adolescents. The empirism has mostly been collected by a limited participatory observation, and through qualitative interviews with staff and adolescents in the movement. The result has been analyzed through Pierre Bourdieus field theory.

The purpose of this Master thesis is to increase the knowledge about how public libraries can contribute to fulfil political programmes aimed towards integration. To achieve this we have conducted an evaluative case study about a public library in Sweden and the activities they carried out within the framework of the metropolitan policy programme Storstadssatsningen?. The questions raised consider which the political aims for integration within this programme were, which activities the library did accomplish, what the result in comparison with the politically decided aims was, and what conclusions can possibly be drawn from this? The theoretical framework consists of theories regarding evaluation, political programmes, integration and segregation, and public library-activities.

The purpose with this essay is to investigate Swedish political parties who have had or has a restrictive immigration policy containing opinions, that can be classified as xenophobic, and their history and development as a party. The focus in this essay is centred on the politicization that the parties Ny demokrati and Sverigedemokraterna have gone through and the mobilization they have reached. The material that will be handled in this matter are mainly the parties? political programs that have been published in various forms, but these will be supplemented with secondary sources in the form of previous research, reviews by journalists and other literature. The result have shown that the development from 1970 ? 1980´s to today considering these type of organizations is that they have changed in their appearance, in the matter of how they convey their message, and the actual appearance of the party members more than the message itself.

This case study is an attempt to give empirical support to Georgio Agambens theory, regarding how the exceptions from the constitutional order should be regarded as a constant element in modern societies. The purpose was to investigate if Agambens theory is valid in the Swedish context. The exception, as definied by Agamben, is a reappearing phenomenon, which implies that the constitutional order is fragile. Individuals and groups are transferred into ?homo sacers?, meaning people that is to be regarded as legally naked, and offset from the rest of society.What then is it that make the legal norms fragile? In this thesis I will discuss the causality of moral panic.

Ändamålet med denna uppsats är att ta reda på vilka värden som svensk säkerhetspolitik grundar sig på samt att se om det existerar en konflikt mellan försvarsberedningen och Försvarsmakten. Detta allt utifrån en idéanalys av försvarsberedningen och Försvarsmaktens offentliga tryck. Bakgrunden till detta är den diskussion som uppstått i medierna kring Försvarsmakten. I medierna har vi kunnat ta del av information som berättar om ett försvar som döms ut i interna rapporter och där det talas om en identitetskris. Men också om hur Försvarsmakten idag är långt ifrån regeringens satta beslut.

This comparative case study, which is based on a most similar system design,investigates why the Chávez government has attained a lower degree of democracy than the Kirchner and the Lula governments. In order to develop asupplementary theory about why governments in general achieve various degrees of democracy I compare these governments and examine what policies that differ them and why. My results show that these governments? policies differ concerning the rule of law, militarization, and negotiations with economic groups and anti-regime parts of civil society. I have found numerous answers to why some of these governments (and governments in general) have democratic policies within these four areas and why some do not.

This thesis deals with urban planning in connection with social and spatial integration.It´s a study of a new planning project in Malmö in southern Sweden. It´s an interesting case because this new, fashionable area will be located next to areas facing socio-economical challanges and stagnation. By using two theoretical models I analyse how the visions for planning a city are formulated and applied when policy is going to be operated. My models are ?the balanced community? and ?the dual community? .The conclusion is that the focus for Malmö and Hyllie is going towards emphasing the creation of attractive but segregated districs in a city.

The purpose of this paper is to see how politicians use Internet communication in their daily work and how they use it to interact with citizens of Vasteras city. To reach my conclusions I used both theoretical methods such as literature studies and qualitative interviews with the towns 11 trustees. Accoarding to this study the politicians saw not only a lot of potentials and advantages in Internet communication but also many difficulties and obstacles. In this case the cons far exceeded the pros. One of the main reason is the bad experiences which caused by rasist attacks/threats made to politicians and also the difficulties in handling of sensitiv documents which was seen as a stress factor.

This thesis studies the indirect effects of Europeanization on national political parties. I argue that Europeanization has affected the way national parties operate, and communicate with the voters, by restricting the national policy space through increased economic and political integration. Furthermore, I argue that the impact of Europeanization is likely to be reflected in electoral manifestos and changed patterns of party competition. Accordingly, Europeanization is hypothesized to change party rhetoric in a cartel-like manner by diminishing voters? expectations, and also by avoiding EU-affairs in electoral manifestos. The hypothesis suggests, moreover, that Europeanization is reflected in convergence among parties regarding the rhetoric concerning EU-affairs. The purpose of the thesis is to examine to what extent the rhetoric concerning EU-affairs has changed in electoral manifestos sinceSwedenjoined the European Union in 1995.

Background: The Swedish Police authorities have accomplished several changes the last years. We have studied one of these changes, the co-ordination of two supporting functions, economy and staffadministration at the Police authorities in Östergötland, Jönköping, Södermanland and SKL (Swedish crime technical laboratory). The initiative to this change was taken in 2002 and in 2003 a decision was made to create a joint servicecenter.Purpose: The purpose of this rapport is, in a collaborator perspective, to study the employees´ experiences of the change process.Method: The empirical material was collected throw interviews with the employees who have taken part in the change process. Even the leader of the project has been interviewed.Results: We have distinguished five central aspects in the change process. These are information/communication and understanding, the project leader, teamwork, timeaspect/reflexion and the leadership.

Due to the political system in Vietnam, all organizations in Vietnam need a permit to operate in the country and consequently, have to balance their mission, their main purpose of being in the country, with the fact that they are dependant on the government to give them the permit they need to stay in the country.With this as our basis, the main focus of this essay has been to identify different types of relations that exist between the Vietnamese state and International Non Governmental Organisations (INGOs) in Vietnam. Since we have interviewed people representing INGOs, our result is based on their experience of this relationship. By using Najam's Four-C's Model, we established that the more traditional INGOs which principally provide services, predominantly have a cooperative relationship with the state, whereas radical INGOs which are committed to policy change, mostly have a relationship which is characterised by conflict..

In this examination project I look into what ways upper secondary school students conceive themselves as politically influenced before they voted for the general election of 2010. The purpose is to examine which influences the upper secondary school surroundings and the classes of civic education are contributing with to students before they voted. As a method, I have used personal, semi-structural interviews on eight upper secondary school students who all voted for a party represented in the parliament. I have asked questions about how they believe their parents, the surroundings of their school and the classes of civic education have influenced them. To separate which influences primarily the upper secondary school and the classes of civic educations have had on the students, I have selected two comparison groups of four students in each.

The aim of this study is to investigate wether the participatory democracy is a threat or a complement to the representative democracy. To achieve my purpose I will focus on two different lokal councils, the civil council in Hovsjö and the youth council in Västra Skogås, which have been objects of the urban policy in 1998. The theoretical framework on which this study is based consists of the participation democratic theory, representative democratic theory and implementation theory. By problemizing these theoretical frameworks in comparison with eachother I will mapp how these two lokal councils were implemented. The research question is: In what way was the civil council and the youth council a complement or threat to the representative democracy? In which way was it difficult to implement them?The method used for this purpose is a qualitative comparative case study.

Långvarigt styre av ett och samma parti är skadligt för det politiska samtalet, även på en mycket lokal nivå. Den slutsatsen kan dras efter en jämförelse av den politiska diskussionen i tre skånska kommuner, Vellinge, Lomma och Osby. I såväl en kvantitativ textanalys av lokaltidningarna, tidsmätningar av kommunfullmäktige¬mötena och intervjuer med fritidspolitiker framträder samma mönster, där Osby kommun (med skiftande majoritet i de senaste fem valen) har ett mer livaktigt politiskt samtal, medan det moderatdominerade Vellinge haft betydligt mindre diskussion.Slutsatsen stärks ytterligare av att resultaten inte upprepas när samma mätningar görs 1985, då de tre kommunerna haft likartade majoritetsställningar i föregående val..