This thesis discusses the 2007 elections in Kenya, and its aftermath. The aim is to examine whether or not ethnicity played a major role in the outbreak of violence that followed the referendum. As well as different theories and discussions on ethnicity, I will also try to explain the course of events by using theories of increased civil violence during a democratic transition, and the fact that weak political institutions can cause violence. My conclusion is that ethnicity has played a part in the violence, but is too simple to blame the events following the election on just that. A number of different factors all contributed to the outbreak, but all to a different extent.

This essay will try to analyze how Syria?s official news agency, SANA, describes events taking place in Syria in the days between 1.4 and 18.4.2012. This will be contrasted with how BBC and CNN describe the events. These other two news agencies were chosen, because they represent media from democratic countries in Europe and the USA. This rebellion became a full scale civil war over time.

Denna studies syfte är att undersöka institutionella demokratihändelser i förskolan utifrån följande frågeställningar. Vilka möjligheter ger förskolan som institution barn till individualistiska demokratihändelser? Hur kan förskollärare möjliggöra individualistiska demokratihändelser för barnen i förskolan? Hur kan förskollärare synliggöra individualistiska demokratihändelser i förskolan? För att möjliggöra ett undersökande av institutionella demokratihändelser i förskolan och för att kunna besvara studiens frågeställningar på bästa sätt har semistrukturerade intervjuer använts som metod. Fyra förskollärare från en förskola i en mellanstor svensk kommun har deltagit i intervjuerna. Resultatet visar att förskolan som institution ger barn goda möjligheter till individualistiska demokratihändelser under vissa förutsättningar. Vidare visar resultatet att förskollärare kan möjliggöra individualistiska demokratihändelser i förskolan genom att aktivt arbeta för en tillgänglig och tillåtande miljö med trygga barn. Resultatet för studiens sista frågeställning visar att ett synliggörande av individualistiska demokratihändelser i förskolan kan ske genom förskolans utvärderingar och dokumentationsarbete..

AbstractSince democracy was developed in the ancient Greece it has come to be used within a small city state, within the national state and as today used within a bigger perspective. After the end of the second world war political leaders wanted to make sure that there would never be a war between European countries again. Now, about 60 years later this type of cooperation now involves 27 of the European countries and goes under the name of the Euroapean Union. This means that democracy is no longer used just within the nation state, but within a big organisation that is responsible for almost 500 million Europeans lives. This also means that the European Union need to make some institutional reforms to be able to handle all the future challenges.

Taiwan has over the past thirty years experienced a substantial political transformation. Being ruled by Chinese nationalists since World War II, Taiwan started its democratic transition in the late eighties. The new democratic system did not only provide people with freedom to vote, it also marked the beginning of a search for a new national identity. Based on the international theory of constructivism, this paper defines and studies the Taiwanese people?s progression away from a dominant Chinese national identity towards a uniquely defined Taiwanese identity.

Aim: Compare occurrences of first-time-events reported by mothers and fathers with children at high tech NICU according to kangaroo-mother-care method in two university hospitals. Method: Descriptive, quantitative design. Fourty-five couples of parents, with premature children born and cared for at university hospitals in Uppsala or Örebro, answered questionnaires about first-time-events: interaction-events, measures-of-care-events and sleeping-place-events. Results: All differences regarding the children?s age at first-time-events showed Uppsala-children to be younger than Örebro-children. Interaction-events were reported first in children?s lives, measures-of-care-events and sleeping-place-events later.

The aim of this study is to illuminate and discuss a case of political steering, specifically Managment-By-Objectives (MBO) in Swedish municipalities, from a democratic perspective. The essay examines a discrepancy between MBO in the Swedish municipalities and democratic theory.To fulfil the aim of the study one leading politician and one leading civil servant from five municipalities have been interviewed on this matter. This material is discussed in the light of a democratic theory constructed specifically for this essay. The democratic theory consists of three main democratic values in the democratic process: debate, transparence and the ability to demand political accountability.The main conclusion is that there is a contradiction in the use of MBO and the democratic values of debate, transparence and the ability to demand political accountability. MBO has resulted in a lack of debate and transparency and furthermore, it has made it increasingly more difficult to demand political accountability..

The aim of the following paper has been to test the democratic peace theory through applying it on the conflict between Russia and Georgia in 2008.  This to either falsify the theory or come to the conclusion that the states? democracy was not satisfactory in regards to the definition of liberal democracy. The questions asked are: Was Russia and Georgia democratic states? Is democracy a protection from war? And which aspects of the liberal democratic theory, if any, were not satisfactory in either of the countries? The results show that the democratic peace theory is valid in this case and that neither one of the states were democratic.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relation between sporting events, where alcohol is served, and the attitude towards alcohol among adolescents. We conducted a survey with 195 respondents, all of whom was students of Swedish upper secondary school. The respondents were between 15 and 18 years of age. The data were analyzed using theories of attitudes and norms. We also analyzed the data using previous research.

Event is a phenomenon that lately has become more common, especially within the tourism industry. This essay is a study within human geography and with focus on the meaning and the design of events. The purpose with this essay is to examine and describe the concept of event and to show how events can influence a region. Falkenberg is situated in the county of Halland by the west coast and the sea and because of that a natural tourist destination. The city is a known seaside resort since the end of the nineteenth century.

This essay focus on the European Union and its democracy both from a national perspec­tive and from an international perspective. Furthermore, the essay center on the con­cept of democratic deficit, this in order to study the European Union´s status regarding the democratic legitimacy. This study intends to nuance the problems that previous research and previous researchers have de­fined as democratic deficits in the European Union and ends up in conducting a textual anal­ysis of the latest European Union treaty, the Lisbon Treaty.The aim is that by using previous research on the democratic deficit in the European Union examine whether the Lisbon Treaty has enhanced the EU's position regarding democratic legitimacy. In other words, my study aims to identify what the deficit is and if it exists.The results show that the Lisbon Treaty has been trying to improve the democratic legitimacy and that some practical adjustments have been made, but it also show that there is much that still can be improved before citizens have full democratic rights..

This thesis examines art exhibitions, literature events and music events in public libraries in Sweden. The aim is to study which event occurs most in the libraries in Sweden. I also examine who takes responsibility for the events, who the libraries engage, how much the events cost, and how often the libraries have the events. I also study Swedish cultural politics in purpose to see if the libraries follow the aims and directions decided by the Swedish government. One aim of the Swedish culture politic is to give every citizen in Sweden the same possibility to experience culture, no matter where they live.

Democracy has been a part of the Swedish society for a long period of time and it is also a part of the Swedish elementary school curriculum, in which you can find a number of statements that expresses that the Swedish elementary school should socialize the children into becoming role model citizens. This also conjures with the available research that describes schools in general as socializing. This led me to a question that hasn?t been answered: How much of the curriculums reasons for socialization the pupils are based on democratic values and how much of it can be dated back to events prior to the curriculum?The methodological approach is an analysis of ideologies as described by Sven-Eric Liedman and Ingemar Nilsson in Ideologi och ideologianalys. The text is focusing on the fact that a text has two layers; one is the manifest which is roughly the same as explicit or present in the text.

Abstract:The purpose of this study is to examine what actually makes Russia an incomplete democracy, despite of all the formal democratic institutions and legal democratic rights.The research method used for this essay has been qualitative case study, which strives to answer two research questions: Which democratic principles are not respected in Russia? How does the executive power control the political arena? The theoretical framework used for this study consists of a model based on Dahls Polyarchy theory and the Rule of Law concept. The conclusions points out that very little have formally changed in Russia regarding democratic rights and the constitution. The democratic decline is due to political manoeuvres and undue political influence. There is no proper division of power and the executive powers are not controlled by a system of checks and balances.

How effective is consumer power? Can consumers regulate corporate behavior?And if so is the case, could the mechanisms where consumers regulate corporatebehavior have any democratic value to contribute with? These are the questionsthat this master's thesis comprehends with. The purpose of this writing is toconstruct a theory of consumer power that is compatible with democratic theory,this in order to contribute to the ongoing discussion within the discipline ofpolitical science about the third democratic transformation. A discussion that hasbeen actualized due to the democratic deficit created by the growing corporatepower and the shift of power from state to private enterprises. Besides showingfor a parallel between the democratic mechanisms that exists in the relationbetween citizens and state on the one hand, and the consumers and corporationson the other hand, this paper argues that consumers do have a great potential inregulating corporate behavior towards a higher social responsibility andawareness.