The liberal state, it has been argued, must be neutral between different conceptions of the good. Embodying ideals such as fairness and impartiality, state neutrality is intuitively appealing, but working as a restraint for state actions it is somewhat unsatisfactory. People make mistakes about their lives and people live less valuable lives than they could do. To then restrain the state from doing as much good as it can seems just as unappealing as neutrality at first seemed appealing. In this paper, a possible solution to this dilemma is presented.

The disciplinary role of madness in the European society was major during the17th century rise of the national state.By studying the view on madness in Swedish governmental investigations duringthe modern years of the Swedish psychiatry, 1950 to today, it's possible to seehow madness function in society have changed. The study is based on a discourseanalysis and done in three important aspects of Michel Foucault's philosophy:terms of existence, control and knowledge.Based on Foucault's theories of self-discipline, exclusion mechanisms and adetailed investigation on the concept of power, the empirical survey shows howthe ?crazy? Swede changes from a disciplinary object of society into a drone toserve under the structures of capitalism. In a psychological condition previousscience has judged as animal..

This thesis examines the conditions for participation in the decision making process of a possible mine establishment in Storuman municipality in the north of Sweden. This is done through a case study where the main actors are the mining company Nickel Mountain AB, the municipality Storuman and the Sami village Vapsten. As a theoretical framework Cecilia Eriksson?s division of democratic theories is used as a starting point. Methods as described in deliberative democratic theory, such as discussion by effected community members, are seen as a method within the participatory democratic tradition, not a theory of its own.

AbstractIn this thesis I will discuss the relationship between the European Union and the regions of Europe. The development of the European Union has meant that many decisions are taken in Bruxelles. Many actors participate in the policyprocess ranging from national goverment to policynetworks of different kinds. An emerging actor has been the regions of Europe. Their influence on the policyprocess have grown and today almost all of them are represented in Bruxelles through Region Offices.

Det råder brist på transparens och ansvarsutkrävande i många afrikanskaförvaltningar. Dessa demokrativärden är centrala för utveckling och de börinstitutionaliseras. Denna uppsats analyserar hur stigberoende och historiskafaktorer har varit avgörande för denna institutionaliserings framgång. Fyrafaktorers påverkan på transparens och ansvarsutkrävande undersöks. Dessa ärreformer och internationell påverkan, förvaltningens struktur, juridiska system ochinstitutionaliserad tillit.

Uppsatsen utreder vilka faktorer som påverkade konstituerandet av en palestinsk identitet mellan 1870-1920. Med bakgrund av ett teoretiskt ramverk om nationell identitet undersöks fyra teman i uppsatsen som behandlar: i vilken kontext en palestinsk identitet utvecklades under Osmanska riket, hur den arabiska pressens påverkade etablerandet av en nationell identitet och vilken inverkan politiska faktorer och demografiska förändringar hade på processen, däribland vilken roll Storbritanniens utrikespolitik spelade. Det framkommer i uppsatsen att en nationell identitet förstärks när en folkgrupp upplever att den befinner sig i en situation som anses ansträngd. Faktorer som tycks hota gruppens sammansättning blir då vägledande för hur den sociala identiten framställs och framhålls i relation till vilka/vad som uppfattas att vara hotande..

Authors: Martin Mederyd Hårdh, Frida Nygren, Daniel PaulssonTitle: Under Extreme PressureLevel: Bachelor of JournalismLocation: University of GothenburgLanguage: SwedishMethod: Quantitative content analysisPages: 38Politically motivated extremism is a common topic in the Swedish public debate ? and hence in Swedish media. The purpose of our study is to get an idea of how the media relates to the extremist groupings. On a traditional political scale, ranging from left to right, our study focuses on the Swedish extremists who figure on the outskirts of this scale; The ones who denounce the current system and opt for violence to change it.Violence is often an instrument used to get extreme political ideals in the public eye, and is seen as a threat to the Swedish democracy and the public in general. Both sides argue that the Swedish press is tendentious and treat the various extremist groups differently, airing their distrust for the media as a propaganda tool for these groups to establish themselves in the public debate.Our study consists of a quantitative content analysis where we study articles published in print by seven major Swedish newspapers.

Denna uppsats behandlar hur Dagens Nyheter och Hufvudstadsbladet har rapporterat om den planerade gasledningen genom Östersjön och det ryska parlamentsvalet 2007. I uppsatsen används attributionsteorin för att genomföra en kvalitativ textanalys av ledare i de båda tidningarna. De utvalda ledarna har skrivits angående de båda händelserna och är skrivna under perioden 2007-01-01 till 2007-12-14. Uppsatsen använder sig av den metod och teori som Stefan Höjelid använde i sin doktorsavhandling "sovjetbilden i nordisk press". Med hjälp av attributionsteorin kan vi se distinkta olikheter, men även likheter i ledarnas orsaksförklaringar till händelserna.

This thesis examines organisations as mediators and how different kinds of organisations have different prerequisites to act as mediators. Global, regional and subregional organisations are often asked to mediate in conflicts, but considering the circumstances, who should mediate?In a mediating process the mediator should be considered as important an actor as the disputing parties and should hence be scrutinized as one. Mediation is a complex subject to study and theoretically the opinions differ on what characterises a good mediator. I have taken many of the different views in consideration and constructed a model from which organisations and their prerequisites can be compared and evaluated.

The aim of the thesis is to highlight external factors to explain why the EMU was created. The external factor considered here is the monetary policy of the United States, which often conflicted with European interests. The statistical data in the thesis, as well as previous research, show that even though the EU economically in many ways had become an equal partner of the US during the second half of the 20th century, the union still faced US influence and dependence.The results of the thesis can be explained with neorealist theories on power measured as an actor's distribution of capabilities and balancing of power. An actor that is equipped with the world's leading currency is more independent from others. Other actors, on the other hand, become increasingly dependent on the major currency and the policy of its owner.

In this thesis I analyse and discuss what impact the 2003 U.S lead intervention in Iraq, had for the cooperation against global terrorism between the European Union and the United States. Six years have passed since the Bush administration decided to go on with the intervention, even though they did not have the necessary UN mandate. Due to unsuccessful argumentation in favour of the intervention by the Bush administration, the world got divided. George W. Bush reference to a ?war on terror?, which passed almost unnoticed by Americans, rang alarm bells in many European countries.

Forskningen om teorin gällande sambandsförhållandet socioekonomisk utveckling och demokrati, även kallad moderniseringsteorin, har pågått sedan slutet av 1950-talet och pågår än idag. Jag har gett mig in på att göra en egen studie av sambandsförhållandet för att försöka verifiera eller falsifiera teorin. Detta är ingen enkel uppgift då det är mycket svårt att bevisa att det är just variabeln X som orsakat variabeln Y, men jag har gjort ett försök.Jag har gjort en kvantitativ studie där jag mäter sambandet mellan socioekonomisk utveckling och demokrati, mätt i HDI respektive Freedom House frihetsindex, i alla länder som det finns tillgänglig data för. Som ett komplement till detta har jag även gjort en mindre fallstudie av Kuba som är ett avvikande fall från teorin. Kuba har hög socioekonomisk utveckling men är odemokratiskt styrt, frågan är varför?.

Sedan 1998 tillämpar den svenska grundskolan ett nytt betygsystem som ska vara mål- och resultatrelaterat. Elever med samma kunskaper ska få samma betyg i hela landet. Mål och betygskriterier är fastställda. Lärare, elever och alla andra kan alltså känna till vad som krävs för de olika betygsstegen: G, VG och MVG.Men Skolverket konstaterar i en rapport att likvärdiga betyg inte ges. Genom att jämföra skolors resultat på nationella prov i engelska, matematik och svenska med de betyg som ges i årskurs 9 några få månader senare står detta klart.Min uppsats granskar de icke likvärdiga betygen.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the politics and activities of the Social Democratic students´ association Spartakus. Their relationships and political and ideological differences towards the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) and the remaining parts of the Social Democratic youth organisation (SSU) in Linköping during 1969-1971 are examined. To fulfil this aim I have studied relevant literature and interviewed people who were active in Spartakus, as well as people from SSU and SAP in the municipal during the period. I have also studied written material produced by the students´ association itself during the period. The theoretical frame of reference consists of Dahl´s theory on a democratic political order, and party theories like the mass party theory of Duverger, theories from Sjöblom, Panebianco, Lipset and Tingsten and also Gidlund&Möller´s theory about different kinds of party members.

Essay in political science, C-level by Mikael GranathAutumn semester 2012, Tutor: Freddy Kjellström- Ideological convergence in Swedish party politics?- An analysis of ideologies of the Swedish Social Democratic party and the Swedish Moderateparty and their healthcare and health service policies between the years of 2002 and 2010.The main purpose of this study is to examine the truthfulness in the common perception thatthe Swedish moderate party and the Swedish social democratic party are increasingly sharingthe same political views - particularly between the years of 2002 and 2010. The main researchquestion is:?Did the Swedish Moderate party and the Swedish Social Democratic partyideologically position themselves closer in the year of 2002 than they did in 2010within the health care policy area?The research design chosen for this study can be labelled as a comparative case study wherethe two political parties party programs and election manifestos that were current in the yearof 2002 and 2010 are studied. This is done to give a better view of ideological change.