The work focuses on the voting behavior of citizens Czech Canada. The work compares the different types of elections to identify factors that voting behavior of citizens the most affected.

This study is case study of political participation among the Kani tribe from Kuttichal grama panchayat in the Thiruvananthapuram district in Kerala, India. The study is based on the collected data of 117 people of the Kani tribe living in four different settlements: Pankavu, Mangode-Valippara, Chonampara and Kaithode. The aim of the study is to examine the impact on political participation by different factors, which is done by the use of the quantitative method of cross tables. The study confirms previous studies in its conclusion that high status individuals, defined in terms of education and economic standard, are the group of the highest political participation, when this is defined as being involved in political work and holding a party membership. On the local political scene however, where political participation consists of participation in local assemblies and voluntary work, the impact of the examined variables are very limited. The main theory, which is used for the analysis, is a cost and benefit analysis.

Although a local policy is a necessary issue for a functioning of a democratic political system, it usually does not stand in the center of common interests. This paper deals with its functioning in Prague 16 where the Civic Democratic Party has won the municipal elections since 1994. The aim of this paper is to find the main factors which led to its winning in the municipal elections in 2014. The main text is divided into three chapters. The first theoretical one concerns with a theory of democracy, civil society and elite theory. The second one describes a creation of a local policy in Prague 16 - namely results of municipal elections since 1994, a way in which local political institutions have been created as well as political parties run for the last municipal elections in 2014. The third chapter deals with an analysis of election results and interviews made with local representatives and councilors.

Wie beheimatet sich Menschen in einer Stadt fühlen, hängt davon ab, wie politisch eingebunden sie sich begreifen. Die Entstehung von Mitbestimmungsformen in Chemnitz verlief – wie in vielen anderen Städten – nicht reibungslos. Auch die Inhalte variierten über die Jahrhunderte: Wollten die Bürger bis zum Ende der mittelalterlichen Stadtverfassung Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts vor allem über die Besteuerung, die Gerichtsbarkeit und elementare Sicherheitsfragen mitbestimmen, ging es bis 1919 um die Durchsetzung des allgemeinen Wahlrechts, das Frauen einschloss, um sozialen Ausgleich und die großen Infrastrukturprojekte der Gründerzeit. Nach Rückschritten in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus und der DDR bekam Chemnitz mit der Gemeindeordnung Sachsens von 1994 eine freiheitliche Kommunalverfassung, die auch Raum für weitere Neuerungen lässt – wie etwa Einwohnerversammlungen in den Stadtvierteln. Zwischen mehr Mitbestimmung und effizienten Entscheidungen entsteht dabei ein gewisser Gegensatz. Dieses Bändchen bringt die Hintergründe einer aktuellen Debatte auf den Tisch. / Forms and content of political participation in Chemnitz

The aim of the thesis is to analyse and assess discussions related to the implementation of the direct election of mayors, both in the Czech Republic and in selected European countries. The thesis compares the evolution and course of the discussions that precede the anchoring of direct election of mayors in five European countries, such as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Croatia, and Belgium-Walloon. It is particularly focused on the central motives leading towards the launch of discussion, main arguments included in the discussion, key actors, and the levels of the discussion. The crucial part of the thesis is devoted to the analysis of the discussion of possible implementation of directly elected mayors in the Czech Republic. The emphasis is put on the identification of individual platforms of the Czech political scene that intervene into the discussion. The thesis also highlights the attitude of key political parties, interest groups, and mayors, towards the question of the direct election. The Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic represents the principal mediator of the ongoing discussion. The thesis targets to answer the following questions. At which platforms the discussion about the eventual implementation of direct...

This paper concerns a local political debate about the financing of culture in the mid-sized city Norrköping in Sweden. The purpose of this study is to find what type of content the local newspaper and a Facebook group produce, how the debate is portrayed and how the different media types can contribute to democracy. The material contains 15 articles from the newspaper and 25 posts from the Facebook group. A qualitative content analysis has been applied as the method. Furthermore a framing analysis has been used to find answers about how the debate is portrayed in the media. Results show, among other things, that the newspaper first and foremost portrays the debate as a conflict and that the Facebook group is much more focused on human interest. Furthermore the study shows that both mediatypes should be able to generate democratic functions for the local population. The newspaper more so for its correct informational content and Facebook for its ability to bring people together and create civil political engagement.

Die vorliegende kumulative Arbeit untersucht, inwiefern lokale Aushandlungsprozesse im Umgang mit extrem rechten Mobilisierungen zu deren Normalisierung beitragen. Die Studie adressiert zwei Forschungsdesiderate: Erstens externalisieren viele Beiträge die extrem Rechte von städtischen Demokratien. Folglich ist die Literatur nicht in der Lage zu erfassen, wie extrem rechte Agenden und Ideologien innerhalb lokaler partizipativer Prozesse in liberalen Demokratien normalisiert werden. Zweitens sind die Akteure und Prozesse, welchen diesen lokalen Aushandlungen zugrunde liegen, nicht ausreichend untersucht. Um diese Lücken zu schließen, verbindet die Studie Theoriestränge aus der Urban Governance - Literatur mit sozialwissenschaftlichen Debatten über den Aufstieg der extrem Rechten. Der methodische Rahmen der Arbeit besteht aus einem qualitativen Forschungsdesign in Form einer explorativen Einzelfallstudie in der Stadt Cottbus. Die Analyse zeigt, dass das Narrativ der Externalisierung in dreierlei Hinsicht eine falsche Dichotomie zwischen der extremen Rechten und lokalen Aushandlungsprozessen schafft: Erstens ignoriert es, dass deliberative Prozessen zwar das Versprechen auf Demokratisierung innewohnt, dieses aber durch bestehende gesellschaftliche Machtverhältnisse durchkreuzt wird, die Näherböden für autoritäre Mobilisierung bieten können. Zweitens übersieht es die Verflechtung zwischen Rassismus und den städtischen Institutionen, die auf extrem rechte Mobilisierung reagieren, und oftmals Anknüpfungspunkte für extrem rechte Ideologien bieten. Drittens wird argumentiert, dass dies auf den lokalen Staat als umkämpftes Terrain hinweist. / This doctoral dissertation explores to what extent local negotiations of far-right contestations contribute to the latter’s normalisation. The project is prompted by the crux that even though the central role of cities and local participatory planning processes in countering far-right contestations is widely acknowledged, far-right contestations have hardly been challenged. It seeks to address two scholarly blind spots: First, mainstream accounts engaging with the question of how municipalities deal with far-right contestations have largely externalised the far right from urban democracy. Consequently, the current literature is not able to grasp how far-right agendas and ideologies can indeed be normalised within local participatory processes. Second, the actors and processes involved in the local negotiation of far-right contestations remain understudied. To fill these gaps, the cumulative dissertation connects discussions on urban governance with recent debates on the rise of the far right. The methodological framework of this thesis consists of a qualitative, explorative single-case study in the city of Cottbus, Germany. The analysis reveals that the liberal narratives of externalisation create a false dichotomy between far-right contestations and local negotiations in liberal democracies in a threefold way. First, they ignore how far-right contestations can be strengthened within traditional deliberative processes, as their promise of equal participation for all citizens is juxtaposed with the inability of such processes to re-negotiate the power relations aggravating the social inequalities giving rise to the far right in the first place. Second, by externalising the divisiveness propagated by far-right contestations, they overlook the interconnectedness between racism and the institutions governing cities, which offers points of contact for far-right ideology. Third, it is argued that this points to the local state as contested terrain.

The aim of the study is twofold. First, to provide a picture of what happens when groups of citizens cooperate with municipalities and administrations to produce services essential to the community, i.e., elderly care or road maintenance. Second, to compare this picture with the picture of citizens’ involvement that the civil society theories describe. This is done by comparing four different cooperation projects. The empirical material has been gathered through four qualitative case studies – two elderly care cases and two road maintenance cases – and the analytical frame has been drawn mostly from organization theory, especially the resource dependence and the institutional perspectives. In the dissertation it is shown that in the projects with less complications the processes developed in a way that balanced, to some extent, the asymmetry in the dependence relation, i.e., the resources controlled by the groups became more interesting for the administrations and municipalities. These processes did also develop in a way that made it possible for the actors to come to an agreement of what problem the project was supposed to solve. These findings covariates with how interested the municipalities and the Road Administration organizations were to participate in the cooperation projects. It also covariates with the use of institutionalized cooperation forms. The short cut of an already defined and legitimated cooperation form implied that less transaction resources had to be invested in the cooperation itself – but as a result the actors did not communicate sufficiently and therefore did not develop a mutual understanding and trust. Another finding is that both the groups and the municipalities and administrations had pragmatic motives for their involvement in the cooperation projects, which led to an organizational form that was effective for the purpose of solving the identified problem with the elderly care/road maintenance, but not for the unintended consequences described by the civil society theories. As the group of citizens really involved was small, the consequences – greater solidarity and responsibility, and a decentralized democratic process, only comprised a few, mostly resourceful, citizens. Finally, the study shows that the groups’ contributions to the democratic process were limited by their involvement in actually solving the problem in question, i.e., to build and run an elderly home or to work with the improvement of the roads. The findings suggests that the picture of citizens’ involvement often put forward in the political debate in Sweden – as both a complement to the service provided by the public sector and a way to improve the democratic process – ought to be the subject of further research.

ABSTRACT Citizendialogue in the District of Rasbo A Case Study in the Municipality of Uppsala Author: Camilla Östlund Supervisor: Stig Montin The essay is written inside the scope of Örebro Universitys evaluation of the new organisation in the municipality of Uppsala. The purpose of this essay is to study the citizendialogue in the district of Rasbo. This will be done partly by an examination of how the participants themselves perceive citizendialogue. Their descriptions are put in relation to deliberative democracy and its critics amongst other. Partly by study how those involved have choosen to put it into practice. The opponents of the reorganization chose to start a non-profit association, Rasbo in co-operation, to carry on local mobilization and it will be compared with other similar groups. The municipality of Uppsala arranged a citizens forum in the district of Rasbo and the essay will examine how the participants experienced it. The study is based upon a total of 19 semistructured interviews with politicians and officials in the municipality of Uppsala and also working members of Rasbo in co-operation. The overall result of the analysis is that the politicians and the officials as well as the members of the association support the form of actions that endorse the representative system and look att citizendialogue as a tool to regenerate it and make it better. Rasbo in co-operation has almost everything in common with similar groups including a contradictory view on politics. The association has the important requirements for local mobilization, dedicated people, a positive collective identity and a constructive relation to the municipality. The participants of the citizens forum liked the way the forum was arranged and enjoyed the evening. But there was some problem between the unicipality and the association in connection with the preliminaries before the event. There is also some deficiency in the follow-up. Keyword: local democracy, citizendialogue, deliberative democracy, local mobilization, citizens forum, Uppsala, Rasbo, Rasbokil, Stavby, Tuna.

Les études françaises sur la citoyenneté en Suède sont généralement centrées sur le niveau national. Or le niveau local des communes, landsting et régions a acquis au cours des dernières décennies une forte légitimité pour la citoyenneté. La citoyenneté sociale est assurée en grande partie par les collectivités locales qui mettent en oeuvre le système redistributif de l’État-providence ; grâce à des institutions relativement vertueuses, en dépit des restrictions financières et de la privatisation de services publics le niveau local fournit des services de qualité qui servent de point d’appui essentiel au sentiment d’appartenance des citoyens et à leur degré de confiance dans la société.Mais la citoyenneté locale est en mutation. Le mythe égalitaire qui avait servi de base au Folkhem est remis en cause par des évolutions politiques, économiques et sociétales créatrices d’inégalités. La « communauté imaginée » qui façonnait le lien entre les citoyens est fragilisée par la montée des inégalités, l'apparition de l'extrême-droite dans le paysage politique ainsi que par les conditions créées par l’immigration et le multiculturalisme.Le citoyen exerce moins sa citoyenneté locale dans le cadre du cercle vertueux traditionnel de la civic literacy que dans celui du political trust ; il adopte des comportements civiques pragmatiques, axés par exemple sur ses choix économiques et sur sa responsabilisation dans le domaine environnemental. Dans cette phase de recomposition de la citoyenneté locale, le débat porte essentiellement sur les défis posés par les inégalités sociales et les inégalités socio-ethniques. Cette étude montre que le niveau local fait sens pour la pratique, l’exercice et la représentation de la citoyenneté suédoise / Studies on citizenship in Sweden carried out in France have mostly focused on the national level. However local government in cities, counties or regions has become highly legitimate to address citizenship over the last decades. Local authorities implement at their level the most part of the redistributive social welfare, hence social citizenship is largely granted by them.However local citizenship is changing. The egalitarian myth that once grounded the "Folkhem" is put under question due to social, economic and political changes that produce inequalities. The "imagined Community" that used to bind citizens is weakened by those rising inequalities but also by the increase of far-right political parties. This community struggles to adapt to this new context.Citizens are less prone to act in the traditional virtuous circle of civic literacy but rather in the context of political Trust. New pragmatic, civic behaviours, based on responsibility for the environment and on economic choices can be observed. In this context, debates tackle essentially challenges sparked by social and ethnical inequalities. This study shows that the local level matters when it comes to the practice and the implementation of citizenship in Sweden