The main objective of the essay is to define the meaning of the termgovernance network on the basis of democratic values ? both normative andimperial - with the aim to analyse the prospects to develop an effective anddemocratic governance. Democratic values as well as civil participation,enlightenment, responsibility and approachability are discussed, but also moreeffectivness orientated values.It is clear from the presentation how normative and democracy models putdifferent values in focus, with the consequence that other values are played downor pushed aside. Compared to imperial research in partnership ? by definition atype of network arrangement - and with a starting point in democracy andefficiency, the networks are discussed as political formation.In what sense can the actual existing network arrangements meet and fulfil thedefined political values? As no straight forward answer exists, there is an ongoingconflict between the political demand for slowness and the effectiveness demandfor flexibility and mobility..

During the last decade millions of people have migrated to Europe. Parallel to this development, we see that many countries are becoming more hostile towards immigration. The success of radical right-wing parties (RHP) has been accredited to natives within the receiving countries turning to RHP to reduce their perceived threat from immigrants. Paradoxically, the RHP-support has also increased significantly among the immigrant population given the common assumption that immigrants are in solidarity with regards to shared experiences of immigration. In this dissertation, I argue for the importance of considering the increased RHP-support amongst immigrants, something that has been neglected in contemporary research.

AbstractAt the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 the nations stated that traditional environmental policies were not sufficient to handle the multidimensional challenges posed by sustainable development. Governments needed to broaden their political decision making procedures in order to coordinate and integrate environmental, social and economic policies. Therefore a new tool was introduced in Agenda 21, National Strategies for Sustainable Development (NSDS). The aim of an NSDS would be to bring together actors from all parts of society to jointly reach a consensus on how to work towards the vision of a sustainable society. An NSDS would be seen as a strategic tool to help focus national policies for SD.

This paper focuses on the Swedish migration discourse and investigates if and to what extent it is dominated by a security perspective. Analysing a number of official texts and documents I want to show how the discourse describes migrants and what implications this carries with it for the migrants and for the Swedish migration politics. Through discourse analysis I have analysed whose security that is prioritised, the Swedish or the refugees, who is the refugee and the asylum seeker, and who is the illegal migrant in the Swedish official migration discourse. As a theoretical frame for the analysis I have used theories on migration and security. These include theories on the securitisation of politics, the globalisation and the creation of political identity from the nation state perspective and theories on the connection between migration and security.My results show that a security discourse is dominating the Swedish official migration discourse and is therefore defining our reality and the identities of refugees, asylum seekers and illegal migrants.

According to the theory of elitist democracy civic political participation should be reduced to participation in the democratic elections. This essay examines whether a high rate of institutionalized political participation beyond the elections leads to: (a) that those who are included gets a more favourable treatment at the expense of the common interest, in other words that their self interest threatens the political equality, (b) reduced freedom of action for the politicians and the headmasters, (c) the emergence of vague conditions of responsibility. These hypotheses are examined in an empirical study of user-boards at four schools on three locations in southern Sweden. In these user-boards the parents are in majority and have the right of decision, which has been delegated to them from the local government and the headmaster. The main conclusion is that, based on this empirical investigation, there is no support in any of the hypotheses.

This essay is a discourse analysis of the integration politics of the different parties in the Swedish parliament and the non-parliamentary party ?the Swedish Democrats?, as it is presented on their respective web pages. The overall purpose is to problematize and shed a light on how the current discourse(s) about integration are constituted. Also of interest is how these construct our knowledge and experience of the phenomena. We furthermore want to illustrate the social consequences of such discourses on the construction and organization of identities and groups, and, as a result, the courses of action that becomes available.

AbstractIn this essay, policy change and learning is studied in the case of the Social Democratic Party and their policy concerning independent schools. Their policy differs clearly from the right-wing parties. Between 1991 and 1994, the right-wing government made substantial reforms concerning independent schools. The question posed in this essay is whether the policy of the Social Democratic Party has changed as a result of these actions, and if they have approached their right-wing counterparts.Using the Advocacy Coalition Framework, defining a policy as a result of the values the actor holds, the question is studied by applying the theory's assumptions of policy-learning across coalitions. The argumentation of the Social Democratic Party, as it is expressed in official text documents before and after the right-wing government, is analysed.

Abstract.

Title: ?We become like a little ambassador in the country of Facebook? ? an essay on the pres-ence of Swedish National Radio on Facebook. (?Vi blir som en liten ambassador I Facebooklan-det? ? En uppsats om Sveriges Radios närvaro på Facebook)Number of pages: 34 (46 including enclosures)Author: Nina WillénTutor: Christian ChristensenCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Fall 2010University: Department of Informatics and Media, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: My purpose is to examine what the presence of the Swedish National Radio on a commercial network like Facebook means and how the editors themselves argue about it. For the analysis I use critical political economy as a theoretical point of view.Material/Method: The material consists of interviews made from a qualitative method.

This thesis is about the effect of political efficacy on societal participation among youths aged 15 to 29. It takes a starting point in the gloomy view of the decline of political participation among citizens in the western world, especially pointing out youths as a threat to democracy. This is a broad subject to take on so my aim becomes a bit more specific. The aim of the thesis is therefore to investigate if belief in ones own capacity and in the responsiveness of the political system affects the actual participation among youths in Europe, independent of a set of alternative predictors. Moreover the thesis is divided into two sub-investigations, one qualitative and one quantitative.

Intense competition among companies and luck or unavailability of certain resources in country of company?s origin force last to cross the borders, and start to hunt for new markets and cheaper inputs. However, by investing abroad the company is not only facing and dealing with cultural differences and new regulatory framework, but also becomes dependent on decisions and actions of different and to large extend unknown government. Moreover, the majority of the investments? flows are directed to developing countries, where power and capabilities of state authorities are considered to be more extensive than in countries of developed economies.

This thesis is set out as a testing of the crosscutting cleavages theory on twocontemporary cases. The aim is to test the explanation process of the crosscutting theory applied to the political and social situations in Belgium and Switzerland and furthermore to examine potential conflicts in pluralistic states. Our main questionis: How can the crosscutting cleavages theory explain the different outcomes ofsocial coexistence, even with the states numerous similarities? We have examined the two federal states through their social divisions of language, region, religion and socio-economy. Our findings show that both Belgium and Switzerland possess divisions in the above mentioned variables, which in most cases are cumulative structured.

In this essay i present a study on political learning of a minority ethnicity whose political history in the institutional form began in 1993. The ethnicity in question is the Sami?s and in 1993 the Sami Parliament was established. The establishment of the Sami parliament radically changed the preconditions for political work. Sami politics came to be pursued in an organized manner in the form of a public authority and democratically elected units.

AbstractTitle: The Junilistan in the elections of the European Parliament in 2004 A media drama in three actsNumber of pages: 42Author: Kristiina RuutiTutor: Amelie HössjerCourse: Media and Communication Studies CUniversity: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityDate of submission: 2007-01-13, autumn term of 2006Purpose/Aim:The purpose of the essay is to examine the media coverage of the Swedish Junilistan in the elections of the European Parliament in Sweden 2004. My hypothesis is that the media coverage of the political party Junilistan was a media drama with elements of classical dramaturge.Material/Method:Qualitative content analyses of four Swedish newspapers from a narratological perspective.Main results:The media coverage of the political party Junilistan was a media drama with elements of classical dramaturge. The coverage became a drama with three acts. Diverse actors with different projects could be identified from the articles.Keywords:Narrative, election journalism, classic drama, mediadrama, actant, European parliament.

In 1998 a new regional development policy was introduced by the Swedish government. A central feature in the policy was the formation of partnerships at the regional level. The partnerships were meant to consist of local and regional stakeholders, representing a great variety of interests, who would collaborate in order to improve regional development. The new policy was promoted, besides being more efficient, as a way to broaden political participation and to break male-dominated structures.This thesis discusses whether the regional partnership actually favours ?women's interests?, in terms of how the relationship of power between women and men is constituted by the model.