Is the Muslim Brotherhood a political force that can be able to push Egyptian society in to the process of democratization? We think that the answer to that question is yes, even though the movement clearly state that their main aim to create a democratic state, but based upon the Islamic shari?ah-laws. In this paper, we examine if the Brotherhoods? political platforms and ideas are compatible with the classic ideas of how a democratic state should be. We discuss Robert A.

The means to political participation at the local level in Sweden are changing and this change is analyzed through a case study. The first aim is to explore the forms of public political participation in Swedish municipal Älvkarleby, namely public question time in local government, citizen motions and open meetings. A part of this is also to analyze he every day contact between citizens and representatives. The second aim concerns the reasons why politicians decide to support these means to participationThe empirical material consists mainly of semi structured interviews with local politicians, civil servants, participating citizens and local press. Official documents such as public minutes are also used in the process of creating an image of local participation.Local political participation is found to be limited but yet having the potential to strengthen democracy, provided that public decision-makers are open to a dialogue with the participants.Using Kjell Arne Røvik's theories of organisational change, the changes in local democracy can be explained as being partly rational, partly symbolic and partly identity shaping political decisions..

AbstractTitle: From old rightwing-ghost to the new labour party ? The new conservatives political communication during the Swedish election 2006Authors: Pontus CarestenAim: The aim of the essay is to study how the conservative party communicated during the election campaign in 2006. I wish to find out how political parties work in todays society and how the communication has changed over time. To get relevant results I will also see how the theories and empirics interact. The purpose is further to illustrate the new conservatives? campaign work from a senders point of view.Method/Material: I have chosen a qualitative method which consists of three interviews with relevant key persons.

There are lots of theories about participatory democracy, but rather few examples of how to create it in practice. In the 1930´s, scientists at the Chicago School, implemented some projects within the Chicago Area Project, with the aim to decrease the youth delinquency in the socio disadvantaged areas surrounding Chicago. In this thesis, I assess wether these projects, and in particular the one at the Russell Square Area, have some common features with the thoughts of two of the most famous participatory democrats, Carole Pateman and Benjamin Barber. My question is if the Chicago Area Project could be seen as an experiment in participatory democracy. I find that participatory democrats could benefit from the experiences of the Chicago Area Project.

In Jan Jagers and Stefaan Walgrave theory about populism as a political communication-style they claim that one can find this in the rhetoric of political parties. In their study of Belgian politics they found that the extreme-right party Vlaams Block has embraced this populism to a larger extent than other parties. Based on this theory this thesis aims at finding populism as a communication-style in three different Swedish political parties with the purpose to see if the extreme-right party ?The Sweden Democrats? will show populism to a larger extent than other parties, as was the case in the Belgian study.Based on Jagers and Walgraves operational definition of populism as a political communication-style this thesis applies it to the rhetoric of three different parties being ?The Social Democratic Party?, ?The Moderate Party? and ?The Sweden Democrats?. This is done in order to be able to clarify on the one hand if their theory is applicable to the Swedish case and on the other hand to what extent populism as a communication-style exists in Swedish political rhetoric.The method for this thesis has been a qualitative text analysis since and leads to the result that Jagers and Walgraves theory of populism as a communication-style is applicable to the Swedish case and that ?The Sweden Democrats? to a larger extent uses this political communication style, than the two other parties..

When it comes to investigating the motives behind activism, the members of political study have a lot to say. I aimed to critiqually rewiev this in my thesis. I asked the question ?What do the actor themselves claim lay behin their decision to become motivated?? To highlight this complex dilemma, I sought to discuss new social movement theory by comparing it to reality. This includes a literate examination on contemporary political science approaches, and a study of two organisations in the south of Sweden, choosen not to despise any excisting theory, but to give it a sense of reality.

The goal of this essay is to analyse how women belonging to a right wing political discourse talk about feminism and equality. This analysis will be used to determine if right wing feminism exists. The analysis is based on Laclau and Mouffe´s  discourse theory as the primary base. The focus is articulation, antagonism and hegmony; the central terms of Laclau and Moffe´s theroy. The material consists of five interviews with representatives of women wings of liberal political in Sweaden; Liberala kvinnor, Centerkvinnor and Moderatkvinnor.The study shows that there are different opinions regarding feminism in the liberal political discouse, and that those opinions have an antagonistic relationship.

For the last decades, Sweden has transformed from a state with strong elements of corporatism, to a governance of pluralistic character. This development has opened up to a new form of participation ? lobbyism ? which since has spread and commercialized. Because of this, a report on the state of Swedish democracy ? Demokratiutredningen ? was issued to examine the phenomenon of lobbyism as it was feared to challenge the functioning of a representative democracy.

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..

Motivation: The aim of this study has been to conduct a comparative study concerning how race, ethnicity and class is represented in American contrary to Swedish daily press and from there on to explore and explain similarities and differences that have been found in the material.Problem statement:? How is race, ethnicity and class represented in American contrary Swedish daily press?? What are the similarities and differences between the countries? daily news flow?? What causes the similiarities and differences to achieve their current form?Material: The material which has been the subject of this study consists of eight articles ? four American articles (USA Today) and four Swedish articles (Dagens Nyheter). The material has been elected to meet certain criterias and mainly discusses the effects the health care reform will have on the American population.Approach: The material has been approached by using theories concerned with race, ethnicity, class and framing. The method used to analyze the material was Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA).Results: The results shows significant similarities, although mainly differences, between the countries? daily news flow.

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..

This essay analyses the arguments of The Swedish Government Official Report 2008:88 which proposes that the Swedish law (SFS) should shift from promulgation in print to elec-tronic promulgation on a Website. I have studied two aspects of the arguments in the text. On the one hand, the Inquiry?s description of how things might become if their proposal becomes effectuated and, on the other hand, how the present situation is described in the text. The theory I have used is called A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice, which pictures organizations as often irrational in dealing with problems, solutions and decision making.

Recent studies have reemphasized the importance of competition in democracy. An ideaoriginating from Weber: that demoeratic competition leads to more qualified leaders, has been resurrected. Research shows that democracies are more Iikely to elect leaders with a high leve l of education, and with in demoeratic states stronger competition correlates with elected politicians with higher education, more political experience and higher previous income. This study researehes whether the earrelation between greater competition and electedcandirlates with higher "Curriculum vitae-qualities" holds between electoral systems. Does a more competitive electoral system elect candirlates that score higher on such measures? Using education as a proxy forthese qualities the study traces different outcomes on education in a mixed electoral system, camparing the majoritarian (more competitive) part of the electoral system with the prop011ional (less competitive) part.

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.