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.

What role does the state play in economic development? This thesis seeks to investigate the relationship between a strong state and economic development. To define the concept of a strong state I focus on the relationship between the scope of state functions and the efficiency of which these functions are implemented. The concept of a strong state is in this thesis defined as the efficiency of the state functions. By using a database constructed by three economists; David Kaufman, Aart Kraay and Massimo Mastruzzi as a measurement of a strong state I test the relationship with economic development empirically.

This is an examinaton of welfare officers and patients experiences of a course in mindfulnessbased stressreduction in primary care. The authors used a qualitative method and a phenomenological hermeneutics scientific philosophical position. The analys of the data appeared by using three theoretical perspectives; cognitive, coping and Antonovskys Sence of Coherence. The purpose was to get a deeper understanding of what mindfulness is, how a course in mindfulnessbased stressreduction can be arranged and how it is comprehended by the welfare officers and previous participators of the course. To get an opinion of the issue the authors wanted to know the welfare officers intention of the course, to which patients they provide the course, what the participators thought about their situation before and after the attendence and if they had assimilated the knowledge and if so how it was applicable.

This bachelor?s thesis examines costs of welfare services in municipalities of the region of Västra Götaland in Sweden. Previous research provided reasons to expect a link between costs of welfare services and demographic changes. Furthermore, Willam J. Baumol?s theory about ?the cost disease? also provided reasons to expect a link between welfare services and salary levels.

For the Swedish artist Björn Lövin, the personal was a problem. In his first exhibition in Moderna Museet, Lövin observed through the fictitious character Mr. P (for »Personality«) the ruptures in the Swedish welfare state. The exhibition Konsument i oändligheten och Herr P:s penningar (Consumer in Infinity and Mr. P?s Money) (1971) was composed of two environments, through which a veridical working class apartment and a high street with life-sized mannequins and furniture characteristic of its time, visualized the societal discrepancies in the welfare state as well as the art world of the early 1970s.

The aim of this paper is to describe the position of the Swedish welfare state within the shaping of a Swedish national identity. This is done through the study of Mångkulturåret 2006, and its rhetorical context. The point of departure is that history is formed continuously in current speech and a text analytical method has been used. Mångkulturåret was issued by the Department of Culture as an extended perspective of Cultural politics. The rhetoric used in the official document Agenda för Mångkultur is analyzed through a comparison with earlier official documents on the field of multiculturalism and integration.

This thesis examines the presence of threats and violence directed towards animal welfare inspectors/ officers. The main tool is a survey regarding threats and violence directed at animal welfare inspectors/officers. The questionnaire was distributed to animal welfare inspectors/ officers who worked on 15 of the country's 21 provincial governments. The response rate of the survey was 68.9 percent. The main conclusion of the study is that threats and violence directed at animal welfare inspectors/ officers are common.

Many social services cases have been reviewed in the media during the last years. One of those cases is ?Lasse and Karin?, handled by the Social Services in Oskarshamn in 2002. Lasse and Karin had their son taken into custody by the Social Services and the case was reviewed in national media. Through this case the Social Services received much attention, of which most was negative, and their handling of the case was greatly criticized.

When Vladimir Putin in the year 2000 came to power in Russia many believed that the Russian civil society were weak and had very little influence and with Putin people say that the situation have deteriorated. The purpose of this paper is to establish what kind of relationship exists between the Russian state and the civil society and to analyze this from a top-down perspective. We are looking at Russia during Putins first term in office from the year 2000 until 2004. In order to establish the relationship we have used John S. Dryzeks theory of inclusive and exclusive state and whether it?s active or passive in this process.

In this master thesis, which is made in a qualitative manner, we have as purpose to investigate the nurses' estimation of the hospital welfare officer. We find it interesting to take a closer look at their opinion, because of our earlier, bachelor thesis, based on the same subject, only then in the welfare officer´s perspective on themselves. We have interviewed ten nurses and our questions at issue were the following four: Where in the hospital´s hierarchy do the nurses place the welfare officer? In what way do the nurses look at themselves and on the fact that they are leagally authorized? How do the nurses define the welfare officer´s occupational sphere and his part of the medical care? Which opinion do the nurses have on the co-operation with the hospital welfare officer? The primary information, together with two maintheories and a collection of litterature on the subject have helped us to answer the four questions of issue. We have found that the results we see, in some ways are compareable to our first investigation.

The school can be seen as a place that reflects the wider community. Here is a school welfare officer an important representative of the school social work. The main subject of our study is to clarify how the school welfare officers? talk about documentation in the individual meeting with the pupil. Through individual interviews with five school welfare officers in elementary schools in three municipalities in the southern part ofSweden, we have attempted to explore these main research question.In addition to qualitative interviews we have accomplished a survey study that included 178 school welfare officers throughout the country.The result of our two studies demonstrates the school welfare officers? free work where the choice to document or not is wide.

The aim of this undergraduate thesis was to explore how the welfare officers at palliative units in Stockholm respond to the patients? thoughts and experiences during the last phase of life, as well as exploring their picture of the patients experiences. The research questions of the study were:? How do the welfare officers relate to the patients? experience of their death? ? In what way do the welfare officers respond to the dying patient and his or her experiences?? What knowledge/experience do the welfare officers have and what knowledge/experience do they consider is needed in their profession?To answer the research questions a qualitative method was used where five welfare officers in three different palliative units were interviewed. The empirical material was analysed through meaning concentration and are presented using exact quotations.

The three post-communist states - Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine ? have gone different ways in terms of freedom and democracy since the breakdown of the Soviet Union 1991. During these years, the state and the civil society have been fundamental actors in the struggle against, and even for, authoritarianism.A strong state with great capacity in Belarus has undermined the chances for the civil society to fulfil its task as a watchdog of the state and link between the citizens and the government.Failed authoritarianism in Moldova has led to a situation where both the state and the civil society are weak. The major problem is lack of organization and cohesion; both the state and the civil society have often been divided by ethnical differences and are therefore not strong enough to promote democracy.In Ukraine, the dominance of a strong state ended in 2004 when the Orange Revolution took place, sometimes called a ?peak of democracy? where popular mobilization and protests succeeded in it's opposition against the state.

This paper attempts to survey the debate in the Swedish parliament on state surveillance on the Internet, from 1994 to March, 2007. With a discourse analysis inspired by Foucault, we follow how the idea of state surveillance is viewed by politicians during the period. By focusing on the Internet, we expect to find how politicians in the parliament regard the idea of an unregulated forum for citizen communication and interaction, and how the need for state surveillance on the new arena that is Internet, is expressed and argued for. Theoretical framework is given by Foucault?s theory of the Panoptic state, as well as his thoughts on discourse, power and governmentality.

AbstractTitle: Welfare officers personal experiences of stress and coping in an emergency hospital in StockholmThe purpose with this study was to describe how welfare officers in an emergency hospital experienced stress in their workplace and what coping strategies they used. Through qualitative interviews the welfare officers thoughts and experiences were examined. The result showed that welfare officers experienced some stress at the workplace; this was related to lacks in the organization, heavy workload and short of time. The most commonly used coping strategies were social support, physical training, short breaks during the day to handle the stress at work. The conclusions of this study was that factors that reduces stress for welfare officers who work at emergency hospitals was a functioning organization and management, the ability to control and at some levels effect their own work, to have guidance and other opportunities to ventilate with co-workers.