Den här uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka hur kommunal samverkan med det lokala näringslivet utformas utifrån teorier kring governance, policynätverk samt public-private partnerships. Detta genomförs utifrån en fallstudie av projektet ”Växtkraft och företagarutveckling” som är en del av den ekonomiska föreningen Växtkraft Kinda. I uppsatsen undersöks faktorer som gemensamma mål, resursutbyte, ömsesidigt beroende samt förtroende och vilken betydelse dessa har för samverkan. Dessutom granskas hur kontakterna mellan aktörerna är utformade samt vilken betydelse inflytande och konkurrens har i samarbetet. I uppsatsen kommer jag fram till att det existerar gemensamt formulerade mål även om de till viss del varierar mellan aktörerna. De resurser som utbyts är förutom de ekonomiska även tid, kunskap, kontakter samt lokaler. Kommunens representanter menar att resursutbytet främst sker i informella miljöer medan näringslivsrepresentanterna anser att resursutbytet äger rum i formella miljöer. Tre av de fem intervjuade anser att det finns ett ömsesidigt beroende mellan kommun och näringsliv samt att det är en omständighet som verkar som en drivande- och positiv kraft i samarbetet. Samtliga intervjuade uppger att förtroende är en viktig komponent i projektet men förtroendet är något mindre bland näringslivsrepresentanterna. De intervjuade uppger även att det finns en viss konkurrens mellan aktörerna inom projektet men att samarbete dominerar. Det finns dock vissa skillnader mellan kommunens och det lokala näringslivets uppfattningar om samarbetet. Kommunens representanter beskriver samarbetet i formella termer medan näringslivsrepresentanterna anser att det skall betraktas som en formell organisation. Dessutom menar kommunen att aktörernas inflytande beror på engagemang och kompetens medan näringslivet anser att storlek och position är avgörande faktorer.

This thesis takes a closer look at the USA Patriot Act and the literary debate that has followed the passing of that Act. The aim of the thesis is to define what freedom is for the two opposing sides using McCallum's freedom model. The literary analysis shows that the most common argument from authors who are pro Act is that in desperate times like these one must relinquish a part of the individual's freedom to ensure the safety of the collective. Amongst those authors who are against the Act concerns are raised for the possibilities of abuse as a result of increased government power such as the ability to detain immigrants for long periods of time, surveillance and increased exchange of information between federal agencies.

Barn utgör idag en femtedel av Sveriges befolkning men står likväl utan rösträtt. Denna studie undersöker på vilka grunder vi kan utesluta personer från demos, dvs. det styrande folket i demokratin, och vilka konsekvenser det får för åldersstrecket, vårt sista rösträttsstreck.   Studien utförs från tre perspektiv; empiriskt (är), normativt (bör vara), och konstruktivt (kan vara). Som material används dels rösträttshistorik och offentligt tryck, dels böcker, artiklar och andra resonemang om demokratins utformning. I den empiriska genomgången ser vi hur rösträtten gradvis utvecklats från 1866, från att först innefatta en mängd spärrar mot deltagande till att idag endast avgränsas med åldersstrecket. Dessutom ser vi hur åldersstrecket förändrats och var debatten i rösträttsfrågan står idag. Den normativa analysen presenterar sedan en modifierad princip för demos omfattning och diskuterar alternativ till åldersstrecket samt enligt vilka principer det bör utformas. Avslutningsvis föreslås i det konstruktiva kapitlet en sänkt åldersgräns med en tydlig koppling till kompetens. Studien diskuterar även möjligheten att införa ett frivilligt kompetensprov för att kompetenta barn under åldersgränsen ska kunna få rösträtt tidigare.

Den 13 december 2007 undertecknades ett nytt EU-fördrag i Portugals huvudstad Lissabon. Detta fördrag, kallat Lissabonfördraget, utgör en reviderad form av den EU-konstitution som inte blev godkänd vid folkomröstningar i Frankrike och Nederländerna 2005. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka vilka förändringar som skett under omarbetningen från EUkonstitutionen till Lissabonfördraget. Vidare har uppsatsen för avsikt att förklara de bakomliggande motiven till dessa förändringar ur två olika identitetsperspektiv. Frågorna som initialt fångade vårt intresse var; Varför fick EU dra tillbaka den tilltänkta grundlagen? Hur omfattande var egentligen förändringarna mellan EU-konstitutionen till Lissabonfördraget? Och slutligen, finns det någon europeisk identitet? / On the 13th of December 2007, a new EU-treaty was signed in Portugal’s capital, Lisbon. This treaty, known as the Treaty of Lisbon, is a revised form of the old European Constitution that was turned down in referendums in France and The Netherlands in 2005. Our aim with this thesis is to examine the changes during the revision from the European Constitution to the Treaty of Lisbon. Furthermore in this thesis we have the intention to explain the underlying motives from two perspectives of identity. The questions that initially captured our interest were; Why did the EU pull back from the European Constitution? How comprehensive are the changes from the European Constitution to the Treaty of Lisbon? And finally, is there any such thing as European identity?

The Westsaharian women are a civic group that during their soon to be thirty years as refugees in the Westsaharian camps in south western Algeria have become empowered as citizens and advanced strongly in political representation. In theory, empowerment of women’s democratic citizenship has been described as a complex phenomenon. To gain an understanding about this in this study, I have described the women’s perceived access to resources and attitudes, and in what way these factors play a role for their active citizenship. This has been done by the use of Axel Hadenius’ theory about the democratic citizenship and Jo Rowlands’ theory about which resources that are to be considered as essential for women’s empowerment. To be able to perform the study, a case study was performed in the Westsaharian refugee camps during April-May 2004, followed up by a second during October-November 2004. The study shows that there are resources and attitudes within both human and social capital that the women perceive to play a significant role for their active citizenship. These factors make the women take part in societal activities, strive to reach higher political positions, and work for a common civic development as women and as Westsaharian citizens. The result of the study further shows that there are contextual inhibiting and encouraging factors that the women perceive to affect their resources and attitudes that play a significant role for their active citizenship.

Uganda and Tanzania are two countries severely affected by HIV/AIDS. Hence, there are a numbers of associations for PLHA there. In "Global transformations. Politics, economics and culture", Held, Mc Greew, Goldblatt and Perrton focuses None Governmental Organizations as important actors in the globalized world of today, with increased opportunities to influence and affect the politics. The aim of this paper is to investigate the opportunities for associations for PLHA in Tanzania and Uganda to affect in the national level of politics. The study wants to elucidate the relation between the state/government/authorities and the civil society/associations/NGO:s.This has been done threw investigations of associations of PLHA in Tanzania and Uganda, their characters, objectives and opportunities to affect the HIV/AIDS politics in each country. I have been trying a hypothesis which have claimed that these organizations has not played a political role, meaning that they have affected the politically decision makings concerning HIV/AIDS. The empirical material has mainly been collected threw questionnaires to the selected organizations. It has not been possible to appoint the hypothesis, neither to reject it. There are some indications pointing on its validity. In an summarized assessment, the Ugandan organizations are more politically than the Tanzanian organizations, but probably not in a way that have affected the parlamentarically decision processes concerning HIV/AIDS, as the hypothesis intended. A opposite dependence has not been possible to eliminate: That the character and focus of the associations for PLHA in Tanzania and Uganda is a result of the countries differences in dealing with the problem of HIV/AIDS.

Symbols in the hands of politicians can be a powerful tool of manipulation. The usage of symbols in speeches or texts can change a person’s will, without him or her ever knowing it. We have compared the usage of symbols in the articles surrounding the ratification of the constitution in 18th century America with that of today’s European Union, to see if any similarities between these two cases exists, and what implications this could have for the future of the EU. We have divided the symbols in both cases into different categories so as to enable us to compare the cases to each other. With the help of Masters Theory and the writings of Benedict Anderson and Murray Edelman we have concluded that there indeed exist some similarities between 18th century America and the EU. There seem have been some manipulation on the part of the politicians in order to rebuild the respective unions on more solid foundations. Could the European Union, on the basis of these findings, be assumed to take a course comparable with that of 18th century America?

The findings in this case study are mainly based on material collected during a field trip with a fellow student to Laos in February-March 2005, which was sponsored by Sida through a Minor Field Study scholarship. The original interest was to study a political aid project (Governance and Administrative Reform Project Luang Prabang, GPAR LP) in a country like Laos with very complex preconditions such as one-party polity. In Laos my interest in evaluation of political aid grew mainly because I found out that the two donors in the project, Sida and the UNDP, had reached different conclusions in their respective evaluations of the project. The main interest in this thesis has been to study how donors have evaluated a political aid project. The study shows that Sida and UNDP used, what in the literature usually is referred to as, Conventional evaluation as methodology when they conducted their evaluations of GPAR LP. The study also shows that the main reason for the different points of view that are expressed in the evaluations depend on a lack of dialogue and consensus, regarding for the project crucial concepts, rather than choice of evaluation methodology. This lack of mutual understanding between the agencies also has implications for the possibilities of the receiving part to create a better understanding and ownership of the project. If Sida and UNDP had chosen to do a mutual evaluation a lot could have been won in the form of time, money and less irritation between the involved parties. The study finally shows that a different choice of evaluation methodology, in this case Participatory evaluation, could have had some positive effects mostly due to its supposedly democratic methods which are in line with the goals of the GPAR LP- project. One example here is the use of studies of the political context which would have been useful in this case. Another example is that the methodology could be useful to create a better understanding and ownership of the project through its participatory methods.

The aim of this paper is to describe, visualise- and analyse media’s discursive representations of female politicians in Swedish printed media. The focus of the analysis is to show if, and how these images can be understood and interpreted in terms of a socially constructed gender stereotyped suborder. The paper takes it's theoretical and methodological departure in the discourse analysis, which is combined with feminist political theory. Feminist political theory is concretised in the use of what Yvonne Hirdman calls the "gender system" which arranges the sexes into their respective genders and is based upon two rules/principles/logics: 1) the rule of distinctive separation, and 2) the male norm. Closely related to the aim of the paper lies also the critical theoretic assumption that people has to be aware of their own part in the production and reproduction of the discourse in order to change make a change. Language is perceived as intimately tied to power in that language defines and gives the reality meaning. Media is therefore, by it's presence in all Swedish homes perceived as channel for the exercise of power through it's discourse. Drawing on 20 articles from different newspapers and magazines, the results of this paper shows, through the use of discourse analysis, that female politicians are portrayed as politicians and women. The analysis concludes that media's image of the female politician rests on gender stereotypes which as a consequent reduces the female politician to her biological gender and therefore gives her, in comparison with her male counterpart a lower hierarchic position.

In this research paper I have interpreted and analysed how it is possible for a Radical Right Populist Party such as FPÖ (The Freedom Party) to obtain electoral success in the end of the last millennium. In 1999 they were elected into the national legislative parliament with 26.9% of the votes and participated in the Shüssel government from February 2000. I believe this is an extreme case study and my method is the so called Disciplined-configurative case study. I’ve conducted this study by using earlier published research and than dividing these old theories into to three analytical categories. By doing this I hopefully came closer to understand the problem with FPÖ: s electoral success in a better way than before. The interpretation of the data was enabled by a structural theory-method and my findings were that the FPÖ used the rapid and macro-societal changes in an effective way by mobilising a great share of some strata that to some extent were of a cross-class nature in the Austrian electorate 1999. This was possible as a consequence of bad management by the conventional political parties (SPÖ, ÖVP) and their party-functionaries. Other findings were that the electorate system is crucial for the success of Radical Right Populist Partiers such as FPÖ and that the Austrian party system was a match with its low threshold for parliamentary representation and its proportional electoral system. Key words: Radical Right Populist Parties, FPÖ, Austrian domestic politics