Young councillors are currently under-represented in Sweden's municipalities. Young councillors are also stepping down in greater numbers than older members. This paper explores the reasons why young councillors choose to resign from their mission, so to identify possible remedies to the problematic trend of underrepresentation of younger people in local authorities in Sweden. This qualitative essay intends, through interviewing politically-active young people who has left their assignment, to study the reasons for resignations from elected posts. To see what could be the reason I have looked at previous studies and theories about opting out but also tried to remain open to identifying new and emerging trends previously undetected in existing surveys. The results showed that the political assignment proved to be too time-consuming, with young people choosing to spend their time on career and leisure. Those who resign from political life often express criticism towards the Municipal Council; they consider it tedious and many complain of having little influence. The increasing underrepresentation of younger people in political office and the fact that it is hard to recruit new active members shows that structural changes needs to be made to succeed in attracting new young members to political assignments.

As a starting point the society is more enlightened and has gained a greater awareness about the gender power structures and its different forms. Present research shows the continuous development into other shapes and comes into different expressions that might be unrecognised. In order to gain knowledge about the present structure of the gender power structure system, the aim of this study was to investigate framing of female and male politicians in media. The main question asked was: “are there framing differences in the portraits of the male and female politicians?” In order to achieve results articles in the biggest Swedish daily newspaper were examined. The method used was a mixed qualitative/quantitative content analysis where theory linked questions were created in order to ask these directly to the text. The results of the study showed that the framings of female versus male politicians were based on traditional gender power structures, though not to the extent the theory claims. More importantly, the result showed that the marginalization of female politicians was made by inclusion and exploiting instead of exclusion. In this way the differences between the genders were shown.

The local politicians in Sweden are responsible for a great deal of the welfare system why one would assume that there are a lot of demands put on them - demands for certain skills or a certain level of competence. I have in this study tried to find out how the demands on the local representatives concerning the demands for competence and the actual level of competence among the politicians are affecting the local politics. This was done through investigating how the local politicians are perceiving their level of competence and the demands put on them, but also how the employees are perceiving the demands and the level of competence put on the politicians. The study was made in the municipality of Gislaved in Southern Sweden. I was using both quantitative method (an opinion poll among the politicians and employees in the municipality) and qualitative method (interviews with three politicians and three employees and literature studies). In order to investigate the demands for competence I split the concept into “soft” competence (socially and emotionally based skills), and “hard” competence (skills based on knowledge, education and experience). The demands for competence mentioned in the opinion-poll are both “soft” and “hard”: 62 % of the employees put demands of “hard” competence skills on the politicians. 61 % of the politicians put demands of “soft” competence skills on themselves. The interviewed respondents say that certain skills are needed for a certain political mission. I consider the demands for competence as rather high according to the result. The local politicians are not, according to the opinion-poll, having the appropriate competence skills, though many of the respondents (56) answered that they have the competence to a certain degree. It is also noticeable that 33 out of 81 persons say that the employees are only having the competence needed to a certain degree. I consider the level of competence among the local politicians rather low according to the result. The results from the investigations of the demands for competence and the level of competence were put into a model with different outcomes depending on if the level of competence and the demands for competence are high or low. The result from high demands for competence and a level of competence not answering fully to those demands is that these high demands of political skills may put a pressure on the politicians, which may lead to a higher level of competence, an increased quality on the local politics, create a higher degree of confidence in the politicians from the society and an increased interest in political participation, but the high demands could also lead to a feeling of incompetence among the politicians, and that less people will take interest in participating in politics as they wont consider themselves having the demanded skills. So increased demands of competence may lead to both quality and elitism. The non-existing demands of competence of today supports increased amateurism among the local decision makers, and an increase in the rule of experts. If a number of demands would be formalized they could on the other hand create barriers for marginalized groups participation in politics.

This thesis is based on a case study of Tanzanian youths’ political participation in urban Mwanza. The purpose of this study is to examine how urban youths understand their participation in various political activities in an emerging democracy like Tanzania. The research question guiding the study is how youths understand and value voting in elections in comparison to other forms of political participation. The study focuses on three different political activities; to vote, to contact a politician and to participate in a demonstration. The three political activities are combined with Verba et al.’s (1995) theory of the attributes of political activities into a theoretical analysis model. The thesis uses a qualitative methodology based on 19 semi-structured interviews with Tanzanian youths living in urban Mwanza. The results indicated that the youths in Mwanza understood voting as their prime opportunity to communicate their political voices to politicians. However, the youths expressed that political activities beyond voting facilitate them with opportunities to communicate more specific political messages to politicians multiple times.

Market reforms have quite notably been used as a solution to increase the quality of public services and efficiency since the 1990s. Sweden has also introduced marketisation in the field of elderly care since 1992 to cope with increasing care needs while maintaining costs at a reasonable level. Yet, the introduction of a market mechanism in the welfare state is subject to increasing political and public debates. Many are sceptical about the purported benefits of a market, such as increased quality and reduced costs, as proposed by New Public Management. There have also been increasing critiques of the profit-making in care services in recent years. After two decades of marketisation, it is worthwhile to map out local politicians’ attitude patterns, namely, how they perceive the use of a market or quasi-market in a welfare state, where the market mechanism might challenge traditional principles such as universalism, solidarity, and equality. Complementary to studies on attitudes of public welfare, this research uses a unique survey dataset from 2014 to expand current understandings of politicians’ perspectives of marketisation. To be more specific, this study analyses three different aspects of marketisation: production, regulation, and financing. The results show that attitudinal differences between left- and right-wing politicians on private for-profit providers remain distinct. Political orientations of individuals, political majority in municipalities, and the privatisation level already achieved locally are identified as important factors in explaining local politicians’ willingness to privatise further. The preference differences continue to exist between the two blocs, and political ideology plays a major role in explaining these differences, more so than individual factors such as age, gender, or working position. Self-reported answers reveal that political ideology influences attitude formation. To a large extent, left- and right-wing politicians agree on welfare principles such as universalism, and they both recognise potential impacts that the market could have on society, such as inequality. It seems plausible that welfare state pluralism is the direction of the future. This case study serves as a solid example for examining the market development of public welfare in advanced welfare states and also contributes to the discussion of the potential role of political ideology in post-austerity welfare reforms. / Marknadsreformer har i ökande grad använts som en lösning för att öka effektiviteten och kvaliteten på offentliga tjänster sedan 1990-talet. I Sverige har också en gradvis marknadsanpassning ägt rum från tidigt 1990-tal med syfte att klara av ökade vårdbehov och för att upprätthålla kostnaderna på en rimlig nivå. Införandet av marknadsmekanismer i välfärdsstaten har blivit föremål för en livlig offentlig debatt. Många debattörer har varit klart skeptiska till de påstådda fördelarna med en marknadsanpassning, såsom förbättrad kvalitet och reducerade kostnader, som bland annat hävdats av New Public Managementskolans anhängare. Samtidigt har också skett en växande kritik av vinstuttagen och vinsttillväxten inom offentligfinansierad vård och omsorg de senaste åren. Efter två årtionden av marknadsanpassning är det motiverat att kartlägga lokalpolitikernas attityder, avseende hur de ser på den ökande marknadsanpassningen av den traditionella välfärdsstaten, där marknadsmekanismen kan utmana principer som universalism, solidaritet och jämställdhet. Förutom tidigare analyser av attityder beträffande offentlig välfärd är denna studie baserad på en unik enkätundersökning riktad till svenska kommunpolitiker genomförd 2014 i syfte att undersöka politikernas syn på de ökade marknadsinslagen inom offentlig äldreomsorg. Studien analyserar tre olika aspekter av marknadsanpassningen: produktion, reglering och finansiering. Resultatet visar att skillnaderna i attityder mellan vänster - och högerpolitiker avseende inslaget av privata vinstdrivande tjänsteleverantörer är mycket tydligt. Individernas politiska tillhörighet, politisk majoritet i kommunerna och privatiseringsnivån identifieras som viktiga faktorer för att förklara lokala politikernas villighet att öka privatiseringsgraden ytterligare. Det finns tydliga preferensskillnader mellan de två blocken och den politiska ideologin spelar en övergripande roll, medan individuella faktorer som ålder, kön eller politisk position spelar en klart mindre roll. Att ideologin är viktig konfirmeras även av politikernas självskattning avseende vilken betydelse olika faktorer har haft för deras attityder. I hög grad finns en samstämmighet mellan vänster- och högerpolitiker avseende välfärdsprinciper som universalism, och både blocken anser att marknaden kan bidra till ökad ojämlikhet i samhället. Det verkar troligt att välfärdsstatspluralismen är riktningen för framtiden. Denna fallstudie kan utgöra ett exempel för studier av marknadsanpassning i offentlig välfärd i avancerade välfärdsstater. Studien kan också bidra till diskussioner om den politiska ideologins potentiella roll för reformer av välfärdsstaten.

Entre 1945 et 1967, le Canada accueille une des plus importantes vagues d’immigration de son histoire : presque trois millions d'immigrants. À la même époque,la vie des femmes est souvent représentée comme immuable, jusqu'à leur éveil soudain à la fin des années1960. Il est pourtant difficile de croire qu'elles n'accordent aucune attention à l’arrivée de milliers d'immigrants chaque année. Leur vécu entre 1945 et 1967 est beaucoup plus complexe et nuancé que les représentations de leur apolitisme et de leurs préoccupations maternelles ne le laissent supposer.Cette thèse étudie le rôle de femmes – immigrantes,politiques, salariées, femmes au foyer, membres d'associations et de groupes minoritaires – dans l'évolution des politiques d'immigration entre 1945 et1967. Ces politiques offrent la possibilité de vérifier si,lorsqu'il s'agit d'un domaine considéré comme moins directement lié aux intérêts proprement dits des femmes, celles-ci s'y intéressent, trouvent des espaces pour en débattre, essaient de transmettre leurs avis aux décisionnaires et sont écoutées. Un engagement lié aux politiques d'immigration suggère un effort de la part des femmes pour sortir de la sphère privée, sphère assignée comme leur place principale et appropriée.Analyser le niveau d'implication des femmes dans les politiques d'immigration interroge les représentations et les assignations des femmes de l'époque ainsi que les tendances culturelles, les relations sociales et les jeux de pouvoir qui les produisent. Il permet d'autre part d’exposer les barrières érigées contre l'implication des femmes dans l'espace public politique et les discours qui les dirigent vers le foyer. / Between 1945 and 1967, Canada received one of the largest waves of immigrants in its history: nearly three million people. In contrast to this intense activity, the lives of women during that same period are often represented as being immutable – until their awakening in the late 1960s. It is difficult to imagine, however, that they paid little attention to the arrival of thousands of immigrants each year. In reality, the lived experience of women between 1945 and 1967 is much more complexand nuanced than the representations of their apoliticism and maternal essentialism suggest. This thesis studies the role of women - immigrants,politicians, professionals, housewives, members o fassociations and minority groups - in shaping immigration policy between 1945 and 1967. Examining a domain considered as being somewhat outside of' women's interests' offers the possibility of determining the true range of their interests, the spaces available to women for discussing and debating different issues and their means of conveying their views to decisionmakers.An engagement with immigration policy wouldsuggest an effort on their part to go beyond what isconsidered to be women's appropriate sphere.Analyzing the level of their involvement in immigration policy provides a method for interrogating the representations and socially assigned roles of women of the period as well as the social relations, power hierarchies and cultural tendencies that produce them.This analysis also promises to expose the barriers to women's involvement in the political public sphere and to deconstruct the discourses that circumscribe their actions.

Hierdie is 'n psigobiografiese studie van Generaal Christiaan Rudolph de Wet. 'n Psigobiografiese studie is die bestudering van 'n persoon se volledige lewe met die doel om die persoon beter te verstaan. Psigobiografiese navorsing maak gebruik van psigologiese teorieë wat aangewend word om die biografiese data van 'n persoon se lewe te beskryf en moontlik ook te verklaar. Die individu wat bestudeer word, is gewoonlik 'n bekende, invloedryke, navolgenswaardige, interessante of modelfiguur. Daar is tans 'n oplewing in die veld van psigobiografiese studies, maar daar word nog steeds nie genoeg in die akademiese veld gedoen om psigobiografiese studies te bevorder nie. De Wet (1854-1922) is vir hierdie studie gekies omdat hy 'n interessante, dog komplekse figuur was. Hy het veral tydens die Anglo-Boereoorlog in 1899-1902 bekendheid verwerf. As 45-jarige man het De Wet in die Anglo-Boereoorlog geveg en vinnig opgang as 'n militêre leier gemaak. Sy vindingryke ontsnappingspogings het die Britse magte hoofbrekens besorg. Wat De Wet verder uniek maak, is dat hy met net drie maande skoolopleiding in die parlement gedien het, as president verkies is, die hoogste gesag in die Verdedigingsmag gehad het en 'n boek oor sy oorlogsherinneringe geskryf het. Alhoewel daar akademiese werke oor De Wet bestaan, is daar tot op hede nog geen psigobiografiese studie oor hom gedoen nie. Die doel van die studie was om die mens agter die legende na vore te bring. Daar is ook gepoog om moontlike antwoorde en verklarings op onbeantwoorde vrae te gee. Die studie het van beide kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe data gebruik gemaak en kan as 'n psigobiografiese gevalstudie beskryf word. Die Vyf-faktor model van Costa en McCrae (1992) is op die biografiese data van De Wet toegepas om sodoende sy persoonlikheidseienskappe te beskryf. Die bevindinge het interessante persoonlikheidseienskappe van De Wet deur middel van die Vyf-faktor model aan die lig gebring. Volgens die kwalitatiewe navorsingsbevindinge was De Wet 'n vyandige, aksie-gedrewe, bevoegde, prestasie-strewende, selfgedissiplineerde, warm, openhartige, saggeaarde en beskeie persoon. Die kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe data-ontledings het uiteenlopende persoonlikheidskenmerke by De Wet geïdentifiseer. Die grootste verskille het by die fasette warmte, openhartigheid en altruïsme voorgekom. Die waarde van die studie is dat 'n wetenskaplike persoonlikheidsontleding van De Wet gedoen is. Dit is ook die eerste studie waar 'n teoretiese model op De Wet se persoonlikheid toegepas is. Alhoewel die studie sekere tekortkominge toon, beklemtoon dit terselfdertyd die wenslikheid daarvan om alternatiewe modelle te gebruik tydens die ontleding van persoonlikheidskenmerke. Die studie dui ook op die behoefte aan verdere navorsing, byvoorbeeld soortgelyke ontledings en vergelykings van die persoonlikhede van ander militêre bevelvoerders (De la Rey, Smuts, Beyers, Hertzog).

Syftet med studien var att undersöka beslutsfattares uppfattning om hälsofrämjande arbete inom hälso- och sjukvården i Region Dalarna. Metoden för den kvalitativa studiens datainsamling var intervjuer. Sex stycken semi-strukturerade intervjuer med beslutsfattare på politisk nivå genomfördes. Data analyserades för att hitta mönster och koder med hjälp av tematisk analys. Huvudresultatet visade att beslutsfattare uppfattade hälsofrämjande arbete som något mer än den hälsofrämjande hälso- och sjukvård som ska ske gentemot patienter och de hälsofrämjande förutsättningar som ska ges till hälso- och sjukvårdspersonal. Utan även som ett arbete som kan ske i övriga samhällssektorer, framför allt riktat mot barn, unga och äldre. Beslutsfattarna uppfattade att det finns försvårande faktorer, framför allt för att skapa de förutsättningar som behövs på politisk nivå för att föra in hälsofrämjande arbete i hälso- och sjukvården. Samtidigt ansåg de att det på sikt kan finnas desto fler möjligheter. Den tydligaste slutsatsen av studieresultatet var att beslutsfattarna uppfattade hälsofrämjande arbete både som komplext och varierat, vilket kan försvåra enighet i beslut. Trots att uppfattningen var att det fanns flera framtida möjligheter med hälsofrämjande arbete så begränsades dess prioritering i praktiken av ett antal svårlösta utmaningar. Vidare forskning behövs. / The purpose with this study was to investigate decision makers' perception of health promotion within health care in Region Dalarna. In this qualitative study the chosen method of data collection was interviews. Specifically, six semi-structured interviews with decision makers at the political level were conducted. The interviews data was analyzed thematically to find relevant patterns, which were then coded. The main findings showed that decision makers perceived health promotion as something that involves sectors both within and outside health care, and they emphasized in the latter, health promotion in childcare, schools and elderly care. The decision makers perceived that there are aggravating factors, above all, in order to create the optimal conditions needed at the political level to incorporate health-promotion work in the health care system. At the same time, they believed that in the long term there will be even more opportunities to work with health promotion. The clearest conclusion drawn from this study is that decision makers' perception of health promotion can be complex and varied, which can hamper consensus in decision making. Although there were perceived to be several future opportunities with health promotion, evaluating and incorporating such opportunities can often be hindered by political and bureaucratic decision-making processes.

This thesis examines press coverage in the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune of five female politicians in Utah history: Martha Hughes Cannon (1896), Reva Beck Bosone (1948), Karen Shepherd (1992), Enid Greene Waldholtz (1994), and Olene S. Walker (2003). A total of 438 articles were reviewed using qualitative textual analysis. Coverage by candidate varied, though it was not in general overtly biased concerning candidate gender. However, the press did call attention to the gender of candidate and gendered commentary was present. The press also called attention to the rarity of women running for high political office and addressed the ability of candidates to balance the roles of wife/mother/homemaker with a political career. This thesis contributes to the overall understanding of newspaper coverage of female politicians and provides a window into the cultural as well as political history of Utah. Suggestions for further research about media coverage of female politicians are made.

L’objectif de cette thèse est d’introduire de manière explicite les caractéristiques personnelles des décideurs publics dans l’analyse de processus politiques français. Trois cas sont successivement analysés, soulevant chacun une problématique distincte. Le premier chapitre s’intéresse à l’échelon municipal, et se base sur un jeu de données original comportant des informations sur l’ensemble des maires des municipalités de plus de 10000 habitants entre 2000 et 2012. L’objectif est de décrire comment l’influence idiosyncratique d’un maire sur la politique d’investissement municipal impacte sa probabilité de réélection. Les résultats indiquent que plus la taille de la municipalité augmente, moins les électeurs se basent sur ce type d’information. Le second chapitre a pour objet la production législative française, et s’appuie également sur une base de données originale. Un double cycle de production législative émerge, généré par les élections présidentielles et législatives. Il apparaît également que les caractéristiques personnelles des ministres influencent la stratégie du gouvernement, notamment l’âge et l’expérience. Enfin, le troisième chapitre se focalise sur l’impact de la compétition électorale sur le processus de recrutement politique. Un important travail de collecte de données concernant la production parlementaire de chaque député de la Ve République permet d’étudier cette relation ainsi que son évolution au cours de la période 1959-2012. Il en ressort que les députés élus dans des circonscriptions compétitives ont une activité parlementaire plus importante, toutes choses égales par ailleurs. Cependant, ce lien entre activité et compétition est en constante diminution depuis les années 1980. / The aim of this thesis is to explicitly introduce the decision-maker into the empirical analysis of different political processes in the French context. Three cases are successively analyzed,each raising a specific problematic. The first chapter focuses on French municipalities. A new original dataset, covering mayors of municipalities of more than 10,000 inhabitants over the period 2000-2012, underpins the study. The objective is to investigate to what extentthe mayor’s personal influence on the investment policy affects his/her reelection probability. Results show that this information plays a significant role only in small municipalities. Chapter twostudies the French legislative production, exploiting another original dataset. A dual cycle of the production of laws emerges, connected to both the presidential and the legislative elections. A link between government members’ personal characteristics and legislative output is established. Finally, chapter three investigates the relationship between electoral competition and political selection. A third important dataset providing data about the individual parliamentary work of the deputies over the period 1958-2012 allows such an analysis. Resultsindicate that deputies elected in contested districts have a higher overall productivity. The intensity of the relationship reached its peak in the 1980’s, but is continuously decreasing since then.