<p> The primary purpose of this thesis is to provide an in-depth analysis of a political interest group. In doing so, some of the theoretical studies that attempt to explain why groups arise and why individuals freely join them have been empirically tested. It is noteworthy that most of the members surveyed would not renew their membership if the group stopped lobbying and only supplied "Selective incentives". </p> <p> The secondary purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the literature on the politicalization of health care. The Medical Reform Group of Ontario is a relatively small, yet highly politicized group of progressive doctors who want to make the health care system more democratic and preventative in nature. As far as the author knows, this is the first academic investigation of any kind into the Medical Reform Group. </p> <p> In carrying out these two purposes, it is argued that the Medical Reform Group is a product of social changes which took place in medical practice over the last decade and that, despite assumptions to the contrary, "rational men" will voluntarily join a political interest group to solely advance its political (or collective) goals. </p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

No description available.

Personlighet påverkar många livsaspekter. Tidigare forskning har visat att politik är en av dessa aspekter. Forskning inom området har konstaterat ett samband mellan personlighet och riktningen av personers politiska orientering samt mellan personlighet och Känsla av sammanhang (KASAM). Däremot fanns en forskningslucka kring relationen mellan KASAM och politik. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka relationen som de fem grundläggande personlighetsdimensionerna och KASAM har till Politiskt intresse samt Politisk inriktning, men även relationen mellan personlighetsdimensionerna och KASAM. Hundrafemtiofem studenter deltog varav 37 män. Datainsamling gjordes via enkät, som bestod av BFI-44, SOC-13 samt självrapportering av Politiskt intresse och inriktning. Databearbetningen skedde via korrelationsanalys samt regressionsanalys. Studiens resultat visade att personlighet hade ett samband med politik samt KASAM och att KASAM hade ett samband med en högerorienterad politisk inriktning. Eftersom relationen mellan KASAM och politik var relativt outforskad kan resultatet av denna studie ses som ett intressant ämne för framtida forskning.

No description available.

The first step towards developing targeted policies to boost political interest is to identify the main characteristics of individuals interested (and those who are not) in politics. This article aims at exploring the common factors shared by individuals with the same political interest. This is investigated through a cluster analysis, a rarely used technique in the field of political behavior, with data from the European Social Survey. The results are in line with the initial expectations and show that civic skills, represented by the educational background and the frequency of relational meetings, are determinants of political interest. Nonetheless, for those with the same civic skills, other socio-demographic, economic, and relational factors can diverge depending on the political interest. More in detail, the main attributes distinguishing individuals with the same level of civic skills but a different level of political interest are socio-demographic. In other words, among individuals with high civic skills, the main differences between those politically interested and those who are not are on the variables about age, gender and marital status. In addition, the research highlights the relevance of cluster analysis to obtain closer details on behavioral patterns than those obtained through regression analysis.

In this study, we explore two factors of selective exposure and their effect on the relation between political sympathies and xenophobic attitudes in Sweden. Previous studies implies that internet and social media-platforms, as well as political interest, are two important factors behind selective news consumption in todays fragmented media landscape. Based on previous studies we hypothesised that; news consumption via social media/internet and political interest effects the relation between political sympathies and xenophobia, and that the effect is positive if the individual sympathies with Sweden democrats and negative if the sympathies lie with the Left party. The result shows that among all Swedish parties the political interested individuals tend to be less xenophobic, while the effect of sympathizing with the Sweden democrats and being political interested shows an increased level of xenophobia. The same result could be observed for Sweden democrats that consumed news via social media and internet, where an increased level of consumption resulted in increased level xenophobic attitudes. The study found no support for the effects of news consumption via social media/internet and political interest on the relation between Left party sympathizers and xenophobic attitudes.

Syftet med denna studie är att ta reda på hur stor andel studenter det är som tar del av nyheter på Facebook, och identifiera vad som kännetecknar dessa personer. Undersökningen görs med grund i att nyheter får allt mer utrymme i facebookflödet vilket är något som bidrar till större klyftor i människors nyhetskonsumtion. Fortsättningsvis blir det relevant att utvidga förståelsen för vilka dessa konsumenter är. Studien har genomförts med en kvantitativ metod i form av en enkätundersökning. Empirin har framtagits genom att 114 respondenter fått svara på sammanlagt 17 frågor gällande individuella faktorer, sin nyhetskonsumtion på Facebook samt vilka fördelar de ser med plattformen. Urvalet har begränsats till studenter på Karlstads universitet inom fyra olika utbildningar: ingenjör, medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap, ekonomi och handel samt sjuksköterska. Respondenterna har nåtts genom att enkäten publicerats i respektive utbildnings facebookgrupp. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten för studien är uses and gratifications, sociala fält, primära och sekundära nyhetspubliker samt tidigare forskning som berört nyhetskonsumtion både i traditionell mening och på sociala medier. Det finns en bred vetenskaplig grund vars fokus ligger på hur medierna påverkar publiken, men uses and gratifications belyser istället motsatsen, nämligen vad publiken gör med medierna. Därför blir framförallt denna teori den som genomgående berörs i studien. Resultatet i undersökningen visar att 92 procent av alla tillfrågade studenter tar del av nyheter via Facebook. Frekventa läsare, det vill säga de som gör det dagligen eller flera gånger i veckan, utgör 49 procent och därmed nästan hälften. Dessa flitiga konsumenter kännetecknas främst av att vara sjuksköterskor, kvinnor och av att ha studerat en kortare tid. I motsats är de minst benägna läsarna av facebooknyheter medie- och kommunikationsstudenter, män och personer som studerat en längre tid. Skillnaderna har sin grund dels i att kvinnor generellt använder det sociala nätverket mer än män, och dels i att olika utbildningar har skilda preferenser. Sjuksköterskor konsumerar frekvent nyheter på Facebook på grund av dess bekvämlighet och för att nyheterna ligger i deras intresse, medan mediestudenter oftare vänder sig till andra källor som ett resultat av att de vill täcka särskilda informationsbehov. Uppväxthem och föräldrarnas utbildningsnivå har inte visat sig vara av större betydelse för vem som är den mest frekventa nyhetskonsumenten på Facebook, inte heller graden av politiskt intresse. Här konsumerar både de med högt, medel och lågt intresse för politik dagligen nyheter på plattformen. Dock kan man se en tydlig dynamik mellan den förstnämnda och sistnämnda. De högt politiskt intresserade är de som i högst utsträckning följer en nyhets ursprungliga avsändare, samtidigt som dessa uppvisar en mer positiv inställning till interaktiviteten på Facebook där de kan dela, kommentera och diskutera nyheter. Därigenom blir de en primär nyhetspublik vilka sorterar ut och tolkar nyheter för de lågt politiskt intresserade, som i sin tur utmärks som en sekundär. Således influerar den primära publiken den sekundära med sina värderingar, åsikter och uppfattningar vilket enligt forskningen kan medföra en demokratisk utmaning. / The purpose of this study is to find out how big percentage of students that reads news on Facebook, and to identify what characterizes these people. The study is made with the knowledge that news seems to take more space in Facebook’s feed, which is something that contributes to larger gaps in people’s news consumption. Therefore, it will in the long run be relevant to extend the understanding of who these consumers are. The study has been carried out with a quantitative method in the shape of a survey. The empirical data has been retrieved by letting 114 respondents answer 17 questions concerning individual factors, their news consumption on Facebook and what advantages they see with the social platform. The sample has been limited to students at four different educational programs at the university of Karlstad; engineering, media and communications, economy and trade and nursing. The respondents have been reached by publishing the survey in the different groups on Facebook, belonging to each education. The theoretical starting point of the study is Uses and gratifications, Fields, Primary and secondary news audiences and previous research about news consumption both in a traditionally sense and on social media. There is a wide scientific belief that focuses on how the media is affecting the audience, but uses and gratifications instead, highlights the contrary - namely what the audience is doing with the media. That is why this theory is mainly used in this study. The results shows that 92 percent of all respondents read news on Facebook. Frequent readers, meaning the people that consume news on Facebook each day or several times a week, make up 49 percent of the total amount of students and thereby almost half of the totalt respondents. These frequent consumers are characterized mainly by the fact that they are students at the nursing program, females, and have been studying for a shorter period of time. In contrast, the least likely readers are students at the media and communications program, males, and those who have studied for a longer period of time. These differences are seen firstly because of the fact that females tend to spend more time on Facebook in general, and secondly since different educations have different preferences. The nurses frequently consumes news on Facebook because of its convenience and because they find that the news lies within their interests, while media students more often turn to other sources as a result of wanting to cover a certain need for information. Childhood home and the parent’s level of education have not shown to be of great significance to decide whether a person consumes news on Facebook, and neither has political interest. Both people with high, medium and low interest in politics daily consume news on the social platform. However, it is possible to see a clear dynamic between the first and last. Individuals with a high political interest tend to follow the original source of the news, whilst displaying a positive attitude to the interactivity on Facebook and the possibility to comment, discuss and share news. Because of this, they function as the primary news audience who sorts out and interpreters the news for the low politically interested, which, in turn, is characterized as the secondary news audience. Thus, the primary news audience influences the secondary with values, opinions and perceptions of the news, which according to research is something that could induce a democratic challenge.

Considerando que a qualidade de uma democracia depende não apenas de níveis altos de participação, mas de uma participação equilibrada entre diferentes grupos, o presente trabalho realiza uma investigação sobre os determinantes da participação e o perfil das pessoas que participam de atividades políticas diversas no regime democrático brasileiro. Foram realizadas regressões logísticas e ordinais com a participação em: petições, protestos, boicotes, voto; atividades de partidos políticos, Conselhos e Orçamento Participativo, e discussões. Os resultados demonstram que o interesse por política é importante para todos os tipos de participação, exceto a participação eleitoral. A educação só demonstrou relações estatisticamente significantes com protesto, petição e discussão, contrariando as tendências frequentemente achadas na literatura nacional e internacional. A participação em Conselhos demonstrou uma correlação robusta com variáveis relacionadas ao capital social. Destaca-se também a correlação negativa entre apoio à democracia e participação em alguns modelos estimados. / Given that the quality of democracy depends not only on high levels of political participation, but also on the equality of participation among different groups, this dissertation aims to investigate the determinants of participation and the profile of people who engage in several political activities in the Brazilian democratic regime. In order to attain that goal, we carried out logistic and ordered regressions on the participation in petitions, protests, boycotts, vote, party activities, Social Councils and Participatory Budget and political discussion. Results show that political interest is important for all kinds of participation, except for turnout. Education has shown statistical significance only with protest, petition and discussion, going against trends frequently found in both national and international literature. Engagement in Councils and Participatory Budget has shown a robust correlation with independent variables related to social capital. It is also worth to emphasize the negative correlation found between support for democratic regime and some kinds of participation.

Considerando que a qualidade de uma democracia depende não apenas de níveis altos de participação, mas de uma participação equilibrada entre diferentes grupos, o presente trabalho realiza uma investigação sobre os determinantes da participação e o perfil das pessoas que participam de atividades políticas diversas no regime democrático brasileiro. Foram realizadas regressões logísticas e ordinais com a participação em: petições, protestos, boicotes, voto; atividades de partidos políticos, Conselhos e Orçamento Participativo, e discussões. Os resultados demonstram que o interesse por política é importante para todos os tipos de participação, exceto a participação eleitoral. A educação só demonstrou relações estatisticamente significantes com protesto, petição e discussão, contrariando as tendências frequentemente achadas na literatura nacional e internacional. A participação em Conselhos demonstrou uma correlação robusta com variáveis relacionadas ao capital social. Destaca-se também a correlação negativa entre apoio à democracia e participação em alguns modelos estimados. / Given that the quality of democracy depends not only on high levels of political participation, but also on the equality of participation among different groups, this dissertation aims to investigate the determinants of participation and the profile of people who engage in several political activities in the Brazilian democratic regime. In order to attain that goal, we carried out logistic and ordered regressions on the participation in petitions, protests, boycotts, vote, party activities, Social Councils and Participatory Budget and political discussion. Results show that political interest is important for all kinds of participation, except for turnout. Education has shown statistical significance only with protest, petition and discussion, going against trends frequently found in both national and international literature. Engagement in Councils and Participatory Budget has shown a robust correlation with independent variables related to social capital. It is also worth to emphasize the negative correlation found between support for democratic regime and some kinds of participation.

This study observed the effects of different school forms on the political interest of its students. The purpose of investigating the political interest based on school form is to see if there are any outstanding differences between private and public schools regarding political interest. The reason for this investigation was the falling grades and the diminishing political interest observed in prior studies used for this assignment as well as a reform in the school system called “Skolreformen” in Swedish that has been in effect for over 20 years at this point. Data was collected via a survey where students in four different high schools, both in the public and private, answered questions about their political interest, current study situation, view on the future and other questions related to school and political interest. A quantitative method was used, where the answers of the survey were cross tabulated to correlate different operative indicators and build a narrative to be analyzed. Quantitative correlation analysis was used to analyze the narrative. The study concluded that the political interest is overall low in both school forms. No major differences were noted between school forms, the view of the future affects political interests in a greater regard than what was expected.