This paper examines whether membership in the European Union has contributed to democratic stability and integration in an ethnic diverse society. By studying the Latvian multicultural society, before and after membership in the EU, the author is looking for evidence of enhanced ethnic stability in the country brought through European integration. The author will analyze what the consequences have been, by adopting European regional policy, for a country that yet has to create a unified national identity. By analyzing different areas of the Latvian society, the author has concluded that the EU has played a small but yet not insignificant role for the Latvian domestic integration process..

I denna uppsats försöker jag utreda Bushadministrationens motiv bakom Irakkriget 2003. Detta gör jag med hjälp av motivanalysen där jag testar aktörens motiveringar, så kallade motivindikatorer bakom det militära intrånget i Irak. Motiveringarna kan återfinnas i bl.a. offentliga tal men de måste utsättas för ett antal tester med avsikt att framställa de bakomliggande motiven. Genom att exempelvis mäta korrespondensen mellan utsaga och handling kommer jag ett steg närmare de gripbara motiven.

Abstract Mona Sahlin's dishwasher decides the election! Maybe. How journalism portraits politics is at least not fully objective with focus on societal matters. There is also a change over time indicating an up-going trend of less objective journalism. Other results of this case study indicates that politicians are more inclined to participate in journalism than before and that politics presented as scandal is increasing.The aim of this study is to investigate objectivity in political journalism over time. Using the quantitative content-analyses the study encoded 600 journalistic articles subjecting politics in the Swedish society.

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.

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.

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.

AbstractStudent democracy as an objective and as a meansEssay in Political Science, D-levelAuthor: Erik LisshammarTutor: Susan MartonDespite attitudes towards student democracy being generally positive, students have almost no influence over their position. This implementation study looks into whether or not students? weak position of power results from something other than a democratising of schools taking priority when student influence is encouraged.With an aim of explaining what is hoped to be achieved and if these intentions are to be spread, the purpose is to investigate to what extent standards concerning student democracy are transferred between institutions. In order to find out, the question is posed of whether their aims for student democracy conform. This overriding question is coupled together with the following four defining research questions:1.

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..

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..

The collective agreement contains many important provisions concerning the relationship between employers and employees. When a collective agreement applies in the workplace, both employers and employees are bound by it. However, only employers of those two, can take part in the collective agreement, and therefore negotiate the content of it.The purpose of this study is to answer the following question: Why are rules that has been interpreted in collective agreements not expressed in writing? Therefore, the Swedish collective agreement system will be examined, and a distinction between types of silent regulations will be made to find causes. The potential for workers to act on a collective agreement with quiet regulations will also be examined.Collective agreements are signed on three levels: central, union and local levels.

The aim of this essay is to analyze how students are constituted as subjects in local curricula. The theoretical perspective is grounded in Michel Foucault?s notion of governmentality and power/knowledge and his critique of a sovereign subject. From this theoretical perspective I use Foucault?s concept of formation of objects and Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe?s idea of subject positioning as tools for a discourse analysis.