The purpose of this study is to investigate why democracy has failed in Syria and which democratic theories that is appropriate to stop the starvation and misery in Syria. The country has been ruled by the Baath Party and the al-Assad family during four decades. The opposition could not create a common platform and they had lack of mutual trust, and no popular support. The weakness divided opposition because there are many ideologies, various ethnic and religious groups. The main theme of this study is democracy. I examine democracy from two theorists, Dahl and Putnam. I have investigated which of Dahl's democratic criteria can fulfill Syria and Putnam’s concept of social capital can explain and support Dahl's democratic criteria. Democracy is not just to remove a tyranny and by that I have investigated if there are weaknesses in the theory or difficult for people to apply the theory in reality if democracy fails. My thesis is a case study thus I see Syria as a unique case. The results have revealed that Dahl's theory for democracy is difficult to implement in Syria. There are no conditions for Dahl's theory.  Putnam's social capital revealed that there is a threat to democracy in Syria. The norms and social networks in Putnam theory can support tribal and minority. But in Syria there are the numbers of minorities and with this theory can hate and conflict increase between groups .That can create nationalism values. The results also have revealed that people do not have the will to democracy.

” Does Karlstad municipality have adequate institutional conditions to make the best use of the citizens’ proposals?” The purpose with the thesis is to investigate if citizens’ proposals lead to a broader political influence. To answer that, I have done a case study about how Karlstad municipal administers citizens’ proposals. The research assignment is: Does Karlstad municipal have adequate institutional conditions to make the best use of the citizens’ proposals? The perspective is a democracy perspective and the theory is institutional theory and policy process theory. A selection of citizens’ proposals that have arrived to Karlstad municipal between 2008 and 2010 have been studied in detail to analyze how the proposals have been administered and if it matters how the proposals are phrased. I have also studied statistics from the period between 2008 and 2010 and interviewed four civil servants that work with citizens’ proposals. Two of them work at a superseding level and two of them work at an administration. The result of the study is that citizens’ proposals can lead to a broader political influence and that Karlstad municipal has adequate institutional conditions to make the best use of the citizens’ proposals. The regulation is drawn up to make sure the proposals have to be considered by the respective administration boards and the basic data that the politicians have to base their decisions upon is thoroughly enough for them to make a well-founded decision.

In my paper I have examined the United Nations role in the democratization of Kosovo. In order to complete this purpose I have asked two questions • How has the UN contributed to the democratization of Kosovo that has taken place so far? • What advantages and/or disadvantages has the UN presence in Kosovo had from a democratic perspective? The method I have used in my paper is a qualitative one, and more specified a qualitative text analysis. This means that I have examined a rather small number of sources, but in return I have analyzed these sources very carefully. In addition to the choice of a qualitative method I have used Robert A. Dahl’s theory about polyarcy as a definition of democracy. The results from my analysis are that the UN has done some work in favour of the democratization of Kosovo, but the UN has also acted in a way which restrains democratization of Kosovo in many ways. The main reason why the UN hinders the democratization of Kosovo is it’s unwillingness to let go of its power over the region to the local officials.

ABSTRACT Essay in Political Science, Advanced Continuation Course, 61-80 credits, by Jonas Nilsson ”The democratic islamist? - a study of three islamist movements and their potential role in a democratization process” Supervisor: Jonas Linde The purpose of this work has been to explain to what extent islamist movements can be said to be bearers of democratic values and if they have a role to play in future democratization processes. The purpose of this work is also to examine the democratic views of the different islamist movements and to compare them with each other in an effort to find a specific islamist definition of democracy. The essay is a qualitative analysis of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Front Islamique du Salut in Algeria and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The analytical framework is based on the political institutions included in Robert A. Dahl polyarchial democracy. The institutions provided by the polyarchial model is used to define the islamist movements stand on democracy which is defined by three different standpoints. The movements can either accept, decline or modify the various institutions and the results from the analysis helps us to evaluate the future role of islamist movements in the democratization process. The results also provides the opportunity to define a version of democracy specific for the islamist movements. The conclusion I have made is that the islamist movements included in the study have a part to play in a future democratization process. They have shown that their commitment to the democratic ideals defined by Dahl is quite extensive and that they as separate movements have developed a more advanced view of the relationship between islam and democracy as a social order. Though democratic at first glance there are signs that the islamists standpoint on democracy comes with certain reservations. The most significant of these reservarvations is the islamists regard of islam as an overarching ideology and the subordinate role of man made political systems such as democracy. However, the islamists have found ways to handle this problem and points out the inherent democratic values in islam and thereby tries to circumvent the problematic relationship between democracy and religion. The study also concludes that we can define the islamist version of democracy as a specific form of democracy, a value-based participatory democracy. This conclusion is based on the islamist emphasis on the importance of ethics, decency and virtue in a society, at the same time as they also emphasize the need for legitimacy provided by the people through free, fair and frequent elections.

This thesis was written with the aim of studyingthe volksdeutsche minority in Danish Sleswick-Holsatia (dan.“Sønderjylland”). The author has been using theories from Robert Dahl (amongother prominent political scientists) regarding minority activities in amajority society to measure inclusion of this minority. The thesis is a casestudy on a macro-political level. The result of this study was that thevolksdeutsche minority is indeed well integrated in the contemporary Danishsociety albeit with a strong German identity. Politically, the volksdeutscheminority is represented by their party, the Schleswigsche Partei,which enjoys a good relation with the Danish administration and is representedin Copenhagen by a secretariat. The phenomenon ofhaving two ethno-cultural identities appears to be an elite phenomenon in thisregion but the author welcomes a sociological study regarding identities in Sleswick-Holsatiaas well as a study concerning the volksdeutsche minority´s economic statusin Denmark.

I föreliggande studie har en metod för utvärdering av vinkelmätningsosäkerheten hos en terrester laserskanner (TLS) tagits fram. Metoden för mätning och beräkning av vinkelmätningsosäkerheten är till stor del baserad på både ISO:s standard för test av en teodolit och en doktorsavhandling där vinkelmätningen hos en TLS undersöks. FARO Focus3D är en TLS som ägs och brukas av konsultföretaget Tyréns AB. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att utvärdera vinkelmätningsosäkerheten hos Tyréns TLS. Det finns inget skrivet i specifikationerna för FARO Focus3D om vinkelmätningsosäkerheten och eftersom vinkelmätningen har stor påverkan på resultatet så är det viktigt att utvärdera dess osäkerhet. TLS är det enda geodetiska mätinstrument som saknar ISO-standard för kontroll. Vinkelmätningsosäkerheten har analyserats i förhållande till medelvärde och referensvärde. Referensvärdena bestämdes med en totalstation. Två olika mätsituationer med TLS utfördes. I den första skannades fyra koordinatbestämda sfärer som låg på ungefär samma höjd som TLS och placerade jämt spridda runt instrumentet i horisontalled. I den andra situationen skannades fyra svartvita signaler placerade på en vägg med en vertikal spridning på ca 30°. Centrumpunkterna på sfärer och svartvita signaler bestämdes med programvaran Scene och dess koordinater bestämdes i TLS koordinatsystem. Både horisontella riktningar och vertikala vinklar beräknades från koordinaterna, och utifrån dem beräknades vinkelmätningsosäkerheten. Standardosäkerheten för de horisontella riktningarna beräknades till 0.002° och för de vertikala vinklarna 0.001°. I förhållande till referensvärde beräknades osäkerheten i de horisontella riktningarna till 0.015° och i de vertikala vinklarna beräknades osäkerheten till 0.026°. Vid beräkning av osäkerheten i förhållande till referensvärdena så visade det sig att det finns systematiska fel i skannern som antagligen beror på att kompensatorn inte fungerar korrekt. Den metod som använts i studien har visat sig fungera bra för utvärdering av vinkelmätningsosäkerheten hos en TLS, och den är dessutom relativt okomplicerad att utföra.

Uppsatsen undersöker Statens informationsstyrelses fyra sammanställningar av folkberedskapens orts- och länsombuds årliga rapporter 1941-1944. Syftet är att ta reda på mer om vilken roll icke-statliga organisationer hade för roll i det kulturella folkberedskapsarbetet på lokal nivå runt omkring i Sverige under beredskapstiden. Genom kvalitativ textanalys lyfter studien fram vilka kopplingar Folkberedskapen (SIS) hade till icke-statliga organisationer och vilken verksamhet av folkberedskapskaraktär dessa organisationer bedrev. Resultatet visar att de redan etablerade icke-statliga organisationerna hade en mycket omfattande och tämligen autonom roll i arbetet.

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Uppsatsen undersöker feministisk argumentation i två artiklar publicerade av Expressen. Syftet har varit att ta reda på hur diskussionen om ett slags normerande feministisk kvinnlighet tar form. Analysen är uppdelad i två delar: i den första används Lloyd Bitzers teori om den retoriska situationen samt en pragmadialektisk teori och metod. Den information som utvinns i analysens första del kontextualiseras sedan med hjälp av olika genusvetenskapliga ingångar.  I den första delen skisseras argumentationens utgångspunkter och sedan dess argumentationsstruktur. I analysens andra del knyts den ena artikelförfattarens argumentation till en radikalfeministisk tradition, och den andra till en mer postmodern feministisk hållning. Argumentationsstrukturen var till stor nytta för att identifiera hur den första artikelförfattaren räknar upp flera egenskaper som ett kvinnligt subjekt inte kan inneha om hon ska erhålla rätten att kalla sig för feminist. Uppsatsen diskuterar sedan feministers möjligheter att skava, göra fel, och på så sätt tänja gränserna för vad som anses vara respektabelt. Också möjligheter för en bredare feminism som kan inkludera fler och en eventuell dekonstruktion av begreppet feminism är ämnen som uppsatsen argumenterar för. Slutligen resoneras kring de faktorer som samverkar för att skapa normer som både inkluderar och exkluderar kvinnliga subjekt.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of Iowa, 1964. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 373-380).