Contrary to popular belief, countries rich in natural resources are often poorer than their resource-poor neighbors. The phenomenon «the resource curse” is defined as “the perverse effects of a country’s natural resource wealth on its economic, social, or political wellbeing”. Resource cursed countries experience poor living conditions, poor economic development and poor levels of democracy with e

Why have the Sweden Democrats been so electorally successful in Scania? In order to answer this broad question, will this paper explore the potential effects of demand- and supply-oriented explanations on the Sweden Democrats’ electoral success by comparing two Swedish counties in the 2010 municipal elections. The counties selected for the comparative analysis are Scania and Västra Götaland. The r

As the Sweden Democrats established its position in the Swedish party system by gaining 5,7 percent of the public vote in 2010, the other parties in the system were required to react. Along with the fact that the public interest in migration grew immensely during the refugee wave in 2015, this study’s aim is to investigate how the Social Democrats as the largest party in Sweden reacted to this cha

The European Union’s development policy has the primary goal to eradicate poverty at the global level and to promote sustainable development. But is the EU doing enough effort to engage the voices and the needs of the poor in order to deliver locally informed aid projects? Emerging from these complex questions, the following research explores the importance and resourcefulness of an institutionali

The purpose of the study is to examine how the European Green Deal shapes and constrains what is considered possible and desirable in order to tackle the climate crisis. More specifically, the objective is to expose its underlying assumptions, interrogate what is taken for granted and left unproblematic. In order to examine how established knowledge shapes and constrains political action the study

Sustainable development is a prominent perspective within local planning and policy and the three pillars of sustainability (ecological, economic and social) can both synergize and conflict. In this essay social sustainability is analyzed in relation to ecological sustainability to explore their interplay and relationship. The study is conducted using a content analysis and a theoretical policy fr

Lay judges are used in the Swedish courts to attain a democratic representation of judges, but the system has received criticism for giving weight to political affiliation in a role that ought to be unpolitical. The aim of this study is to investigate politicization of the laymen system through lay judges’ own perspectives of their roles, and their views of the structure of the lay judge system. H

This essay poses the question: To what extent does accession to the European Union lead to an improvement of media freedom and media plurality, and to what extent does a Europeanization of media occur? The essay focuses on the developments of the Central and Eastern European countries and focuses on Croatia and Czechia as the analyzed cases. In answering this question, the various theories of Euro

Recently there has been a rise of populism within Venezuela and Poland. Simultaneously, both countries have seen a de-democratization as a result of legal and political changes carried out by their governments. This study consists of a comparative analysis of two case studies on left-wing populism in Venezuela and right-wing populism in Poland, and aims at investigating the relationship populism a

This thesis aims to provide a ”local” perspective on Montenegros own understanding of the country’s economic cooperation with China, within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. With a lack of discourse analysis and no case study with Montenegro as a case within the research on Belt and Road Initiative, this thesis also intends to cover this specific gap. Based on the purpose of the thesi

Least Developed Countries (LDC) är en förhandlingsgrupp inom klimatramverket som består av de minst utvecklade länderna i världen. Det är en grupp som historiskt haft lite inflytande på klimatpolitiken men som blivit mer aktiva det senaste decenniet. Studien behandlar LDC:s roll och påverkan inom det relativt nya politikområdet Loss and Damage (L&D) utifrån frågeställningen: Hur har Least Deve

The importance of descriptive representation within politics, for example an adequate female descriptive representation, is a debated issue. The argument is supported by Phillips’ theory about Politics of presence, assuming that an increased number of women in parliament would lead to an increased female substantive representation. The purpose of this study is to investigate if there is a clear re

During the summer of 2018, Sweden’s crisis management experienced a massive challenge due to widespread forest fires. After the fires the Swedish public authority, Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap (MSB), got an expanded mandate and therefore ability to operate the Swedish crisis management system. This essay aims to find the answer to why MSB got this mandate and what was the reason beh

Several countries have seen elections postponed during 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This has generated an ethical conflict between political security and health security. By applying a general theoretical framwork that draws upon Rita Floyd’s normative securitization theory as well as democracy theory, this study examines the normative conflict that many world leaders have faced. However, th

This essay explores the discourse on youth-unemployment post the covid-19-pandemic labour market crisis in the EU from a post-structural theoretical perspective. Combining a Foucauldian governmentality-approach with Carol Bacchi’s methodological framework “What’s the Problem Represented to be?” this essay identifies and analyses the problematisations of unemployability among European youth in rece

Using van Dijks’ critical discourse analysis as a theoretical and methodological point of departure, this paper strives to analyze the ways in which gang-related crime is illustrated in the Swedish media. This study seeks to outline how the media portrays the problems, causes and proposed solutions of gang-related crime. This thesis is descriptive in nature, and does not intend to argue or investi

The primary aim of this essay is to investigate access for non-state transnational actors to some of the main institutions in the official Nordic co-operation, consisting of the two bodies the Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers. By applying a theoretical framework created by Jonas Tallberg, Thomas Sommerer, Theresa Squatrito and Christer Jönsson, access to the organization is mappe

The essay examines which ideas the Swedish Democrats have about courts and government authorities between 2010 and 2020. In earlier works, the party’s voters have shown a low trust in these institutions and, the purpose of the essay is to describe the notions that the party has. The method used is ideational analysis, which divides the thought-content into descriptions, values, and recommendations

The purpose of this study is to further our knowledge on how civil servants act when faced with conflicts in relation to the political governance. The study was carried out through a qualitative analysis on semi-structured interviews with municipal officials, who have either left their employment after conflicted situations, or who still remain within the organisation. The theoretical framework co

The Swedish school system is highly influenced by the extensive school reforms that took place in the beginning of 1990s. Through the free school reform, a market was created where schools compete with other schools, the main aim being higher quality and lower costs. The recent debate regarding free schools is mainly driven by ideological narratives where questions about free schools’ impact on co