The possibility and the right to be able to communicate with municipalities or other state companies and politicians are natural for the Swedish Citizens. However, they may be unaware that this communication process is called Citizen dialogue.Today there are so many ways to communicate; one-way communication is not possible in the same way as before. It is above all social media such as Facebook, which has opened the gates one could only dream of.  Via a medium such as Facebook creates a strong Citizen dialogue in which the municipality and Citizens communicate openly and ask questions and give response.The purpose of this study is to find out how Karlstad?s municipality uses, and maintains, Citizen dialogue on Facebook. What are the guidelines and how do the municipality use these? In this paper a qualitative expert interview and a qualitative content analysis has been used to answer the purpose of the essay.

Abstract?Political participation by the Citizen?- Citizen proposals in Karlstad municipalityEssay in Political Science, C-levelAuthor: Tobias GustafssonTutor: Michele MichelettiIn Sweden the political parties are losing more and more of their members. That in combination with a tendency that the participation in the elections is getting lower is a problem for the representative and parliamentary political system in Sweden.In order to strengthen the democracy in Sweden and to make the gap between the Citizens and the elected smaller there has been some democracy-projects. The purpose of these democracy-projects is to make the political participation by the Citizens, between the elections, higher. One of them is ?Citizen proposals to the municipality?.The purpose of this essay is to examine this democracy-project in order to see what influences it might have on the local democracy.

Abstract?Political participation by the Citizen?- Citizen proposals in Karlstad municipalityEssay in Political Science, C-levelAuthor: Tobias GustafssonTutor: Michele MichelettiIn Sweden the political parties are losing more and more of their members. That in combination with a tendency that the participation in the elections is getting lower is a problem for the representative and parliamentary political system in Sweden.In order to strengthen the democracy in Sweden and to make the gap between the Citizens and the elected smaller there has been some democracy-projects. The purpose of these democracy-projects is to make the political participation by the Citizens, between the elections, higher. One of them is ?Citizen proposals to the municipality?.The purpose of this essay is to examine this democracy-project in order to see what influences it might have on the local democracy.

This thesis aims at analysing conflicts between different ideals of democracy, using the example of a newly implemented Citizen´s initiative reform. This reform gives Citizens the right to make policy proposals to Swedish municipal councils. The proposals are to be handled in the same way as proposals from the municipal council members. An ideology analysis of various government documents as well as of an official state study (SOU) is carried out to identify and discuss the ideals of democracy that underpin the reform. The analysis is based on participatory democracy and electoral democracy theory and Arnstein's Eight Rungs on the Ladder of Citizen Participation is used to discuss different types of participation by the Citizens.

Facilitated by the breakthrough of the internet, new ways of organizing internet-based projects that harness the power of the crowds are becoming increasingly common. Today there are ways of using the crowd as paid labour, as funders of your new project ventures and even for helping scientists doing science. Staying true to its traditional principles of objectivity and trustworthiness while asking the crowd to contribute, crowd generated ?Citizen Science? does not provide even the slightest amount of pay in exchange for the time and effort put in by their contributors. Surely there can not be many people willing to do such a thing voluntarily? Actually, practice is showing the exact opposite with contributions counted in their millions among the more popular Citizen Science projects.

The aim of this thesis is to examine whether law reforms in the detailed planning process can be an aspect that gets in conflict with the Citizens rights to participate in the Swedish planning through dialogue, and how five chosen municipalities are working with Citizen participation. To be able to answer the aim of the thesis a literature study and five semi-structured interviews was performed in purpose to get wide-ranging information from municipal officials working with detailed planning handling. Law changes that aims to make the detailed planning process more efficient has been implemented partly to satisfy the needs of dwellings since the detailed planning process among master builders seems to be slow and inefficient, which to the them means higher costs. The requirement on having a detailed planning program was taken away when the new planning law was adopted year 2011. The planning program was including a moment of Citizen dialogue. The case studied municipalities have not been affected in this law change arguing that it?s still possible to bring a program if needed.

Citizens? interaction with governments is an area with unique implications for channel management. Governments need to take the Citizens perspective into further consideration in order to be successful in delivering high-quality e-services. This paper aims to determine if a categorization of Citizen-initiated contacts from a Citizen-centric perspective can be a valuable basis for decisions regarding e-service development. The study consisted of three steps.

At the moment, democracy enhancing projects can be seen everywhere on the municipal level. The purpose of this thesis is to explain how the city of Lund takes on this challenge, why they have chosen to carry out Citizen councils and if these are a good way to intensify democracy and open communication channels between Citizens, the administration and the elected officials.The theoretical framework consists of seven arguments for gaining Citizen influence on policy, and as a counterweight three critical arguments that opponents of participatory democracy often use are added.After a survey over both the Swedish national trends in municipal renewal and the last years work in Lund, the analysis goes on showing that most of the arguments point to the disadvantage of the Citizen councils. Even though legitimacy possibly is enhanced by the project, there are probably better ways to open up for more communication and intensify democracy in the local community..

This essay examines how public planners and the inhabitants of södra Gårda relate to the physical planning of the area and to the demolition versus the preservation of the quarters Eken and Cedern, and how the dialogue between planners and Citizens appears to be. How do the planners and policymakers relate to Citizen participation in urban planning, and how is participatory planning carried out in the legislation, rhetorically and in practice. Former research indicates a distinct gap between rhetorics, legislation and actions in practice regarding Citizen participation in planning, which is why we find it an interesting topic for further research. The essay aims to highlight the different actors interests and visions of the development of the area. Which are the standpoints and arguments the different actors set out for the future visions of the area? The essay focuses on Citizen participation in urban planning in the city of Gothenburg.

This report is a case study of ?Citizen forums? in the municipality of Uppsala. These forums are arranged to make people participate more in local politics. The aim of this study is to find out if the opinions and the wishes coming from the Citizens are later involved in the planning process etc made by the authorities. The aim is also to explain why or why not the opinions from the Citizens are of any importance.My empirical data come from interviews that I have made with seven different respondents, both politicians and civil servants.

This Masters thesis is concerned with the complex planning process of setting up a Citizen bureau in a public library. The aim is to find out how Citizen bureaux are designed and to suggest a simplified model of strategic planning. The planning process is studied from a business perspective in the library context, and this perspective is also used to study Citizen bureaux and their written plans elsewhere. A combination of qualitative methods are used: observations, focus group discussions and interviews. Observations in the public library showed a great need for an environmental analysis as well as structure to the planning process.

This report is a case study of ?Citizen forums? in the municipality of Uppsala. These forums are arranged to make people participate more in local politics. The aim of this study is to find out if the opinions and the wishes coming from the Citizens are later involved in the planning process etc made by the authorities. The aim is also to explain why or why not the opinions from the Citizens are of any importance.My empirical data come from interviews that I have made with seven different respondents, both politicians and civil servants.

The potential of information technology as a means to invigorate democratic practise is constantly under discussion. Regardless of the differing opinions as to the most suitable way to utilise IT, there are certain democratic core values that have to be considered. One of these is freedom of information, defined by us as the right of every Citizen to seek, obtain and express information. The aim of this study is to explore whether the use of IT as a means to enhance democracy can strengthen the Citizens right to freedom of information. As an instrument for analysis we use an article by Jan van Dijk, professor of communication science.

Facilitated by the breakthrough of the internet, new ways of organizing internet-based projects that harness the power of the crowds are becoming increasingly common. Today there are ways of using the crowd as paid labour, as funders of your new project ventures and even for helping scientists doing science. Staying true to its traditional principles of objectivity and trustworthiness while asking the crowd to contribute, crowd generated ?Citizen Science? does not provide even the slightest amount of pay in exchange for the time and effort put in by their contributors. Surely there can not be many people willing to do such a thing voluntarily? Actually, practice is showing the exact opposite with contributions counted in their millions among the more popular Citizen Science projects.

What role should science play in democracy? Political scientists often assume that it is possible to demarcate between ?instrumental? and ?moral? knowledge, and argue that Citizens and/or politicians should use their moral knowledge to agree upon political goals and then apply the instrumental knowledge of scientists to achieve them. This straightforward view is challenged by writers in science studies, who identify three major problems in the use of science in democracy: uncertainty, risk and hidden values. They suggest that these problems could be solved through Citizen participation.In this essay I perform an analysis of the internal logic of their suggestion. Is it likely that Citizen participation enhances the democratic decision making process so as to reduce the problems? The internal analysis shows that it is rational to advocate Citizen participation by reasons of legitimacy.