The point of departure for this essay is the observation that themunicipality of Lund is giving priority to handicap associations overother forms of associations. This act can be regarded as trespassinginto the realm of civil society. In respect of this, two aspects appearto be particularly interesting to explore. The first is to determinewhich perspective of freedom the municipality of Lund holds. Ireconstruct how the liberal and the communitarian state relate to thenegative and the positive freedom.

Using Varshney's theory about intra- and interethnic networks, this thesis examines how civil society in southern Thailand is built up.During 2004 the violence between Muslims and Buddhists rose in southern Thailand. The government tried to fight the insurgency using violent police and military forces, resulting in hundreds of deaths and part of reason why Thailand is loosing rank in Freedom House's democracy index. Varshney means that a civil society built up on intraethnic networks works favourable to violence between different ethnic groups. Sorting out and defining what is meant by ?ethnic? and ?civil society?, this thesis shows why to look at the insurgency in southern Thailand as an ethnic conflict surviving partly because of an intraethnic civil society.

The aim of this thesis is to study why Swedish authorities do organizational changes. Two organizations are analyzed; The Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) and the National Statistics Office of Sweden (Statistiska centralbyrån). A qualitative method, consisting mainly of interviews with key officials, is employed to study two aspects of organizational change: first, the main reasons for changing the organization and, second, how the process that preceded the actual change was carried out. Furthermore, two different theoretical perspectives are used to construct a basis for the analysis. One of the perspectives assumes a social constructivist approach, while the other is rationalistic inspired.

Uppsatsen analyserar inkomstskillnader mellan högutbildade svenskfödda och utlandsfödda på den svenska arbetsmarknaden med hjälp av inkomstekvationer. Dataunderlaget kommer från ett tvärsnitt ur LINDA-databasen år 1999 och alla personer i dataunderlaget har genomgått en svensk universitets- eller högskoleutbildning. Två beroende inkomstvariabler finns med i dataunderlaget ? årsinkomst och månadslön ? för att studera tidsaspekten i inkomstskillnaderna. Det finns stora inkomstskillnader mellan svenskfödda och utlandsfödda för det totala urvalet (särskilt för urvalet baserat på årsinkomst).

I västerländska samhällen lyfts demokratiteorier som direkt deltagande, deliberativ och deltagardemokrati lyfts allt oftare fram som en möjlig åtgärd på problemet med medborgarnas minskade politiska deltagande. Syftet med uppsatsen är att ta reda på om kommunernas satsningar på ökad medborgardemokrati leder till ett ökat medborgerligt deltagande i det politiska livet, samt om deltagandet påverkas av hur kommunerna valt att satsa på demokratiåtgär. Uppsatsen är en triangulering av kvalitativ och kvantitativ metod.Slutsatserna visar att fördelningen för antalet traditionella gentemot medborgardemokratiska åtgärder är relativt jämn, något högre andel medborgardemokratiska åtgärder. Vidare visade resultatet att vilka eller hur många demokratiåtgärder en kommun satsar på inte leder till ökat valdeltagande. Slutligen visade resultatet att vissa demokratiåtgärder är väl fungerande och genererar ett stort medborgerligt deltagande, medan andra inte lockar särskilt många medborgare att delta alls..

When Sweden acceded to the European Union in 1995 the term social economy was introduced to the Swedish context, gradually replacing the term civil society. This replacement can be seen as an indicator of a changing meaning of what the concept of civil society used to stand for.The aim of this essay is to study if it is possible to identify changing perceptions of the role of civil society for democracy in Sweden in government bills between 2002 and 2008, and, if so, what effect does this have on the delineation between the civil society and the government.An analytical model is proposed consisting of two dimensions which both capture the roles of civil society for democracy and the model examines how those roles relate to the government.The conclusion is that the government still sees the main function of civil society as a democratic school and a change agent for democracy. However, there is strong evidence to suggest that the civil society is increasingly regarded as more of a welfare producer than a fosterer of democracy..

Olika socioekonomiska faktorer som utbildning, inkomst, ålder, familjestatus och kön har betydelse för individens hälsa och hur individen själv producerar i sin hälsa. Hälsa både efterfrågas och produceras av individen, för att kunna göra detta efterfrågas varor och tjänster på marknaden som ingår i individens nyttofunktion. För att kunna köpa varorna krävs att en del av tiden fördelas till marknadsarbete och en del till hushållsproduktion. Inom ramen för hushållsproduktion produceras hälsan. Effektiviteten i produktionen av hälsa påverkas bland annat av hur mycket utbildning individen har.

This paper investigates the compensation for risk in the context of the Swedish stock market with a special focus on downside risk. Using daily market data collected from the A-list of the Stockholm Stock Exchange between the years 1983 and 2005 the purpose is to answer the question whether Swedish investors are compensated for holding stocks with high downside risk, measured as downside beta. Using panel data analysis it is shown, in accordance with most previous evidence in international research, firstly that stocks with high beta values on average experience higher returns than stocks with low beta values, and secondly that stocks with high downside beta values experience higher returns than stocks with high beta values in general. On the other hand, cross-sectional regression methodology using a bivariate regression approach shows that downside beta does not explain excess returns very well. Instead, regression analysis suggest that high upside beta does a much better job in explaining excess return over this time period compared to downside beta.

Since 1983 the people of Sri Lanka has endured an ongoing Civil war, however the intencity has varied over the years. The aim of this theses is to examine what influence the asymmetric relationship between the Sri Lankan goverment and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has on the process of negotiating a solution to the civil war. I am also examining whether the asymmetical relationship has changed over time and if these changes have had any effect on the process.To analyze the asymmetries I divide them into material and non-material. I measure the material asymmetries in economic and military resourses, and to measure the non-material I use indicators such as commitment, alternative, controll and legitimacy.The results show that the asymmetrical relations between the parties in Sri Lanka have changed since the 1990s. Factors like 9/11 and the recurrent suicide bombings by the LTTE has had a great influence on the singalese-tamil relationsship.

I denna fallstudie av Region Skåne undersöks uppkomsten av nya forum för samarbete i samband med regionbildning. För att undersöka detta använder vi oss av tre politiskgeografiska begrepp. I Skåne har kommunerna delats upp i fyra samverkansorgan i vart och ett av regionens fyra hörn, detta för att kunna hävda de egna intressena gentemot regionen. Kommunerna i varje hörn har olika grad av beroende till regionen och undersökningen visar att ju större beroendet är desto mer integrerat blir samarbetet inom det egna samverkansorganet.För att skapa en förståelse för ämnet ges en kort presentation av hur regionaliseringsprocessen har sett ut i Europa, Sverige och Skåne. Materialet till analysen utgörs främst av intervjuer och rapporter där vi fokuserar på tillväxt- och utvecklingsfrågor.

Globalization is one of the most popular catchphrases in the international relations debate today. Globalization is a complex concept with as many definitions as authors. National borders or jurisdictions do not control the phenomenon, instead, it is moving without restraints from region to region. Is this a threat to the sovereignty of nation-state and an end of the system of Westphalia? Does the globalization undermine the nation-state by increased factor-mobility, less tax revenue and participations multilateral co-operations, as the globalists think? Or is it strengthens its importance by offering better allocation of resources through free and healthy competition, as the skeptics believe.The aim of this thesis is to analyze theories of globalization by applying them on Sweden and the Netherlands.

The purpose of this thesis is to expose the political myth in the West about the ageing population seen as a threat against the welfare society. To do so I have described what a political myth is, and showed how it is presented in the most influential newspapers and organisations in the West. I have also presented alternative perspectives to the dominating view on the ageing population and it's impacts on welfare. In this way I have tried to point out that the subject has a political dimension. In the thesis last section I compare the message presented in the newspapers and the organisations with the characteristics of a political myth.

Detta är en undersökning som tar upp hur en orientalistisk mediediskurs med ett polariserat synsätt kan ta sig uttryck i svensk medierapportering i samband med terrorattentaten i Madrid den 11 mars 2004 och London den 7 juli 2005. Det empiriska materialet är hämtat från två av Sveriges ledande dagstidningar, Aftonbladet och Dagens Nyheter. Vi utgår ifrån Edward Saids postkoloniala teori om orientalism, som menar att västerländsk media angående muslimer och islam genomsyras av ett synsätt som betonar Väst som "vi" och den muslimska världen som "de andra". Undersökningen ger exempel på hur en diskurs som kan anses inspirerad av orientalism kan ta sig uttryck inom svensk medierapportering..

In this essay I analyze the concepts security and security policy from a critical, feministic point of view. The traditional way of thinking security is state-centred and narrow with its military oriented threatening pictures and solutions.I advocate that the two concepts need a more feministic and holistic approach to be able to cope with the threats of our time and include the security for women explicitly.To suggest how this can be done I introduce a model; security-sphere, which should be seen as a way to constructively connect my objections to the existing research with a new approach to security problems. The security-sphere is based on two analytical parts; the private security sub-sphere and the public security sub-sphere, in order to make new images of security problems visible.It is a fact that most of the threats against women specifically, take place in the private sphere where no traditional analytical tools reach in - these threats have not been seen as 'real' security problems. My aim is therefore to integrate these issues into the agenda of security policy..

This essay contains a comparative analysis of Erik Olin Wrights Marxist class analysis and Michael Hardt and Antonio Negris post-Marxist class analysis as presented in their books ?Empire? and ?Multitude: War and democracy in the age of Empire?. I discuss the shift in analytical focus from state level to global level that Hardt and Negri's analysis represent and the ensuing relevance of this for contemporary class analysis. The essay also address the challenge and implications posed to class analysis by the ever increasing economic globalization, from a material production to an ever growing immaterial service economy and the decrease in state power in controlling capital and labor movement. I propose that analytical understanding of class conflict help us to a better understanding of the mechanisms and dynamics that generate social and economical inequalities and that an updated Marxist class analysis still have much to contribute to our understanding to how these issues not only shape our society but also our capacity to counteract them..