Liberal theorists typically argue that state action should not favor any particular conception of the good or meaningful life. On this view the defining characteristic of the liberal state is neutrality among rivaling ideas of the good. This thesis argues that state neutrality is impossible to maintain in practice. Two different versions of state neutrality; neutral justification and neutral aims, are used to analyze a wide range of political issues. It is concluded that far from being neutral, the liberal state favors individualistic and market oriented conceptions of the good life.

AbstractC-level in Political Science by Christoffer Odén, vt-08?Traditionalism versus Modernism. The Ideology Debate in Left-Socialist Party Today?Instructor: Mats LindbergThe purpose with this essay is to describe the ideology debate in Left-Socialist Party between traditionalists and modernists. This essay have the following questions: 1 ) What are the differences between traditional and modern politics in the Left-Socialist Party? 2 ) What is similar between traditional and modern politics in the Left-Socialist Party? My method is to analyse the Left-Socialist Party programme from 2004 and analyse a programme from the modernist organisation Vagval Vanster.

The European Union has faced lots of criticisms over the last couple of years when it comes to how refugees are treated in Europe. The Lisbon Treaty states in Article 2 that the European Union is founded on respect for human freedom, dignity and equality. Values such as democracy, rule of law, respect for human rights and that the rights of persons belonging to minorities should be respected are also something that the Union should be based on. How is it then that the Roma people, which are Europe's largest minority, are being persecuted all over Europe, that they get deported and have their camps destroyed? Why are refugees from North Africa being sent back before they even have a chance to seek asylum?  In this essay I have examined how the EU are treating refugees and tried to distinguish if there are any differences in how they treat internal and external refugees.

This study is based on the will to understand the importance of a specific theory within social work. From the concept of neo-liberal governmentality, the aim is to critically examine and discuss how governance and self-governance is manifested in social work methods and interventions, exemplified by the theory cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). This will be accomplished through an analysis of:? How governance (and self-governance) is manifested in text through the advocacy of CBT and methods based on CBT.? How (governance and) self-governance is manifested in text through the contents of CBT and methods based on CBT. The study has a deductive approach including the hypothesis that the discourses inherent in social work methods and interventions, exemplified by the theory of CBT and methods based on CBT, may be related to the West?s development of a neo-liberal concept of governance.

The Swedish Social Democratic Party was for a long time skeptical of Sweden?s opportunitiesto apply for membership in the European Community. Sweden?s longstanding policy ofneutrality was until the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe 1989 seen as an obstacle tomembership. These changes were an important factor to why the social democratic partychanged their position on the EC and in October 1990 applied for membership.

The Voices of ParliamentCongruence between party and personThe purpose of this study is to determine the congruence between the opinions of members of parliament and their respective party policies, in order to further determine the cause of poor voter-party congruence and whether or not the individualization of the parliament could affect the character of legislation. To do so, the study asks two primary research questions;- "Are the communicated party policies representative of the opinions of the members of parliament?"- "Is the discrepancy between party policies and the opinions of the members of parliament sufficient for the individualization of parliament to substantially affect the parliament's decisions?"The study answers these questions by comparing the average of self-described left-right stances of members of parliament with the average of voter-described left-right stances of party policies, using existing survey data and a constructed left-right dimension. The lower average is then subtracted from the higher average, creating a value of congruence that is then inserted into a constructed congruence dimension. The primary findings of the study suggest that there is substantial congruence between party policies and the opinions of the members of parliament, and that the discrepancy between them is unlikely to substantially affect the parliament's decisions..

The purpose of this essay is to examine how peace journalism was expressed in Swedish newspapers´ reporting on the war in Georgia 2008. We did this by analyzing whether the reporting was elite- or people-orientated depending on how suffering was expressed and how the war players were described.The method we used was Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). It was applied on news articles from four Swedish newspapers that covered three different happenings in the war in Georgia.We found out that the reporting was mainly elite-orientated, both when it comes to how suffering was expressed, as well as how the war players were described. The newspapers tended to focus on only one party?s suffering and one party as evil-doer, which is elite-orientated reporting and also an indication of war journalism rather than peace journalism..

Before the general election 2006 all of the Swedish parties represented in the Parliament held their political party conference. At each political party conference, the leader for respectively party held their opening speech, a speech that was covered by the press. This essay deals with how the press covers these speeches. Analysing how the different speeches were covered by the press, some tendencies regarding how the press report could be visualised. In this comparison the ?quantitative content analysis? was used.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how different fractions of Sweden?s left wing (the Social democrats, the Communists, the Syndicalists and the Socialist party) framed the end of the Spanish Civil War and the defeat of the republicans.To answer the purpose four newspapers Arbetaren (syndicalist), Folkets Dagblad (Socialist party), Ny Dag (communist) and Socialdemokraten (social democratic) have been analyzed qualitatively. The thesis has focused on how the different ideologies have framed the war, how they framed the other labour organizations and themselves plus how they relate to information about the war during the period of February 1st1939 till April 5th1939.The analysis shows that the Social democrats and the Communists framed the war as a conflict between fascism and socialism, whereas the Syndicalists and the Socialist party framed the war as a socialistic revolution. Because each side had their own view, their opinions on what threatened a republican victory differed. The Social democrats were most concerned that a non-democratic movement would win the war and the Communists feared that fragmentation within the republicans would threaten their chances to win.

This is a study about the relation between the Swedish school and the political system of Sweden. I wanted to see if the relation had changed since the election of 2010 as it was in that election the Sweden Democrats got over five percent of the votes and took seat in the Swedish parliament. The thing that is unique about this election is that it was really the first time a right-wing party had been elected into the Swedish parliament. Many experts argue that this is the first xenophobic party that has been elected into the Swedish parliament. This led to a problem for schools and their principals and a difficult question to answer because xenophobia is contrary to the school?s core values and the school?s democratic mission.Should the school still be open for political parties? How do schools manage to distinguish between political information and political propaganda? If parties still are welcome into the schools, which parties should be allowed? The equality ombudsman has said in a report that the schools have to comply with the principle of objectivity, which stipulates that the public sector has to be unbiased.I have chosen to make use of a qualitative method because I think the study then gets a deeper understanding of the topic.

In his recent article Professor of International Affairs Charles Kupchan claims that Party Politics has become increasingly important for American Foreign Policy since the end of the Cold War. This assertion makes it valuable to assess how the substance of the Foreign Policy differs between the two American parties in various cases and if this difference is characterized by consistency or by change. In this thesis I examine these Party positions in relation to the European Security Policy.In order to examine this I compare the positions of the Democratic and Republican Parties? policy concerning both the European Defence Community (EDC) and the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). The purpose of this thesis is to examine the hypothesis that the Democratic Party to a higher extent than the Republican Party is more concerned to maintain good relations to Europe respectively EU.The results show that there are small indications that my hypothesis concerning the two parties is valid.

This essay examines the indirect effects of the local strength of the Swedish Democrats on refugee acceptance in the Swedish municipalities. With statistical methods this essay has aimed to investigate if such effects exist and by using statistical data from three periods of time - 2002, 2006 and 2010 ? the investigation has been able to measure effects over time. Based on former research and reasonable expectations the hypothesis for the essay claims that the Swedish Democrats has got an indirect effect upon the refugee acceptance. With the statistical analyses made, the essay is able to conclude that the strength of the Swedish Democrats in municipality elections as well as the change of this strength between the elections does have a negative effect upon refugee acceptance in the Swedish municipalities.

The purpose of this study is to analyze how university students, who are not members of a political party, experiencing existing selective and collective incentives for involvement in a political party. Furthermore, the study will highlight incentives which could help the political parties to increase their membership. The study is based on seven interviews and the respondents were selected after conducting a survey of students? political involvement. The interviews were analyzed through the theory of selective and collective incentives. The study shows that the incentives, both selective and collective, for involvement in a political party in general are weak and that the costs in terms of time, money and education are seen as too high.

This essay analyses two swedish magazines about marriage, called "giftermålstidningar", from 1914 and 1924. With ideology as theoretical basis the subject matter is to find words and expressions of ideological influence in the source material. These influences is assumed to come from contemporary marriage laws, which expressed certain views about heterosexual relationships. In addition to the state's laws, the writers in the magazines is presumed to be influenced by other contemporary ideas. Either an older, christian tradition from brittish baptist Frederick Brotherton Meyer, or the swedish economist Knut Wicksell, who represents the Neo-Malthusian world view.

This essay is regarding the problematic facts about child poverty in Sweden. Since the beginning of the new millennium child poverty has increased, in Sweden. The last report which came out in the spring this year (2012) opened up for a lively political debate as well as big headlines in news papers and other media. The attention it got in Society became hard for the politicians to avoid. The Swedish section of Save the Children, demanded in their report concerning child poverty in Sweden that the Swedish Government need to do an inquiry about the increasing child poverty.  Today in Sweden, there are two big parties, and they have been the biggest for a long time now.