En knuten näve i silkeshandske - Kan statliga informationskampanjer stärka samhället och medborgaren?
IndividualismCommunitarianismPublic information campaignsOpinion buildingAlkoholkommitténKlimatkampanjenEuropaparlamentsvalCivic education.Political and administrative sciencesStatsvetenskapFörvaltningskunskapLaw and Political Science
Public opinion can be shaped as well as transformed in a number of ways. Government authorities occasionally make use of public information campaigns to educate and steer the public. In this thesis the balance between public and private, the individual and the society is analysed in terms of dimensions of individualism and communitarianism. These dissimilar theories on how the society ought to be constructed can be used when analysing many different policy areas, however, they also pinpoint the controversies seen in the public debate regarding Swedish information policy. Based on this analysis an empirical study identifies what kind of knowledge the state wants the citizens to possess and public information campaigns can be problematic. The study comes to the conclusion that awareness raising campaigns could be beneficial to society. It might also be one of the tools for reaching a sustainable society. But the road to achieving that is lined with difficulties as the state must be careful when using such authority - a firm fist in a silk glove.