<p>ABSTRACT</p><p>Can Danish experience explain why Sverigedemokraterna had a higher support among voters in Skåne, than among other Swedish voters?</p><p>Essay in Political Science, C-level</p><p>Author: Jenny Wood</p><p>Tutor: Gregg Bucken-Knapp</p><p>Autumn 2006/ Spring 2007</p><p>The key question of this essay concerns the outcome of Sweden’s latest election. When all the votes where counted, the county of Skåne showed an exceptionally high support for the right wing nationalist party Sverigedemokraterna. Why then, did Sverigedemokraterna have a higher support among voters in Skåne (as part of the larger and transnational Öresund region), than among other Swedish voters? My hypothesis is the following: the regional interaction within Öresund has not only had positive effects concerning the values that the people of Skåne hold. In other words, Danish experience has changed the way in which the people of Skåne view immigrants and radical right wing parties.</p><p>Before I go on any further I will explain what is meant by the Öresund region. This region encompasses both parts of Sweden and Denmark (most notably Skåne and Själland), and the interaction between the two countries have increased considerably since a physical bridge between the two border regions was opened in July 2000.</p><p>Now, let us go on to the purpose of this essay, which is to answer the key question, and also to determine if the regional cooperation in the Öresund region has led to changes in the way the people of Skåne view right wing nationalist parties. Therefore, I explored the effects of the interaction between the Swedish region Skåne and the Danish region Själland, in order to discern if the Danes negative views towards immigrants and their strong feelings of nationalism, have effected Swedes and their values. In other words, was it possible that the Danish hostility towards immigrants and their unproblematic view of right wing nationalist parties, had been transmitted to the people of Skåne? Last but not least, it has also been the purpose of this essay to prove that traditional variables, concerning the question of why people vote for right wing nationalist parties, do no longer explain this phenomenon. By traditional variables I mean unemployment and a high density of immigrants of the population in a specific area.</p><p>In order to research the above mentioned issues, I have gone through letters to the editor, sent to the newspaper Sydsvenskan, and analysed the material using qualitative text analysis. I have also studied literature within the field of cross-border studies.</p><p>After ten weeks of research, I came to the conclusion that the traditional variables do not explain why Sverigedemokraterna received such a high proportion of the votes in Skåne. However, this essay also sheds light on the possibility of Danish experience as a plausible variable when it comes to explaining the outcome of the last election, but based on my limited study I can neither confirm nor dismiss the hypothesis. However, my study does provide some evidence that supports the hypothesis. In order to draw any conclusions however, it would have to be broadened in itself and replicated in other sections of Sweden or nationally.</p><p>The results of my study might leave the key question unanswered, but in itself can be viewed as an important step towards obtaining a clearer overview of what has driven the increased vote share for Sverigedemokraterna.</p>

This study explores the Swedish portrayals of Russians as compared to Danes and Polesand how they changed over time during the Great Northern War and Russo-SwedishWar (1741–1743). Through the Swedish state-run Posttidningar, the information deliveredby the state indicates that the circumstances of war and the power of the enemy leaderswere more significant than specific attributes of the enemy other in forming collectiveSwedish identity. Creating these collective sentiments was an essential tool for the stateto affirm the cooperation of its population during times of war. The information aboutthe enemy affects the transformation of a semi-public sphere in Sweden by providing acommon knowledge base to discuss and understand a changing view of its place inEurope. By depicting the enemy in flexible terms, the Swedish state desires its populationto cooperate based on the threat of war, common knowledge, and Sweden’s place inEurope, rather than solidarity against a static religious or political other.

Citizenship is fundamental for participation in a democracy. It gives us rights but also responsibilities in the state that we are citizens of. Citizenship provides us with the opportunity to vote in order to influence who should govern us. However, not all living in a state are citizens. Some individuals are not included in the political life of the state. In recent years, there has been a rise of nationalist political parties in Europe. Since the end of the nineties the party Dansk Folkeparti has been a member of the Danish Parliament and with the 2010 elections in Sweden, the Swedish counterpart Sverigedemokraterna is now also represented in the Parliament. In citizenship theory there is an ongoing debate, chiefly concerning the issue on understanding the underlying meaning of what citizenship really is. The substantially different perspectives that are held by on one side Liberals and on the other Communitarians are ideal for use in a comparative study regarding differences in the recent parliamentary debate in Denmark and Sweden. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze the parliamentary debate in regards to the issue of citizenship in Denmark and Sweden. The main results of the study show that the arguments held by the political parties in both countries are in line with the ideologies of liberals and communitarians, but that there is a slightly different focus between the two debates. Also, there are a greater number of parties in Denmark that represent communitarians values than there are in Sweden.

Notre nouveau défi est de protéger l’environnement. Pour réussir cette tâche, beaucoup considèrent qu'il faut réduire notre consommation énergétique. Le développement des énergies renouvelables permettra la réduction des gaz à effet de serre ainsi que notre consommation énergétique. Les pays nordiques ont mis en place des politiques énergétiques différentes selon leurs ressources et leurs expériences. Mais il n'est pas facile de réduire la consommation d’énergie quand les besoins augmentent et qu'il est nécessaire de conserver un haut niveau de vie. Les choix politiques sont très importants surtout pendant ces temps de crise. Il est cependant possible d'utiliser cette nouvelle révolution verte pour relancer l’économie, créer des emplois et bâtir un développement durable respectueux de l’environnement. C'est le défi auquel sont notamment confrontées les économies de l'Europe du nord. Les pays scandinaves partagent la même culture et la même histoire, mais leurs politiques énergétiques sont différentes. Ainsi, la Norvège exploite les hydrocarbures, le Danemark a opté pour l’énergie éolienne, la Suède et la Finlande recourent à l’énergie nucléaire et l’Islande développe son potentiel géothermique. Les choix énergétiques y ont souvent été argumentés par la réduction des gaz à effet de serre, même si la réalité est parfois divergente, les pays nordiques sont sur le bon chemin pour constituer un modèle dans le monde pour le développement durable et pour montrer une nouvelle façon de vivre et une nouvelle façon de penser aux générations futures. / Our new challenge is to succeed in protecting the environment; we have to reduce our energy consumption. The development of renewable energies will decrease greenhouse gases and our energy consumption. The Nordic countries have set up a different energy policy, depending on their own natural resources and know-how. It’s not easy to reduce energy consumption when needs are increasing. Political choices are very important, especially during this crisis period. We must use this new green revolution to revitalize the economy, create employment and build a good sustainable development, which respects the environment and society. The Nordic countries share the same culture, history and language, but their energy policies are different. Norway has chosen hydrocarbons, Denmark wind power, Sweden and Finland nuclear power and Iceland geothermal energy. These choices have always been an argument for the reduction of greenhouse gases, even if the reality is sometimes different. The Nordic countries are setting a good example to the world in sustainable development and showing a new way of life and thinking for the next generations.

In the wake of the Cold War, regional organizations have proliferated and are now a dominant theme in global politics. This study tests whether explanations for the Nordic peace can help to understand or construct other zones of peace in these increasingly important regional settings. With that in mind, this study compares the Nordic area of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden with the Southern Cone region–here defined as Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay–and both are treated as regional, subsystemic zones of peace. Its significance lies in analysis of two developmentally disparate regions not yet compared in zones of peace literature. Using structured, focused comparison, this study is guided by fundamental questions about each region that assess the relationship between explanations for regional peace and their respective historical records. Understanding the conditions that permit the endurance of peace in today’s global context has far-reaching empirical and theoretical implications.

The diploma thesis describes and analyses relations between the Czech state and the Kingdom of Denmark. It is focused on the time period from the Middle Ages till today, however the key part examines the 20th century. The diploma thesis comprises several areas of the Czech-Danish relations, mainly deals with the political and diplomatic affairs and focuses also on economic and cultural connections. Due to lack of printed sources the thesis draws from the materials of the Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and is therefore the first comprehensive overview of the relations between these two states.

The thesis is based on the financing of educational system in the Czech Republic and Denmark, and it focuses on the resources which are associated with this branch. It deals with all levels of the educational system and presents different ways of its financing from public funds. The main attention is given to the comparison of funding systems' structures with emphasis on the differences between the two countries. Following part studies the development of partial and total public expenditures on education, including its relation to the key macroeconomic indicators. In the last part of the thesis I come up with my own ideas of adopting certain elements from Denmark to Czech model of financing education.

The aim of this thesis is mainly summarize tax aspects of using car in entrepreneurship in Czech legislation - income tax, value-added tax, vehicle excise duty. Further the thesis focuses on non-tax duties of entrepreneur and current legal regulations in Czech republic with possible changes in taxation. The most interesting tax aspect is usage different tax regulation between Czech republic and Denmark at import of new automobile.

In the mid-10th century there was an increase of Byzantine coins to the Baltic area alongside the shift from the eastern Islamic dirhems to a western focus on German coins. This thesis sets out to study networks around the Baltic area from a perspective of Byzantine miliaresion minted by Constantine VII and Romanus II, Nicephorus II, John I Tzimisces and Basil II. The material consists of coin finds in foremostly hoards but also some grave finds from Gotland, mainland Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Belarus, Estonia and Finland. This essay will combine the use of two different methods, first a network analysis in Pajek and then a spatial analysis in GIS. With these two methods I want to investigate what the Byzantine coins can tell us about the transition period between the import of Islamic coins and German coins. Together with the Byzantine coins I will use other materials from Gotland such as shorttwig and longbranch runes, a type of metal vessel found in graves and a type of clay vessel with a special mark on the bottom. They will highlight different aspects of the Viking age networks, with a focus on Gotland. The result showes that the import of Byzantine silver coins into the Baltic in the 10th century consists of two phases. The first phase consists of miliaresia minted by Constantine VII and Romanus II, Nicephorus II and John I Tzimisces which were probably imported through Poland. On their way through Poland they mixed with early southern German coins from Bayern and Schwaben on their way to Denmark and Gotland. With the second phase the eastern coin import temporarily gets an upswing. The coins minted by Basil II are more commonly found on Gotland and in Estonia which lead me to conclude that these could have been imported by Gotlandic individuals on their travels east.

Diploma thesis "Nordic countries and their support of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on their way to European structures" deals with foreign policies of Denmark, Sweden and Finland towards three Baltic countries in the 1990s. The paper is focused on Danish, Swedish and Finnish bilateral support of three Baltic countries on their way to European structures, particularly to the EU. The thesis strives to explain a rationale and motives which were behind decisions of Nordic countries to help Baltic countries in the 1990s. Although the thesis is primarily focused on a development in the 1990s, a short part is also devoted to a historical development of the relations between Nordic and Baltic countries. This historical excursion helps to identify changes of Nordic foreign policies (Baltic policies) which occurred in the 1990s. The main proposition of this thesis is a statement that though there were several motives behind decisions of Nordic states to help Baltic countries, the main factor which caused high involvement of Denmark, Sweden and Finland in the Baltic Sea area were security related factors. The thesis also offers a summary of some motives which were behind high involvement of Nordic countries in the region and provides some similarities and differences in Baltic policies of Denmark, Sweden and...