The purpose of this thesis is to examine and analyze why, in the case of Afghanistan, the government chose to establish a highly centralized political system, when from a democratic standpoint a less centralized system would be preferable.The time period that is examined span from 2001 when the so-called Bonn-Accord was signed, to the parliamentary elections held in 2005, a period often referred to as the Bonn-process.The theoretical framework examines both the complex relations between federalism and democracy, as well as the relation between federalism and the role of existent ethnic minorities. The theoretical framework is then used in order to explain why it would be problematic to create a federal system in Afghanistan under the present circumstances.The conclusions that can be drawn are the following: In case of the republic Afghanistan the creation and implementation of a highly centralized political system was the only possible way for the government to be able to cope and practically deal with the problems of existent ethnic antagonism and regional warlords in order to create a stable political situation in the country..

The purpose of this study is to analyse the discourse on political exclusion in the official report Demokratiutredningen. It has been my ambition to relate the analysis of the report to a critical academic discourse on political exclusion and thereby make visible hidden norms and structures which functions to exclude certain individuals and groups from political participation.My paper point out that the report establishes a strong link between democracy and participation and that it, therefore, makes a strong case for a process of democratic inclusion. Though, in my study I suggest that that there is an unawareness of the importance of norms, hegemonic conceptions and structures and that inclusion, therefore, is unlikely to take place. Furthermore, I criticize the focus on deliberative democracy in the report. With insights offered by Mouffe in her argumentation on the necessity to acknowledge the dimension of antagonism present in all societies I underline that the focus on this democratic model is problematic.My conclusion is that the analysis presented in the report is insufficient if we want to create a democratic system characterized by equality..

It is the aim of this paper to examine, and analyze at a discursive level, the Swedish Democrats' interpretation of the term 'human rights', as this is presented in the material available on the party's official website. The goal is then to investigate in what manner the party portrays its political ambitions in relation to 'human rights'. The theoretical foundation for this analysis is discourse theory as it is presented in the works of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe.Furthermore, the aim is also to examine whether the Swedish Democrats? interpretation of 'human rights' is compatible with the established understanding of the term, such as this is presented in the international UN treaties on human rights. This will be done by thoroughly examining and comparing certain aspects of the Swedish Democrats' political ambitions, such as they have been portrayed in the analytical section of the paper, with relevant sections of the UN treaties..

Abstract This qualitative interview study focuses on job coaching by examining what thoughts, views and opinions the involved parties, such as job applicants and job coaches, have of the contribution. The aim is to highlight the obstacles and opportunities by examining the expectations that exist from both parties as well as how to look at job coaching and its different areas. In this context, examine the similarities and differences between the two parties approach to the contribution. This is made possible through four interviews with job applicants as well as four interviews with job coaches. A grounded theory inspired approach was used to obtain the results of the study.

The purpose of this essay is to give the reader an insight in the subject of torture. This is done through both an historical perspective and by showing how torture methods are used today, even though torture is prohibited by law. Many refugees who come to Sweden today have survived torture, and the trauma can cause multiple illnesses related to the tragic memories. In addition to physical damage many also suffer from depression and post traumatic stress, due to the experiences of torture.Together with the Swedish Red Cross we designed a questionnaire which was sent to politicians and elected officials. In the questionnaire we asked questions concerning knowledge of injuries due to torture and what treatment options these people have in Sweden.

Liberal theorists typically argue that state action should not favor any particular conception of the good or meaningful life. On this view the defining characteristic of the liberal state is neutrality among rivaling ideas of the good. This thesis argues that state neutrality is impossible to maintain in practice. Two different versions of state neutrality; neutral justification and neutral aims, are used to analyze a wide range of political issues. It is concluded that far from being neutral, the liberal state favors individualistic and market oriented conceptions of the good life.

The aim of this paper is to empirically examine the ideological trends and positioning of the Swedish liberal party with the Danish social liberal party. This paper also aims to analyze the reasons behind the trends. By examine the development in these two Nordic liberal sisterparties, this paper contributes to our understanding of why and how party change is initiated. The paper commences with an intuitive notion that the Swedish party has in fact, made a lurch towards the right, during the past ten to fifteen years while the Danish party has retained their social-liberal position in the centre of the Danish political spectrum. The questions then asked are: can this hypothesis be verified empirically? If so, how can this phenomenon of divergence, be explained?The method used in this thesis is process-tracing and the empirical material does to a large extent rely on interviews with central agents as they are specified in the theory of each party.

The consociational democracy model in Macedonia, which came out from a warcrisis and a peace agreement from 2001, in addition, putting an end to the violent conflict, actually admits the division of the society along the ethnic lines. Paradoxically, there is an attempt to bridge the ethnic gap with this model. As a result, the consociational democracy model holds solutions that can be abused if somebody misuses its power and desires to disintegrate the country. The future development depends therefore on the moderate attitude of the citizens, and first and foremost, on the political elites and their commitment to the values of democracy and human rights instead of their nationalistic goals. Furthermore, thepresent democratic consolidation in Macedonia is established on the execution of the peace agreement and the improved effectiveness of the institutions.

The word crisis is often used in everyday language, but according to political theory it actually refers to a crisis situation within a country where national interests suddenly are at stake demanding that important and complex decisions must be made within certain time constraints. These decisions can in turn lead up to most fatal consequences. USA, being one of the world's superpowers is most certainly involved in crisis situations directly or indirectly, frequently or more seldom. Amounts of people get suddenly involved and even more people can be drawn in by the decisions that are made thereby. Research has shown that the character of a leader affects decision-making.

This paper deals with a partly new development in the Swedish law system, somewhere in the boundary between political science and jurisprudence. A new instrument -artbrott- has successively become more popular among lawyers and politicians. The new instrument -here translated to classified crimes- signifies that the perpetrator is sentenced to prison even though the seriousness of the crime committed is not in itself serious enough for such a consequence. The reason for this policy stance is to create a prevention against crime of that specific character among the public. The use of this instrument has grown considerably both concerning types of crimes as well as in application.

AbstractDue to the success of the Populist Party Sverigedemokraterna in the Swedish election of 2006, the daily paper Sydsvenska Dagbladet published a number of columns written by well-known academics, writers and debaters. Their aim was to address the question of why this happened in the election and what it is in the Swedish society today that brought forward these trends. The first and the last word was given to the writer Fredrik Ekelund, and therefore the debate was named Ekelunddebatten.The debaters are fighting to present their view of the world as the only option when categorizing different societal groups and appointing themselves as group representatives. My aim is to unravel these different conceptions of the world and to do this I use the Dicourse Analysis as a method. I discuss the results with Critical Discourse Theory as a theoretical base and also from the view of the current societal discourses: the working class discourse, the multicultural discourse and the discourse of political correctness.I mainly observe four different conceptions of the world with different posing of problems.

Aims: The aim of this study is to describe how youth?s political exclusion is constructed as asocial problem. This is done through a study of a project which aim is to engage young peoplein politics.Method and theory: By interviewing the project?s manager and developer as well as eightparticipating young people different constructions of the problem of youth political exclusionhas been analyzed using the social constructionist perspective on social problems.Findings: The dominant perspective found in the empirical material includes framing youngpeople?s lack of political knowledge and self-confidence as the reason for their politicalexclusion. Even though the Youth Board (ungdomsstyrelsen) in Sweden officially views allyoung people as a resource, when youth politics are implemented through projects, this is notthe view that young people meet.

The aim of this paper is to illuminate and discuss the political and ideological aspects of Early Medieval Nordic music. Due to shortage of sources, this issue has been overlooked until now. Did Early Medieval Nordic music meet the requirements for political and ideological use? In what ways could music potentially be used politically and ideologically? Was music used as a political and ideological tool? This is examined by a contextual analysis combining music history and historical archaeology. The survey consists of a background account, focusing on the potential of music and some requests for political use, and three case studies, where musical reflections of societal tensions is investigated in folk music lyrics, Icelandic sagas and church art.

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.

Political realism is a general theory within political science focusing on the principle interest defined as power. The theory?s mutual standpoint is that states are inspired by power politics meaning that military and economic power or security stands in the centre while moral and ethics are placed in the periphery. This essay?s purpose is to analyze realism which helps to understand the development and change of the perspective.