Political realism is a general theory within political science focusing on the principle interest defined as power. The theory?s mutual standpoint is that states are inspired by power politics meaning that military and economic power or security stands in the centre while moral and ethics are placed in the periphery. This essay?s purpose is to analyze realism which helps to understand the development and change of the perspective.

The empirical material of this study consisted of tweets by four leading politicians in Sweden: Carl Bildt of Nya Moderaterna, Annie Lo?o?f of Centerpartiet, A?sa Romson of Miljo?partiet and Jonas Sjo?stedt of Va?nsterpartiet. The aim of the study was to examine how they use Twitter as a political tool and what that says of the mediatization of politics. What content did they publish, how did the content differentiate between them and what political messages and other subjects occurred in their tweets? Does the political debate become fragmented because they?re only allowed to use 140 characters on Twitter? The theoretical framework and method applied for the research was based upon critical discourse analysis (CDA), with special interest in ideology and mediatized discourse.The result of the study showed that the content they published consisted mostly of criticism towards political opponents, rather than of independent political opinions.

This thesis concerns the policy process of a proposed bill. The specific bill constitute a new penal law which is supposed to replace the old penal law from 1974.The questions asked considers what in the foregoing policy process that has proceeded, affected and also characterizes the proposed bill. In order to be able to produce a deep and reliable analysis to this question I use two different theories.The first theory being used consists of John W. Kingdons theory of ?multiple streams? which I use to answer the specific question ?what can be recognized to have proceeded and characterize the policy process that the penal law bill involve??.The second theory consists of Peter Santesson-Wilsons development of symbolic policy theories which is given a concrete form in the ?taxonomy of symbolic policy? which he presents.

The object of this paper is concerned with the subject youth and politics. The aim of the paper is to study what influence our today modern societies has between two social landscapes, Greece and Sweden and try to give an explanation to why young peoples political engagement is different in the two countries. To fulfil my aim of this paper I have used a few questions, these questions will give me an insight in how young people look at politics, what their interests are and if they feel that they can and ought to act political. The theoretical starting points I?ve used I?ve chosen with reflection to look at the social landscape we live in and its changes over time.

This Masters thesis is a study in library and information science, that examines literature as a tool for young people in their identity creation. Both scientists and teachers have found that teenagers like to identify themselves, when reading literature. The purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine how youths construct their identity through reading in relation to the purpose that libraries and cultural politics have in youth novels. The starting point of this study is the sociologist Thomas Ziehe and his idea about identity try-out identitetsutprovning and Erving Goffmans dramaturgy perspective. The main question is: what is the relation between young peoples identity creation in youth novels and in their reality in proportion to the young peoples reading of youth literature and the science about their reading? The question is answered in three parts.

The purpose with this essay is to examine how arts and politics integrate to raise urgent messages and call upon social changes. Performance art as an artistic manifestation against the surveillance society has been studied to clarify this integration and through an empirical examination of the anarchistic performance group The Surveillance Camera Players. This group formed in New York City 1996 as a manifestation against the increased use of surveillance cameras in public places in Manhattan. Through performance in front of these cameras, The Surveillance Camera Players are able to express their protest against the surveillance society which, occurring to them, violates citizens constitutionally right to privacy. The development and signification of the surveillance society are examined through theoretical perspective by foremost Michel Foucault, but also by contemporary scientist in that field.

The political and civil unrest during the last years of the First World War had a profound impact on the political life in many European countries. Academic research on the Swedish Social Democratic Party and the development of the parliamentary system during these years, often focus on the civil unrest and the mobilization of the labour movement during the spring of 1917, and the impact on Swedish politics of the Russian and German revolutions.This study is an examination of the relation between the Swedish labour movement and the Finnish Civil War of 1918. The general aim of the study is to examine how different levels and organisations of the labour movement acted in regards to the situation in Finland, and how these different levels and organisations interacted with one another. A second aim of this examination is to better understand during what kind of processes of the Swedish labour movement?s history that the Finnish Civil War occurred, and how it affected them.The conclusion of the study is that the there was a disparity between the leadership of the Social Democratic Party (SAP), which at the time was part of the Swedish government together with the liberal party, and the grassroots of the labour movement, organized in trade unions, and in the local organizations of the SAP and the Social Democratic Left Party (SSV).

The aim of this Master's thesis is to study what place public libraries have in local politics, particularly from the point of view of the politicians. To answer this, I have interviewed politicians, participated as a silent observer of a public debate, and studied articles on library politics in newspapers and other press. The results show that politicians in general have a positive view of libraries and good co-operation with library professionals, and that they have a fairly up-to-date view of libraries. They are, however, less interested in library issues in general, and are often complacent with the way things are already running. The newspaper studies show that library issues are usually only discussed when a specific library is somehow in danger.

The genetic relationship between three Swedish horse breeds was investigated using microsatellite data from 144 loci in 30 horses. The North Swedish Trotter is believed to have been crossed with the Standardbred in the 1950?s to produce a faster trotter. If true, the North Swedish Trotter should be more alike the Standardbred than what the North Swedish Draught Horse is, from which they originate. This was investigated using F-statistics and Nei?s distance in GENEPOP and GENETIX and cluster assignment in STRUCTURE.

The aim of this essay is to examine which of the two approaches within the field of conflicts that best explains the conflict between Georgia and Russia using negotiations, dialogue and conciliation. According to the first approach negotiations are used to handle a conflict, according to the second approach negotiations are used to solve a problem.  The focus will be on how the two states acted and how the dialogue from the European Union as a conciliator was brought before the war escalated in 2008. The EU is today an important actor within the international politics and has established close relations to the two states. The conflict goes back in history and is still not solved. In the fields of international studies, there is a realistic view that claims the international politics to be shaped by suspicions between states as main actors. War is never far away, what is claimed to be solved through diplomacy.

The Stockholm Bypass is an infrastructural project planned to be located west of Stockholm. This study investigates the argumentation concerning the project from different perspectives. The theoretical starting point is within Decision Theory. The main theories include Bounded Rationality, Kingdon's study of the political agenda and theory regarding venue shopping, framing and lobbying. The method chosen for this qualitative case study consists of both gathering data through semi-structured interviews and through documents provided by stakeholders and information available publically through archives and media.

Eleven years after broking the Kyoto-protocol, the European Union still stands in the front line, combating climate change. How come the EU, with 27 diversified states, is able to integrate its members to what is widely considered the most progressive climate policy in the world? This thesis takes a closer look at the negotiations that have shaped EU climate policy. Using negotiation-models to categorize different aspects of EU climatenegotiations, several key-findings are presented. The thesis concludes that while EU entered the Kyoto-protocol with little to lose because of external factors like previous energy-reforms in key member countries, it had plenty to win in global influence and the satisfaction of an overwhelmingly Kyoto-positive public.

The local politicians in Sweden are responsible for a great deal of the welfare system why one would assume that there are a lot of demands put on them - demands for certain skills or a certain level of competence. I have in this study tried to find out how the demands on the local representatives concerning the demands for competence and the actual level of competence among the politicians are affecting the local politics. This was done through investigating how the local politicians are perceiving their level of competence and the demands put on them, but also how the employees are perceiving the demands and the level of competence put on the politicians. The study was made in the municipality of Gislaved in Southern Sweden. I was using both quantitative method (an opinion poll among the politicians and employees in the municipality) and qualitative method (interviews with three politicians and three employees and literature studies).In order to investigate the demands for competence I split the concept into ?soft? competence (socially and emotionally based skills), and ?hard? competence (skills based on knowledge, education and experience).

My aim in this essay is to analyze how the female body is represented in Swedish working class literature. I have compared four different novels all of which contain a female bathing scene: the opening chapter of Moa Martinsons Kvinnor och äppelträd (1933) , the opening chapter of Ivar Lo-Johanssons Bara en mor (1939) and a scene each in Glasfåglarna (1996) and Mosippan (1998), both written by Elsie Johansson. The bathing scenes suggest three key issues: modernisation, urbanisation and above all women´s sexual politics. Though there were several issues facing the feminist movement in Sweden in the 1930, the question of a woman?s right to her body was one that united the movement, regardless of class..

The purpose of this study is to investigate the educational opportunities that exist within hip hop music, i.e. to highlight the possible strengths and opportunities in informal learning. The aim was to answer the following questions:In what way do young people acquire knowledge through music?How can hip hop music affect language learning / vocabulary?How can hip hop motivate and support young people in school?The study was based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with six youths, three hip hop directors and a well-known researcher who has investigated that Hip Hop pedagogy.The results show that there are many benefits of learning that takes place in the context of hip hop music; from my informants? statements one can accordingly see the role of hip hop music plays in the absorption of knowledge. The conclusion is that hip hop music can lead to alternative learning about politics and society, as the music often deals with various social conditions and policy issues.