Democracy is said to uphold the dearest values and be the most moral system. But it cannot be characterized as a rigid "syste" but a continuously changing political framework, under which aims and values can be fulfilled - and replaced.The increasingly diverse and ever-changing environment of contemporary democracies forces change upon the systems' natural evolution, which makes their future features uncertain and unforeseeable. A powerful change-force doctrine does however claim change is mainly (or merely) caused by the power of ideas; the elite power over ideas can thus provide a natural foundation for the analysis of the direction of development for democracy. This study aims to provide such a foundation by reconstructing empirical and normative descriptions of democracy at two certain points in time, following extensive government studies.As a tool for analysis, this study identifies values of substantial and procedural character central to democracy theory and discourse. It further creates ideal types of democracy based on these values, to which the nature of democracy is measured.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate the term equableness in the Swedish elementary school with a take-off point in the free school reform from 1992. This essay starts with the political background of the terms equableness and freedom of choice and the official governmental guidelines. Research from Bo Malmberg and Gabriel Sahlgren act as a framework for the whole essay as their theories are tested. The main problem is presented as the question: is the debated concern regarding a lowered equableness since 1992 justifiable? Both researchers define equableness as a difference in grades but undertake a collective versus a more individual approach.

This essay deals with the same task that utilitarians have tried to solve for a long time, what is happiness? In the eighteenth-century utilitarians suggested that happiness should be the base for social political decisions. But the lack of definition disposed so that GDP became the measurement of happiness, which proved to be wrong when the unhappiness continued to increase. More than two hundred years later scientists came up with a new definition of happiness and new ways to measure it. And during the last decade economists have taken the discussion to a higher level.So once again we?re dealing with the same old issue, if happiness ought to be the base of social political decisions.

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.

AbstractI denna undersökning tolkas motståndsstrategier i Ulrike Meinhofs skrivna texter.Undersökningsmaterialet består av engelska översättningar av tre krönikor publicerade i denVästtyska tidsskriften konkret under året 1968: ?Counter-Violence?, ?From Protest toResistance? och ?Setting Fire to Department Stores?.Syftet är att tolka Meinhofs syn på motståndsstrategier i de tre krönikorna. Detta görsgenom att först tolka det deskriptiva innehållet i krönikorna; det vill säga vad texterna säger.Tolkningarna görs både kronologiskt och komparativt utifrån vilken typ av motståndsmetodsom beskrivs, motståndsmetodens syfte eller riktadhet, samt värderingen av en specifikmotståndsmetod och dess resultat eller konsekvenser. Den komparativa tolkningen utgörsvidare av en fokusering på krönikornas potentiella skillnader, olikheter eller förändringar.Syftet är också att utifrån den kronologiska och den komparativa tolkningen diskuterakrönikornas performativa funktion; det vill säga vad texterna gör.Uppsatsen är teoretisk och anknyter till en genusvetenskaplig, metodologiskutgångspunkt som innebär att teori och metod inte skiljs åt. Uppsatsen omfattas också av ettepistemologiskt ställningstagande som innebär att gränsen mellan forskningens subjekt ochobjekt ifrågasätts och diskuteras.

Denna uppsats gör ett försök att skildra hur tre kommuner förhåller sig tillidrottsföreningars roll i det kommunala livet. Uppsatsen behandlar deförväntningar som de kommunala bidragen väntas generera för samhället, genomatt sätta fokusen på den bakomliggande policyn. Vidare försöker uppsatsen utrönaom det finns en gemensam syn på föreningarnas funktion i kommunerna.Detta görs utifrån en teori om hur idrottsföreningar vinner sin legitimitet tilloffentliga resurser.Studien har innefattat en komparation av tre kommuner, Lund, Landskronaoch Staffanstorp. I vardera kommun har även tre innebandyföreningars syn på sinroll undersökts..

Att göra bedömningar av risk för våld hos frihetsberövade personer på fängelser och i olika former av tvångsvård är en viktig del av arbetet med att reducera antalet våldsincidenter, vilket är till nytta både för frihetsberövade personer och för personalens arbetsmiljö. Syftet med denna studie är att göra en kunskapsöversikt över vad forskningen säger om att bedöma risk för våld hos frihetsberövade personer, beskriva aktuell forskning om riskbedömningar, hur strukturerade instrument för riskbedömningar definierar våld, vilka teoretiska utgångspunkter till uppkomst av våld som används och i vilken utsträckning riskbedömningsinstrument tar hänsyn till interaktion mellan personal och frihetsberövade personer.Studien genomförs igenom en litteraturstudie med en innehållsanalys av forskning på området utifrån frågeställningarna i syftet. Sökorden är ?inmate?, ?inpatient?, ?violence?, ?risk?, ?assessment?, ?juvenile? och ?youth?.Reslutatet av studien visar att det finns ett flertal instrument som som forskningen visar har god validitet och även inter-bedömarreliabilitet för att bedöma risk för våld, nämligen Brøset Violence Checklist (BVC), Historical-Clinical-Risk management-20(HCR-20), Dynamic Appraisal of Situational Agression (DASA) och Structured Assessment of Violencerisk in Youth(SAVRY). Utöver detta finns även några bedömningsinstrument som använder enbart statiska variabler för att bedöma risk för våld hos frihetsberövade, även kallade aktuariska modeller.

The European Union is originally an economic organization that has developed into including more social and cultural questions. These questions are especially important when the Union expands with so many different cultures and traditions to take into concideration.I have from an identity perspective studied the relation between the European Union and the candidate country of Turkey. Using theories including the Other I have discussed the relationship between us (Europe) and the Other (Turkey) and Turkey's possibilites to become a member of the Union. My conclusion will include a discussion on the basis of three dimensions; History, Economy/Politics and Religion. I believe there are hindrances for Turkey to become a member of the European Union.

Although Sweden has democracy implemented in its Constitution, because of being a monarchy, it has a non-elected Head of State. The purpose of this thesis is on the one hand to show if it is possible to normatively legitimate the Swedish monarchy and on the other hand to display if and how the three biggest Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter and Expressen justify monarchy by making a content-oriented analysis of their coverage of King Carl XVI Gustaf's political statement during his state visit in Brunei 2004.By using consequentialism and deontology as perspectives I will show that it overall is not possible to normatively justify the Swedish monarchy compared to a Swedish republic with an elected Head of State. This is mainly because democracy is implemented in the Swedish Constitution. In all three newspapers there is only little debate on the Constitution. Most commonly journalists criticize the King's statement but not monarchy as an institution.

Många ungdomars vardag präglas av hedersvåld och förtryck (HVF) och problematiken anses svår och komplex att arbeta med. Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur skolkuratorer på högstadieskolor och socialsekreterare på socialtjänsten beskriver sitt stöd till och skydd av ungdomar som utsätts för HVF samt samverkan dem emellan. Metoden som används för att besvara studiens syfte är kvalitativa intervjuer med fem skolkuratorer, tre socialsekreterare och en samordnare för en samverkansgrupp kring HVF. Studiens insamlade material analyseras genom tidigare forskning om myndigheternas arbete med HVF samt samverkan. Kulturellt och feministiskt perspektiv samt teori om riskbedömning och samverkan används även för att analysera materialet.Resultatet visar att det finns en samsyn mellan professionerna gällande att stödbehovet hos HVF-utsatta ungdomar är stort.

Uppsatsen behandlar frågan huruvida dagens Ungern bör kunna betraktas som en konsoliderad demokrati. Frågan utgår ifrån teorin om för att ett lyckat demokratiskt samhälle ska kunna uppnås måste fem dimensioner vara uppfyllda: ett väl fungerande och demokratiskt institutionaliserat civilsamhälle, politiskt samhälle och ekonomiskt samhälle samt en rättstat och statsbyråkrati. Uppsatsen tar tre av dessa samhälleliga arenor i beaktande samt medborgarnas och politikernas attityder och utgår i huvudsak från artiklar, böcker och tidsskrifter. För att åskådliggöra Ungerns utveckling från demokratisk transition till dagens situation har en viss historisk tillbakablick varit nödvändig för att ge perspektiv åt landets sociala, politiska och ekonomiska händelseförlopp..

The aim of this essay was to describe the power elite of the Swedish town Karlshamn, and its influences on the local political process before the realization of the narrow-gauge railway Karlshamn-Wislanda-Jernväg. During the mid 19th century, a revolutionary period began in the Swedish pre-industrial epoch. The political and institutional regulatory frameworks were disassembled and restructured, away from protectionism and centrally controlled administration, for the benefit of free trade, local self-government and liberalism. The changes were carried through during times marked by a drastic increasing native population and upcoming demands for adjustments to meet the growth of the industrial-, trade- and labour markets. An essential industrial development factor was the building of the national railway network, which started after some important decisions in the Swedish Riksdag during the 1850´s.

This thesis deals with the concept of soft balancing, traditionally defined as the diplomatic means of restraining a dominant state's ability to exercise its military power. As the dominant power in today's unipolar system, the United States, and other states? behaviour towards it, is the focus of analysis. The aim of this thesis is to explore the possibilities of developing the concept of soft balancing so as to include strategies to restrain also the political and economic capabilities of a dominant power. The thesis also considers the possibilities of soft balancing that small states ? to a large extent overlooked in existing theories on the subject - can possess.As a state with policies that aim to reduce the U.S.

The Swedish political organization is subject for the investigation of this thesis, with regard to the realization of universal human rights. There is a discrepancy between the Swedish state's international undertakings in legally binding treaties and theactualization of human rights by local authorities. The local authorities are ruled by a complex function of both national and local government. Of interest here, is the effect that these, and other organizational aspects, between the national and the local, have for the realization of human rights in local authorities. Also, the discrepancy between the national and the local is attempted to be understood.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the institutional effectiveness of the environmental institutions Helcom and the Mediterranean regime, by using Haas, Levy and Keohane's "the three Cs"; governmental concern, contractual environment, political and administrative capacity. The method used is a comparative analysis.This study takes into consideration the specific structural and economic factors that are prevailing in each region where the environmental regime operates. This study also takes into account the influence of the European Union as a factor that affects the environmental progress.By focusing the study on the line of conduct concerning hazardous substances by respectively regime this study shows that the institutional effectiveness is fulfilled in neither Helcom nor the Mediterranean Regime, although Helcom has been more successful. The lack of state capacity is the most restraining factor for both developing countries and countries in the transition towards being developed, to achieve a good environmental status of the sea. This study also shows that the European Union sometimes has a greater impact on the environmental progress in states, rather than the environmental regime in countries that were/are aspiring members, thus showing the ineffectiveness of the regime..