2014 is a special year in Sweden: for the first time elections to the European parliament and the national elections coincides, creating a"Super election year". This year has also seen the rebirth of an old way of campaigning: door-to-door canvassing. For the first time in 50 years the two biggest political parties, the Social Democrats and the Moderate Party, have decided to create a campaign based on personal meetings with the voters in their own home. To investigate this old-new way of campaigning, this study presents an overview of the history of door-to-door canvassing in Sweden and the research in political marketing associated with the phenomena. Based on that, a new model is constructed to help analyze and map the Swedish canvassing-campaigns.

This is an interview based qualitative case study on two Women's Migrant Associations in Malmoe, which I interpret as being part of a women's movement, with characteristics of a new social movement. The aim of this study is to get a deeper understanding on how the collective identity is being constructed, in this women's movement where the membership is not based on an exclusive ethnic identity.I make a two dimensional analysis that departs from a social constructivist underpinning, including the theories Transversial Politics, Postcolonial feminism and New Social Movement Theory.First I analyze the construction of collective identity from the external social and cultural context, and get confirmed that the collective identity of the movement is based on a common experience of social exclusion and a plurality of actions that aims to fight the structural injustices based on gender and ethnic discrimination. Secondly I analyze how the collective identity is being constructed and maintained from the interactions between the members of the movement, from an understanding of Transversial Politics. My findings show that the members of the movement interact in a participatory democratic way which generally corresponds to Transversial Politics. According to Transversial Politics this can lead to a construction of an empowered inclusive collective identity for the members and as my empirical study confirms it also means possibilities for deconstruction of boundaries between social groups..

For the last decades, Sweden has transformed from a state with strong elements of corporatism, to a governance of pluralistic character. This development has opened up to a new form of participation ? lobbyism ? which since has spread and commercialized. Because of this, a report on the state of Swedish democracy ? Demokratiutredningen ? was issued to examine the phenomenon of lobbyism as it was feared to challenge the functioning of a representative democracy.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the properties of the municipalities in Sweden that influence the choice of being a certified Fairtrade city. The independent variables which are used in the statistical analysis are municipal governance, local tax rate, whether there is an university and/or university college in the municipality, average income and higher education in the municipality. The variables are examined by logistic regression. Since there are no statistical data on ethical procurement, this exogenous variable isn?t included in the regression.

This study is set out to examine if there is any kind of influence between the EU and Swedish gender policy. More specific the Swedish efforts within the gender policy area, especially in the area of social policy and employment, during the Swedish presidency in the Council of Ministers 2001. And also to examine the impact of Europeanization in Swedish gender policy. We have decided to delimit our study to care of elderly and children when it comes to the area of social policy. We are using a descriptive, examining qualitative method.

The purpose of this thesis is to carry out a qualitative study of the perceptions of language teachers as to their role in the teaching of values and morals to pupils. Five language teachers have been interviewed about their perceptions of how values are taught and their role therein. The interviews serve to investigate the reality of teaching values to pupils in a Swedish secondary school and the work involved in this on-going process, this being with a view to having a better understanding of just how important a role the teaching of values plays in the daily working life of a teacher. Terms such as fundamental values and morals can be difficult to define as they are highly personal and can differ from person to person depending on one?s background, experiences and family circumstances, for example.

The overall purpose of this essay is to study in which degree the democratic model that is called participant democracy works in the Swedish municipalities. To achieve what I set out to do I will focus on a central political area in which the Swedish municipalities has sovereignty versus the state, in other words in an area where they rule themselves. That political area will then represent how well the participant democracy works in the Swedish municipalities. The research questions then becomes:Does the participant democracy at Swedish Municipality level work in a satisfying way?Does the participant democracy in a large Swedish Municipality in a central political area work?Does the participant democracy in a small Swedish Municipality in a central political area work?Are there similarities and differences between the municipalities?If so, how can that be explained?To answer these questions I will study documents regarding the planning and building area.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine ideas used to legitimate Swedish digital libraries, with a focus on the cultural heritage, their relation to cultural policy and an eventual crisis within the latter. Which ideas are linked to digitalisation? How do the arguments for creating digital libraries differ between central actors? How do the digital libraries relate to cultural policy and an eventual legitimacy crisis? These are the questions this thesis seeks to answer. The theoretical starting-point consists of a legitimacy discussion and its connection to Swedish cultural policy. The method used is idea analysis.

This essay studies the practice of both the political and the administrative leadership at the municipal level from the point of view of the politicians and the chief officers leadership role, and the relationship between politicians and administrators. I discuss and analyse how politicians and senior officials practice leadership, differences or similarities and if their practice of leadership raises any challenges in a democratic framework at the municipal level. I conducted interviews with the municipal political leader and the head of administration at the municipal level in Karlshamn and Sölvesborg. In the analysis I discuss communication as a leadership process which highlights ?enabling elements? and potentials of the leadership process.

There have been various results in research focused on why people are attracted to religion and religious movements. This is also the case with the reasons why people are attracted to far?right nationalist movements. The focus of this thesis is to analyze British National Party?s political documents after nationalistic quasi-religious elements.If nationalism was to be seen as a form of religion or as a substitute for religion the result could be a better understanding of why people are attracted to nationalist movements in general, and also to far-right movements.

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to illustrate Serbia?s democratic development on the basis of consolidate democratic perspective. Linz & Stepan´s five arenas (political, civil, economic, legal and bureaucratic) are required for the possibility to become a consolidate democracy. In order to fulfil the aim, I have chosen to focus on the political and civil arenas that are most central in the study of consolidate democracy.The purpose of this study is to process how far Serbia has come towards a consolidate democracy and which obstacles still remain in the transition.The questions in this study are:? What problems has Serbia faced since the democratic transition in the beginning of 1990?? What possibilities are there for Serbia to consolidate the democracy, with focus on the two key arenas of consolidation?By applying the theoretical framework to the data, I have been able to present answers and build up an analysis.

This paper discuss the possibilities to improve the Swedish political nomination system. It brings up some of the values and norms that can be used to change the existing system. Values as openness, the demand of responsibility and also if there is values from the American spoils system that can be used in the Swedish system. A minor purpose is to discuss the part of the parliament within the nomination process. To investigate this I have some theoretical starting points and a self constructed analysis tool.

BackgroundPolitics in some ways has always been about communication and marketing. In Sweden some people believe that communication and meaningful relations with the voters are of no value, instead it is the political content that is of importance. Media evolution has changed the conditions of political marketing; this has meant that the choices of the right communication channels in political marketing have become more important today than ever. Political competition in Sweden has become more even in recent years, this has called for political communication and marketing to be more planed and well thought out. Political parties have therefore begun to spend millions on marketing themselves.

This paper is about if municipal council's ideology affect steering in the municipalities of Vellinge and Fagertsa. Vellinge has for a long time been governed by Sweden's conservative party Moderaterna. Fagersta has for a long time been governed by Sweden's left party Vänsterpartiet. The main question of the paper to be answered is as follows:Is there a relation between the steering in municipalities and the ideology of the governing parties?The hypothesis is that there is a connection between what ideology the party that governs has and how the municipalities are being governed.

The right kind of democracy ? an ideology analysis of school literatures description of the term democracy.Writers: Fredrik Hedlund & Mattias AhlqvistDemocracy is today a word and a concept that in many ways is taken for granted and almost never is reflected on. The concept democracy is also considered as an essential issue in the swedish school system, both regarding the way the education should be managed and also as a part of the students democratic schooling ? all according to the comprehensive document Läroplanen för de frivilliga skolformerna (Lpf94).The main purpose of this paper is to investigate how swedish literature in political and social science talks about and looks upon democracy ? what do the books say it means?The materials we have chosen for this report are the books Zigma and Forum. As metod we are using a textual ideology analysis in which we have created three dimensions ? meaning/associations, criticism of democracy, and demos/citizenship.