In the wake of the latest financial crisis, a group of individuals launched the Occupy WallStreet movement. It wanted to change the structures that economic and political life arefounded upon. They believe that the established structures are unfair and exploit the majorityof the population. Researchers critisised the movement saying it was ambiguous because itcould not produce any realistic ideas for change, while others thought that was a success forthe movement.Therefore, the aim of this Bachelor Thesis is to examine the different ideas articulatedby the Occupy movement and present them systematically. Through an inductive qualitativetext analysis six different themes are identified regarding how the movement wants to changethe structures in society to make them fair.

Civil disobedience constitutes an interesting ethical phenomena in the democraticstate since the people performing it consciously brakes laws and norms in societyfor purposes they themselves judge to be morally good and just. This thesisexamines whether the phenomena of civil disobedience is justifiable in ademocratic society.In this study civil disobedience is analyzed on two levels. First the problem isanalyzed on a theoretical level in relative to the three, by us established, values:respect for the law, the will of the majority and equality. Second, civildisobedience is analyzed on a more practical level where we test our theoreticalline of argument with the help of two example groups who engages in civildisobedience. The justification of civil disobedience is also analyzed through twoethical perspectives on acting, deontology and consequentialism.Our conclusion is that civil disobedience is justifiable on a theoretical level inrelative to the values we discuss.

 The purpose of this essay is to study the republican and socialist Northern Ireland political party Sinn Féin and to examine its legitimacy in the eyes of the citizens of Northern Ireland. Is it possible to have a political agenda that includes violence and still maintain legitimacy? The Irish Republican Army?s (IRA) military struggle was for a long time a part of the party?s political agenda. This strategy has been described as to have a ballot paper in one hand and an Armalite in the other, and successfully made Sinn Féin one of the province?s largest political parties.

To create fair conditions between majority and minority in Sweden is a challeging project. Male immigrants usually do not get same opportunities for a success identity structure and integration into Swedish society as women and children. The aim of this thesis is therefore to critically examine and analyse the processes regarding identity structure and integration for male immigrants with a specific focus on Helsingborg. The object of this study is Mansgrupp, a project which helps men to build up a secure ground for identity structure and which further helps them to integrate into the society. To be able to reach the results I have made a literature study as well as a minor field study in Helsingborg, where I conducted interviews with men from the above mentioned project.

The purpose of the essay is to analyze the welfare state from a gender perspective. Further, the paper analyzes and critically examines three different normative solutions provided by Irish Marion Young, Nancy Fraser and Jürgen Habermas for the realization of a welfare state that includes women.Habermas argues that the welfare state has created a situation of dependency and state paternalism which reduces both individual and collective self-determination. Young follows Habermas? argument. She argues for a political climate where justice is reduced to the distribution of material goods rather than the elimination of underlying relations of domination and gender specific patterns.

The aim of this study has been to, through a couple of chosen theories, examine in what way and for what purposes Japan has used its international aid system, How can the nation have been said to have implemented and acted in lines with the philosophies and principles set forth in the ODA declaration. What approaches, concerning positive and negative aid sanctions in the matters of aid to Cambodia and Burma, have been chosen and what have the motives for these choices been. What have been the determining factors of the outcome related to these sanctions - economic, political and/or matters of identity? I have found that a concern for possible decrease in economic profit and investment related areas, combined with a feared loss of political prestige and worsened diplomatic relations to the neighbouring countries in the Asian society, have come to overtrump the notion of advocating democracy, human rights, environmental and anti-militaristic issues..

This is a study about the relation between the Swedish school and the political system of Sweden. I wanted to see if the relation had changed since the election of 2010 as it was in that election the Sweden Democrats got over five percent of the votes and took seat in the Swedish parliament. The thing that is unique about this election is that it was really the first time a right-wing party had been elected into the Swedish parliament. Many experts argue that this is the first xenophobic party that has been elected into the Swedish parliament. This led to a problem for schools and their principals and a difficult question to answer because xenophobia is contrary to the school?s core values and the school?s democratic mission.Should the school still be open for political parties? How do schools manage to distinguish between political information and political propaganda? If parties still are welcome into the schools, which parties should be allowed? The equality ombudsman has said in a report that the schools have to comply with the principle of objectivity, which stipulates that the public sector has to be unbiased.I have chosen to make use of a qualitative method because I think the study then gets a deeper understanding of the topic.

The purpose of the essay is to analyze the welfare state from a gender perspective. Further, the paper analyzes and critically examines three different normative solutions provided by Irish Marion Young, Nancy Fraser and Jürgen Habermas for the realization of a welfare state that includes women.Habermas argues that the welfare state has created a situation of dependency and state paternalism which reduces both individual and collective self-determination. Young follows Habermas? argument. She argues for a political climate where justice is reduced to the distribution of material goods rather than the elimination of underlying relations of domination and gender specific patterns.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the content and work processes regarding the values written in the curriculum for Swedish high schools and compare it with theories regarding the individualized society and political moralism. After the clarification of the content in the values of Swedish high schools and the work processes that are supposed to give students fundamental understanding about them, I analyze and compere it to the theories that are presented in the study. The main questions of the study are the following: What kinds of values are found in the curriculum for Swedish high schools? In general, how do Swedish high schools work with the written values when focus have gone from education and learning to instrumental knowledge, results, abilities and flexibility?The result showed that the content and work processes regarding the values in Swedish high schools are purely instrumental and moralistic. Due to the fact, that the individualized society and the neoliberal ideology do not require reflection and real understanding regarding the values.

After the orange revolution in Ukraine, hope was given to achieve fullydemocracy in the whole society. However, this has not been the outcome; theUkrainian public administration still has problems to deliver what the societydemands. By answering the question: ?Which problems have the publicadministration to become democratic and how can we explain them??, we analyzethe failures within the public administration to accomplish democratic procedures.The empirical material in this thesis is mainly obtained from interviews andresearch during a field study in Ukraine. The problems for the civil servants inUkraine to act as guardians of the society are strongly connected to an inadequateprofessional knowledge.

In order for any society to exist there must be a sense of belonging. In other words "We" need to be made distinctive and differentiated from "the Others". The aim of this thesis is to examine the processes behind the making and upholding of collective identities and the consequences of doing so. Theories regarding stereotypes, enemy images, power over the discourse and glocalization have therefore been applied to an empirical example in the form of a case study.The study is made on the municipality of Laxå in Sweden. Representatives on assumed key positions have been interviewed on their and Laxå's inhabitants views on the asylum seekers in the community between the years 1986 and 2005.Yet another aim of the thesis is to examine the possible connection between the perceived collective identity and the decision to close down the asylum facility in Laxå.

The aim of this study is to analyze the change of Basque nationalism during the last ten years and discuss how the main nationalist party (PNV) tries to impose "we"- feelings and support for its cause. Theories of nationalism and national identity are used in the analysis.A textual analysis of PNV:s unofficial documents is discussed and compared with a discourse analysis of its official documents. Although the unofficial documents deal with similar view of basic political/territorial ambitions, language and identification, there are some differences in the latest documents regarding the view of who is defined as Basque and also to the detoriated relation to Spain. Although references are made to the regard that the Basque Country is for everyone, the persistence of emphasizing the uniqueness and myths of the Basque culture signals a different matter. The discourse analysis of the official documents supports this claim and although they contain an ambiguous relation to Spain it is clear that Basque nationalism has been radicalized.

Before 1944 homosexuality was an act of crime and you could be sentenced to prison for up to 2 years. This law only included men, women where not thought having homosexual activities. Although homosexuality was not a criminal act after 1944 it was still on the list over Swedish diseases, a list maid by the Swedish board of social affairs.The years between 1978 and 1984 a study of the homosexual life in society was maid. The most important thing that this study showed was that homosexuality means that you love someone of your own sex, and that you aren?t different from the rest of the society, except that you choose to love someone of the same sex.The work for equality between these two groups started after 1979 when the Swedish board of social affairs took homosexuality of their list over Swedish diseases.

There is a lack of consensus within politics on how to deal with the so-called youth problem that exists in vulnerable areas. The politicians' positions are communicated in speech and writing and influence the majority society's attitude to children in vulnerable areas. Children are at the same time a vulnerable group in society. They are dependent on adults and need their guidance and support throughout their upbringing. In vulnerable areas live children whose health is affected by social and economic vulnerability and discrimination from the outside world. By looking into how hegemonic masculinity as norms are formulated in Swedish political documents, in relation to experiences of stigmatization and violence among children from vulnerable areas, this study wishes to examine if children?s right to a life without violence is being respected in vulnerable areas.

The purpose of this study is to present populism as a political phenomenon and to impose focus on the rightwing populist parties that are active in Scandinavia. This essay begins with a presentation of the three rightwing political parties in Scandinavia. The rightwing populist parties have successfully developed their rhetoric and effectively influenced the political establishment in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The parties that the essay focuses on are theSwedish democrats (SD), the Norwegian Progress party (FRP) and the Danish People`s party (DF). These parties are interesting in the sense that they share many opinions and are active in comparable political atmospheres, but also that they use approximately the same rightwing populist rhetoric as a way of exerting leverage on political policy.The theoretical segment is constructed on a descriptive historical background of populisms three different phases.