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According to the theory of elitist democracy civic political participation should be reduced to participation in the democratic elections. This essay examines whether a high rate of institutionalized political participation beyond the elections leads to: (a) that those who are included gets a more favourable treatment at the expense of the common interest, in other words that their self interest t

This essay aims to investigate how women who fall ill in Rheumatoid Arthritis, during or just after their pregnancy, experience and cope with this. The main questions were 1. What experiences did the women have from receiving their diagnosis? 2. How has the motherhood and the sickness affected one another? 3. How did the women cope with the problems they faced? 4. What kind of support were the wom

What role does the state play in economic development? This thesis seeks to investigate the relationship between a strong state and economic development. To define the concept of a strong state I focus on the relationship between the scope of state functions and the efficiency of which these functions are implemented. The concept of a strong state is in this thesis defined as the efficiency of the

Since the end of the cold war, the EU has increasingly turned out to be a global actor with an agenda. The EU has entered a new stage as an external actor, after the 2004 enlargement, and is confronted with new neighbours and dilemmas. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse and understand how the EU's roles and capacity to act, is described and constructed in relation to the new European Ne

EU's foreign policy operational endeavours of the last decade have given tangible evidence of a change in EU's foreign policy from a civilian power to a military power. However commentators are still holding fast to the idea that despite these shiftstoward a military power, the EU can still be called civilian. This paper researches the discourse surrounding the civilian power concept to fi

The increase of cultural diversity in Sweden is reflective of the diversifying effects of globalisation throughout western society. The subject is currently widely debated in policy forums, the media and other public spaces, and within political science as part of the resurgence of normative theory. This thesis outlines, compares and analyses the communitarian and cosmopolitan perspectives on dive

The study evolves around the emergence of a gender awareness in the Kenyan political consciousness, as a consequence of the adoption of the alternative development discourse, promoting values like equal participation and empowerment. My task has been to determine the outcome of local development initiatives in terms of women's empowerment and then relate the findings to theories on discursive

The purpose of this study is to analyse how the local governments have implanted the new public health policy, which Sweden adopted in April 2003. The new health policy stakes out a new direction for national public health policy. Instead of focusing on diseases the new public health policy focus in factors that determine health. Important factors to study are the role of central steering from th

Today there is a keen competition between regions in the world for companies and inhabitants in order to improve regional development and economic growth. In many regions there is an active effort to create a good home base for companies and inhabitants. Since 2003 municipalities in nine counties in Sweden have come together in co-operative agencies in order to work towards more efficient regional

The breakdown of the ratification process of the EU constitution was in Sweden blamed on a lack of a debate concerning European issues. The constitution can be seen as the best and latest, but in no way the only, example of this problem. The breakdown can also been seen as proof of a larger legitimacy crises within the EU. The aim of the study is to determine whether or not there really was of lac

The Romanian revolution of 1989 ended a communist era of oppressive leadership exercised by Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu. During the 1990s Romania went through a painful transition with increased economic hardship and an unstable political situation. In 1999, the European Union considered the situation of the country stable enough to start membership negotiations. Since the first EU commission repo

This paper has its aim to investigate in which way the theory about the dynamic of the triadic nexus, presented by Brubaker, needs to be revised. In the first place this theory is presented and after then applied on the triad formed by: the Hungarian national minority in Transylvania, Romania and Hungary. Through the empirical evidences, that are presented here by following up the political relati

Uppsatsen behandlar lagstiftningen som skyddar offentligt anställdas yttrande- och meddelarfrihet. Med grunden i Lennart Lundquists ?offentliga etos? är den utformad som en fallstudie där tre fall granskas för att kartlägga hur dagens lagstiftning fungerar i praktiken. Uppsatsen jämför även med en normativ ansats två olika förslag till förändrade förutsättningar som är ämnade att bättre trygga en

The main purpose of the thesis was to investigate if mothers of girls with Asperger syndrome/high-functioning autism experienced the same stressors regardless of society and culture or in which way the stressors might differ. A special purpose of the thesis was to investigate if the society by different types of support could relieve stress and eliminate or reduce stressors. The method of the th

The objective of this thesis was to study how parents of adult drug addicts experience their contact with the social welfare office, what elements affected the parents degree of satisfaction with the contact with the social welfare office, and whether the contact meant any help for them. Six parents of adult drug addicts were interviewed.

Our purposes with this essay was from the perspective of young people that has completed a stay at HVB-home, their parents and the social welfare secretaries get an apprehension on their way of looking at the purpose of placement in a HVB-home agrees with the comprehensive view of the placement. We also wish to get a picture of what is of important to change in this matter. How do they experience

This thesis discusses the attitudes versus methadone assisted rehabilitation ad modum Dole Nyswander in Sweden during the period 1972-2004. This is done by means of a Foucault inspired discourse analysis applied on the directions issued by the Board of Health and Social Affairs. The context in which these directions were created is also described, in which scientific achievements on methadone trea

Abstract Since the early 1990s the concept of ?women empowerment? has gained ground in the development discourse as a result of the acknowledgement of the marginalization of women in development strategies. Poverty is frequently given the face of a woman, making it fashionable to evolve gender sensitive development schemes based on women empowerment, which are supposed to challenge the victimizat

The aim of this study was to develop, implement and evaluate a mindfulness- and acceptance-based smoking cessation program in group (MRG). MRG was developed into an intervention consisting of 6 group sessions during 35 days including individual homework assignments. 8 of 10 participants completed the program. In order to evaluate the effect of MRG a quasi-experimental design with pretest and doubl

The overall aim of the study was to develop a theoretical understanding of how films in general and the photographic image in particular alter the way we conceive of and relate to our environment. Setting of where social constructivism, Cartesian dualism and textualism ends, the essay brings forward an alternative approach to cultural experience and identity construction. With the advent of the m