The aim of this Master's thesis is to study what place public libraries have in local politics, particularly from the point of view of the Politicians. To answer this, I have interviewed Politicians, participated as a silent observer of a public debate, and studied articles on library politics in newspapers and other press. The results show that Politicians in general have a positive view of libraries and good co-operation with library professionals, and that they have a fairly up-to-date view of libraries. They are, however, less interested in library issues in general, and are often complacent with the way things are already running. The newspaper studies show that library issues are usually only discussed when a specific library is somehow in danger.

Municipalities with a higher amount of female representatives has been shown to be more gender equal. Earlier reasearch has also shown that female Politicians are more likely than male politicans to represent immigrants and refugees interests. However, the effect of female representation has not been tested on other subordinated groups than women. Swedish municipalities have full autonomy regarding refugee reception and local Politicians are responsible for the decision on the amount of refugees that the municipality accept. The variations of female and male Politicians in the local assemblies are expected to have different outcomes on the refugee reception, according to females social backgrounds and experiences.

Local Politicians are key actors in the democratic system and their ideas concerning democracy plays a central role in local democratic politics. The study's point of departure is the notion that local Politicians are dependent of coherence between practice and theory concerning democracy and in the study of their ideas we acquire knowledge about the democratic practice.This study examines the local Politicians? view of Swedish democracy and explores the logic of the discourse that makes statements concerning democracy possible. Twenty local Politicians have been interviewed and from the material a discourse have been established through the use of formulation of problems and cause, nodal points and chains of analogy which is compared with democratic ideals.The study comes to the conclusion that a hegemonic discourse exists, in which central nodal points are representative and listening. The idea of the representative system is hegemonic and is based in the liberal democratic ideal although the view of the citizens rather can be traced to the radical, communitarian and deliberative ideal.

This study?s aim was to explore how the social media Twitter is used by Swedish political leaders and how they manage the relationship between having both private and public conversations in a new public sphere, the social sphere. In Sweden, studies in this area are yet to grow. We achieved our aim by responding to our three questions at the issue: What kind of content is published in each of the Politicians Twitter stream? Are the Politicians private or public persons on Twitter? Are the Politicians using Twitters interactive functions? We conducted our analysis by performing a quantitative content analysis.

Groups that are often referred to as being dismissed in society in general is by some aspects also considered being so in political arenas. A recent compilation of existing research over structurally based objections of gaining power and positions within Swedish parliamentary politics highlight a lack of research considering whether sexual orientation could be such a discriminatory basis. Using a queer theoretical approach, and drawing on concepts such as heteronormativity and homophobia, the principal aim of this essay is to illuminate aspects of local parliamentary political areas where discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation become relevant. In order to do so six in-depth interviews with homosexual Politicians have been conducted. Finding a queer potential in certain ideological parliamentary political environments that enable homosexual Politicians to be open about their sexual orientation, it still relies upon the individual to be confident enough not to interpret the political context as homophobic and heteronormative..

This paper aimed to investigate how Swedish Politicians use social media Twitter and Instagram and if there was evidence to discern of personal branding and identity creation. Main method used was the observation of four Politicians? shared content on Twitter and Instagram. In order to strengthen the results of the study, interviews were also made on the same Politicians, of which two responded. The study showed, among other results that Twitter is used more for political aspects and Instagram to show personality and lifestyle.

AbstractIn the beginning of 2007 the Swedish municipality Örebro decided to have a democraticexperiment, which ought to go under the name, ?Dialouge for the citizens?. Therepresentative elected Politicians in Örebro tried to find ways to involve the people in theprocess of ruling. Why they choose to try this experiment on this very delicate matter, theclosure of several schools in the municipal, is one of the questions this essay is trying toanswer.The purpose of this essay is to find out whether the process was an attempt for the Politiciansof the representative democracy to implement deliberative democracy in the structure of thelocal governance.The result of this study is that the Politicians didn?t manage to reach to the citizens the waythey formerly had planned..

This study aims to investigate associations in two areas in Stockholm County with diverse socio-economic conditions. The study intends to examine the impact these differences have on what role the bureaucrats and Politicians in the two areas think that the associations should have. Bureaucrats are those who design guidelines for associations and that is why they have an important role in the conditions of the associations. A comparison between the two areas has been made to see if the requirement in the guidelines for the areas are different according to where the members live. The two areas that have been used to compare the guidelines of associations are Danderyd municipal and the district Spånga-Tensta.

This examination project is an investigation about the opinion and comprehension for political engagement of four young municipal Politicians. The purpose with this project is to describe and understand the pronounced comprehension for political engagement. There is also an intention to investigate the educational in discussing political engagement with students in social studies at upper secondary school. The method that has been used is ?map of conceptions? because of its appropriate way to elucidate the comprehension and understanding of a certain subject. Those four young municipal Politicians see political engagement as the will to improve the community. There is also an importance to have a large engagement in more areas than just one.

Dichotomy in change ? a study of how the relationship in terms of power between Politicians and civil servants in local government is affected by the transition to a system without branch committees.

This is an examination of how interdependence affects the behaviour of Politicians and their ability to govern the way they want to. I analyze the memoirs of two Swedish prime ministers, Tage Erlander and Ingvar Carlsson to explore their experiences. I focus on how the increasing interdependence affects the Politicians with regards to security, welfare, and financial policies. Sweden had a special position between Soviet and NATO during the cold war. This meant Sweden gave priority to it's neutrality policy during the cold war, compared to increased trade cooperation.

The purpose of this study was to examine and describe how Politicians and directors of care define and experience quality in aged care facilities. Further on we wanted to compare on which fundamental principles the participants base their opinion about quality and how they work with quality. To reach our aim we conducted five interviews with Politicians and directors of care. The results show that it is hard to determine quality in an unambiguous and objective way. Quality in aged care appears to be about relations and encounters amongst people.

The aim of this essay is to see how the IOGT, local Politicians and the local newspaper acted in the city of Hedemora in Sweden in connection with the referendum held in 1922 whether or not to ban the use of alcoholic beverages. To accomplish this I have examined protocols from local IOGT-groups, the town council and the local newspaper Södra Dalarnes tidning. I find that the local IOGT not only worked with the issue of alcohol but served as an institution that deepened democracy and education in the local community through discussions, study circles and applying pressure on local Politicians. The locally elected bodies in turn were generally in favour of the good work the IOGT did, although not always overwhelmingly so. Many of the local Politicians that handled the issues of alcohol were themselves active members in organisations promoting absolutism.

The purpose of this master thesis is to examine some information aspects of decision-making in Swedish municipal committees. Which are the information needs and how do they emerge? How is the needed information sought and received and which are the sources? How do the members of the committees use information when making decisions? To answer these questions qualitative interviews were conducted with four Politicians (two chairpersons representing the political majority and two vice-chairpersons representing the opposition) and three officials in a municipality with a population of about 50 000. The Politicians were interviewed in capacity of decision-makers, whereas the officials from the local administration are of interest through their decision-supportive role, which includes providing of reports and other information. The examination indicates that even if the conditions to some extent differ between the committees, the administration is highly influential: Notions and proposals about action may come from inhabitants, organizations, Politicians etc., but are handled by the administration, which often is the problem formulating actor, through which the informational needs nearly always are canalized.

The essay examines how female Politicians themselves experience their political pathin regards to opportunities and obstacles. The questions of the essay revolve aroundthis as well as if there are any differences in experience between Politicians from thetwo Swedish parties Socialdemokraterna and Moderaterna. The two parties are chosento represent traditional left and right ideologies. Quantitative measures are used toexamine the female representation in Växjö kommun, which does not show a hugeuneven amount of either men or women. Qualitative measures are used to examine tenfemale Politicians? personal experiences through personal interviews.