In Jan Jagers and Stefaan Walgrave theory about populism as a political communication-style they claim that one can find this in the rhetoric of political parties. In their study of Belgian politics they found that the extreme-right party Vlaams Block has embraced this populism to a larger extent than other parties. Based on this theory this thesis aims at finding populism as a communication-style in three different Swedish political parties with the purpose to see if the extreme-right party “The Sweden Democrats” will show populism to a larger extent than other parties, as was the case in the Belgian study. Based on Jagers and Walgraves operational definition of populism as a political communication-style this thesis applies it to the rhetoric of three different parties being “The Social Democratic Party”, “The Moderate Party” and “The Sweden Democrats”. This is done in order to be able to clarify on the one hand if their theory is applicable to the Swedish case and on the other hand to what extent populism as a communication-style exists in Swedish political rhetoric. The method for this thesis has been a qualitative text analysis since and leads to the result that Jagers and Walgraves theory of populism as a communication-style is applicable to the Swedish case and that “The Sweden Democrats” to a larger extent uses this political communication style, than the two other parties.

The focus on this essay is derived from an international and national dialogue for sustainable development. The recommendation from international level has been to find solutions for governments to implement strategies for sustainable development between local and regional level. This initiative is to improve and stimulate the dialogue between the local inhabitants, officials, entrepreneurs and stakeholders in the communities together with the authorities on the regional level. The purpose is to share knowledge and find ways to learn about the natural systems and how to co-operate in the work of preserving the natural resources and developing different processes for a sustainable development. Many scientists’ today stress the importance that ecosystem resilience is promoted by biodiversity conservation and that we need to find solutions for local ecosystem management practices. This essay aims to find theoretical approaches and perspectives that can be used in a wider framework to study co-operative processes between the local (agent) and regional (structure) level. The methodological approach to this question is to outline Anthony Giddens structuration theory and to understand the relationship between structure – agency. Further it will look into the work of Bob Jessop and Colin Hay in the strategic – relational approach, Mette Kjear and Rod Rhodes concept of Governance and also Elinor Ostrom with her perspective of governing the Commons that also includes the theories of Collective action and Common-pool resources. This is to find a direction on how to study local and regional co-operative processes and local ecosystem management practices. The result is to be used in a more comprehensive study and with a comparative analysis of land-use models in Sweden such as national parks, biosphere reserves and world heritage sites.

The purpose of this essay is to examine if there is any difference in the style of conversation between a municipal politician and a politician in parliament? In order to answer this question I have created two sub-questions that are more precise. The first question is: Are the municipal politicians more open to cooperate with politicians from other parties than the politicians from parliament? And the second question is: Is the rhetoric between the politicians in parliament different than the rhetoric between the municipal politicians? My study is a comparative case study with two different groups of politicians. With the help of a survey I have tried to examine if there are differences in the use of language in the daily work for the politicians. The two groups that have been answering this survey is the municipal executive board in Karlstad and the parliamentary committee of Environment and Agriculture. My thesis is that the municipals have to be more open to collaborate with other politicians’ indifference of political belongings because they are working close to the citizens and for what is best for their city. The answer to my first question is that municipal politicians are more open to collaborate with politicians from other political parties. The difference between answers from my two groups shows this fact. The answers from question four from my survey gives me this result. Also the answer from the third question in the survey gives me a hint of this fact. The answer to my second question is that there exist some differences in the use of rhetoric between the two groups. Three out of eight municipal politicians meant that they often where exposed to persuasions attempt and only one out of eleven politicians from parliament answered that this was a common element in the parliamentary committee.

AbstractGleichstellung der Geschlechter ist ein bekanntes Thema: Wie wird dieses aber in der Politik behandelt? Dieser Aufsatz zielt darauf ab, zu untersuchen, welche Ziele für die Gleichstellungsarbeit aufgegriffen werden. Eine Hypothese wurde gestellt:  Gleichstellungsfragen werden von der EU geregelt und die Ziele der Parteien und Regierungen ähneln den Zielen, die von der EU gesetzt werden. Es dürfte also auf dem Gebiet keine deutlichen Unterschiede zwischen den Ländern, die EU-Mitglieder sind, geben. Um die Hypothese zu beantworten, wurden Parteiprogramme von jeweils einer konservativen Regierungspartei aus Schweden, Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz verglichen. Auch die Regierungsprogramme wurden untersucht, und schließlich wurden diese Dokumente mit den Zielen der EU verglichen. Die Hypothese hat sich als wahr herausgestellt und die Antwort auf die Frage, ob die Schweiz von den anderen Ländern wesentlich abweicht, kann auch bejaht werden nämlich durch die Distanz der SVP gegenüber Gleichstellungsfragen und dem geringen Stellenwert des Themas in der Legislaturplanung der Schweiz.

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In the 10th of April 2010 the Polish Presidential plane crashed outside of Smolensk in today’s Russia. 88 passengers and 6 crewmen died a tragic death, among them the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński. A national week of sorrow was proclaimed and citizens all over Poland went out on streets and markets to honor the newly deceased President. A few days after the air disaster, different fractions of scout groups placed a three meters high wooden cross outside the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, to indicate a symbolism between the nation Poland and the Catholic Church. The wooden cross lead to a six months long conflict, also named as the “cross incident” between the defenders of the cross and the demonstrators against the cross, who did not wish that the state should be identified with the Catholic Church. This essay seeks in a qualitative and theoretical way, through a review of the historical, political, cultural and religious development from 1772 and forward with help of two theories of nationalism, to understand and explain why the “cross incident” occurred. The analysis shows that dependent on which theory of nationalism is used, there are different explanations to why the demonstrators acted in two different ways during the “cross incident”. Finally, the discussion concludes that deeper theoretical knowledge and explanation can be picked out and inasmuch the two theories differ so distinctly from each other one cannot get a higher value of explanation then the other.

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Through the effective democratization process during the 2004 enlargement the European Union has exercised what many scholars have regarded as ‘normative power’. The biggest enlargement in the history of the EU has extended the borders of the Union towards new neighbourhood of democratically and economically unstable states. Less willing to accept new members and yet willing to export its norms and values in order to secure a stable neighbourhood, the EU launched its European Neighbourhood Policy with the ambition to create well governed ‘ring of friends’. Following the success of the use of positive conditionality during the enlargement, the ENP was created based on the same logic, however, unlike the enlargement policies, the ENP lacks the membership carrot. This thesis analyzes the ability of the EU to promote and diffuse its democratic norms and values through the ENP and to have a ‘normative impact’ beyond its borders. The results of the case study on Armenia show that though the ENP has a strong rhetoric and ambition in promoting normative values, and in spite of the fact it has succeeded in norm and rule transfer, it did not succeed in norm-adoption and implementation by the target states.

The agenda of the multilateral trade negotiations has since the beginning of the creation of GATT in 1947, traditionally been dominated by the industrialised countries' interests. The last decade has, however, shown signs of a possible change in the power relations between developed and developing countries, in favour of the developing countries. The aim of this study is to document and analyse whether the developing countries have managed to increase their bargaining power in the GATT/WTO negotiations, and if this is the case, how this change can be explained. By providing a broad overview of the evolvement of developing countries' bargaining power in the Tokyo round, Uruguay round and the ongoing Doha round, it can be shown that over time, developing countries have strengthened their bargaining power, resulting in their interests being better reflected on the agenda of the multilateral trade negotiations. Possible explanatory factors for this change can in particular be found in developing countries having increased their ability to build sustainable coalitions, and in having enhanced their market shares in world trade. Yet, developing countries' ability to influence the actual substance and practical implementation of their bargained agreements is deficient. / The thesis has also been published in the form of a book (May 2010).Published by: VDM Verlag. ISBN: 978-3639248234.

This thesis studies the implementation of the Asylum procedure directive (2005/85/EC) and the Asylum Qualification Directive (2004/83/EC). The implementation is based on the officials examining asylum applications at the Migration Board in Malmö. Ten officials examining asylum applications have been interviewed. The aim is to see if there are any implementation problems regarding these two directives. This will in turn have an effect on the Europeanization of asylum policy. Implementation theory is used to study factors that have an effect on implementation and the theory of street- level bureaucrats is also used to study their discretion. The result is that the Asylum Qualification Directive had a larger impact on the asylum examinations than the Asylum Procedures Directive. Different forms of status categories are now granted together with residence permit. The implementation of this directive has therefore a positive impact on the Europeanization of the asylum policy in Sweden.   Key words: Implementation, Common European asylum system, EU- directives, Migration Board