The Swedish head of state is a constitutional monarch. 2010 is an election year and in June Crown Princess Victoria will marry her fiancé Daniel Westling. The debate in the media surrounding the form of government and issues related to the monarchy is more relevant than ever. The SOM-institute at Gothenburg University has concluded that the Swedish people’s support for the monarchy relatively str

In the past decade the European Union has established itself as an actor in Civilian Crisis Management. This process has been accompanied by a set-up and development of various institutions and concepts that guide the work in this field. As well as in other areas of European foreign policy, in Civilian Crisis Management a gap between policy-making and outcome can be identified. Taking this as a st

The production of animalistic food has prooven to be environmentally harmful in several ways, and since it is hard to solve the problem through measures directed towards the production, it may be relevant as a political scientist to investigate; how we might use political instruments to lower the consumption of meat, assuming we want the instruments to be cost-effective and legitimate. I've s

The current development approach to reduce poverty is through participation which is thought to lead to empowerment. Empowerment is a state where people actively make informed choices that benefits them. The Kenya Water for Heath Organization (KWAHO) has been working extensively with participatory water management projects together with capacity building in Kenya, with the aim of empowering its pa

The turbulence of the war in the Balkans has been an external motivation for a rapid development of the European foreign policy, to establish security and stability through various instruments. It implied intensification to initiate a foreign policy towards integration of the Western Balkans i.e. through economic and political assistance provided by the Stability Pact (SP) & the Stabilisation

Following a military coup in 2006 the Pacific island-nation of Fiji has become an increasingly autocratic state. The international community has responded by imposing sanctions against Fiji. These sanctions are mainly targeted sanctions consisting of visa bans and restriction on financial flows, as well as diplomatic sanction, which aim to force the Fijian regime to hold elections and return the c

This bachelor thesis contains the justification of Guantanamo Bay. How the U.S.A has justified Guantanamo Bay and how the Human Rights Watch has rejected U.S.A's arguments. This study about Human Rights Watch's and U.S.A's argumentation regarding Guantanamo Bay, has been reconstructed and interconnected with ethical perspectives as rule-based action, end-based action and the problem of

The thesis aims at understanding local forms of governance and the relationship with representational democracy. The object of study is Malmo city and its participation in a network consisting of larger cities, called Eurocities. The theoretical base is gathered from the governance field, more particularly governance network and multilevel governance theories. The use of networks and lobbying pose

Den här uppsatsen baseras på en jämförelse mellan de interna värden som står att finna i Öresundsbrokonsortiets styrdokument och de reklamannonser som producerats av organisationen under 2009. Som en följd av skillnaderna mellan reklamannonserna och de interna dokumenten uppstår en motsättning och spänning i vad som utgör organisationsidentiteten för Öresundsbrokonsortiets medarbetare. Den här mot

Ethical trends across the Western hemisphere of Global Civil Society (GCS) may equal ethics to be out of date, unless it is globalized in, an ethically justifiable manner, which in this paper is called ”ethicalization”. Whether the ethical current can catch momentum with globalizations speed of time, concurrently maintaining consistency is a challenge faced by Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), a

The purpose of this essay is to investigate the impact of the Dayton Accords in relation to ethnic division. As part of Lijphart’s theory of Consociational Democracy he proposes a set of institutional solutions for how to create sustainable democracy in divided societies. My hypothesis was that the principles laid forth by Lijphart would have a negative impact on ethnic division in the country. Si

This paper assesses the democratic value brought to the European Union through the effect of the Lisbon Treaty. In doing so, it especially looks at how tendencies and theories presented in this Treaty can address criticism of a lacking EU democracy. The paper first details the so called democratic deficit debate, highlighting the five pillars in which the EU is often considered inadequate. Drawing

Sustainable development is a frequently used concept these days. It is often captured trough three dimensions of economic, social and ecological sustainability. As the importance of institutions has been accentuated within the first two dimensions, it has lately been the object of study within the dimension of environmental sustainability. As environment is often described as a collective good, th

This case study investigates what role the government decisions and policies have for deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. The decisions and policies are part of the immediate causes of deforestation, which exists in a theoretical framework that I have developed. This theoretical framework constitutes of three levels: underlying causes, immediate causes and sources, which lead to deforestation.

The overall purpose of this essay has been to evaluate a local planning and decision-making process by comparing it with a norm of a democratic process. The case in question was the building of a new multi-purpose arena in Kristianstad. After the decision to build had been made the arena process was accused of being undemocratic and in the end the protesters even tried to force through a referendu

This thesis investigates how employment as a concept is used in the discussions about integration policy. With the supposition that employment is regarded as one of the most important factors of integration, it studies the arguments that endorse this supposition in texts on integration policies. Using the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe, I discern three different discourses that can explain

This paper investigates and discusses the normative question of whether debt relief mechanisms should be conditional or not. The aim is to contribute to the overall normative discussion about how the international system should be organized. The object of analysis is the conditional Heavily Indebted Poor Countries-initiative (HIPC), which is a program for debt relief for the poorest and most indeb

En fallstudie på hur Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap (MSB) arbetade med extern kommunikation under jordbävningskatastrofen på Haiti 2010. Med hänsyn till att MSB är en relativt nybildad och ung myndighet finns det en grundläggande samhällsrelevans i att se om myndigheten fungerar och fullföljer sitt uppdrag. Hur arbetar kommunikationsavdelningen med att få ut information i allmänhet oc

The crucial role that civil society could play in promoting democratization resulted in the active support of civil society organizations (CSOs) in states in a transition stage toward democracy. The EU is an active actor which provides financial and legal support for the development of strong civil society institutions and transforming the states. As the EU- Turkey relations have been improving si

This thesis argues that the socialist movement should engage in the struggle against heteronormativity. It examines the arguments which are set up against the socialist movement’s engagement in identity politics, suggesting that a struggle based on sexuality appropriate for the socialist movement should focus on the social order it aims to attain, and not on improving the status of the subordinate