In this thesis I discuss and analyse the relationship between USA and Europe since the end of the Cold War. Many authors claimed that the Soviet threat was the glue that kept the continents together. Now that threat is gone and new challenges have risen. In what way has this relationship been influenced by the new challenges this new era stands for? By doing a case study and by using two quite different theorists, John Mearsheimer an offensive realist and Joseph Nye who is a liberal institutionalist, I?ll try to show how for example September 11, anti-amerikanism and NATO can be explained and understood.

The purpose of this study was to examine the political party ?Feministiskt initiativ? (Fi) and their communication during the election campaign 2006. We wanted to find out what the intention was and how the communication was received by the public. We also looked for signs of congruence between those two sides.Fi is the first political party with a feministic ideology to candidate for the parliament in Sweden. The party is rather new and their political standpoints and internal affairs have often been subject of for debate in the media.We wanted to investigate people?s individual opinions of the matter, and therefore we chose to personally interview a number of people.

In scientific investigations on how organizations can learn from their mistakes the perspective is usually that of the social engineer; the object is to prevent human errors through modeling the system in a certain way. The aim of this paper is to explore the learning process from a different standpoint than those usually applied in organizational learning and error theory. By studying the learning process in Swedish health care I seek to discover how theoretical presumptions affect the outcome in terms of what we actually learn. The theoretical framework draws on two major discussions in contemporary political science; the question of structure and agency and the question of whether to focus on formal or informal structures when explaining organizational behavior.The investigation shows that Swedish health care tend to understand human errors as a result of formal organizational structure. Such a view leads to insufficient explanations to why errors occur but is useful in producing preventative measures.

This essay is about democracy and how a democracy index can be used as a tool to illustratethe gap between reality and ideal. The purpose of this study can be expressed by two researchquestions: Does the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) democracy index illustrate thedistance between reality and the ideal of democracy presented by Dahl? and Can the EIU'sdemocracy index be modified by a) internal adjustments and b) using the variables includedin World Economic Forum?s (WEF) equality index?By using a combination of theories (Dahl?s theory of democracy, Rawls theory of justice andchosen theories critical to liberal democracy) as an analytical framework the following twoquestions have been answered:1) Which of the variables included in the EIU's democracy index have the potential to capturethe level of political equality?2) Which of the variables included in the WEF?s equality index have the potential to capturethe degree of political equality?By using a quantitative method the study?s third and last question has been answered:3) How strong is the rank correlation between the EIU?s democracy index and the WEF?sequality index, that is; how strong is the rank correlation coefficient (rho)?The data presented by the WEF?s equality index indicate that women are systematicallydiscriminated against as a group. From a democratic perspective the EIU may need tomeasure inequalities at a group level in order to capture the lack of political equality betweenindividuals. By reformulating some of the EIU?s variables, by revising the EIU?s point systemand by using the variables included in the WEF's equality index to extend EIU?s democracyindex, the chances of capturing the gap between reality and the ideal of democracy presentedby Dahl would likely increase..

According to old european tradition the ideal national state has a unified people, but in reality practically all states has one of several minorities that to a smaller or greater degree differs from the majority. One such minority that have been present in many countries and managed to avoid becoming completly assimilated are the jewish people. Their dream of a state of their own eventually lead to the founding of the state of Israel where they themselves are now in majority. The purpose of this report is to study how the jews historic experiances has affected the political parties in Israel, how they choose to meet the ?challenge? of their own minorities och whatever they treat different minorites differently.

The purpose of this paper was to discuss stigma and stigmatisation in relation to social policy and social work. By discussing welfare systems in social policy I wanted to see if there could be any connection between social policy and stigma. I used case studies of hearing impaired adults to give examples of how the stigma processes work. By connecting the stigma and the social policy theories with the case studies I wanted to see how the social policy could affect the stigma processes or vice versa.In the paper the concept of stigma has been described and discussed, foremost using the theories of Erving Goffman. I have also discussed the welfare system and the connection between residual systems and stigma.

Denna B-uppsats behandlar huruvida Polen som medlem av europeiska unionen har stort eller litet inflytande. Vi har genomfört en fallstudie på Polen som är uppdelad i två sektioner. Den första sektionen behandlar Polens potentiella inflytande i EU, där vi har mätt olika indikatorer för att få fram variabler som påvisar inflytande. Indikatorerna baserar vi på en teoretisk diskussion om makt, där vi utgår från olika tänkare inom samhällsvetenskapen. I den andra sektionen har vi studerat Polens reella inflytande genom att se vilka krav Polen ställt inom den gemensamma jordbrukspolicyn (CAP) samt i vilken utsträckning man fått igenom dessa krav.Nyckelord: Polen, EU, makt, inflytande, CAP.

AbstractPurpose: The purpose of this thesis was to examine to which extant the politically governed organization, Swedish association of local authorities and local regions (SALAR), has been mediatized. Furthermore the purpose was to examine how SALAR being a Meta-organization affected the mediatization process. To accomplish this the thesis studied how SALAR organized themselves internally in order to form opinion through the media in one of their prioritized issues. A further purpose was to equalize SALAR?s mediatization process with the mediatization process for the whole political system. Method: This is a qualitative study which the gathered material has been collected through two types of methods, semi structured interviews and field observations.Material: A total of eight interviews were made distributed over three departments inside SALAR.

The Catalan movement of Independence is a well debated subject in Spanish news for the last decade. This thesis aims to examine what kind of identityarguments that spanish versus catalan newspapers make about the independence movement, in relation to nationalism and national identity. This is to deeper the understanding about the current complex situation in the Iberian Peninsula. The research shows that identityarguments about the independence movement presented by catalonian newspapers clearly put focus on identifying the ethnic and cultural reasons for the growing nationalism in the region, as well as discussing the political possibilities and obstacles of a sovereign Catalonia. In comparison, the identityarguments presented by spanish newspapers has another view of the situation, where the political aspect of the nationalistic catalan movement, identify the process as defying the Spanish Constitution and challenging the traditional historic unity of Spain.

Detta arbete rör sig inom det organisationsteoretiska området. Ämnet som behandlas är kontrollspann och vad som påverkar och påverkas av detta. Vi har funnit att det finns en stor mängd olika faktorer som kan sägas påverka hur en organisation väljer eller bör välja att strukturera sig. I uppsatsens första del har vi försökt identifiera vilka effekter olika breda kontrollspann kan tänkas ha för en verksamhet samt vilka rekommendationer som finns i den existerande forskningen kring kontrollspann.I andra delen av uppsatsen undersöker vi Lunds universitetssjukhus akutmottagning, där man nyligen (2006) genomfört en omorganisation som bla innebar avsmalnande av första linjens chefers kontrollspann. Vi har funnit att många av de effekter som man kunnat förvänta sig inte har inträffat i vårt exempelfall..

Lately information- and communication technology (ICT) has been seen as an important tool to vitalize democracy. What kind of democracy it generates is however debateable. The objective with this thesis is therefore to examine what democratic ideal that dominates the use of ICT in Region Skåne and Västra Götalandsregionen and what kind of citizenship it brings. The two case studies were chosen because the Swedish regional level is facing a reorganization with democratic ambitions which in relation to ICT is fairly unexplored. To fulfil the objective there are two perspectives; e-democracy and e-administration, which are defined and integrated with democratic theory including Premfors´ "Fast, Strong and Thin" democratic ideals and Marshall´s three citizenship rights.

This study looks at how probation, client experiences, and criminal policy decisions affect recidivism in Sweden. Gaining a thorough grasp of how social, organizational, and political issues interact and impact the chances of rehabilitation and reintegration is the goal. Three research questions are addressed in the study: First, what are the causes of recidivism? Second, how is probation perceived by staff and clients in terms of control and support? Thirdly, what effects do political decisions have on probation services' operations and clients' chances for recovery?? A qualitative study was conducted with semi-structured interviews with twelve respondents, eight probation clients, three probation officers and one parliamentary politician. There were six themes that discussed the issue of recidivism from different perspectives, the collected data was analyzed through thematic content analysis.

AbstractThe political parties in Sweden are losing members. This is seen as a problem because the political parties are the base and the recruiting ground for members to decision-making bodies. Social movements are seen as a place where people with a modest background could express their opinions and also learn the political process. These movements have also lost members during the last decades and this could seriously affect the representation of lower social groups among the decision-makers. This essay emanates from Robert D.

Taiwan has over the past thirty years experienced a substantial political transformation. Being ruled by Chinese nationalists since World War II, Taiwan started its democratic transition in the late eighties. The new democratic system did not only provide people with freedom to vote, it also marked the beginning of a search for a new national identity. Based on the international theory of constructivism, this paper defines and studies the Taiwanese people?s progression away from a dominant Chinese national identity towards a uniquely defined Taiwanese identity.

Bakgrund: Lean Production uppkom som ett verktyg för att sänka kostnader och därmed öka konkurrenskraften på en allt mer hårdnad marknad. Synen på processtänkande och dess möjligheter har under senare årtionden ökat markant i intresse, däremot har ekonomisystemen inte förändrats i samma takt. Granlund (2001) menar att trots det starka trycket att förändra kalkyleringen använder många företag sig fortfarande av traditionella påläggskalkyler med direkt lön som fördelningsbas. Kaplan & Johnsson belyste redan 1987 problemet och argumenterade för hur traditionella kalkylsystem ger en allt för aggregerad och snedvrängd bild av verkligheten. Den debatt som uppstod är känd under namnet Relevance Lost.