Diploma thesis "Paradigma of Democracy in 20th. century" dissert upon modern theory of democracy. Thesis try to point differences in interpretation of the democracy conception on the basis of four modern theory democracy, which were interpreted in 20th century. Diploma thesis describe these doctrines: theory of competition democracy by J. A. Schumpeter; theory of pluralistic democracy and theory of polyarchy by R. A. Dahl; theory of justice by J. Rawls. At the close of thesis is short comparative analysis based on the main ideas these four democratic theory. Comparative analysis try to demonstrate main differences in the interpretation of democracy idea. It is necessary to understand, that "democracy" ins't exactly single valued definition, but democracy is wide spectrum of various doctrines. These various doctrines have very often divergencies of opinion about democracy. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Digitaliseringen som sker i accelererande hastighet i dagens samhälle har bidragit till en mångfald av nyhetskanaler och informationskällor, vilket ställer krav på att välja ut nyhetsinnehåll för konsumtion i det digitala medielandskapet. I utbildningskontext förväntas elever förvärva skolväsendets demokratiska värden, där främst samhällskunskapsämnet fått axla rollen i att fostra och bilda kompetenta och ansvarskännande medborgare. Implementering av nyhetsinnehåll i samhällskunskapsundervisningen kan främja ungdomars nyhetskonsumtion och politiska intresse, vilket kan fylla en viktig funktion för samhällsengagemang och medborgarskap. Därav är syftet med denna studie att undersöka och synliggöra svenska gymnasieelevers nyhetskonsumtion och upplevelser av denna i förhållande till ett demokratiskt medborgarskap. Studien avser även att belysa dessa gymnasieelevers politiska intresse, engagemang och deltagande, vilket kan avspeglas i deras roll som aktiva samhällsmedborgare. Detta har undersökts genom tio kvalitativa och semistrukturerade forskningsintervjuer med gymnasieelever i årskurs 3 på ett högskoleförberedande program i en medelstor stad i Mellansverige. Det empiriska materialet har analyserats utifrån nationell såväl internationell forskning samt Dahls demokratiteori och Festingers Selective Exposure Theory. Resultatet antyder att gymnasieeleverna har ett utpräglat nyhetsintresse och konsumerar nyheter i relativt stor utsträckning eftersom de betonar vikten av att vara välinformerad om det politiska och omvärlden. De plattformar som primärt selekteras för nyhetskonsumtion och informationssökning är digitala och sociala medier, även om vissa spår av traditionella medier kan skönjas. De slutsatser som dras är att majoriteten av gymnasieeleverna uppvisar tendenser av hög nyhetskonsumtion, utbredd diskussionsbenägenhet och ökad medvetenhet om det demokratiska medborgarskapets rättigheter och skyldigheter samt att digitala och sociala medier är betydelsefulla nyhetsförmedlare. Vidare dras även slutsatsen att samtliga elever ser sitt röstberättigande i fria och frekventa val som fundamentalt för effektivt deltagande och inkludering i den demokratiska processen. Implementering av nyhetsmedia i samhällskunskapsundervisningen kan även stimulera elevers värderingar och kunskaper om det politiska, vilket kan främja deras politiska intresse och nyhetskonsumtion.

Text in English / This study focuses on the strategies and devices used to create humour in children’s literature. No language is a replica of another language and it is generally accepted that a translator has to be creative in order to make the Source Text (ST) meaning available to the Target Text (TT) reader. The research conducted in this study aims to fill a gap regarding the application of humour in the rather under-researched field of children’s literature. A descriptive framework was used to conduct this qualitative study in order to be able to describe the linguistic strategies and devices used to translate the English source text by Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator into the Afrikaans Target Text, Charlie en die Groot Glashyser by Kobus Geldenhuys. Literary devices to create humour, employed by both the writer and the translator, were identified and analysed. Interviews and reading sessions with ST learners (English) as well as TT learners (Afrikaans) were conducted in order to observe their non-verbal reactions as well as document their verbal comments to complement the data obtained from the textual analysis. The textual analysis showed that the literary device most frequently applied in the ST was the simile and the main trend regarding the transference of humorous devices to the TT was to retain the device with formal equivalence. The most popular translation strategy was direct translation with the most important shifts identified on morphological and lexical level and shifts in expressive and evoked meaning were relatively low. With regard to the reading sessions, the most positive results from both groups of learners regarding humorous devices in the ST and TT were obtained for the device of inappropriate behaviour. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Linguistics)

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Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Few people realize exactly how complicated the translation of children’s poetry is. Translators do not only have to adhere to the young readers’ desires and satisfy the adult critics, but are constantly confronted with choices concerning the translation of the ‘play-element’ (structure) and the ‘visual element’ (content) of children’s verses, i.e. the translation of cultural elements, figurative language, pun, nonce words, onomatopoeia, alliteration, rhyme and meter. In addition, their translation strategies are continually subjective to and restricted by the visual text (illustrations) in the source texts, which interrelate with the verbal text (verses). In this descriptive, systematic analysis the Afrikaans and French translations of Mother Goose’s nursery rhymes, Dr. Seuss’s rhyming picture books and Roald Dahl’s verse fragments are compared to one another and the source texts in order to identify the various translation strategies and theoretical translation approaches used by the various Afrikaans and French translators, to make concrete observations about the translation of children’s poetry that can be useful for translators, and to establish if it is indeed possible to create translations of children’s verses that remain true to the ‘spirit’ of the original poetic texts, can function as autonomous texts in the target system, and that can supplement the Afrikaans and French children’s literature systems. __________________________________________________________________________ / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Min mense besef hóé ingewikkeld die vertaling van kinderverse eintlik is. Vertalers moet nie net tegelykertyd aan jong lesers se behoeftes voldoen en volwasse kritici tevrede stel nie, maar word ook deurgaans gekonfronteer met keuses wat betref die vertaling van die spel-element (struktuur) en visuele element (inhoud) van kinderverse, o.a. die vertaling van kultuurgebonde verwysings, beeldspraak, woordspel, neologisme, onomatopee, alliterasie, rym en metrum. Daarbenewens word die vertalers se vertaalstrategieë beïnvloed en beperk omdat die visuele teks (illustrasies) in die brontekste deurgaans met die verbale teks (verse) in gesprek tree. In dié deskriptiewe sisteemondersoek word die Afrikaanse en Franse vertalings van Moeder Gans se kinderrympies, Dr. Seuss se versverhale en Roald Dahl se prosimetriese kinderstories met mekaar en die brontekste vergelyk om die verskillende vertaalstrategieë en teoreties gefundeerde vertaalbenaderings wat deur die onderskeie Afrikaanse en Franse vertalers toegepas is, te identifiseer, konkrete bevindinge oor die vertaling van die kindervers te maak wat vir toekomstige vertalers van praktiese nut kan wees, en te bepaal of dit inderdaad moontlik is om vertalings van kinderverse te skep wat getrou bly aan die ‘gees’ van die oorspronklike gedigtekste, as selfstandige tekste in die doelsisteem kan funksioneer, en die Afrikaanse en Franse kinder- en jeugliteratuursisteme kan aanvul.

This Bachelor of Arts paper in Media and Communication Studies from Stockholm University examines the image of Russia in Sweden in 1986 and 1993. I studied the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 in Pripyat, Ukraine in the former Soviet Union and the crisis in the White house in Moscow in today’s Russia in 1993. The aim of this paper is to examine how the view on former Soviet Union and today’s Russia was portrayed in Sweden after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. I have analysed 20 articles from Dagens Nyheter (DN) and Svenska Dagbladet (SvD). I have used “framing” as a method for analysing the articles in relation to Swedish foreign politics and foreign journalism. My research questions are following: what kind of problems, identifying causes, moral judgements and improvements to solutions were found in the investigated articles? What differences, if any, were discovered between DN and SvD’s journalism?   The results of my study showed that DN focused on general news reporting regarding the Chernobyl disaster and Sweden’s critique to the Soviet Union and the poor maintenance of the nuclear power station in a larger extent than SvD. Sweden was the first country to reveal abroad that they had discovered nuclear radiation on Swedish soil. DN framed, among others, how the Soviet Union was incapable of solving the Chernobyl crises on their own. SvD focused on how Sweden was affected by the Chernobyl disaster and the nuclear radiation. SvD framed how the Soviet Union kept quiet during the aftermath and how the Soviets tried to “conceal” information. Both DN and SvD framed the Soviet Union as “unpredictable”. After the crisis in the White house in Moscow DN and SvD were milder in their criticism towards Russia since there was a political and journalistic hope in Sweden that Russia would become a democratic country. Swedish foreign correspondents could therefore in 1993 create their own image of Russia since the Swedish foreign policy was not as clear after the events in Moscow in 1993 as they were after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Both newspapers focused on how Boris Yeltsin struggled to solve the crisis and Russia was now torn between the nostalgic Soviet communism and a new democratic Russia. DN and SvD received continually information about the events taking place in Moscow and reported how Russia was torn between a new tsar Russia/a new Soviet Union and a democratic Russia.

Hypertension is the number one cause of death worldwide. Low-grade inflammation has been identified as one of the mechanisms contributing to blood pressure elevation and remodeling of the vasculature in hypertension. Mechanisms involved in vascular inflammation and hypertension remain elusive. Vasoactive peptides such as endothelin-1 (ET-1) and angiotensin II (Ang II), oxidative stress and infiltration of immune cells are increased in cardiovascular tissues of hypertensive individuals. Since the vasculature is a major regulator of blood pressure levels, the hypothesis has been proposed that vascular inflammatory responses contribute to development of hypertension. / Objectives of this thesis were 1) to investigate the role of T cells in development of vascular inflammation observed in genetically hypertensive rats, 2) to identify vascular sources of reactive oxygen species production in mineralocorticoid-induced hypertension and 3) to study the effect of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-gamma activators on vascular pro-inflammatory signaling pathways in Ang II-induced hypertension. / The first study that is part of this thesis shows that the transfer of chromosome 2 from normotensive to hypertensive rats reduces plasma levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, expression of adhesion molecules and infiltration of T cells in aorta as well as resulting in lower blood pressure levels. These effects are accompanied by increased regulatory T cell mediators. We discovered that regulatory T cells are regulated by chromosome 2 and may be responsible for reducing inflammatory responses in hypertensive rats. / The second study of this thesis demonstrates in DOCA-salt hypertensive rats that superoxide (·O2-) production originates in part from xanthine oxidase activity induced by the ET-1 system and from mitochondrial sources, particularly complex II of the respiratory chain. We thus have uncovered two sources of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that can stimulate inflammatory responses in hypertension, since vascular ·O 2- production in this model was shown to induce vascular inflammation. / The third study of the thesis shows that activators of PPAR-gamma reduce blood pressure levels and signaling pathways including Akt/PKB, SHIP2, ERK1/2, 4E-BP1 in aorta and resistance arteries in Ang II-induced hypertension. PPARy acts as an anti-inflammatory transcription factor, and the present study suggests that Ang II down-regulates PPAR-gamma activity to exert its pro-inflammatory effects. / In conclusion, by targeting inflammatory mediators, it may be possible to reduce blood pressure levels in hypertensive animals. This suggests that inflammatory responses may play a crucial role in development of high blood pressure.

The purpose of this thesis is to study the level of democracy within the European Union (EU). To do so the following issues were examined: How the EU works and the efforts it has made to improve levels of democracy; and the degree to which the EU fulfils the criteria set by Robert Dahl in his theory of polyarchy. The study is based on a qualitative text analysis. The focus of the analysis is documents released by the EU that can be connected to democracy, and human and fundamental rights. The theory of polyarchy proposed by Robert Dahl and Joseph Schumpeter’s theory of democracy are the principal theories applied. The thesis also includes theories about democracy within the EU prior to this study. The result and conclusion after studying the documents in the light of the theories of Dahl and Schumpeter suggest that the EU could be more democratic than it is at present. The movement towards becoming more democratic is in progress but needs more time. The fundamental criterion, i.e. that citizens should to be able to choose the holders of a particular position, is weak in the EU because there are only general elections to the European Parliament, which is just one of the three main institutions.

This essay seeks to explore to what extent Palestine can be described as a democracy. It uses political theorist Robert A. Dahl's model of Polyarchy, as laid out in his book Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition, as theoretical framework, giving an account of Dahl's eight requirements for democracy, as well as his theoretical scale divided into the two dimensions liberalization and participation which allows one to determine how far a country has come in the process of democratization. A case study of Palestine is then conducted by comparing the polyarchic model with empirical findings, the central source being Freedom House. The conclusion is reached that Palestine is lacking in a number of key requirements for democracy, resulting in the classification of both the Gaza Strip as well as the West Bank as being best described as inclusive hegemonies, or near-inclusive hegemonies.

This essay aims to explore the difference in the political system between the Ukrainian regime in the period 2010-2014 and the regime that emerged out of the euromaidan protests in 2014. Through this the essay will determine if there has been any democratical progress between both of the timelines and if any of the periods achieved the status of democracy. Democracy is defined as polyarchy which gives a clear structure to study both periods and compare them to the criteria’s that this type of democracy offers. The areas that will be studied are: Free and Fair Elections, Universal Suffrage, Elected Representatives, the Right to Candidate in Elections, the Right to Organize, Freedom of Speech and Alternative Sources of Information. The essay is a Theory Consuming Case Study with both descriptive questions and a descriptive approach to answer the questions. The framework that is used to analyze the information is of a qualitative nature. This essay concludes that both periods have had large democratic problems. Although the problems for both periods differ, in the first problem there are several events with rigged elections, crime against journalists and restraints of freedom of speech. The second period saw several improvements in several areas but issues with universal suffrage emerged. This caused both periods to not being able to fulfill the criteria’s of polyarchy which, in this study, is the benchmark for a democracy. Instead, both periods achieved the criteria’s for a hybrid regime which in many ways are equivalent of a flawed democracy.