The aim of this thesis is to analyze and examine India's economic reforms which the country introduced on the government's own initiative in the early 1990s after decades of practicing isolationism. The analysis entails a thorough systematic examination of possible factors that determined the decision to implement the reforms. These factors are derived from two models developed by scholars within the field of foreign policy.The research is performed through an examination where the possible factors for the reforms have been examined on a three-level basis; system-, state- and individual level. It is a qualitative case study that seeks to explain not only why the Indian government implemented the reforms but also to evaluate the validity of the models to the extent that they stand in accordance with the case of India.The conclusion presented in this thesis is that one model works better for explaining the case of India. The model lie emphasis on structural changes, a crisis and political entrepreneurs committed to a certain type of reforms as a prerequisite for policy change to take place.

Denna studie har undersökt diskursen om miljö, EU:s fria inre marknad och försiktighetsprincipen i några av EU:s förordningar och direktiv som reglerar hanteringen av genmodifierade grödor (GMO). Försiktighetsprincipen genomsyrar alla EU:s lagtexter från senare tid vad gäller hanteringen av GMO-produkter, och har därmed påverkat lagarnas utformning. Vi har undersökt huruvida försiktighetsprincipen motsätter sig EU:s grundläggande intention om en fri inre marknad, och hittat tecken på att försiktighet och marknad inte alltid är kompatibla.Miljöaspekterna i dessa lagtexter har också många gånger visat sig få lämna plats för en säkerhetsdiskurs fokuserad på människors säkerhet, där miljön kommer i andra hand och inte ses som det primära att skydda.Vi ser till stor del en diskurs i dessa lagtexter som konstituerats av människors och samhällets rädsla och krav på säkerhet, snarare än en diskurs som präglat och påverkat samhällets inställning till GMO..

Vattendistributionsproblem är ett allvarligt hinder för utveckling i fattiga länder. Världsbankens strategi för utvecklingsländer har sedan 80-talet styrts av neoklassisk teori, vilket i praktiken har haft stor betydelse för privatiseringar av statligt ägda företag. Påtryckningar från Världsbanken ledde till att Vattenverket SEMAPA i staden Cochabamba, Bolivia, år 1999 lades ut till försäljning. Företaget Agua del Tunari tog över driften och chockhöjde vid tillträdandet i november vattenpriserna. Privatiseringen och höjningen av vattenpriserna ledde till att folkrörelsen La Coordinadora bildades och efter massiva protester och upplopp våren 2000 tvingades den bolivianska regeringen att riva Agua del Tunaris kontrakt.

Vår utgångspunkt är att de attityder som finns gentemot jämställdhetsarbete på en arbetsplats i hög grad bestämmer hur väl arbetet fungerar. Syftet med uppsatsen är således att undersöka attityderna i offentliga organisationer för att se möjligheter och svårigheter i arbetet med att nå jämställdhet. Studien tar sin teoretiska utgångspunkt i demokratiteori och alla människors lika värde, vilket motiverar det feministiska projektet genom att se jämställdhet som en demokratisk rättighet. Feministisk organisationsteori lägger grunden för studiens analys. För att ta reda på attityderna har vi genomfört en enkätundersökning inom skola och polis då vi menar att dessa institutioner har ett viktigt demokratiskt ansvar.

The effect of climate change places demands on how we build cities. Cities have to be built denser to meet the objectives of sustainability but as a result of this densification city green areas are at risk of exploitationand disappearing. The question this raises is whether there has to be an opposition between a dense and a green city?Urban trees are playing a very important role in cities. They stand as the major part of the vegetation in citieswhich are otherwise dominated with concrete and stone.

One aim of this thesis has been to trace the driving forces among active members of the Swedish Pensioners? Interest Party (SPI), but also to render how party values and ideas are connected to the concepts of is-sue space, distrust, and New Party Politics (mainly populism). Since there are several pensioners? parties in other countries, my second aim has been to investigate whether the party is a result of a diffusion proc-ess of copying a successful equivalent party; in other words to find out whether a master frame has inspired the forming of a Swedish pension-ers? party. Through interviews and document analysis, I have found seven issue dimensions explaining the motives behind my respondents? engagement in the party.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine and analyze why, in the case of Afghanistan, the government chose to establish a highly centralized political system, when from a democratic standpoint a less centralized system would be preferable.The time period that is examined span from 2001 when the so-called Bonn-Accord was signed, to the parliamentary elections held in 2005, a period often referred to as the Bonn-process.The theoretical framework examines both the complex relations between federalism and democracy, as well as the relation between federalism and the role of existent ethnic minorities. The theoretical framework is then used in order to explain why it would be problematic to create a federal system in Afghanistan under the present circumstances.The conclusions that can be drawn are the following: In case of the republic Afghanistan the creation and implementation of a highly centralized political system was the only possible way for the government to be able to cope and practically deal with the problems of existent ethnic antagonism and regional warlords in order to create a stable political situation in the country..

Vår uppsats handlar om kommunpolitiker som blivit förtroendevalda utan tidigare erfarenhet av partiarbete eller förtroendeposter. Då partiernas medlemstal sjunker finns det skäl att tro att fenomenet kommer att bli vanligare. Syftet med vår uppsats är att minska kunskapsbristen som råder kring politisk oerfarenhet. Gruppens egna berättelser formar vår uppsats. Genom samtalsintervjuer med åtta politiska nykomlingar har vi tagit del av synen på inträdet i politiken och politikerrollen.

In this essay I examine the auto fictive self in Jeanette Wintersons Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. I do this through a close reading of the novel using Mieke Bals narratological terms;narrator, story, fabula, time and order. These narratological terms have been merged together with central themes of the book. I look at the readers understanding of the novel, the relation between fairytale and realism, symbols, intertextuality, the mother-daughter relationship and silences and I analyze these themes in their relation to autofiction and the auto fictive self.  Gemma Lopez Seductions and Narratives has been a key reference, mainly her theories on self-creation in narratives, and the construction of the self, trough language. The narrative is the place where the self can transgress and reshape, which gives the narrative a subversive power. I analyze this presumed power, and look at how the story shapes an opportunity for the subject to see itself.

Deliberative politics offers a new and exiting way of overcoming the problems that the western democracy of today is facing. A lot of research in the most recent years have had the goal to replace the representative democracy with a decision-making frame built on decentralization and deliberation. The goal for this essay is to create a framework for local decision-making, based on deliberativ norms, that could work as a complement to the representative democracy instead of replacing it.During the recent years the so-called "brukarråd"; councils for the most common users of one special public service, has been a new way for the local government to get in direct contact with those who are most affected by changes and developments in the specific area of the public administration. In this essay I argue for that these councils should be designed so that they could house deliberative processes.After creating a model for the possible way of designing the "brukarråd" I compare the framework with the system that exists today. In this way there is a possibility to point out if there is a way to deepen the democracy within the already existing system..

The essay discusses underlying racism in the Swedish community and has, as a specific purpose, to illustrate and analyze how images of immigrants are constructed in a local setting. The questions at issue are: What established conceptions about racism exist and how are immigrants described by the youth in Sweden? Which racist manifestations are evident? To answer these questions, twelve interviews with students from an upper secondary school in Lund are done. Discourse analysis and other central aspects to alienation such as categorization and stereotyping, concepts about ?the Others? and underlying racism, have been used to analyze the interviews.

It has become increasingly simple for companies to offer its employees shares in the form of incentive or option plans to acquire.  Companies motivate incentive plans with employee buy-outs that it will lead to higher involvement of work. The offers are often associated with disposal restrictions to the employee such as not immediately dispose of shares or that the employees will have to remain of employment within a certain timeframe. The problems with disposal restrictions are that it makes it difficult to determine the point of taxation.When shares deemed acquired at the time of share subscription the benefit will be taxable as income from service and the increase in value income from capital. When shares are deemed to be acquired only after cessation of disposal restrictions this will result in that the benefit is taxed only once.After the Supreme Administrative Court rulings in 3167-09 and 3168-09, it is now obvious that the acquisition is deemed to occur at the time of acquisition. The problem is not yet solved because the constant development of the security market needs to be considered.

Effekterna av en arbetsmigration känns mest av dem som blir kvar. Kvinnorna, som är i fokus i denna uppsats, får andra och utökade uppgifter i hushållet när mannen åker för att arbeta i ett annat land. De blir de facto hushållsöverhuvuden. Makten, som här definierat som makt över och makt till, är inte konstant utan ändras efter omständigheterna såsom exempelvis migration. Frågan som ställs i uppsatsen är om kvinnorna upplever att de får mer makt och om denna upplevelse förändras när maken kommer tillbaka.Uppsatsen är baserad på intervjuer med kvinnor från en by i syd- västra Serbien (Serbien/ Montenegro).

This thesis examines the power of developing countries within the World Trade Organization (WTO). The research question is if there is a change in the power relations between developing countries and developed countries from the establishment of the WTO in 1995 and until mid 2006, and if so, why this change is taking place? The thesis has its theoretical starting-point within regime theory and views it from a critical theoretical perspective. A multidimensional why of dealing with the concept of power is being used to answer if there is a change in the power relations? The conclusion is that there is a small change in the power relations and that the developing countries are gaining more, but limited power.

The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on a present trend of professionalization in Swedish local environmental politics, which have recently seen a decline in active participation of the citizens in favor of an increased governmental regulation. With the aim to closer investigate this relatively new phenomenon, the paper is a qualitative single case-study of environmental policies in the Swedish municipality of Karlskrona. In this case, the municipality is obviously balancing between regarding the interests of the national level and the interests of its own citizens at the same time. This motivates the use of system-theory, and relates to the classical political paradox between participation and efficiency which is also a present theme in the paper.This text-analysis based on interviews with personnel and documents from the municipality shows a visible trend of professionalization in the local politics of the municipality of Karlskrona, from a large grade of participation and a strong bottom-up approach in the days of Agenda 21 to now being more strongly top-down defined by national environmental objectives and principally operated on a professional level..