Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union a lot of hope has been put on civil society to help develop Russia into a more democratic society. This study explores the constructive elements in the relationship between civil society and the state in Russia, and how this enables the work toward political development. By using Julie Fishers theory about political development and organisational autonomy I discuss the varying and often complex ways in which civil society and the state interacts. These are often not mentioned in the liberal tradition, which believes that civil society's most important democratic function is to act as a watchdog for the state.There is very limited political space for NGO's in authoritative Russia. The existing oppositional NGO's are important for the political development, but they are few and their impacts on society are limited.

The number of blogs, from weblogs, are increasing every day. Blogs are also becoming more visible in the public debate as well as the awareness of their existance is rising among politicians and citizens. The aim of this thesis is to answer the question what democratic potential blogs can have. This question will be answered by initially studying the research that exists today about weblogs and democracy. The second part of the analysis consists of a selection of texts from weblogs that touches this subject.

Den 11 september 2001 innebar början på en stor förändring i amerikansk inrikes och utrikespolitik. I kriget mot terrorismen har en omfattande diskriminering skett av icke-amerikanska medborgare både inom landets gränser såväl som utanför. För att rättfärdiga detta för sitt eget folk samt det internationella samfundet har man i politiken och retoriken skapat bilden av "den andre" som ett potentiellt hot mot den amerikanska säkerheten. Våra två frågeställningar behandlar skapandet av "den andre" som används för att rättfärdiga agerandet efter 11 september.Målet i uppsatsen är inte bara att besvara frågeställningarna utan också att ge en djupare insikt i varför svaren ser ut som de gör. Våra angreppssätt och valda metoder har sina begränsningar men trots det anser vi att dessa kan erbjuda en ny synvinkel på USA:s agerande efter 11 september..

The purpose of this essay was to describe eight female universitystudents drinking patterns and their own experiences of alcohol. The main questions that guided us through our study were:*How the female students describe the meaning of alcohol*How they describe their experiences of not drinking alcohol*If they have experienced pressure to drink alkcohol and if they have pressed other people to drink alcohol*How the students describe the student life influence on the alcohol consumptionA qualitative method was used as the purpose of this essay was to investigate the female students own subjective experiences and not to investigate students alcohol habits in general..

How effective is consumer power? Can consumers regulate corporate behavior?And if so is the case, could the mechanisms where consumers regulate corporatebehavior have any democratic value to contribute with? These are the questionsthat this master's thesis comprehends with. The purpose of this writing is toconstruct a theory of consumer power that is compatible with democratic theory,this in order to contribute to the ongoing discussion within the discipline ofpolitical science about the third democratic transformation. A discussion that hasbeen actualized due to the democratic deficit created by the growing corporatepower and the shift of power from state to private enterprises. Besides showingfor a parallel between the democratic mechanisms that exists in the relationbetween citizens and state on the one hand, and the consumers and corporationson the other hand, this paper argues that consumers do have a great potential inregulating corporate behavior towards a higher social responsibility andawareness.

Syftet med detta arbete är att ur ett journalistperspektiv visa vilka komponenter som god journalistik med dennaturvetenskapligt orienterade forskningen som bevakningsområde består av. Arbetet fokuserar på massmedierna som agendasättare och frånser de kommersiella aspekterna av verksamheten..

The aim of this essay was to investigate how social workers, within chosen Social services districts in the northwest of Skåne, work with children placed in foster care. Our purpose was to investigate the interaction between the child and the foster home from the perspective of the Ecology of Human Development. Our questions were:* How do the social worker prepare the child and the foster home before a placement?* What kind of support is offered to the foster home with the purpose of supporting the child?* How do the social worker make the childs contact with the biological parents easier?* To what degree does the social worker work on strengthening the child's network?* Which factors do the social worker decide the allocation of support?* What do the social worker think affects the work with the foster home from a society level?To answer our question we have interviewed nine social workers. We found that the social workers were generally good at perceiving how the micro- and meso-systems, and to a certain extent the exo-system, influenced the foster child.

In Sweden, prostitution is politically defined as a social problem, more precisely, as a form of male violence against women. The definition is distinctly manifested in the government bill Kvinnofrid, characterised by the unique Swedish law that prohibits the purchase of sexual services.This thesis examines how the Swedish solutions of prostitution are carried out. By interviewing central actors working with prostitution in different ways we aim to answer the question: What measures are taken to decrease prostitution and what implications does the Swedish solution have?The analysis is divided into two parts. First, we analyse the concrete measures taken against prostitution ? what is done, how, and why? Second, we analyse the complexity of prostitution measures by applying complementary analytical perspectives: the symbolic and the discourse perspective.The study shows that measures taken to decrease prostitution vary and depend on individual actors? understandings of the political definition.

Vi har valt att titta på hur organiseringen påverkar sociala rörelse-organisationers fortlevnad. Medlemsantalet är vår operationalisering av fortlevnaden. Våra två fall är Amnesty International och Attac.För- och nackdelar med olika organisationssätt tydliggörs med hjälp av två organisatoriska idealmodeller som till stor del är varandras motsatser. Dessa är den vertikala modellen och den horisontella modellen.Dessa för- och nackdelar har vi ställt mot empirin. Vi har använt oss av litteratur, hemsidor och intervjuer för att få en bild av hur organisationerna ser ut.Trots att Attac är nätverksbaserad och Amnesty är mer vertikalt ordnad, har båda visat prov på flexibilitet och lyckats skapa delaktighet, vilket är positivt för organisationernas fortlevnad.

In recent years the concern about the future of the European Union and itssupposed lack of democracy, efficiency and legitimacy has increased. Thisconcern has resulted in extensive debates and the establishment of a conventionwith the task to create a draft treaty for a European Constitution.The aim of this essay is to study how the three theoretical concepts,democracy, efficiency and legitimacy, have been described and used in the debateabout the future of the European Union. My main interest is to see how theseconcepts are described in a debate regarding a political system that goes beyondthe borders of the nation-state. I have made a comparative textual analysis of thedebates taken place in Sweden and Spain during a period of over two years. Ihave, for instance, found out that openness and clearness have a prominentposition as democratic values together with equality and justice (in Spain) and theinstitution of accountability (in Sweden).

Den 4 oktober 2004 beslutade socialdemokraterna i Sverige och dess samarbets-partier i kärnkraftsfrågan att Barsebäck skulle stängas under 2005. Beslutet startade en mediedebatt i både Danmark och Sverige kring kärnkraften som tidigare varit död. Med en komparativ argumentationsanalys har vi studerat två danska respektive två svenska dagstidningar för att jämföra debatten mellan länderna. Sverige och Danmark har olika demokratiska utgångspunkter i frågan om Barsebäck. Skillnaden är att svenskarna är inkluderade i demos medan danskarna står utanför i denna bemärkelse.

This paper deals with Will Kymlicka's and Charles Taylor's theories of multiculturalism, and the criticism of these theories by Jürgen Habermas and Seyla Benhabib. It also gives a brief background to the Swedish integration and minority policies and places them in relations to the academic discussion. Taylor advocates cultural survival to be a legitimate policy objective and Kymlicka argues that rights should be diversified in order to adapt to different needs of cultural minorities. The thesis aims to confront the theories with interviews of four persons who voluntarily or by profession work for the interest of minorities. The theories have been operationalized as questions and structured in four themes with the purpose of analyzing the interviews.

Our purpose with this study was to look at the connection between social capital and integration. Particularly if meetings between people from different cultures can increase social capital and in that way affect integration. We start by identifying the social integration perspective we are going to use through out the study and then we introduce social capital theory as a way of narrowing down the field even more. The study was done through six semi structured interviews. We interviewed three women that was established in the Swedish society and three women that had immigration background.

The purpose of my study was to examine adoptive parents' experiences of adopting children older than three years of age. I wanted to look into what kind of information, help and support every adoptive parent had received. I also wanted to examine if the adoptive parents worried about anything concerning the children's emotional needs and in what way the adoptive parents prepared themselves for this, before the adoption. I asked the adoptive parents about their knowledge regarding the children's experiences from the time before the adoption and how things had been going since the children came to Sweden. To achieve my purpose I interviewed six adoptive parents from five families, with a total of eleven internationally adopted older children.The research findings of my study showed that a risk exists for older adopted children to suffer emotionally because of earlier experiences.

North Korea is considered to be the most autocratic dictatorship in the world today. Its citizens are denied their most basic human rights and North Koreas ambition to pursue nuclear weapons is looked upon with great fear from the international community and the US in particular. Some experts say that the threat from North Korea is far greater than the one possessed by Saddam Hussein. Although North Korea seems to inhabit all the necessary criteria for an US military intervention the United States has openly declared its diplomatic ambitions with the state. Why?With the use of realist and social construction theory this study will bring clarity to why the United States prefers diplomacy instead of a military intervention.