In the second half of the 18th century, the Stockholm retail trades started to organise themselves in legal corporations, called trade societies. In this, they were frequently opposed by the State. Swedish society was still basically a corporatist society, based on privileged bodies, with defined functions and rights. Corporations on a concrete level, claiming legal status as intermediaries between the Individual and the public did, however, not fit into the plans of the State anymore. This dissertation deals with the following problems concerning this late addition to the corporate world of early-modern Sweden: What were the driving forces behind this corporate formation? And what were its consequences, for the relations between corporation and individual on the one hand, and between the corporations and the public on the other? The theoretical framework includes a discussion concerning conflicting conceptions of property. I will argue that the corporate ideals presuppose an 'embedded' notion of property, whereas 'new' ideas of property as a purely material commodity were starting to make their way into 18th century Swedish society. The second theoretical assumption is, that the action of the trade societies may be seen from a petite bourgeoisie perspective, where both the preconditions for their business and social status, as well as their collective action, show great affinity with that of advocates of petty property and small-scale business in the late 19th and early 20th century. I will argue that the combined phenomena of perceived relative deprivation and subsequent real economic hardship proved conducive to the decision of the retail trades to start forming proper corporations, meaning legally recognised (and protected) occupational associations. This process included a shift of strategy, as the trade societies turned inward: A closer adherence to the question of a moral economy, and claims to mutuality and surveillance within the society, were combined with strengthened claims concerning the question of credentials and professional skill. In their relations to individuals, the trade societies were obvious exponents of the patriarchal society. Young men within the retail trades, although closely supervised, faced reasonably fair chances of one day becoming tradesmen, burgesses and members of the corporation. Where conformity was lacking, however, both corporations and individuals were prone to litigation. The strengthened legal position of the trade societies proved to be conducive also to strengthened position vis-à-vis individuals. During the latter part of the century, the municipal courts showed greater adherence to the arguments and statutes of the corporations. The patriarchal system did also contain the relations between men and women. Here is introduced the concept of the corporate gender-order, for describing the trade societies' relations to women within and in the periphery of the corporation. Independent women, working outside any patriarchal control, was seen as a serious threat to the identity of these trades as exclusive, and as 'professions'. As a conclusion the retailers show a certain affinity with the petite bourgeoisie, in their individual as well as their collective behaviour.

This master thesis deals with the topic of the so called Spanish economic miracle. It describes vast economic changes which started in the 1960s in Spain. The thesis offers a political context of dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939-1975) and a review of economic development before and during this phenomenon (which is the most discussed). The economic boom is illustrated on an example of tourism. The thesis describes development of tourism and connection between tourism and the so called economic miracle.

This master thesis deals with topic of specific urban political régime of the town of Zlín between years of 1923 and 1938. In the interwar period Zlín was ruled by monopolist rule of Baťa Shoes Company. This firm had dominant economic position in the respective town and it created own candidate list composed of company managers which was winning municipal elections. Town of Zlín is example of specific phenomenon of capitalist paternalism (our own term) realized over area of so called company town. In our study we provide basic historic background of mentioned terms. Then we explore particular aspects of Baťa's rule over Zlín like factors of cultural, economic or employment policies. After all of these aspects we try to create whole picture of Baťa's régime. We compare it with other flourishing régimes of the period too. Baťa's Zlín régime ("batism) had strong modernist and emancipatory effect on its participants. In the same time it formed and manipulated with these respective participants without expectable defense reactions of these people. We would like to examine specific power relations of Baťa's rule and to describe its behavior and reception in Zlín society of interwar time.

This diploma thesis deals with theme of so called Bataism as specific kind of societal order realized in the frame of so called company town. Bataism is characterized by that kind of political power sui generis which primarily depends on economic strength of Bata Shoes Company. Political power of Bata is substantially realizing its political power especially in the frame of town of Zlin. By researching Bataism we define term of so called capitalist paternalism which primarily describes specifics of capitalist/paternalist rule over enclosed area of his own company town (de George, Salt), then historically secondarily also specifics of his rule over broader area (Ford). By researching Bataism from an angle of political science we concentrate on the definition of its power structures and the very character of that power itself. For these purposes we use concepts of Michel Foucault as disciplinary power and model of so called Panopticon. In addition we provide definition of Bataism from the perspective of ideology and utopia. Aim of our work is describing and explaining (seeming) paradox: political program of Bataism is continually legitimized by democratic method although its performance can be seen generally non- democratic.

Politics has often been conceptualized as a conflict between political parties that represent the economic interests of different groups in society. This conception of politics has, however, been considerably weakened by the economic and social transformations of the last decades and by the rise of post-materialist values among newer generations of electors. Indeed, the vote of manual workers for left-wing parties has declined significantly in recent decades as did the impact of left-wing parties on social spending. At the same time, the issue of low-wage work has become prominent in the partisan debates of several countries such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom following the mobilization of low-paid workers, unions and community associations. Low-wage workers who mainly work in the service sector have often precarious work and living conditions following decades of labor markets deregulation and are highly dependent on governmental policies to insure decent living and work conditions. One of these policies, the minimum wage, has been at the center of the electoral campaigns of many left-wing parties in recent years. However, the issue of low-wage work has rarely been studied in political science. This thesis seeks to explain the partisan dynamics surrounding the issue of low-wage work. My main argument is that low-wage workers tend to vote for left-wing parties in accordance with their economic interests, especially in countries with a weak degree of corporatism such as the United States and the United Kingdom. In those countries, left-wing parties have strong incentives to make pledges related to low-wage work like increasing the minimum wage in their electoral manifesto, because unions are unable to negotiate decent working conditions for the majority of workers. Indeed, in countries with weak corporatism, low-wage workers are very dependent on governmental interventions to ensure minimum working standards and improve their living conditions. In countries with strong corporatism, however, unions negotiate collective agreements that ensure minimum working conditions for the majority of workers, workers with weaker bargaining power are thus less dependent on government policies to insure decent working conditions. Therefore, left-wing parties should be able to consolidate their vote among low-wage workers in countries with a weak degree of corporatism. Once in power, left-wing parties should also increase the minimum wage and the direct cash transfers to low-income families more than governments led by right-wing parties, especially when corporatism is weak. The emphasis on policies targeted to low-wage workers by left-wing parties in countries with a weak degree of corporatism could also limit the capacity of radical parties to attract the vote of low-wage workers. This thesis is composed of 4 articles, one on electoral pledges related to low-wage work, one on the vote of low-wage workers, one on the impact of left-wing parties on minimum wages and one on the impact of left-wing parties on direct cash transfers received by low-income families. These four articles demonstrate the relevance of a materialist conception of politics and the role of institutions regulating the labor market on partisan dynamics.

No / Workers in public sector organisations might expect any threat to their physical and psychological safety and wellbeing to fall far short of any unreasonable risk. However, the evidence is by no means certain. One of the most persistent and prevalent organisational perils is work victimisation. A propensity towards this type of abuse in government organisations is most disturbing, since they remain a major employer, and hence, have a direct bearing on the occupational fates of a large and growing number of personnel. This paper provides a brief discussion of work victimisation and focuses attention one of its most unrepentant and enigmatic perpetrators, the corporate psychopath. The paper highlights some individual and institutional measures designed to enable employees to mitigate the risk of abuse by these victimisers.

Cette thèse a pour objectif d'analyser l'émergence, la réussite et l'opposition au régime de deux mouvements sociaux égyptiens durant la période (2006-2009). Ces derniers sont le mouvement ouvrier de la Compagnie de Méhalla et celui des fonctionnaires de l'impôt foncier. On mettra en évidence deux questions, d'une part, les enjeux concernant les dynamiques internes propres au mouvement et d'autre part, ceux de son conflit avec le régime et le défi qu'il (le mouvement) représente pour lui (le régime). Notre argumentation se basera essentiellement sur l'importance des choix des leaders, leurs positions et les stratégies, puisqu'on les considère comme une variable explicative particulièrement importante pour la compréhension des dynamiques interactionnelles et oppositionnelles du mouvement. Nous espérons ainsi contribuer à la littérature portant sur les mouvements sociaux en proposant une analyse qui jettera la lumière sur l'influence qu'exercent les actions des leaders sur les dynamiques qu'engendre le mouvement, un fait qui a été d'ailleurs sous-étudié par cette littérature. En outre, notre recherche, on le pense, peut intéresser également les spécialistes des régimes autoritaires puisqu'on traitera aussi le processus selon lequel les leaders d'un mouvement peuvent exploiter au maximum les « opportunités » politiques qu'offre un régime semi-autoritaire et induire un changement des rapports qui le liaient auparavant à ce régime, ainsi que les limites d'un tel processus. / This thesis aims to emphasize the emergence, success and opposition to the regime of two Egyptian social movements during the period (2005-2009). These are the Mahalla Company for Spinning and Weaving labor movement and the Real Estate Tax collectors movement. In this research, we will shed the light on the internal dynamic taking place within the movement as well as its contentious interaction with the regime contenders. Our arguments will be based primarily on the role, choices and strategies of leaders as we consider them as an important explanatory variable for understanding the movement's interactional and oppositional dynamics. Hence, we hope to contribute to the literature on social movements by offering an analysis that will shed light on the influence leaders' actions on the movement's dynamics, a fact that is under-studied. Furthermore, our research, we believe, may also be of interest to specialists' of authoritarian regimes as we will describe the process by which the movements' leaders can capitalize on the “opportunities” offered by a semi- authoritarian regime to produce an historical rupture with the relationship that tied it to the later as well as our assessment of such a process' limitations.

In 1991, the Swedish Social Democratic government established the Pensioners’ Council at the Ministry of Social Affairs. The Council’s purpose and structure were spelled out by the Government in a Commission of Inquiry Directive. According to this, the Council is to be a forum for deliberations between the Government and pensioners’ organizations. At the municipal level, Senior Citizens Councils have existed since the 1970s. They fill a similar purpose to that of the Pensioners’ Council at the central level, namely to be an arena for political discussions between representatives from pensioners’ organizations and the municipality. The purpose of this dissertation is two-fold. First, I describe the influence of pensioners’ organizations on the establishment of the pensioners’ councils and their political influence – potential as well as actual – in these councils. Second, I seek to explain the influence of pensioners’ organizations from a power resources perspective. By doing so, I hope to contribute to our knowledge of the relationship between the welfare state and organized interests. Does this relationship imply the existence of a corporatist or pluralistic power structure? Finally, I also hope to contribute to our understanding of the future development of the welfare state in the light of a global economy and aging population. The empirical investigation on the central level suggests that pensioners’ organizations influenced the decision to establish the Pensioners’ Council. Moreover, they had actual as well as potential political influence through the council since the early 1990s. There success in influencing government policy is due to the fact that pensioners’ organizations represent an important voting group and their employees have expert knowledge. At the local level, the empirical investigation suggests that pensioners’ organizations had influence on decisions made by municipalities to establish Senior Citizens Councils. However, opportunities to influence vary at the local level, and pensioners’ organizations actual political influence is limited. This limited influence can be explained as a consequence of pensioners’ organizations lack of an important power resource at the local level – employed expertise. It is argued in the dissertation that the empirical results do not suggest an existence of a corporatist power structure in social issues. Rather, they point to a pluralistic power structure – i.e. along side producer organizations, other organizations (such as those for welfare consumers) also have an important power position. This, in turn, limits the ability of politicians to cut welfare spending. The case of pensioners’ organizations therefore suggests that we cannot expect any drastic downsizing of the Swedish welfare state due to factors such as the globalization of the economy. In light of the aging population, the empirical results suggest that politicians will have to seek other solutions to be able to meet the challenge of financing welfare programs targeting the elderly than making drastic cutbacks in those programs.

The aim of this thesis is to understand the decision-making processes concerning ice-breaking along the coast of Norrland, with the specific aim to analyse the activities of regional interest groups in the Norrland region and government agents at different administrative levels at the key stages of the decision-making processes: initiation, drafting and decision-making. The thesis also explores how institutional factors at different administrative levels affected the agents that were involved at those stages of the decision-making processes. As navigation along the northern Swedish coast must negotiate winter conditions which causes ports to freeze over, the government ice-breaking service functions as an instrument to compensate the export firms in Norrland for these constrains. Year-round navigation in the north Swedish coastal waters was achieved through a series of decision-making processes that took place during the period from 1940 to 1975. These decision-making processes are important to study since ice-breaking was an integrated component of the expanding heavy basic industries in Norrland and thereby for the rapidly growing exports during the 1950s and 1960s. This period is the decisive point in the economic history of the Norrland region regarding how the natural resources should be exploited and how exports should be advanced. This study concludes that the decision-making processes were initiated by government agents at different administrative levels. Official investigatory commissions were set up at several occasions to deal with issues related to the government ice-breaker service by the ministries responsible for ice-breaker policy. It is also demonstrated that the decision-making processes concerning ice-breaker investments were initiated by the government boards that were responsible for the operation of the ice-breaker service. In this respect, the study concludes that the government activities during the initiation stages should not be confused as a sign of regional interest group passivity on these issues. The activities of the interest groups during the initiation stages were primarily intended to draw attention to the problems caused by winter to regional shipping, in order to put the issue on the political agenda. As the decision-making processes proceeded into the drafting stages, the participation from regional interest groups was much more significant as the government offered interest groups forums and procedures for structural consulting through various organisational arrangements. The regional interest groups that participated in those arrangements were industrial firms in the heavy basic industries sector. In those cases other regional interest groups participated, they would promote the interests of those firms. As a result, the final drafts from committees and government bodies included arguments that favoured an expansion of ice-breaking to promote the growth of the heavy basic industries in the Norrland region. The analysis of the decision-making stages suggests that a combination of institutional factors at different administrative levels contributed to the outcome of the decision-making processes. One result is that the general aims of macro policy such as trade policy, growth policy and regional development policy were favourable towards an expansion of the government ice-breaker service, which would benefit the export industries in the Norrland region. Another result is that the sectoral organization within the government maritime bodies contributed significantly to the outcome of the decision-making processes. Large-scale planning and operational experimentation was allowed to take place within the ice-breaker service, which convinced the government that ice-breaking and winter navigation was a feasible transport alternative.

Did the new Bolivian Constitution of 2009 influence a change on its democratic model? The thesis of the article claims that as a result of how the Constitution elaboration process was carried out on a frame of certain historical conditions, the product elaborated –The Constitution- by the Constituent Assembly had little substantial change in contrast to former Constitutions. Historical constrains of the Bolivian economy and the polarization of the actors involved on the elaboration process of the new Constitution had a great influence to prevent a substantially different new one. Progressive’s elements were introduced as a matter of result of the Bolivian revolution as Human Rights, Plurinationality, and Regional Autonomies, but certain constitutional prerogatives remained unchanged to preserve the status quo. The presence of corporatists, rentist and statist actors has been a trend along Bolivian history, which does allow the reproduction of the internal political relationships of the Bolivian model and inhibits the possibility of a substantial change or re-foundation. Furthermore, the pos-contitutional situation will consolidate a democracy that hardly would break the historical constrains thatrules its hybrid character. / ¿La nueva Constitución Boliviana del 2009 motivó un cambio sustancial en su modelo democrático? La tesis del artículo argumenta que la poca variación sustancial en el producto elaborado –la Constitución- por la Asamblea Constituyente, en comparación a Constituciones anteriores, fue fruto de cómo se llevó a cabo el proceso de elaboración de la misma aunque se debe resaltar algunas consideraciones históricas. Las constricciones históricas de la economía boliviana así como la polarización de actores en la elaboración de la nueva Constitución tuvieron una gran influencia al impedir una refundación de la misma. Si bien hubo un gran recojo de elementos progresistas fruto de la revolución boliviana como Derechos Humanos, Plurinacionalidad y Autonomías Regionales, aún se mantuvieron ciertas prerrogativas constitucionales a actores que protegían el status quo. La presencia de actores corporativistas, rentistas y estatistas se ha mantenido a lo largo del tiempo, por lo que se permite la reproducción de las relaciones políticas internas del modelo boliviano y se inhibe la posibilidad de su reemplazo o refundación. Esto derivó en una situación posconstitucional que consolidará una democracia que dificultosamente podrá quebrar las ataduras de un pasado que condiciona su carácter híbrido.