The European Union is affecting the member states in a various of ways. One way, that lately has become more meaningful for Swedish municipalities, is the European Social Fund (ESF). The main ambition with ESF is to promote employment and improve the situation for the European workers. To achieve this, the ESF is running projects on local, regional and state level in the member states. The aim of

Power dynamics play a significant role in the international institutions and in the global economic order, thus advancing some and disadvantaging others. Trade is a crucial aspect of this order since it is one of the fundamental pillars that constructs the world economic order itself, and international institutions have a dominant position in forming the discourse on global trade through their pol

Denna uppsats avser att förklara transition mot demokrati i Litauen och Belarus efter självständighetsförklaringarna från Sovjetunionen 1990 och 1991. Trots staternas geografiska och historiska närhet utgjorde deras demokratiska utveckling tydliga kontraster. Idag klassas Litauen som en demokrati medan Belarus är en auktoritär regim. Denna uppsats är främst en teoriprövande studie som testar O’Don

In December 2015, the world leaders proclaimed in the Paris Agreement that they would pursue efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. This long-term vision was first suggessted to UNFCCC in 2008 by AOSIS, a negotiation group for small island states, who are amongst those who are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. AOSIS have been advocating for this v

After Fidesz took office in 2010 Hungarian national politics has transformed to become more nationalistic. Despite a lot of negative criticism from both inside and outside the country – due to controversial constitutional changes – Fidesz is still in power. This thesis seeks to increase the scholarly understanding of nationalism in Europe and especially in Hungary. More specifically, this thesis i

We test the correlation between Clean Election Index from V-Dem and PEI Index from Electoral Integrity Project and use two country pairs that the indices rate very differently, but otherwise are very similar, to explore the differences. Our data test doesn’t support that improvements regarding laws biased towards incumbents, fairer election officials, fair media access or election violence lead to

Varför har Iraks demokratisering misslyckats? Mellan åren 2003 och 2016 har vi ämnat undersöka dynamiken mellan shiaaraber och sunniaraber. Andreas Wimmer satte upp ett antal kriterier för en lyckad demokrati. Den religiösa fragmenteringen är vår förklaring. Wimmer användes för att undersöka huruvida lämpliga åtgärder tillämpats för att förhindra att fragmenteringen bryter ut i en konflikt. Materi

This study explores Sweden’s strategies as a small state for exerting influence on the integration of gender issues in international climate policy. It does so by focusing on the the feminist foreign policy doctrine introduced by the current government, and its implications for Swedish international climate policy-making. The empirical data is collected through elite interviews with chosen represe

For more than a decade, the Swedish personal assistance act has been subject to extensive cutbacks. More and more people have lost assistance whilst fewer are granted allowances. These cutbacks have transpired without any parliamentary decisions limiting the scope of the legislation. As such, the government claim to have no part in the development, holding the cutbacks to be the result only of adm

Artificial lighting energy consumption in buildings can be reduced by efficiently daylighting the occupied spaces. Artificial lighting comprehends 21 % of the total energy consumption in tertiary buildings (Swedish energy agency, 2015). In many buildings daylight access is neglected, thus redirecting daylight is an efficient strategy to optimize daylighting while keeping the same area of openings

Detection of Listeria monocytogenes by the microbiological standard method (ISO 11290-1) is time consuming and requires several days to get results, thus a more rapid detection method is required. The aim of this study is to continue the optimization of a rapid method that is based on quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to detect L. monocytogenes in food matrices. The method is based on

An ambiguity characterises Swedish Sami policy. In some regards, Sweden is securing rights for the Sami and receiving praise from international organisations. However, Sweden is also criticised for not supporting Sami interests, as for instance regarding a ratification of the ILO convention No. 169. Thus, Swedish Sami policies have showed to support disparate ends; in some instances strengthening

This study examines the role of individual front line workers in the public sector and how the implementation of laws and practices may differ between them. The research is constructed as a case study of the Migration Agency in Malmö in Sweden. Using both quantitative methods and qualitative interviews differences in outcomes for asylum applications are assessed in relation to which officials the

Deliberative democracy has during the last decades soared to the forefront of democratic theory research. It is presented as a solution to many of the deficiencies that the world's democracies currently are experiencing. However, up until recently the research about democracy in Sweden has focused on ways to include the citizens in the democratic process and not about the state of the current

Right-wing populist parties are on the rise all over Europe. While academia pays a lot of attention to well-established populist parties in France, Austria and Italy, new competitors such as the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Germany are mostly disregarded. Specifically, the impact those new parties have before entering power on a federal level has been neglected. The present research concen

Recently, major infrastructure projects have been started in Denmark and this research tries to answer how social aspects are investigated in planning and analysis work before the big projects are constructed. The research has interviewed representative from the Copenhagen Metro Company and Danish Road Directory to uncover the analysis work and how social aspects are included in their work. The re

This thesis examines the way social norms affect meat-consuming behavior, through using dietary habits as a way of expressing a political identity. A theoretical framework of social psychological theories will explain the connection between social norms and meat-consumption, by conceptualizing identity as a fundamentally social construction, created within the social context. Theories will further

In May of 2016, the Swedish parliament voted yes to a Memorandum of Understanding between NATO and Sweden. The agreement was criticized by its opponents, who claimed that there was no public debate leading up to its acceptance, and that it changes the Swedish approach to defense politics, which has traditionally been one of neutrality. Both ruling parties in Sweden at the time of the vote, the Soc

Throughout the pursuit of environmental sustainability, the attention placed on governments’ responsibility to reduce environmental degradation has progressively decreased and rather, began focusing on the attitudes and behaviours of individuals. Overtime, this increasing attention placed on the individual highlighted the central role which citizens have in creating and pushing for a sustainable s

There is an ongoing debate within Swedish public administration regarding whether municipalities can handle contemporary issues that require some amount of coordination as well as whether they are straying from democratic principles. It is argued that the origin of this debate lies in the sectorisation of the Swedish welfare system, where the traditional model has been deemed unfit. There is conce