Det svenska politiska systemet har under de senaste decennierna skiftat från ett korporativistiskt system, där organisationer har bjudits in att delta i det politiska beslutsfattandet, till ett mer pluralistiskt system, där lobbying är en viktig komponent. Lagstiftningen har dock inte följt utvecklingen och idag har Sverige ingen direkt lagstiftning mot lobbying.   Denna studie undersöker huruvida de svenska politikerna och de som påverkar anser att lobbying fungerar demokratiskt i Sverige idag och huruvida en lagstiftning bör instiftas eller inte. En jämförelse görs mellan de två grupperna påverkare och påverkade, för att ta reda på vad dessa respondenter anser om lobbying i Sverige utifrån ett demokratiskt perspektiv.   För att svara på syftet används tre av Robert A. Dahls demokratikriterier. Detta för att nå en förståelse huruvida lobbying fungerar demokratiskt och om en lagstiftning skulle behövas utifrån de svar som ges av de tillfrågade. En jämförelse i lagstiftning görs även med USA, som har utarbetat ett regelverk angående lobbyism. Studiens resultat visar att det finns ett demokratiskt problem med lobbying i Sverige utifrån de tre demokratikriterierna. Transparensen är ett problem samt det faktum att politiker kan gå från en politisk roll direkt till en lobbyverksamhet. En lagstiftning kring karenstid för politiker begränsar detta problem, men övrig lagstiftning, likt den i USA, tros inte ha någon effekt. Istället tros normer, moral och tryck från medborgarna vara mer effektfullt.

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The understanding of Swedish lobbyism is so far insufficient and misguided. In order to understand Swedish lobbyism better this thesis calls for a shift to theory testing case studies of actors that are capable to lobby in an organized and recurring way. To do this it offers a theoretical framework developed from three established theories of lobbying strategy adjusted for a Swedish context. The purpose of this framework is to chart strategies for how Swedish lobbyists lobby against Members of Parliament (MPs) and if and how these strategies influence MPs’ attitudes towards a policy. The case is the lobbying campaign for a reduced restaurant sales tax from 2000 to 2014 ending with a reduction from 25% to 12%. The study concludes that Swedish lobbyism is built from alliances, trust, perceived seriousity, and public interest, more than actual expertize of a specific topic.

Die Darstellung der Beschäftigungswirkungen des Luftverkehrs spielt im politischen Leben in vielen westlichen Industrieländern eine große Rolle. Verbände der Luftverkehrswirtschaft versuchen, mit Gutachten die Bedeutung ihrer Branche für Wachstum und Beschäftigung zu untermauern. Viele dieser Gutachten halten keinen wissenschaftlichen Ansprüchen stand. Bereits 1992 hatte in den USA die amerikanische Luftverkehrsbehörde FAA die Qualitätsprobleme solcher Gutachten erkannt und bemängelt und Grundsätze für korrektes Arbeiten aufgestellt. In Österreich hat nun ein Streit um den weiteren Ausbau des Flughafens Wien zur Anfertigung mehrerer Interessentengutachten geführt. Diese Gutachten werden in der vorliegenden Studie evaluiert. Es zeigt sich, dass wissenschaftliche Standards nicht eingehalten werden. Die Regierung selbst verwendet Angaben aus solchen Gutachten in ihren Publikationen und tauscht stillschweigend Daten, die sich später als unhaltbar erweisen, gegen andere aus. Vergleiche mit Studienergebnissen von OECD, EU und Weltbank belegen große Differenzen. / Growth and Job-effects of Aviation play a crucial role in many western industrialized countries. Consortiums and federations of the aviation industry try to proof with assessments and expert opinions how important their sector is. However many of those studies do not have scientific quality. Already 1992 the American Federal Aviation Authority FAA realized problems and issued guidelines for acceptable reports. In Austria the planned enlargement of Vienna airport led to the production of several studies. This is the reason for the present paper. The most recent Austrian aviation studies, especially one by the Austrian IWI, are being analysed. It proves that the Austrian Aviation reports are not consistent with the standards set by the FAA guidelines. They contain exaggerated figures and omit critical aspects. Comparisons with studies of OECD, EU or Worldbank show the differences and imbalances.

For the last decades, Sweden has transformed from a state with strong elements of corporatism, to a governance of pluralistic character. This development has opened up to a new form of participation – lobbyism – which since has spread and commercialized. Because of this, a report on the state of Swedish democracy – Demokratiutredningen – was issued to examine the phenomenon of lobbyism as it was feared to challenge the functioning of a representative democracy. The report issued a warning of the negative impact on transparency and political equality a professionalization of lobbying could have. Even some forms of regulation were thought to have a negative impact on the political equality. Since the report was released in 2000, nine bills regarding lobbyism have been presented to the Swedish parliament, but no regulation has yet been implemented. The report identified problems regarding transparency and political equality with both regulated and unregulated lobbying. The aim of this thesis is to examine how the parliamentary bills handle the democratic problems voiced by the report. The bills are analyzed with the ideal types of “transparency” and “political equality”, based on Robert Dahl’s ideal of democracy. The study found that the problem of transparency was of a high priority in the bills, while the problem of political equality was hardly addressed. Three of the bills actually ignored the warning issued by the report, where a regulation in the form of registration was thought to have a negative impact on political equality. The fact that the bills hardly addressed the problem of political equality, and in some cases even worsened it, represents a democratic deficit in the regulation debate. / De senaste decennierna har Sverige förvandlats från en stat med starka inslag av korporativism, till ett styrelseskick med pluralistisk prägel. Utvecklingen har öppnat upp för en ny deltagandeform, lobbyism, som sedan dess brett ut sig och kommersialiserats. Med anledning av detta tillkallade regeringen Demokratiutredningen för att analysera lobbningen då den ansågs utmana den representativa demokratins funktionssätt. Demokratiutredningen varnade för att professionaliseringen av lobbying kunde påverka öppenheten och den politiska jämlikheten negativt. Även vissa regleringar ansågs kunna försämra den politiska jämlikheten. Sedan Demokratiutredningen överlämnade sitt slutbetänkande år 2000 har nio motioner gällande lobbyism lagts fram i Sveriges riksdag utan att resultera i en reglering. Demokratiutredningen identifierade demokratiproblem med både öppenhet och politisk jämlikhet i oreglerad, såväl som reglerad, lobbyism. Uppsatsen studerade hur motionerna i ärendet hanterat de demokratiproblem som utredningen framhävde. Studien genomfördes med idealtyper som analysverktyg. Idealtyperna, ”öppenhet” och ”politisk jämlikhet”, byggdes upp med hjälp av Robert Dahls demokratiideal. Studien fann att problemet med öppenhet uppmärksammades i hög grad av motionerna, medan politisk jämlikhet knappt hanterades alls. Tre av motionerna ignorerade till och med den varning som Demokratiutredningen utfärdade, där en reglering i form av registrering skulle påverka den politiska jämlikheten negativt. Att motionerna inte hanterar problemet med politisk jämlikhet, och i flera fall även förvärrar den, innebär ett påtagligt demokratiskt underskott i regleringsdebatten.

State and the lobbyists- a study on how non-governmental bills and reports believes that the state should relate to lobbying. This study aims to examine members of parliament’s relation to lobbyists and interest groups, using a qualitative study of non-governmental bills and reports from the constitutional committee. Another focal point of this study is to see if the content of these bills and reports takes democratic values into account. The choice of topic is motivated by the fact that Sweden don’t have any legislation of non-institutionalized lobbying efforts. The nature of the material required a qualitative method focused on ideas, carried out by using dimensions used as analysis tool. The theoretical framework that constituted the analysis dimensions was built on the theory of alternative approach between the state and lobbyists and the democratic values accountability and representation. The empirical material in this study were non-governmental bills and the following reports from the period 2005 to 2015. One of the study’s most important findings was that the content of the bills suggest that the state should receive lobbyist efforts but affect and balance their opportunities of influence. Another finding was that the analysis of the reports claimed that the approach that the state argue for is to receive lobbying efforts, because the state doesn’t prove the opposite. The authors of the bills argued that lobbyism is a good thing for the parliamentary if it’s done in the right form. The political reform to introduce a public record over lobbyists was clearly mentioned in many of the bills. Furthermore, the democratic value accountability was given priority to in all motions, but representation was only found in five of the nine bills that was analyzed in this study.

Denna studie syftade till att belysa begreppet lobbyism och synliggöra de skillnader som finns kring fenomenet i olika länder. Länderna som diskuterades var USA och Sverige, där studien tog utgångspunkten att lobbyverksamheten i USA var betydligt mer utbredd än i Sverige.  Då studien var en syntes, en komparativ studie av tidigare studier och statistik, gick det inte att dra några direkta slutsatser, utan det som studien kom fram till diskuterades fram och tillbaka, bland annat hur lobbyverksamheten rent statistiskt var större i USA, men förvånandevis var den större i Sverige per capita.  Det sekundära syftet var att anskaffa och applicera denna typ av kunskap i läraryrket, och specifikt inom samhällskunskapen – och utforma en uppgift till elever på gymnasiet, något som kunde göras och framställas i senare kapitel

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the failure of an ideology of Socialism Russia appeared on a new stage of its development. The political system, its institutions and mechanisms were changed considerably. In this new system appeared new economic, political, social and other factors, conditions and processes which contribute to the formation of the foreign policy of Russia. Thus the research is dealing with such an important component of the foreign policy formation as specific factors and processes occurring within the state. The aim of the paper is to determine the most significant of those factors, find out the reason of their influence and to reveal their weak and strong positions.

All Norwegian regions are represented with permanent offices and are engaged in different activities in the EU capital. This thesis investigates the regional and network level of EU policy-making, and asks the questions of what Norwegian regions are doing in Brussels; if are they are able to influence EU policy; and what effect participation in transnational policy networks have on their abilities to influence EU policy. To answer this, it applies a theoretical framework comprised of multi-level governance and the policy network approach to conduct an analysis of empirical data collected through interviews with different actors in Brussels. The present thesis argues that participation in transnational policy networks improve Norwegian regions' abilities to influence EU policy through being 'representations of scale'.