In this paper I discuss e-voting through the theories of Robert Dahl and Carole Pateman.  Dahls view of an electoral democracy and Patemans participatory democracy is used as a foundation for the discussion. A brief introduction to e-democracy is also provided and used in the discussion because of the strong conection between e-voting and edemocracy. E-voting is explained mostly with the help of understanding the Norwegian and Estonian experiences. The aspects of e-voting that is focused on include trust for the system, accessibility and secrecy and freedom of the vote. In the results I can show that e-voting has both positive and negative inpacts on Dahl and Patemans theories and why it is controversial. The results also points to the positive inpacts e-democracy might have on both the theories and on democracy altogether.

En primer lugar se hará una exposición de los antecedentes que dan origen al desarrollo de los modelos de participación democrática, en segundo lugar se presentará el modelo de participación democrática de Carol Pateman, para concluir con una exposición de los elementos de la filosofía de Jean Jacques Rousseau, que sirvieron de influencia y base en la comprensión de la participación ciudadana en política como una acción cuyo principal efecto es la función educativa.

En marge du débat éthique sur le statut juridique des échanges sexuels tarifés, ce mémoire a pour but d’explorer les présupposés théoriques sous-jacents à la conceptualisation de la prostitution comme mesure de la marchandisation de la personne. Au-delà de la question de la grille de rapport de pouvoir à appliquer pour définir la prostitution, nous proposons de questionner quelques présupposés théoriques sous-jacents à la conceptualisation de la prostitution comme étant une forme de marchandisation de la personne. Dans la mesure où la prostitution est distinguée des autres activités à partir de ce statut symbolique qui lui est accordé, notre recherche consiste à questionner les bases théoriques de cette caractérisation normative. La littérature féministe sur le sujet de la prostitution est cristallisée autour de la question de sa criminalisation et de sa stigmatisation sociale, mais elle ne se réduit pas à un débat polarisé entre abolitionnistes et règlementaristes. Nous allons dans un premier temps tenter de dégager les différentes problématisations du sujet de la prostitution et les perspectives épistémiques sur la recherche et la conceptualisation des échanges sexuels tarifés. Nous allons par la suite dégager les paradigmes normatifs qui constituent historiquement la prostitution comme la mesure de l’objectification des femmes. Enfin, nous restreindrons notre analyse à la définition de Pateman de la prostitution dans The Sexual Contract. L’objectif sera de déterminer si la conceptualisation du contrat de prostitution en tant que symbole de la marchandisation de la personne induit des limites dans la compréhension des rapports de pouvoir qui lui sont sous-jacents. Plus précisément, nous étudierons les présupposées normatifs au fondement de la distinction entre le contrat de prostitution et les autres formes contractuelles d’assujettissement. / This paper aims to explore the normative assumptions underlying the conceptualization of prostitution as a measure of the commodification of the person. I propose to question some of the theoretical assumptions underlying the conceptualization of prostitution as a form of commodification of the person. Insofar as prostitution is distinguished from other activities on the basis of this symbolic status, my research consists in questioning the theoretical bases of this normative characterization. Feminist literature on the subject of prostitution focuses on the issue of the criminalization of prostitution and its social stigmatization, but it is not reduced to a polarized debate between abolitionists and regulationists. I will first identify how the subject of prostitution has been problematized from different theoretical frameworks and present epistemic perspectives on the conceptualization of the problem of prostitution. I will then identify and analyze the normative paradigms that historically constitute prostitution as the measure of women objectification. Finally, I will focus on Carole Pateman’s definition of prostitution in The Sexual Contract. My aim is to identify in which extent the conceptualization of the prostitution contract as the symbol of body commodification is relevant to understand the power dynamics underlying this type of agreement. More specifically, I will study the normative assumptions underlying the distinction between the prostitution contract and other contractual forms of subjection.

Tidigare forskning har kategoriserat en majoritet av svenska politiker som valdemokrater och en minoritet som deltagardemokrater. Men forskningsläget är oklart kring vad detta innebär när det kommer till deras syn på medborgerligt deltagande i politiken. Syftet med studien är att utifrån de teoretiska perspektiven valdemokrati och deltagardemokrati undersöka hur kommunfullmäktigeledamöter ställer sig till medborgerligt deltagande i den kommunala politiken. Genom en kvantitativ enkätundersökning har ett sammanvägt jämförelsetal tagits fram som både nyanserar bilden av hur trogna ledamöterna är de teoretiska perspektiven och tillåter jämförelse mellan olika grupper. Ledamöter i 80 slumpmässigt utvalda kommuner bjöds in att delta i undersökningen och resultatet pekar på att majoriteten enbart har svaga tendenser åt de olika teoretiska ytterligheterna. Fyra hypoteser testades i studien för att se om det förekommer ett samband mellan ledamöternas könsidentitet, position i kommunen, politiska erfarenhet samt befolkningsmängd i kommunen och synen på medborgerligt deltagande. Statistiskt säkerställda samband kunde påvisas mellan synen på medborgerligt deltagande och ledamöternas könsidentitet samt position i kommunfullmäktige (styrande eller opposition). Samband kunde delvis påvisas mellan ledamöternas politiska erfarenhet och syn på medborgerligt deltagande, men inget samband kunde påvisas mellan befolkningsmängden i kommunen och ledamöternas syn på medborgerligt deltagande. Studiens slutsats är att en majoritet av ledamöterna stödjer vissa deltagardemokratiska inslag i demokratin och att position i kommunfullmäktige är den faktor som samvarierar mest med synen på medborgerligt deltagande, där oppositionen är mer positiva. Kvinnliga ledamöter framstår som något mer positiva till medborgerligt deltagande än manliga. Det förekommer också stora variationer beroende på ledamöternas partitillhörighet. Studien pekar på behovet av fortsatt forskning kring politikers syn på medborgerligt deltagande.

This dissertation studies the development of a regulation of prostitution in Stockholm during the period 1812-1880. The development of the regulation system is seen in the light of an analytical framework, developed from Carole Pateman's ideas on the sexual contract, and a feministic critique and elaboration of Jürgen Habermas's ideas on the public sphere. The regulation of prostitution was a common characteristic for many metropolises in Europe during the nineteenth century, where supposedly loose and lecherous women were medically and spatially controlled to impede the spread of venereal diseases. Stockholm, and Sweden as a whole, went from a non-gendered to a gendered control of venereal disease, which eventually developed into a spatial control of public women. This study argues that the practices of a regulation system was at first part of an attempt to import what was seen as part of modernisation. Rather than to prohibit extra-marital sexual relations, these were to be controlled and supervised. Eventually the system was adapted to local circumstances in Stockholm, and a control of women's sexuality in public became part of a metropolitan modernity. In the process of the professionalisation of groups such as the police and the physicians, public women were over time perceived as a group of professional prostitutes. The possibility to live off prostitution as a transitory stage in women's lives disappeared, and prostitution became a medically and spatially controlled trade.