This study attempts to assess the level to which effective political and management leadership for contributes to sustainable services. Looking at the past performance of the municipality one can see that around the years of 2003 and 2004, the municipality achieved a financially unqualified report from the Auditor General with just two points raised. However, from that point on the municipality has been on a steady decline. The most decline was from the period 2006 - 2011. The decline in the performance of the municipality has been so rapid in the five year period mentioned above so much that the 2010/2011 Auditor General Report on the municipality ran up to eighty issues over fourteen pages. Noteworthy is the fact that the decline in service delivery and financial management confirmed by the performance decline marked by the Auditor General coincided with several changes at the senior political and management levels. For example under the period of decline, the Municipality operated without a permanent Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for a period of more than four years. Also, during the period of decline the municipality had six municipal managers all in acting capacities and about four executive mayors in the same period. Regarding the issue of leadership in the municipality, the Auditor General made the following observation.

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The main topic of this thesis is the perspective of young people within political party structures. The author bases her research on the assumption that, in the Czech Republic, the younger generation of party members is not sufficiently represented within political parties, and that political parties do not create ballot papers that fairly represent the young candidates. However, the author also assumes that Czech political parties are aware of the under-representation of young politicians within their structures, and consistently try to work with this. The objective of this dissertation is, therefore, to more explicitly explain whether and if so then how Czech political parties officially define the position of young people within the inner structures of the parties, how large the representation of young people is on ballot papers for representative bodies, and to demonstrate how Czech political parties generally approach this issue.The author defines the young political generation as people over 18 but under 35 years old. The research section of this thesis is based on an analysis of official regulations of chosen political parties. An analysis of the ballot papers of the same political parties for the 2013 Chamber of Deputies election and for the 2012 regional representative bodies election was also carried out.The approach of political parties to their youngest members is based on a survey carried out by the author.

Oran Milo Roberts was at the center of every important event in Texas between 1857 and 1883. He served on the state supreme court on three separate occasions, twice as chief justice. As president of the 1861 Secession Convention he was instrumental in leading Texas out of the Union. He then raised and commanded an infantry regiment in the Confederate Army. After the Civil War, Roberts was a delegate to the 1866 Constitutional Convention and was elected by the state legislature to the United States Senate, though Republicans in Congress refused to seat him. He served two terms as governor from 1879 to 1883. Despite being a major figure in Texas history, there are no published biographies of Roberts. This dissertation seeks to examine Roberts's place in Texas history and analyze the factors that drove him to seek power. It will also explore the major events in which he participated and determine his historical legacy to the state.

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Climate change is known to cause more frequently occurring extreme events which threaten both natural and human systems as we know them. Island nations are particularly vulnerable to these climate-induced changes, and the Åland Islands are no exception to this rule. Åland has already seen a change in typical climate patterns as the temperature has been increasing and precipitation decreasing, which is a cause for concern. Political leaders have a great responsibility to mitigate climate change, through decisions on policy implementation and other legislative action, to strive towards sustainability. However, change is not being made fast enough. Hence, this study aims to determine the challenges that politicians of the Parliament of Åland face when making decisions that promote climate change mitigation, as well as seek why these challenges are present. The study was conducted through qualitative interviews with the seven political group leaders, one for each represented party, that participate in Bärkraft’s group leader forum. Bärkraft is a local network on Åland which strive toward sustainability through its Development and Sustainability Agenda. In addition, the main secretary of Bärkraft was interviewed. The interviews demonstrated that a majority of the participants had previous experience with climate change issues although, just under half of the respondents agreed that Åland faces little to no climate-related risks. From the interviews six themes were identified which relate to challenges in decision-making for climate change mitigation. For instance, a clear majority of the participants mentioned different economic aspects as a barrier in decision-making, likewise, the abstractness of climate change mitigation was deemed as challenging to handle, and marketing climate change mitigation to the citizens and other politicians was seen as challenging since proper arguments are essential for success. In addition, twelve sub-challenges were found that explains why the identified challenges are present. These sub-challenges included e.g., electoral popularity, municipal planning, motivation, etc. In conclusion, these challenges, with associated sub-challenges, highlight the complexity and uncertainty of climate change mitigation which sets barriers for the political leaders in making decisions for policy implementation. The study would have benefited from a larger number of participants. It also has limited generalizability, being a specific case and not including the complete decision-making process for policy implementation and viewpoints from other societal actors. However, the mentioned limitations can be subject to further research on the topic.

The consequences due to sea level rise are many, and will affect the environment and societies all around the world. There is uncertainty about how much and how quickly the sea will rise. Despite the uncertainties, society must be adapted to a changing climate. The climate change adaptation work is relatively new in Sweden, and there are still uncertainties about how this work should be carried out, and by whom. This thesis examines to what degree the Swedish parliament parties’ view on how to plan and adapt to sea level rise differ. The study is based on interviews with representatives from a majority of the political parties in the Swedish parliament. The results show that the interviewed representatives all agree that climate change and sea level rise are important issues to work with. The result also shows that the different parties have managed to agree on what they want to achieve, but not how or when it is best to implement adaptation measures towards sea level rise and other climate change-related effects. / Konsekvenserna av havsnivåhöjningar är många och kommer att påverka miljön och samhällen över hela jorden. Det råder osäkerheter om hur mycket och hur snabbt haven kommer höjas. Trots osäkerheterna så måste samhället anpassas till ett förändrat klimat. Klimatanpassningsarbetet är relativt nytt i Sverige och det råder fortfarande oklarheter om hur detta ska genomföras och av vem.   Uppsatsen undersöker i vilken utsträckning de svenska riksdagspartiernas åsikter angående planeringen och anpassningar till havsnivåhöjningen skiljer sig. Studien bygger på intervjuer med representanter från en majoritet av de politiska partierna i riksdagen. Resultaten visar på att de intervjuade representanterna alla håller med om att klimatanpassning är viktigt att arbeta med. Resultaten visar även på att de olika partierna har lyckats enas om vad man vill uppnå, men dock inte på vilket sätt man ska gå till väga eller när det är bäst att implementera åtgärder mot havsnivåhöjning och andra klimatförändringsrelaterade effekter.

This study focuses on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the U.S. Representative for New York's 14th Congressional District, and how news media portray her based on her gender, age, and ethnicity, which still play essential roles in the political system in the United States. The analysis of previous academic research, newspaper articles from the New York Times and the Washington Post (June 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019) and framing and feminist theories are used to evaluate coverage of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The newspaper stories are examined based on the framing of traits including being the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, being Latina, and being one the most progressive politicians in the Congress. The main objective of this study is to shed light on a topic that at this moment in time is more relevant than ever because the 116th Congress has the highest number of women and women of color in U.S. history. I examine media coverage that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez receives for stereotypical frames, so that, overall, all women running or holding public office may receive unbiased and more balanced media coverage. This study also intends to hold media outlets accountable for the way they portray different candidates because it has a significant influence on the voting population.

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Sedan uppstarten av Sverigeförhandlingen 2014 har diskussionen kring infrastruktursatsningar i Sverige präglats av en ny höghastighetsbana vars syfte är att sammankoppla landets tre storstäder. Sverigeförhandlingens slutrapport (SOU 2017:107) visar på att den tidsmässiga aspekten har varit en ledande faktor vid potentiella spårdragningar, där ett begränsat antal stopp har framhävts som den bästa lösningen för att spara tid. Konsekvenserna blir dock att majoriteten av de svenska kommunerna hamnar utan direkt anslutning till höghastighetsbanan. Tidigare forskning har visat att rörelse och mobilitet är en central del av människors vardagsliv; för att kunna ta oss till arbetet, träffa familj och vänner med mera. Koppling mellan mobilitet och vardag är intressant då tidigare forskning traditionellt sett har tittat på ekonomiska aspekter, spatial rättvisa och klimatfrågor gällande höghastighetståg. Höghastighetstågens inverkan på vardagslivet samt hur orter som blir utan en direkt koppling till tågen påverkas, är mindre utforskat. Därmed skall denna uppsats fylla en identifierade kunskapslucka gällande vardagslivsperspektivet i samband med planeringen av höghastighetsjärnvägar. Uppsatsen avser utreda hur planerare och politiker ser på vardagslivet och hur diskursen är strukturerad. Inom en socialkonstruktivistisk ram och med en diskursteoretisk ansats analyseras diskursen kring vardagsliv bland planerare och politiker i Ljungby ur ett mobilitetsperspektiv. Studiens empiri utgörs av intervjuer och plandokument. Under analysen framgår det att diskursen kan uppfattas som spretig där flera mindre och ingående diskurser utgör mobilitets- och vardagslivsdiskursen i Ljungby. I stora drag kretsar den kring begreppen kollektivtrafik, mobilitet och infrastruktur. Olika teknologiska möjliggörare såsom bilen, E4:an eller höghastighetsbanan har en stor inverkan på vardagslivet i Ljungby med tanke på kommunens utmaningar med kollektivtrafik och geografiska förhållanden. Samtidigt är det inte möjligt att helt fastställa en konstant definition kring mobilitets- och vardagslivsdiskursen i kommunen. Detta beror på att perspektiv, åsikter och uppfattningar är i ständig förändring och så även diskurser. Därför är syftet med uppsatsen att kartlägga denna diskursiva kamp. / Since the start of Sverigeförhandlingen in 2014, the discussion about infrastructure investments in Sweden has been characterized by a high-speed railway with the purpose of connecting the country's three major cities. Sverigeförhandlingens final report (SOU 2017: 107) concludes that the time aspect has been a leading factor in potential rail routes, where a limited number of stops has been highlighted as the best solution to save time. As a result, the majority of Swedish municipalities will end up without a direct connection to the high-speed railway. Previous research has presented movement and mobility as a central part of people's everyday lives, to be able to take us to work, meet family and friends, and so on. The link between mobility and everyday life is interesting as previous research has traditionally looked at economic aspects, spatial justice, and climate issues regarding high-speed trains. The impact of high-speed trains on everyday life and how cities without a direct connection to the trains are affected are less explored. Thus, this thesis aims to fill this identified knowledge gap regarding the everyday life perspective in connection to the planning of high-speed railways. The thesis intends to investigate how planners and politicians view everyday life and how the discourse is structured. Within a social constructivist framework and with a discourse theoretical approach, the discourse on everyday life among planners and politicians in Ljungby is analyzed from a mobility perspective. The empirical study consists of interviews and planning documents. During the analysis, it appears that the discourse can be perceived as scattered, where several smaller and in-depth discourses constitute the discourse of mobility and everyday life in Ljungby. Broadly speaking, it revolves around the concepts of public transport, mobility, and infrastructure. Various technological enablers such as the car, the E4, or the high-speed railway have a major impact on everyday life in Ljungby, given the municipality's challenges with public transport and geographical conditions. At the same time, it is not possible to fully establish a constant definition of the discourse of mobility and everyday life in the municipality because perspectives, opinions, and perceptions are constantly changing and so are discourses. Therefore, the purpose of the thesis is to map out this discursive struggle.