The aim of this study has been to explore local cultural policy documents in some municipalities in the geographical region of Västra Götaland. Do the municipalities have these kinds of documents for their local cultural activities, and how are they designed? These are questions which the study has focused on. The study has been concentrated on the library activity in the local cultural policy documents. The research has been a comparative one.

The regime theory is the dominant paradigm in the studies of urban politics in USA. It provides a set of concepts to analyse the change from government to governance in the American local politics. The regime theory postulates that governing power in local government tends to be highly fragmented. The private sector has with its control of economic resources a major influence in shaping governing decisions. In this essay I study the regime theory in a Swedish context to investigate if the theory is pertinent when studying of Swedish local governance.

Var står ursprungsfolk i den internationella politiken?.

The aim and purpose of this paper is to identify and investigate the effects of affirmative action as a tool to improve the equality of the sexes in a male dominated organisation such as the Swedish armed forces. The study takes a qualitative approach, using feminist theory as a point of departure. Primarily socially based differences between men and women are identified and the resistance towards change is taken into account.To understand the impact of affirmative action I have observed the political debate on the subject and contrasted it to the ongoing debate from within the armed forces. Extensive interviews have been held with both men and women from varying ranks and ages to understand what the overall opinion of the method is.My results show that there is a widespread animosity towards affirmative action as a method of improving equality. Both in the political debate and within the organisation in question.

In this examination project I look into what ways upper secondary school students conceive themselves as politically influenced before they voted for the general election of 2010. The purpose is to examine which influences the upper secondary school surroundings and the classes of civic education are contributing with to students before they voted. As a method, I have used personal, semi-structural interviews on eight upper secondary school students who all voted for a party represented in the parliament. I have asked questions about how they believe their parents, the surroundings of their school and the classes of civic education have influenced them. To separate which influences primarily the upper secondary school and the classes of civic educations have had on the students, I have selected two comparison groups of four students in each.

AbstractTitle: How does Europeanization effect Swedish alcohol policy? .Titel: Hur påverkar Europeiseringen svensk alkoholpolitik?Minor Thesis in Political Science, January 2008Author : Markus GustafssonTutor : Lennart BergfeldtVäxjö UniversityThis essay will deal with the influence which Europeanization has on domestic politics. The case I have chosen is Swedish alcohol policy. Thus, the purpose is to explore whether observed changes in Swedish alcohol policy in the years 1993-2005 can be explained by Swedens´s membership in the European Union. To reach this purpose the following questions need to be answered:? What is europeanization?? How has Swedish alcohol policy changed from 1993 to 2005?? Is it possible to connect the changes in Swedish alcohol policy to a process of Europeanizationprocess?The method in this essay has been a qulitative study of litterature.

This thesis aims to examine the possibility of understanding social change by using new institutionalism approaches on a specific case, The case, which describes the implementation of new public management reform in the Swedish health care system, is analysed from two separate new institutionalismperspectives; the tool perspective and the symbol perspective. These approaches differ from one another in the sense that the first relies on a rational choice ontology, while the latter rather refers to a sociological tradition. In the analysis, causal explanations as well as aim related explanations are presented. Formative moments such as economic stagnation, non-socialist governments and ideological isomorfism are presented as important factors behind the reformation. By using the tool perspective, the motives of the idea spreading and reformation of the Swedish health care system, are connected to a strictly rationalbasis such as cost efficiency and quality improvements.

The aim of this essay is to examine the experiences of an introduction process of newcomers through an integrative perspective, by two guiding questions: How does the examined organization socialize newcomers? How is the organizational socialization experienced by the employees? Most Swedish corporations engage in some form of workplace introduction and this introduction should give the newcomer an understanding of his work and its relation to the organizations other business practices. Earlier studies have mostly focused on the effects of socialization tactics but few on the experience. This study, based on qualitative interviews with a regional manager, newcomers and established employees shows that the studied organization socializes its newcomers through many socialization tactics where the newcomers? personality and previous knowledge allows to direct the socialization process.

Democracy is said to uphold the dearest values and be the most moral system. But it cannot be characterized as a rigid "syste" but a continuously changing political framework, under which aims and values can be fulfilled - and replaced.The increasingly diverse and ever-changing environment of contemporary democracies forces change upon the systems' natural evolution, which makes their future features uncertain and unforeseeable. A powerful change-force doctrine does however claim change is mainly (or merely) caused by the power of ideas; the elite power over ideas can thus provide a natural foundation for the analysis of the direction of development for democracy. This study aims to provide such a foundation by reconstructing empirical and normative descriptions of democracy at two certain points in time, following extensive government studies.As a tool for analysis, this study identifies values of substantial and procedural character central to democracy theory and discourse. It further creates ideal types of democracy based on these values, to which the nature of democracy is measured.

In this essay, the aim is to study the role the politicians play in relation to the people they represent. This is manly a theoretically study, which focus is on the theories behind the way we choose to identify the role of politicians. We ascribe different underlying values to the role of politicians and as a result from these different values a conflict can arise. Two central terms in my discussion are the way the politicians represent people's values and meanings combined to the possibilities for the people to hold the politicians responsible. Depending on which ethic values you put to the role, you have different views about how the politicians should act.

Which general outlines are preferable in the relation between organizations and government? From normative theory and method I throw light upon this question by defining and comparing two different democratic standpoints. The substantial democratic standpoint focuses on political effectiveness and the procedural democratic standpoint focuses on equal representation. The normative discussion aims at comparing how well the different standpoints function in political praxis. Since the ambition is to discuss concrete praxis I have also chosen to analyse an extensive case of interest influence in Swedish politics empirically.

This report is founded in lack of knowledge concerning the design and layout procedureduring a new engine room construction.The prime question is how the engine room takes its form from idea to construction and whathappens in between. We want to give the reader a better understanding in how the work isdone and why it is designed the way it is concerning layout, ergonomics and safety. Duringthis report we will enhance the knowledge concerning regulations and rules that are of greatsubstance such as SOLAS, Swedish Sjöfartsverket and IMO.By contacting the parties involved in the process in newly designing a vessel and its engineroom, we will assume their approaches and experiences. We will study the work progressfrom planning to construction of a vessels machinery spaces. We will with the help ofinterviews with interested parties get an idea of the approach and also compare the finishedproduct a bit depending on company size and resources.The investigation resulted in a good basis for how a ship engine room design takes shape andwhich aspects are taken into account, however, we found that the existing rules concerningengine room layout was very vague and was seen as the most recommendations.

The aim of this essay was to describe the power elite of the Swedish town Karlshamn, and its influences on the local political process before the realization of the narrow-gauge railway Karlshamn-Wislanda-Jernväg. During the mid 19th century, a revolutionary period began in the Swedish pre-industrial epoch. The political and institutional regulatory frameworks were disassembled and restructured, away from protectionism and centrally controlled administration, for the benefit of free trade, local self-government and liberalism. The changes were carried through during times marked by a drastic increasing native population and upcoming demands for adjustments to meet the growth of the industrial-, trade- and labour markets. An essential industrial development factor was the building of the national railway network, which started after some important decisions in the Swedish Riksdag during the 1850´s.

Abstract Mona Sahlin's dishwasher decides the election! Maybe. How journalism portraits politics is at least not fully objective with focus on societal matters. There is also a change over time indicating an up-going trend of less objective journalism. Other results of this case study indicates that politicians are more inclined to participate in journalism than before and that politics presented as scandal is increasing.The aim of this study is to investigate objectivity in political journalism over time. Using the quantitative content-analyses the study encoded 600 journalistic articles subjecting politics in the Swedish society.

Several previous studies have in different ways tried to explain how new social movements are affected by the different sets of political and social contexts within different states and societies. This essay asks the question how much the institutional aspects within the theory of Political Opportunity Structures (POS) have determined how the rather successful animal rights movements in the Netherlands and Great Britain have mobilized and acted to gain progress. Since the Netherlands and Great Britain contains different kinds of political and institutional contexts, these two states are found to be suitable for a comparative analysis of the theory's durability. A qualitative portrayal of both state's institutional political opportunity structures are presented. Then the mobilization, progress, and actions of the political party ?Party for the Animals? in the Netherlands, and a wide group of animal rights organisations in Great Britain are determined.