Den här vetenskapliga essän utforskar hur skönlitteratur kan bidra till bibliotekariers kompetensutveckling när det gäller läsfrämjande och demokratiutveckling. Essän visar att det parallellt existerar olika förståelser av vad läsning och skönlitteratur är. Läs- och litteratursyn påverkas av sammanhang och är ständigt föränderlig. Essän kommer fram till att närbibliotekarier arbetar läsfrämjande är det viktigt artikulera vilken läs- och litteratursyn en utgår från.Essän utgår från ett boksamtal som några bibliotekarier har om romanen Brun flicka drömmer. Boksamtalet ingick i en kompetensutvecklingssatsning. I reflektionerna om boksamtalet stiger det fram att skönlitteratur erbjuder nya ingångar och perspektiv att diskutera läsning, skönlitteratur, inkludering och rasism som är några av bokens teman. Brun flicka drömmer erbjuder en plats för samtal som är icke-hierarkiska och där känslor och sinnesintryck får ta plats. Essän kommer fram till, genom att vända sig till Jonna Bornemark, att skönlitteratur kan främja bibliotekariers professionella omdömen. Essän visar att skönlitteratur kan bidra till aktivt lyssnande och uppmärksamhet, vilket kan leda till frågor om vilken värld vi vill ha och vilken värld vi kan föreställa oss.Essän diskuterar positionerna boksamtalets deltagare har till varandra genom Paolo Freires tankar om pedagogik och dialog. Texter av Toril Moi och Elisabeth Hjorth ger perspektiv på samhället, människor, läsning och litteratur, samt relationer dem emellan. Citat från Brun flicka drömmer vävs in i essän för att visa hur romanen är en vän, en samtalspartner, en kunskapskälla och en utgångspunkt för reflektion. Essän cirkulerar kring frågorna vad vi egentligen ska ha skönlitteratur till och varför vi ska läsa skönlitteratur.

Rätten till politisk delaktighet är en central kärna i MR-perspektivet. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om medborgardialog, initierade av kommuner, bidrar till främjandet av politisk delaktighet och inkludering av utrikes födda kvinnor. Med avstamp från den deliberativa demokratimodellen och med hjälp av centrala begrepp såsom deltagande, politisk jämlikhet och grupprepresentation så har studien på övergripande plan kunnat undersöka hur svenska kommuner tillämpar medborgardialog och i vilken utsträckning kvinnor blir inkluderade respektive exkluderade. Efter att ha undersökt tre olika kommuner med högst andel utrikes födda kvinnor så visar resultatet på att medborgardialog är ett effektivt instrument för att främja politisk delaktighet i en svensk kontext. Kommunernas fortsatta arbete med att utveckla medborgardialogerna är därför av största vikt och i synnerhet genom att utveckla riktlinjer explicit för att inkludera utrikes födda kvinnor.

Today, Ghana is one of Africa’s most stable democracies. According to Larry Diamond an emerging democracy can be broken down to seven factors, each of which crucial in whether a legitimate democracy will be successful. By applying Diamonds theory on empirical information treating Ghana’s history and its inhabitant’s attitudes towards democracy (measured by surveys), this thesis aim was to examine two separate eras in Ghana’s democratic development to: 1. Understand the factors that completed Ghana’s transition into a democracy, 2. Distinguish a difference in attitude and/or in freedom of press when comparing the two periods and 3. Consider if there is a recent negative trend concerning the freedom of press and public attitudes that might affect Ghana’s democratic future. The two periods assessed were 2000-2005 and 2006-to date. Results found that factors important for a healthy democratic development all in all have been positive in Ghana during these periods with, at times, some reservation for a tendency towards corruption and censor. Some variation in terms of attitudes and/or freedom of press was found when comparing the periods, most significantly towards the end of the second period where a slight decline was noted. Conclusively no major threat to Ghana’s democratic future was predicted.

” 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.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate to what extent municipalities in Sweden use democratic innovations to include citizens in the decision making process. Along there are three research questions: • What different forms of democracy innovations are Swedish municipalities applying in order to increase the civic participation between elections and what forms are dominant? • What potential influence in decision-making are citizens getting through these democratic innovations based on the results? • Based on the results – in what ways is the democracy innovations used in municipalities challenging representative democracy?   The method used to fulfill the purpose and answer the research questions is a web survey including 287 of 290 (in total) municipal websites. The theoretic framework includes a model which is called “Smith’s ladder of participation” and is influenced by the research of Graham Smith and Sherry Arnstein. The ladder illustrates four categories of democratic innovations together with the potential influence by citizens in the decision making process. This model later serves as guideline in conducting the web survey and is used to present and in analyzing the result along with democratic theories.   The results in this study show that the innovations used by municipalities to include citizens in the decision making process is concentrated to the lowest level in the participation ladder and the consultative innovations is by far the most common forms of participation in which citizens can influence the decision-making between elections. This means that citizens mainly acts as respondents in the decision making process in general and according to the results in this study it seems to be rather few municipalities who offer their residents opportunities in terms of decision making. The lack of innovations found in the highest level in the participation ladder suggests that representative democratic isn´t challenged in a way where elected representatives delegates power in decision making to citizens.

This study aims to investigate the democracy development i Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since 1995, when the Dayton Peace Agreement was signed, Bosnia has been undergoing an democratization, but despite that the country is still year 2017 classified as ”partly free”. In this study the democracy-enhancing factors: civil society and the political system are being related to the Dayton Peace Agreement and are tested against liberal democratic values and Consociational Democracy theory. This study is a qualitative case study and following questions are being looked into:   -       Which factors within the civil society and political system limit the democracy development in Bosnia and Herzegovina? -       To what extent does the Dayton Peace Agreement limit Bosnia and Herzegovina’s democracy development? -       To what extent is Bosnia and Herzegovina an Consociational Democracy?   The fact that Bosnia has a divided and multiethnic society puts a foundational ground for a possible consolidated consociational democracy. Furthermore, the functions of the civil society, political system and the Dayton Peace Agreement are being discussed and the shortcomings of each are being highlighted. The results of this study indicate that Bosnia’s long democratization development is primarly based on the unwillingness to cooperation between the three constitutional groups, the exclusion of minority groups and the Dayton Peace Agreement’s regulations on a political system that is not sustainable for a stable democratic state.