In recent years it has been a clear conflict in Sweden between scientists and the agency “Önep” which is responsible for the regulatory enforcement of research ethics. This conflict has shown how the academy and the state can have conflicting interests and that power struggle has made this master thesis relevant. Therefore, this thesis aim, and purpose has been to examine how Önep conduct their re

The purpose of this paper is to study the arguments, reasoning and security analysis made by government actors that resulted in the different and contradictory development trajectories for the civil defense and population protection policies in Sweden and Finland during the last decades. During the period leading up to the full- scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Finland has adequately pre

Prostitution, a policy issue outside of European Union (EU) competence, has in recent years made its way onto the agenda of the European Parliament (EP). In 2014, the resolution on sexual exploitation and prostitution and its impact on gender equality was published in which the EP stated that prostitution is incompatible with human rights. However, the other EU institutions remain reluctant to men

This thesis analyzes the securitization discourse of climate migration as a study on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR. It’s based on material produced by UNHCR between the years 2017 - 2022. The study is accomplished with the 'What's the problem represented to be?' (WPR) approach, in combination with the securitization theory. In total are nine documents analyze

Abstract The right-wing populist party The Sweden Democrats became the second largest party in the Swedish election of 2022. Their electoral success can be traced to populistic discursive methods. There are several political strategies commonly used by right-wing populist parties. This paper aims to analyze such strategies in the Sweden Democrats rethorics but also in other right-wing parties not

In recent times there has been a general trend of shifting party competition, with new issues being brought to the foreground. Sweden has undergone multiple changes, both societal and political, paving the way for the issue of law and order to emerge. This thesis examines how the said issue has helped the right-wing populist party, the Sweden Democrats, reinforce their position in the general elec

A qualitative case study set in Colombo, Sri Lanka focusing on women’s representation in local governance. The essay follows the aftermath of the country’s newly implemented electoral reform, which since 2018 resulted in a mixed- member-proportional electoral system with a gender quota. Throughout an extensive interview process with local politicians and experts alike, six barriers were identified

This thesis generates new theory on how violence affects the levels of political trust toward state and non-state security actors in Mali. The theory that is generated will further be tested through a quantitative regression analysis to be able to answer the overarching research question of: In contexts with high levels of insecurity and violence, under what conditions do populations put their tru

This thesis uses an evaluative approach to analyse the European Union’s Eel Regulation Framework (ERF). By using theories on both legitimacy and posthumanism, the aim of the study is to answer the question of in which ways the ERF can be considered legitimate with both human and non-human stakeholders in mind. As environmental issues and biodiversity loss become increasingly severe, there is an ur

During the last 20 years, the number of minority governments in Swedish municipalities have increased dramatically. Simultaneously, the Swedish Democrats have gained an increasing share of municipal voter support. With the help of Down’s theory of political isolation of right-wing populist parties, the aim of this thesis is to statistically analyse the correlation between the rise in municipal vot

During the last decades, market-oriented policies have entailed significant changes within the Swedish public sector. In Västra Götalandsregionen, primary care clinics for physiotherapy since 2014 get funding based on collected contact points. The points are generated by patients visiting the clinics. Furthermore, the physiotherapists working at the clinics are assigned a daily target number. The

While the climate crisis is gaining more attention, market mechanisms and individual behaviour changes seem to remain the dominant political answer to mitigate climate change. This thesis aims to examine how blue-collar labour unions in Sweden position themselves in the climate transition. Additionally, it explores ideological frontlines and identifies interest conflicts and power relations in the

An inclusive democracy is of essence to combat the changes that the world is going through seen in the trend of increasing female participation. However, attitudes towards women in the public sphere seems not as progressive as one might believe which is an understudied topic. The aim of this thesis is to examine this development through the phenomena violence against women in politics in the conte

Surveillance has throughout history been a widely discussed phenomenon and the debate over the delicate balancing of state power vis-à-vis privacy in the pursuit of national security equally so. In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA had been conducting digital surveillance globally and it represents a tipping point in the history of surveillance. By applying the normative logics deontology

To commence, this is a qualitative case study about China and its diplomatic ties to the outside world, particularly Sweden. The thesis examines and illustrates an aggressive and coercive form of diplomacy utilized extensively by Chinese diplomats around the world; called “wolf warrior diplomacy”. Fundamentally, this diplomacy is a comparatively new phenomenon – or so it seems. Popular application

This paper endeavours to study whether Brexit could be Britain’s way to find its national role in the international arena by analysing three levels of theory analysis from foreign policy analysis operating discourse analysis in its different forms. Initially, individual decision-makers are scrutinised by operating psychological discourse analysis on three Prime Minister’s speeches to learn the pri

The voting behavior of the Members of the European Parliament (MEP) has been widely studied. However, little is written about the effects of crises. This thesis tries to understand how the Covid-19 pandemic affected the MEPs voting behavior in relation to their European political group (EPG) and in addition their national party. This was done using the two theories: the two principal dilemma

This bachelor thesis seeks to find out if the Congress, the legislative power of the United States of America, is suffering from the phenomenon of democratic deficit and what the causes of that may be. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s democracy index for 2021, the U.S. is no longer considered a full democracy but instead a flawed democracy. The U.S. Congress has been notorious for so

In the spring of 2020 an ambitious new strategy, named Farm to Fork, was made public as part of the wider EU Green Deal. The main goal being substantial decrease in the use of both synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Despite the negative consequences of large scale industrial pesticide use, the agricultural industry within the European Union has a lot to lose in a potential legislation to limit

Organized crime is generally associated with men. Women in organized crime have long lived under the radar, and it is only in recent years that their participation has begun to be noticed. The aim of this qualitative study (based on feminist IR theory) is to provide understanding on how women in Sweden are involved in organized crime, what roles they play, and how they are discursively represented