This paper examines in a descriptive manner how two groups of variables, institutional and socio-economic, correlate with voter turnout respectively and if their magnitude have changed over time in OECD countries. Previous research is often based on data from the 70’s and 80’s. Since then, voter turnout in democratic countries has decreased and more citizens do not use their fundamental democratic right of being involved in the process of choosing their representatives. To answer the paper hypotheses i.e. analyzing what factors that correlates with voter turnout, panel data between 1980 and 2012 are used which is estimated by an OLS approach. The outcome of the empirical estimations indicates that 13 out of 19 variables have a significant relationship with turnout. Most of the variables magnitudes are a bit lower than previous literature. From the time sensitivity analysis the result indicates that voters are less influenced by the significant variables that focus on the voting cost. It seems that voters in the 21st century meet voting costs in different manner than previously.

In this study a population of 60 family owned businesses acquired in 1971 are analysed over a period of 15 years. The firms are followed historically for four years before and ten years after the merger. The aim is to identify dominating processes and behaviour in different variables during the period 1967-81. This will be done through the following: - on an aggregated level, identify and analyse characteristic processes and patterns by the acquired businesses before and after the acquisition - on an aggregated level compare the pre- and post-merger performances - on an individual business level illustrate, validate and theoretically interpret results and conclusions. Primarily this study has not a theoretical but an empirical point of departure. A working paradigm is that the "confrontation" between the firms 1 "external environment and internal resources" results in dynamics having an impact on the firms. The processes are classified in taxonomies/typologies, in an attempt to answer what has happened. Interpreting the forces behind the development is the attempt to answer why it has happened. The empirical data was collected through three different surveys resulting in quantitative and qualitative observations combined in different perspectives in a multimethological approach. The first is economic data (sales, financial ratios etc) gathered from the firms' external account statements. However, several firms were found to have gone bankrupt, closed down etc. This initiated a second, follow-up study, which had a longitudinal "geography of enterprise" approach and was implemented through a telephone inquiry. The third collection is a case-study of five firms from the population carried out by discussions with representatives of the merging companies. The merged businesses turned out to be extremes compared to branch characteristics respectively. Refinements of the patterns made it possible to construct a three-dimensional typology showing four principal processes. Ten years after the merger there followed five principal spatial and institutional changes. Closures, removals from community and amalgamation with group companies, reduction to production units only, the joining of premises with group companies in the same community and relatively "indépendant" affiliations. One third of the population have been closed down or removed. One half do not exist as "indépendant units". Only one third have escaped larger infringement. Thirty businesses have once more been acquired. Some more than once. When comparing the pre- and post-merger performances, a convergence phenomenon was identified. Oscillating and deviating pre-merger trends later converged towards standard variable values and equilibrium, searching for an optimum group course. The different changes and restructuring activities conducted after the acquisitions, can be summarized in three principal post-merger processes: - liquidation and adjustment of output capacity to market demand. - reorientation through new product and market combinations. - growth and development through "multiplying by splitting" and emancipation of expansion potential. / <p>Diss. Umeå : Univ., 1986</p> / digitalisering@umu

This essay sets out to bring further knowledge within the field of political participation on an aggregated level in Sweden. The theoretical access point for this study is the modernization theory provided by Lipset (1959). This theory will be investigated to see if variables within this theory have an effect on the Swedish voter turn-out. Furthermore this study aims to investigate if the contexts of the economical situations have an effect on modernization. The main questions of this essay is: (1) what effects do modernization have on voter turn-out in Swedish municipals? (2) Regarding the economic cycles, what influence does the effects of modernization have on voter turn-out? The method used in this essay is a qauntative analysis in the form of a bivariate and a multiple regression analysis. The empirical material in this study includes statistics from different public agencies. The analysis aims to investigate three election years, 1994, 2006 and 2014. The empirical study shows that socioeconomic pre-conditions, such as average income level, and urbanization have a positive and strong effect on the Swedish voter turn-out on an aggregated level. This shows that modernization theory is not relevant in full, it rather shows that certain parts of the original theory is relevant today. The effects modernization have on voter turn-out is also a lot stronger when the economic context is an economic boom. When the economy goes down the effect goes down with it.