Diploma thesis deals with local polity, politics and policies in the Nordic countries. The main aim of this thesis is to study local polity, politics and policies in the Nordic countries and then identify what are the most important common features of these countries and the most significant differences between them. The first chapter deals with known theoretical approaches to distinctions between local government systems. This chapter presents some typologies of local government systems. Another four chapters are dedicated to local politics in the Nordic countries. The second chapter is focused on Sweden. The third chapter deals with Denmark. The fourth chapter is focused on Norway, while the fifth chapter on Iceland. The each of these four chapters is split into several subchapters, which are focused especially on competencies, tasks and duties of municipalities, structure and functioning of municipal institutions, forms of intermunicipal cooperation, number and size of municipalities, structure of municipal earnings and expenditures and other financing matters, electoral and party systems at local level, neighborhood councils, user democracy and free commune experiments. The last chapter summarizes and compares findings. Conclusion presents the most evident common features of local polity, politics and...

Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka om biståndshandläggare inom äldreomsorg upplever att kommunens egna riktlinjer försvårar deras möjligheter att följa aktuell lagstiftning och nationella regelverk, samt i vilken mån detta kan skapa hinder för uppfyllandet av en skälig levnadsnivå. I studien har fyra biståndshandläggare blivit intervjuade från två olika kommuner. Uppsatsens insamlade empiri är det som ligger till grund för uppsatsens resultat, analys och slutdiskussion. I resultatet av studien framkom det att ibland kan kommunens riktlinjer uppstå som ett hinder, om kommunen inte erbjuder en insats. Resultatet visar också att biståndshandläggarna i båda kommunerna var överens om att begreppet skälig levnadsnivå är ett luddigt begrepp och att det saknas en tydlig definition av begreppet. Det framkom också delade meningar gällande om kommunens ekonomiska situation påverkade biståndshandläggarnas beviljandegrad.   Vi vill genom vår c-uppsats belysa att det som framkommer som resultatet i vår studie, kommer vi inte att kunna dra några generella slutsatser. Vi kommer däremot att på en mikronivå belysa likheter och skillnader mellan en kommun i norr och en kommun i syd.

The issue of rural areas in the Czech Republic concerns about 5,800 municipalities, what is 93 % of all municipalities in the CR. These municipalities cover more than three-quarters of the CR territory where live over 3 million inhabitants, more than one third of the total population of the CR. Although there is consensus that the countryside faces a lot of problems which affect the lives of many people on a large territory, the adequate attention to this topic is still not given by official authorities. This confirms the facts that the CR has not adopted a clear definition of rural areas yet and the rural policy is not a priority of programs of political parties. But the urgency of solving problems in recent years stepped up. Quantity of scientific teams that focus on countryside problems increased. They are defined different typologies of rural areas, are seeking methods for dissolve disparities among different areas, there are efforts to measure the development potential of municipalities. This work is in accordance with these initiatives and by mixed research methods defines Development Potential Index (DPI). The DPI consists from 101 individual indicators. Verification of created index was done on data of 18 small villages located in three different regions of the Czech Republic, for which...

In its relatively unchanged form and effective for nearly 140 years the Indian Act of 1876 is the basic law governing the rights and responsibilities of First Nations and their status within Canada. The law protects the special status of Indigenous groups in Canadian society albeit it has been criticized as discriminatory. Voices calling for change of the legislation are growing stronger with the deepening socio-economic problems of Aboriginal peoples. First Nations primarily require the assertion of their constitutional right to self-determination in any future reform. In contrast, the current Conservative government of Stephen Harper emphasizes self- sufficiency and financial responsibility of Native peoples. Legislative actions that Conservatives rarely consult with representatives of the Indigenous peoples themselves correspond to the general priorities of the Harper Government based on the principles of market economy and do not reflect the demands for self-determination and self-government of Indigenous communities. The Idle No More protest movement founded in 2012 in reaction to some of Harper's laws pertaining to Aboriginal peoples fights for their rights and environmental protection inextricably linked with their identity. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze different perspectives on...

This thesis further analyses the question of political representation of ethnic minorities. Its main theoretical framework is created by theory of cleavages by S. Rokkan and S.M. Lipset, which describes conflict lines within the society and its influence on the party system. Further on, different definitions and approaches to the topic of ethnic identity, ethnic conflict and and ethnic and regional parties are introduced. Second part of this thesis is composed of four case studies of selected European cities with relevant ethnic minorities. These are Leicester in United Kingdom, Espoo in Finland, German Frankfurt am Main and Romanian Cluj-Napoca. These cases are firstly analyzed by context of political representation of ethnic minorities. That is in the first place the share and nature of minority population and in the second place attributes of local political systems within both horizontal and vertical dimension. Factors with direct impact on political representation of ethnic minorities like electoral system, election right and any other special measures are analyzed further on.

What is studied in this essay is how municipal self-government and the municipal planning monopoly can be affected for municipalities in Region Värmland if physical planning were to be regionalized in Värmland. There is a power shift going on in today´s situation, where the local is being moved more and more to the regional level. It is also a power struggle between who should control different thing. The purpose of the work is to find out how municipalities in Värmland will be affected if the physical planning were to be regionalized. Also how civil servants and their work regarding planning may be affected. This can be seen based on two dimensions that are applied in the study, the dimension of power and the dimension of activity, which can show differences and similarities exist between municipalities. The questions to be answered are:  - What effects and perspectives (pros and cons) do you think the working method can have for the interviewed municipalities if spatial planning is regionalized? -Does it matter if it is a smaller or larger municipality? -How is planning affected by this, what would be the consequences/problems for the businesses from more regional physical planning in Värmland?  Through qualitative interviews, respondents from eight municipalities in Värmland have been interviewed to answer how they think they will be affected if regional spatial planning were to be used in Värmland. The respondents work with relevant professions within community planning. The results show, based on four themes, divided unconditionally based on the respondent´s answers, how the municipalities and their respondents would be  affected. Among other things, the respondents lack responsibility from the region, resources and the municipalities conditions look different and depending on whether it is a small or large municipality it can look different. The local knowledge a municipality has is also important for municipalities, and municipal self- government is also something that municipalities think is important. Politics and democracy are important parts of how things should work. The conclusion shows that different effects and perspectives with pros and cons will affect the interviewed municipalities if spatial planning is regionalized. An important perspecitve is that power between municipality and region plays a role and also that municipalities today work in different ways and are therefore affected differently depending on their size, small or large municipality. The planning and activites will have several different consequences, both good and bad, knowledge and cooperation is something that will be able to improve the planning.

В процессе выполнения работы были исследованы теоретические и, нормативно-правовые аспекты развития сельских территорий и потребительской кооперации. Выполнен анализ развития сельских территорий Невьянского городского округа, на основе чего разработаны рекомендации по созданию потребительского кооператива как стартовой меры развития потребительской кооперации и создания ТОС как фактора повышения устойчивости развития сельских территорий. В результате осуществления рекомендуемых мер ожидается повышение уровня занятости экономически активного населения НГО, рост реальных доходов сельского населения, решение вопросов продовольственного обеспечения городского округа и обеспечение устойчивости развития сельских территорий. / In the course of the work, the theoretical and regulatory aspects of rural development and consumer cooperation were studied. The analysis of the development of rural areas Nevyansky urban district, on the basis of which recommendations for the establishment of consumer cooperatives as the starting steps of development of consumer cooperation and the creation of TOS as factor of increase of stability of development of rural territories. The implementation of the recommended measures is expected to increase the level of employment of economically active population NGOs, the growth of real incomes of the rural population, issues of food security in the city and ensure the sustainable development of rural areas.

The relationship between the Swedish government and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) has sparked debates, particularly regarding the agreements established in the healthcare sector. These agreements strive to ensure national equivalence while allowing municipal influence in governance. However, the agreements entail closed negotiations and bestow decision-making authority upon SALAR – a non-public employers' and interest organization funded by tax money – representing the municipalities. Despite their significance, limited research has explored the utilization and repercussions of these agreements, especially concerning their democratic implications. This knowledge gap is striking given the regional authorities' substantial management of tax revenues and primary responsibility for healthcare, as regional democracy has received scant attention in political science research and society. Therefore, this thesis aims to bridge this gap by mapping and evaluating the democratic legitimacy of the agreement development process between the government and SALAR. The focus of analysis is on the 2023 agreement relating to maternity care and women's health. The empirical material includes accessible documents, as well as interviews with individuals knowledgeable about the decision-making process and those anticipated to have gained insights. Through reconstructing the decision-making process and employing two contrasting democratic ideals – the traditional representative model and the network-based multi-actor model – this study uncovers the challenges encountered in upholding these ideals during the agreement development. Notably, the democratic values of accountability, openness, and transparency were significantly compromised. Therefore, the decision-making process can be assessed as lacking full democratic legitimacy.

<p>Based on different integration policies, we aim to examine how five municipalities in Stockholm County are working to promote integration at a local level with focus on voter participation and to some extent, representativeness among foreign-born. Statistics provided by SCB shows that foreign-born tends to vote to a lesser extent than those born in Sweden. Further, we aim to examine the implementation of two policy documents established at a national level concerning integration in contrast to policy documents established at a local level in each different municipality. Further, we aim to examine summaries of actions taken in response to the local integration programs, as well as personal interviews. Each municipality will be considered separately, but we thus seek to make a comparative study. The study will be based on a qualitative approach. The implementation process of both central and local policy decisions concerning the promotion of integration will also be discussed in terms of two existing theories of implementation, based on two different perspectives. The result shows that interaction between different participants, such as local officials and politicians, is of importance for the implementation process. All of the studied municipalities have taken some actions in order to implement their goals concerning integration.</p>

本論文企圖回答四個問題，分別是： 1. 加拿大原住民教育的主體：原住民的認同、定義、類別、法定地位為何？ 2. 原住民自治體制與自治體制下的政府關係為何？ 3. 加拿大原住民的教育政策為何？加拿大原住民自治體制與教育政策的關係為何？ 4. 原住民教育與多元文化主義關係為何？ 根據這四個問題，來進行章節的鋪陳： 第一章為政策的主體，加拿大原住民的定義，本論文嘗試從政治層次與憲法層次來討論加拿大民的地位、類別、位階與認同；並簡述加拿大原住民的教育概況。在研究中，我們發現，加拿大原住民的定義，不是來自文化、生態的因素，而是因為歷史與政治背景使然，1982年的加拿大憲法，正式承認了北美印地安人、梅蒂斯人與因紐特人為加拿大原住民，並且承認原住民的「現有權利」（existing rights），讓加拿大原住民成為有別於為加拿大其他「少數族裔」人口的一個「顯著的社會」（distinctive society），但是憲法的承認緊接而來的不是嚴謹的識別工作，所以關於身份問題，還有許多爭議，旋而未決。 第二章對第二章主要討論加拿大原住民自治的發展與規劃，並以尼斯加自治政府、努納弗特自治領地與梅蒂斯墾殖地議會等有土地基礎的原住民自治政府為例，來討論加拿大原住民自治的實踐。加拿大原住民自治政策的發展以及自治體制的規劃非常分歧，沒有辦法用統一的原則來描述。這種多元發展的現象來自於多元分歧的背景因素，有歷史上的民族關係，有身份識別的因素、有政府管轄權的爭議、原住民的人口、居住與地理特性、也有原住民的偏好與政府的協商底線規範。 第三章討論加拿大原住民教育的演進與趨勢。筆者在這一章試圖以較宏觀的角度來檢視加拿大原住民教育的發展，可以從政策制訂的背景、政策論辯的參與者、以及關鍵議題三個方向，來找出加拿大原住民教育的政策發展脈絡與階段特色。關於加拿大原住民教育的演進，約可以分為1996年的「RCAP報告書」為界，筆者將1996年之前的原住民教育分為四個階段，分別是同化教育（1867-1967）時期、整合政策、多元文化教育與印地安教育（1967-1982）時期、原住民教育的肇端（1982-1988）以及自治體制下的原住民教育（1988-1996）。第二節的重點則在於詳細討論1996年加拿大皇家原住民委員會(RCAP)原住民報告書關於原住民教育所提出來的建議與政策規劃。皇家原住民委員會關於原住民的報告書，宣告了加拿大政府與原住民之間新的關係的開展。筆者結合Frank Abele的觀點，發現加拿大原住民教育有下列趨勢： 1. 在原住民教育政策的層級上，逐漸由地方、省的層次上升到與國家對等的自治層次然而，原住民教育在國家層次所獲得的關注與討論並未如省的層次來得熱烈。 2. 在論述模式上，逐漸由同化論述模式轉向原住民自治的權利基礎與責任之模式，與公共政策論述之模式。 3. 在原住民教育的對象上，逐漸由部分「印地安人」（有身份的印地安人），轉向集體單位、泛稱性的原住民，乃至不同族裔屬性的原住民族。 4. 在原住民教育的層級上，關注的焦點逐漸由初等、中等教育轉向高等教育人才的培育，企圖以一種整體性（holistic）的觀點與策略來解決原住民教育問題。 5. 在教育目的上，從對同化教育的的反抗，到以文化純續為目的，發展至更積極的觀點，企圖透過教育，來彌補其與主流社會的落差、強化原住民的文化活力與創意，進一步培養自治的人才，可以說是一種以自治為目的（education for self-government）的教育政策。 6. 原住民教育與多元文化主義的關係，遠較Frank Abele所指稱的要複雜，原住民教育政策在理念上，曾採借多元文化主義關於人性尊嚴、人權與平等權的概念，但是在國家政策的場域，卻出現相互扞格、衝突的情形。 7. 在教育系統上，原住民歷經了由聯邦政府主導的「同化-隔離」系統、到進入與主流族群教育體系的「整合系統」、到目前要求與主流族群分立、由原住民主控教育內容、評鑑標準以及行政事務的「獨立系統」。 第四章是針對自治體制下的原住民教育，所做的案例分析。我們舉尼斯加自治政府的社學校委員會以及努納弗特自治領地的官方語言教育計畫為例，說明不同的自治政府體制、規模與民族屬性下的教育政策規劃。 第五章針對下列四個議題，討論加拿大原住民自治體制與教育政策面臨的挑戰： 1. 身份定義問題：自治的構成原速與教育政策的主體問題。 2. 管轄權議題：自治管轄權、教育管轄權、與教育實務之間的關係。 3. 理論基礎的衝突：多元文化主義與原住民主義的爭論。 4. 實務問題：原住民團體的需求差異與經費來源的問題 在結論部分，我們對本文重點作一個回顧，並根據自治體系的政府關係、自治與原住民教育、自治設計與教育系統的開放性提出筆者的看法與建議，分列如下： 1. 台灣應重新省思「Nation to Nation」的實質關係，務實面對自治議題。 2. 觀察加拿大原住民自治與教育政策，不能忽略多元文化主義、多元文化教育與原住民主義、原住民教育的衝突現象。 3. 台灣應著手進行符合社會現實，務實、開放、有效的自治規劃與教育規劃，而非理論的空談或國外政策的仿效。