ABSTRACT This thesis focuses on the OPEC oil crisis of 1973 and its impact on the Scandinavian countries of Sweden and Denmark. Starting from Walter Carlsnaes theory of energy vulnerability, the concepts of vulnerability and national security are tested on the selected cases and an array of policy alternatives are assessed. Posited available options like oil stockpiling, conservation, renewable e

This thesis aims to examine the possibility of understanding social change by using new institutionalism approaches on a specific case, The case, which describes the implementation of new public management reform in the Swedish health care system, is analysed from two separate new institutionalism perspectives; the tool perspective and the symbol perspective. These approaches differ from one anot

The main purpose of the study was to analyse the well being of children placed in foster care for at least two years, in one sample municipality. An assessment was made of how the social service admistrated and took responsibility for these children in terms of schooling, physical and mental health. To further understand the situation of the children three areas of investigation were added concern

In this thesis I will study China's environmental policy process and the challenges of creating and implementing air pollution policies in China. The remarkable economic performance of China in the past 20 years has caused its environment a tremendous distress. The Chinese government have created a quite comprehensive legal framework in order to protect the environment, but the implementation

ABSTRACT In this paper, the political implications of the EU's listing of the political branch of Hamas as a terrorist organisation are examined. The terrorist lists are perceived as a case of legalisation of a previously unregulated field in international politics, were power in two steps has been moved from the table of democratically accountable politicians: first from the level of the nat

Many of the worlds trade ministers gathered for the World Trade Organization ministerial conference in Hong Kong in December 2005 discussing the Doha agenda. Present at the negotiation as well as the delegates were a large number of non-governmental organizations or NGOs. My intention with this paper is to study the influence of the NGOs pre- and during the conference in Hong Kong. The influence w

This essay studies the practice of both the political and the administrative leadership at the municipal level from the point of view of the politicians and the chief officers leadership role, and the relationship between politicians and administrators. I discuss and analyse how politicians and senior officials practice leadership, differences or similarities and if their practice of leadership ra

This thesis is concerned with investigating the Roma, a group that is left out in most of the territory bound theories. The theoretical purposes are to develop theories that increase the understanding for the Roma as a diasporic nation without state and the advocacy networks they are organised in. The main empirical purpose has been to study two organisations as cases and how they position themsel

In this report I aim at establishing whether or not the European Security Strategy (ESS) of the EU is a securitization move by the EU and whether the EU is a credible securitizing actor in relation to the contents of the ESS. The first question will be answered through a discourse analysis of the ESS based on the constructivist theory of securitization. The answer to the second question will be ba

I have studied how network in a broad sense can affect decision-making. The primary purpose is to see if the political initiative somewhere disappears when it comes to understand the relations between power, actors and politics. The study discuss in a theoretical area that concerns the reliability in neoinstitutionalism to use as an analytical instrument. Some criticism is given to the theoretical

In this study I examine the ways that social policy and (step)family discourse are constituted by the cultural and legal priority granted to biological kinship ties. I call the discourses that perpetuate the primacy of biological kinship the politics of biology. The purpose of the study is to examine the ways that the politics of biology are constituted, expressed and challenged in Swedish late mo

New political parties are increasing as phenomena in Swedish politics. Some of these parties have gained much attention in the media, and recent examples are Junilistan, Feministiskt initiativ and Sjukvårdspartiet. Media plays an important role for political parties as it is a way for the parties to communicate with the citizens. Therefore this essay examines how these three new parties have been

This paper is a critique of the hegemonic democracy ideal in France today, the myth of the Republic. Based on critical theory, the paper also contains a normative attempt giving the chance to subaltern groups to tell their, less often heard, version of the "truth". The theoretical foundation is the ontological narrative perspective, where identities and actions are understood as being c

The thesis is based on a field study carried out in India, Nepal and Tibet during the period of June?August 2005. It examines gender structures in Tibetan society and seeks to explain the background and reasons to existing social and political structures. The object is to call attention to general conclusions regarding equality gathered in the field by focusing on social efficiency rather than

Foreign aid has the potential to produce dramatic changes, both economically and politically, in the countries in which it is received. This paper argues that the contemporary foreign aid regime does not always create positive results and is often detrimental to democratization in developing countries. This paper argues that poor foreign aid policy induces, both political and economic, and both di

The overarching aim of this essay is to analyze, from a feminist point of view, the moral responsibility for the structural oppression of women. In this discussion I focus on the issue of moral responsibility for sexual violence against women, such as rapes. I claim that a feminist theory of moral responsibility has to be based on a collectivist approach. I argue that men should be considered as c

This essay tries to explore the dynamics of sisterhood as an important narrative aspect in Dodie Smith´s I Capture the Castle (1949) and Rachel Ferguson´s The Brontës Went to Woolworths (1931). Sisters mirror each other both within and outside the family. They can serve as convenient character types with distinct capabilities, strengths or weaknesses, while the family setting makes for excellent p

15th of December 2005 was a historical day for the Iraqi people when they could vote for the first time in a free referendum for the draft of the new constitution. The result showed that 79% accepted it. The Iraqi constitution has been criticized by many for its Islamic ascendancy. By giving Islam the role as the source for legislation, will make the situation worse for the Iraqi women, so it has

This essay examines European Union policy-making in terms of its aims of promoting the Common Good of its citizens. It uses REACH, the new chemical legislation as a case study, since it is a good example of a piece of legislation which has both environmental and economic consequences, and hence pose great problems for legislators in deciding which of the aims for the Common Good to prioritize. It

In this thesis we examine the EU and its development aid distribution and co-operation with third parties. We have looked closer upon the Union's relations with the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP), as well as the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC). Our investigation explores how the EU as a donor has handled and affected the development in these regions. We approach t