The representative democracy has become weakened during the last decades. At the same time the United Nations declared at the Rio de Janeiro meeting in 1992 that environmental problems can best be solved by involvement of all concerned citizens in decision-making. The main purpose of this study has been to examine if citizens panels is a possible way to involve citizens in environmental decision-making and what the outcomes can be. Furthermore the study has investigated what the participation has contributed to environmental politics and how representative the results have been. This has been carried out by investigating the Piteåpanel in the municipality of Piteå by conducting interviews.The result of the study shows that the involvement of the citizens in the decision-making influenced the environmental politics of the municipality.

The aim of this Master´s thesis is to examine which type of regime the state Iran is. There has been much research on this issue and the discussion is not over yet. I have departed from three theoretical perspectives in order to understand which type of regime the Middle Eastern nation is: theocracy, democracy and hybrid regime. The theocratic regimetype is composed by David L. Websters archeological theory about governments ruled by God.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka och skildra några studenters motiv, motivation och upplevelser kring högre studier. I bakgrunden ingår forskning kring studentidentiteter (Bron m. fl., 2013), men efter hand tillkommer andra begrepp och teorier som bidrar till att belysa undersökningsmaterialet. Studien är grundad på kvalitativ metod, med semistrukturerade intervjuer av sex studenter i åldrarna 25-30 år. Resultatet av de sex studenterna redovisas som personporträtt, där både likheter och skillnader mellan studenternas motiv, motivation och upplevelser i relation till högre studier framgår.

This thesis is an attempt to shed light on how the authors of the Swedish Government Official Report, SoU 1999:83, speak about how the globalization affects democracy. The method used is critical discourse analysis and ideological analysis, with the main emphasis on the former. The results of the analysis are then interpreted with central parts of Jürgen Habermas? The theory of communicative action. One of the main conclusions is that an absolute majority of the authors, talk about how the globalization affects democracy in terms of the economic market and the European union.

This essay concerns the issue of democracy and judicial review. The main focus is on the justification of both a positive and a negative attitude towards judicial review, and the values these justifications are based on. The analysis is made by textual analysis of four authors with different opinions of the subject matter: Robert Dahl and Jeremy Waldron who has a negative attitude towards judicial review, and Erwin Chemerinsky and Ronald Dworkin who are positive about it. In the analysis an analytic frame is used which consists of different dimensions and aspects of the problem of democracy and judicial review. The study shows that there are important differences in democratic values between a positive and a negative justification of judicial review.

In an effort to strengthen democracy in the union, the EU in 2005 took a new approach to communications policy to reach out to the citizens. The strategic document "Plan D for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate" was accompanied by two other documents, and the three of them were the core of this policy. Both democracy and communications work means at EU level a higher complexity than in the nation-state arena. Objective of this study is to examine how the implementation of Plan D has turned out in a democracy renewal perspective. To achieve that answers are sought to questions concerning the goals of Plan D, how they are still present today, what happened in practice regarding the efforts that are highlighted, and how the substance of the activities can be judged from a democratic theory perspective.

The aim of this thesis is to illustrate the content of the democratic values tolerance, personal development and political equality, in relation to the Swedish school?s systems fundamental values, and from there problematize the schools approach towards the Sweden Democrats. By using a qualitative text analysis upon the party program of Sweden Democrats, we have been able to fulfill the aim of the thesis. We have motivated and defined our chosen democracy values from the schools fundamental values and from democracy theory. With the use of an analyze schedule we have been able to go through with the interpretation and analyze of the party program of the Sweden Democrats.

This essay concerns medical- and dental tourism. The main purpose with the essay was to study which factors that affects Swedish choices to seek medical- and dental care abroad and therefore reach an understanding for Swedish medical- and dental tourism to other countries. The aim has also been to try to reach an insight in how Swedish medical- and dental tourism might develop the future. The study is based on qualitative interviews with five officials who were well-grounded in the field. The theoretical framework concerned the need of travel, push- and pull factors, Maslow?s hierarchy of needs and the thinking about needs within business activities.

What role should science play in democracy? Political scientists often assume that it is possible to demarcate between ?instrumental? and ?moral? knowledge, and argue that citizens and/or politicians should use their moral knowledge to agree upon political goals and then apply the instrumental knowledge of scientists to achieve them. This straightforward view is challenged by writers in science studies, who identify three major problems in the use of science in democracy: uncertainty, risk and hidden values. They suggest that these problems could be solved through citizen participation.In this essay I perform an analysis of the internal logic of their suggestion. Is it likely that citizen participation enhances the democratic decision making process so as to reduce the problems? The internal analysis shows that it is rational to advocate citizen participation by reasons of legitimacy.

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.

Introduction In order to foster innovation of medical devices within the healthcare sector, a collaboration project, PUSH, has been initiated including the hospitals managed by the Stockholm County Council. The collaboration aims to capture ideas from employees and turn them into so called ?high-practice? products as well as facilitate the possibilities for medical device companies to try out their products in the settings of healthcare. Collaborations for innovation, comparable to the PUSH project, can be found in both Swedish and foreign regions, but some of them fail to survive due to obstacles affecting the progress of each collaboration. Avoiding the same destiny will be a challenge to the PUSH project.Purpose The purpose is to search for factors affecting organizational collaboration concerning innovation systems for medical device development.

AbstractTheoryWhich education model has the ultimate learning potential? According to Olga Dysthe a varied education predominated by a dialogical nature is the best way of teaching.PurposeMy main purpose in this essay has been to investigate three different ways of education models and decide, on the basis of Dysthes? model, whether they can be classified as a monological or a dialogical model.I have also investigated if the thesis of Dysthes, ?The teachers view of knowledge determines the choice of teaching method?, is anchored in the reality.Furthermore, I have surveyed how the teachers educate concerning democracy. For example, on the basis of certain rules, are all sudents able to make the selves heard in a classroom that is characterized as dialogical? In such a classroom the teacher works whith activities to involve everyone and according to Dysthe, democracy is an attitude rather than a political system. Democracy is necessary in a classroom that is classified as dialogical.ResultThe essay is exclusively qualitative and builds upon interviews with three teachers on different upper secondary social schools witin the Gothenburg area.My results indicate that the teathers way of educating totaly differs from each others and that the thesis of Dysthe can be applied on only two out of three cases.

The development that the Swedish society has experienced during the last four decades and the higher part of the population coming from foreign countries calls for a more intensive research on the situation of these groups. The purpose of this study is to find explanations of the differences in the share of immigrant politicians in Linköping and Norrköping. The starting point of the study is a model of factors assumed to affect the representation of immigrants in the municipality assemblies. The immigrant composition, the municipality organization and the view of democracy of the politicians, are all assumed to affect the civic participation. The civic participation is then assumed to affect the representation of immigrants in the municipality.

The project, Glowtest Fixture, has been carried out to and in collaboration with MSA SordinLtd. MSA Sordin Ltd produces and sells ear protector and is at present a supplier on theworld market. Glowtest Fixture is a product for glow testing off detailed components in oneear protector. MSA Sordin Ltd sends today away your products for testing what is anexpensive aspect in their development. The project's aim is to take forward a test equipmentthat copes with those high nonplussed requirements and wishes that are required for anapproved physical execution.Glowtest Fixture is a physical equipment that comes used stem glow physical off all detailedcomponents in one ear protector.

The European Union is struggling to maintain democracy and tries to increase the participation among the citizens in Europe. The European Citizens? Initiative, ECI, is a platform established by the European Commission to allow citizens to propose new legislation. ?Water and sanitation are a human right! Water is a public good, not a commodity!? is the first ECI that has met the requirements.