För att råda bot på det sjunkande politiska engagemanget introducerade Lunds kommun år 2005 medborgarstämmor som en möjlig kur och som ett led i att komplettera traditionella demokratiska former med nya. Den här uppsatsen avser undersöka medborgarnas upplevelser av en sådan medborgarstämma för att sedan sätta dessa i relation till ett identifierat deliberativt ideal. Hittills har forskning kring d

Denna uppsats behandlar frågan om mediebevakningen av två kvinnliga partiledare, Maud Olofsson och Mona Sahlin. Hur presentationen av dem i tre av Sveriges största dagstidningar, Dagens Nyheter, Göteborgsposten och Sydsvenskan ser ut. Genom en kvantitativ innehållsanalys har vi undersökt detta i 183 stycken ledare och nyhetsartiklar. Artiklarna publicerades hösten 2008 under tre månader, september

Folkomröstningar har en lång historia. Redan den atenska demokratin hade folk-omröstningen som ett inslag i folkviljans förverkligande. Det dröjer dock cirka 2300 år innan den moderna demokratin börjar ta form. Redan tidigt på 1900-talet började folkomröstningar genomföras i de gryende demokratierna, och antalet genomförda omröstningar har de senaste decennierna ökat, bland annat på grund av utvid

This bachelor thesis in political science focuses on the possibility to achieve reforms of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy, making the policy less trade distorting. Sociological, Historical and Rational Choice Institutionalism are applied to explain both the persistence and the evolution of the CAP. Persistence is mainly attributed to the decision making level of the CAP in combina

The purpose of this paper is to penetrate the attitude amongst the Romans towards the consultation of the haruspices, Etruscan experts on divination, who consulted entrails, thunderbolts and other prodigies. The Romans incorporated the tradition in their cult and the haruspices were consulted by the senate and by private people to answer questions about portents sent by the gods. The paper is limi

Abkhazia and Chechnya are both examples of de facto-states; that is they both function as independent states but they have no sovereignty as they are stil officialy parts of their parent states Georgia and Russia. They both fought and won wars of independence in the early 90s, but since then their trajectories have taken separate directions. Abkhazia still functions as a de facto-state while Chech

In this thesis the impact of quality of government on the risk of interstate conflict is analyzed. Data on Militarised Interstate Disputes (MIDs) from the Correlates of War is used as an indicator of conflict and scores from the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) is applied as a measure of quality of government. The unit of analysis is pairs of states, dyads. By employing logistic regression

In this paper I will analyze the “Rosengårdsrapport” (a report by the Swedish National Defence College concerning civil unrest in the Malmö neighborhood of Rosengård) from a postcolonial perspective. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how postcolonial representations are present in the chosen material. The postcolonial perspective will serve as the theory and discourse analysis as the met

This bachelor thesis focuses on the democratic transition in Argentina in the begin¬ning of the 1980s and aims to expose several variables within this political develop¬ment by using a method of process tracing. What many scholars have failed to notice is the role that women's movements in Latin America have had in this process. The authoritarian regime in Argentina also failed to acknowledge

The aim of this thesis is to examine natural resource rights of the non-herding Saami population in Sweden. Throughout history Swedish governments have actively reinforced the notion of herding as the core of Saami culture. In reality, the Saamis involved in this traditional livelihood consists a small part of the overall Saami population. Swedish law still make a distinction between the herding a

The transnational parties in Europe, the Europarties, have often been criticized for their lack of capability to represent the people of Europe. This essay takes its starting point from this criticism and examines to what extent the Europarties carry out the demands of political representation theories. The research presents seven different representation theories and analysis the Europarties from

The importance of energy security for modern economies has increased in recentyears. The role of energy security has lately also been closely attached to national security which has had an effect on the international political arena and nation’s foreign policies. This bachelor thesis tries to analyze how the energy conflicts between Russia and Belarus (2004) and between Russian and Ukraine (2006)

To be the president of the Council of Ministers in the European Union is a giant political challenge. The country at the helm is in the centre of EU´s decision making process and in the media´s spotlight. What consequences does this situation have for the country that holds the presidency? In this bachelor thesis I examine if the people’s attitudes towards the European Union changes when their ow

In the present thesis the author tries to examine how cooperation and exchange between friendship cities/sister cities in the environmental field can enlarge our understanding of interactions on environmental problems on the international arena. The thesis takes the form of a case study over Swedish and Chinese friendship cities/sister cities involved in environmental issues. Both decentralisation

The globalization has moved the decision making process in the EU closer to the citizens. Our regional offices are supposed to act as the citizen’s extended arm to the EU-institutions in Brussels. But acting as the voice of the people in an international context has proved not to be entirely uncomplicated. A good democratic legitimacy relies on the client’s ability to maintain the agencies with co

The purpose of this essay is to observe the discussion of effective aid. I have based my observation on three dimensions of aid, and those are: - State aid state - Individuals aid non-profit organizations - Individuals aid private projects My question formulation is “What kind of aid is most effective?” To observe this discussion I have searched through litterature to find authors’ standpoint on

The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the overall normative question: How should the juridical system be organized? This is illustrated through private security consultants, who offer crime investigations for private companies and the public sector. They are part of a consistent change within the juridical system, which benefits private operators. The thesis examines private security consulta

This essay intends to map how different values are expressed at different levels of the European trade policy. Prima facie, European trade policy may seem very liberal and as advocating of free trade. This, however, is not entirely true. Within some areas, e.g. agriculture and food policy, EU applies a stricter attitude towards free trade. I believe this to be a consequence of the different priori

Emanating from Putnam’s two-level game theory of international negotiations, the thesis analyse the interplay between the domestic, the supranational and the international level in the European Union, when negotiating the Bra War with China. The thesis expands Putnam’s theory into a three-level game theory in order to better understand the complexity of the European Union. The work concludes five

Decentralization and support to local democracy are keystones in Sweden's development cooperation. This cooperation is channelled through local partnerships in order to create fora for exchange of experiences of local self-governance and to strengthen democratic institutions on a sub-national level. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of, and to future research on, decentralizat