Bachelor essay in political science by Andreas Byfeldt, autumn 2007?The practice of deliberative democracy- limitations or enhancements of representative democracy??Supervisor: Erik AmnåThe purpose of this study is to find out what impact the practice of deliberative democracy might have on a representative democracy. What effects deliberative democracy could have in this context are scientifically as well as publically relevant seeing that participation in representative democracies as well as the forms of representation is altering.The essay contains both a theoretical segment and a case study. The information regarding the case is based on the results from a questioner, conversations by and observations from the author. In addition an analysis is performed in the case study.The conclusion of the essay is that there is too little empirical research on the subject of deliberative democracy to make a qualified conclusion about what effects the practice of deliberative democracy could have on a representative democracy.

In recent years the liberal representative democracy has been subject of a substantial critique because of its inability to accommodate difference and createa genuinely democratic political process. One such critique comes from the theory of deliberative democracy. Supporters of deliberative democracy try to promote a model of democracy that take its vantage point in free and equal deliberationbetween all relevant actors in a political community. This model has with some success opposed the aggregative model of democracy, and in important ways turned the attention to the potential of deliberative processes.However, the deliberative model is still somewhat underdeveloped when it comes to issues of diversity and difference. This essay deals with such deficiencies by analysing deliberative democracy in the light of the critiquelaunched by difference- and radical democrats.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how six students at a Secondary School describes interaction patterns among teachers when students express in a way that the teacher perceives as racist and/or xenophobic, by presenting a qualitative interview study. The interviews were analyzed by two opposing models of value education: the traditional and the constructive model.The results show that students divide teachers in different categories based on five qualities: 1) they listening, 2) they accept students' opinions, 3) they allow discussion, 4) they are knowledgeable and 5) they can express their own opinions.These qualities are included in the value pedagogical model for Deliberative conversations, whose strategies for interaction aim to create an understanding of different rules and values, thereby creating skills of rules by using a democratic approach. In contrast to this model, the rule-based moral education, in which the teacher uses his authority and refers to rules without giving an explanation for why they occurred, as strategies. .

The purpose of this study was to examine in which extent the comments about news inthe comment fields, on Swedish news sites Facebook pages were deliberative.To fulfill this purpose we used a quantitative content analysis as a method to interpretthe data that we collected about 2203 reader comments from three news sites Facebookpages. Ju?rgen Habermas theory about deliberative democracy together with theoriesabout public space and Web 2.0 were the theories we based our study on. To determinethat a comment was deliberative it had to contain an argument and be written withtolerance and respect. Our result showed that most comments lacked either one or bothof these criteria?s and therefore weren?t deliberative.

The purpose of my research is to describe the substance in three different wedding conversations, and study how the role of the priest is designed in these conversations. The foundation of my study contains authentical conversations and interviews from three priests and three couples. My main material is the authentical conversations but the content of the study, with supplementary interviews with the priest and the couple, render possible a perspective analysis of the wedding conversations from both sides. My conclusion is that the three priests expresses a different role in each conversation and the couples are powerless in the face of the priests. The dominate conversationsstrategy plays a decisive role for the matter and the character part of the priest in these conversations..

Deliberative democracy theory has been prominent within political science research since the early 1990?s, often applied in studies on postnational democratic constellations, in particular the European Union. Of the main institutions of the union, the European Parliament stands out as somewhat understudied from this point of view, which is why the main aim of this thesis is to study the conditions for deliberative democracy in the European Parliament.From deliberative democratic theory four criteria have been selected to function as methodological framework in analysing the institutional structure and proceedings of the parliament. Each of the criteria is applied separately to the practice and function of the plenary sessions, the parliamentary committees and the political groups. The analysis shows that the conditions for deliberative democracy differ between the three fora, as do their respective roles in parliament, but all in all they supplement each other.

This thesis evaluates the user board of the elememtary school in Veberöd, Sweden. In this process an evaluation model is developed. The model itself gets evaluated in a meta-evaluation to improve the model for future use.The starting point of the evaluation is the deliberative democracy theory. Although Sweden is a representative democracy an official desire exists to have a democracy with deliberative qualities. The evaluation model is constructed to fit this context and is therefore, not only, set out from classical goal-based evaluation but also from deliberative democratic evaluation.

Jag har undersökt ifall det är möjligt att väcka ett ökat elevintressse för skolans matematikundervisning under deliberativa klassrumssamtal med en metod som jag själv utvecklat, foto-matematik. Foto-matematik är även ett försök att väcka lärarens, i detta fall pedagogens, intresse att vilja använda sig av denna metod i sin skolundervisning.Det visar sig att genom denna metod ges eleven ett mera aktivt och lustfyllt lärande, samtidigt som lärarnas förståelse för elevens resonerande, svårigheter och problemlösande kring matematiken ökar genom positiva överraskningar i klassrummen. Även matematiksvaga och/eller passiva elever i klassen visar på ett starkt engagemang och vilja..

Partly as a reaction to a perceived crisis in contemporary democracy, the nineties witnessed an upsurge in different forms of citizens? fora, dedicated to the promotion of increased participation by the citizen in the political process. Youth councils are a special point in case as they entail the general characteristics of a deliberative forum, with an emphasis on political learning. This study aims to undertake an evaluation of a regional youth council in the region of Skåne in the south of Sweden. Through qualitative analysis, the study aims to portray the origin, purposes and consequences of such a forum.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the lunchtime from a language development perspective. It will compare two preschools with different ways of organizing mealtimes and observe the conversations between teachers and children. It will also study the ways in which a meal is served and how it affects the conversations. In one of the preschools the children eat in a proper dining room where the food is served as a buffet while in the other preschool the children eat in the preschoolarea and the food is served in bowls on the tables. I also want to investigate how two of these preschool teachers reflect on the mealtimes as part of the language development plan.

The purpose of this study was to describe and analyses educators? experiences of reflective conversations in their teams and part of teams in relation to their work with pupils in need of special support. Ten educators representing ten different teams have been interviewed since all had experiences of working in teams and working with pupils in need of special support. Focus has been on the educators? experiences of the organisation, the effects of the reflections and the need to develop the reflective conversations in their teams and part of teams.

This study investigates the potential of a rhetorical theory of knowledge to expand beyond its own domain and into political theory, specifically theories of deliberative democracy. Despite the increasing interest in communication in democratic theory in the last decades, the majority of theorists have not turned their interest towards rhetorical science. On the contrary, theorists often regard rhetoric as dangerous and incompatible with the deliberative ideal of reason. The aim of this study is therefore to defend rhetorical science by investigating how the rhetorical theory of knowledge ? as it is presented by Chaïm Perelman and Oldbrecht Tyteca, and further developed by Mats Rosengren and Maria Wolrath Söderberg ? can contribute to the understanding of deliberative democracy.

 The aim of this essay was to examine the way preschool teachers and children converse during school meals, and also the way preschool teachers start and develop conversations during meals. The conversations were analyzed from the topic of conversation and the teachers' ways of using language acts such as questions, remarks, exhortations. The study was based on observations, tape recording and contact schedule. The result shows that the topic of conversation is significant for how involved teachers are in conversations during meals. The result also shows how conversations develop or end depending on what language acts teachers use.

ABSTRACTSince Robert D. Putnam first wrote about the causes behind the regional differences in economic and political development in Italy, the theory of social capital has truly flourished in the fields of social science. This days you constantly hear politicians and scholars stressing the important role of the quality of the social fabric to a society?s wellbeing. There all looking at ways to construct policies and institutions that help the spread of social capital.

Deliberative democracy theory holds that democracy is about active partaking on formal and informal arenas in the public sphere where fairly equal citizens can obtain knowledge, discuss, evaluate and affect the political agenda before decisions are made.In line with the deliberative vision of online deliberation social media such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Twingly offer such formal and informal arenas where people can obtain knowledge and interact with other people, and politicians.The Swedish EU-Presidency was the first EU-presidency to make use of social media and it was the first time the Swedish Government Offices used other social media than email and chat features.This thesis will examine the Swedish EU-Presidency?s ambitions of using social media as well as the actual use of social media on the Swedish EU-Presidency website in the light of deliberative democracy theory.The aim of this thesis is, through a case study, to analyze the Swedish EU-Presidency?s use of social media in the light of deliberative democracy theory..