All Norwegian regions are represented with permanent offices and are engaged in different activities in the EU capital. This thesis investigates the regional and network level of EU policy-making, and asks the questions of what Norwegian regions are doing in Brussels; if are they are able to influence EU policy; and what effect participation in transnational policy networks have on their abilities to influence EU policy. To answer this, it applies a theoretical framework comprised of multi-level governance and the policy network approach to conduct an analysis of empirical data collected through interviews with different actors in Brussels. The present thesis argues that participation in transnational policy networks improve Norwegian regions' abilities to influence EU policy through being 'representations of scale'.

Forskningen om lobbyism i Sverige har hittills i huvudsak fokuserat på riksdagen. I den här uppsatsen undersöks lobbyism på kommunal nivå utifrån ett mottagarperspektiv med fokus på beslutsfattare och deras erfarenheter av lobbyism. Syftet är att belysa hur beslutsfattare i svenska kommunfullmäktige uppfattar att lobbyism går till i sina egna kommuner. Studiens utgångspunkt utgörs av lobbyismens relation till demokrati och i den kvalitativt genomförda undersökningen används en analysram baserad på tre värden för demokratisk lobbyism, benämnda transparens, jämlikhet och etik. Empirin har samlats in genom intervjuer med åtta kommunala fullmäktigeledamöter. Resultaten visar att beslutsfattarna upplever att lobbyism inte alls förekommer i de egna kommunerna, eftersom de har en allmän bild av lobbyism som inte överensstämmer med hur de ser på de påverkansförsök som riktas mot dem i det politiska arbetet. Resultaten visar även att politikerna uppfattar beslutsprocesserna som öppna för insyn och lika tillgängliga för medborgarna. De uppfattar också att de olika intressenter som hör av sig i påverkanssyfte förser dem med sanningsenlig information. Samtidigt finner vi att den typ av påverkan som beslutsfattarna anser faktiskt förekommer i kommunen inte fullt ut når upp till teoretiska krav på transparens, jämlikhet och etik, eftersom en del intressenter till viss del verkar ha större möjlighet till inflytande. / The impact of lobbyist activities on political decision-making has been studied in Sweden mostly on a presumption that these matters take place on a national level. This paper examines lobbyist activities in the local political processes with a perspective from the recipients point-of-view, namely the decision-makers and their experiences from lobbyist influences. The purpose of the study is to illustrate how decision makers in swedish municipal councils perceive lobbying in their own municipalities. In order to investigate the possible implications of these affairs we have conducted a qualitative research, looking into the democratic aspects of lobbying. For this purpose, we have built a theoretical framework based on three core values of democratic lobbying: transparency, equality and ethics. The empirical data has been collected from interviews with eight members of municipal councils. Our main findings show that the decision-makers deny the occurence of lobbying activities in their own municipalities, as they have a general idea of lobbying that is inconsistent with the kind of attempted influence they actually face in their role as politicians. Further findings reveal that politicians perceive the decision-making process as transparent and as equally accessible to citizens. They also perceive that stakeholders provide them with truthful information. In contrast, we find that the kind of influence that decision-makers believe actually occur in the municipality does not fulfill the theoretical requirements for transparency, equality and ethics, as certain stakeholders to some extent seem to have a greater opportunity to influence.

De senaste decennierna har Sverige gått från en stat med starka inslag av korporativism till ett styrelseskick med pluralistisk prägel. Utvecklingen har inneburit en arena för nya påverkansformer och med den en ny yrkeskategori. Samtidigt som arbetet med att påverka statsmakten utifrån har ökat, finns det fortfarande begränsad kunskap om hur det arbetet bedrivs.  I denna studie används Hugh Heclos begrepp ‘policyprofessionella’ för förstå denna nya arena och dess aktörer. 2015 uppskattades antalet verksamma policyprofessionella till mellan 2000 och 2500 personer. Denna studie undersöker och analyserar en avgränsad del av denna grupp genom deras egen syn på sin roll i det nutida demokratiska systemet. Utgångspunkter i frågeställningen är makt, demokrati och legitimitet. Studien genomförs genom sex semistrukturerade intervjuer baserade på ett målinriktat urval av policyprofessionella konsulter.  Med hjälp av Steven Lukes tre maktdimensioner som teoretiskt ramverk framkommer tre primära slutsatser. Den första är den rörande oklarheterna kring de policyprofessionella konsulternas arbete och identitet. Varken den statsvetenskapliga forskningen eller konsulterna själva verkar veta vad de ska kalla sig. Den andra är den om konsulternas uppdragsgivare och vad deras arbete utgörs av. Studien visar på en viktig distinktion mellan att arbeta mot politiker och för dem. Detta aktualiserar vidare frågor om partipolitikens representativitet. Den tredje slutsatsen rör svårigheten av ansvarsutkrävande från gruppen.

Die Darstellung der Beschäftigungswirkungen des Luftverkehrs spielt im politischen Leben in vielen westlichen Industrieländern eine große Rolle. Verbände der Luftverkehrswirtschaft versuchen, mit Gutachten die Bedeutung ihrer Branche für Wachstum und Beschäftigung zu untermauern. Viele dieser Gutachten halten keinen wissenschaftlichen Ansprüchen stand. Bereits 1992 hatte in den USA die amerikanische Luftverkehrsbehörde FAA die Qualitätsprobleme solcher Gutachten erkannt und bemängelt und Grundsätze für korrektes Arbeiten aufgestellt. In Österreich hat nun ein Streit um den weiteren Ausbau des Flughafens Wien zur Anfertigung mehrerer Interessentengutachten geführt. Diese Gutachten werden in der vorliegenden Studie evaluiert. Es zeigt sich, dass wissenschaftliche Standards nicht eingehalten werden. Die Regierung selbst verwendet Angaben aus solchen Gutachten in ihren Publikationen und tauscht stillschweigend Daten, die sich später als unhaltbar erweisen, gegen andere aus. Vergleiche mit Studienergebnissen von OECD, EU und Weltbank belegen große Differenzen. / Growth and Job-effects of Aviation play a crucial role in many western industrialized countries. Consortiums and federations of the aviation industry try to proof with assessments and expert opinions how important their sector is. However many of those studies do not have scientific quality. Already 1992 the American Federal Aviation Authority FAA realized problems and issued guidelines for acceptable reports. In Austria the planned enlargement of Vienna airport led to the production of several studies. This is the reason for the present paper. The most recent Austrian aviation studies, especially one by the Austrian IWI, are being analysed. It proves that the Austrian Aviation reports are not consistent with the standards set by the FAA guidelines. They contain exaggerated figures and omit critical aspects. Comparisons with studies of OECD, EU or Worldbank show the differences and imbalances.

Youth organizations in Sweden try to be a reliable part in the political agenda, to change and improve how the politics affect youths. This study aims to clarify how four different youth organizations work with their political questions: from hbtq-perspective and children’s rights to the right to hearing-aid and involvement in questions regarding youths. The method used for the study was both a comparative study of how the organizations work to improve and change the Swedish political agenda for the better, and interviews with the chairpersons of the four youth organizations for a bigger transparency in their methods. The results of this study are that there aren’t any strategy or method to affect and change how the political agenda works. Even though each of the four organizations are successful within their own area of expertise, it’s not always possible to apply the same methods on another organization with another structure.

The purpose of this study is to examine why the media has a more negative attitude towards lobbyism in 2014 compared to earlier years since the 1970s in Sweden. This study examines first if a change of attitude has occurred between the given years and whether the attitude is more positive, negative or neutral towards lobbyism in recent years compared to earlier years and lastly if the media are comparing different contexts in which lobbying takes place. The method of this study is based on quantitative content analysis, and on Kanol’s ideas that by implementing theories from different disciplines one can develop theories on comparative lobbying in order to increase and improve our knowledge on the phenomenon of lobbyism as the contemporary research on the subject are scars and underdeveloped. The material in this study are news articles that have been collected between 1970 to 2000 and every second year from 2000 up until 2014. This study also provides a comprehensive picture of the Swedish context in which lobbying takes place by gathering information from multiple sources and earlier studies as this information has as of yet not been gathered in a single study up until now. The conclusion is that there has been a change of attitude towards lobbyism in Sweden, however, the dominant attitude is not a negative but rather a more skeptical/cynical one which has increased since 1992. The term lobbying is controversial because it’s being mentioned in various topics that could be considered negative by the reader as the decision making whether the news article is negative or positive is subjective. Because the media has increased its negative news reporting overall and that the unconscious mind of the reader is also attracted to negative news reporting, the term lobbying can be considered “negative” overall as it is constantly being mentioned in negative contexts even when the article is not about lobbying. A reasonable explanation why the media has a more negative / skeptical attitude to lobbyism is because of previous scandals related to lobbying either in Sweden or outside the country's border, but also because the media can’t hold the elected officials responsible for their actions as transparency and accountability is absent. Because of the increased reporting in Sweden on lobbying from all over the world, the subject will most likely become more relevant on the Swedish political agenda.

La présente thèse de doctorat décrit comment la construction européenne, point de confluence de la démarche politique de Valéry Giscard d'Estaing et d'Helmut Schmidt, a déterminé la poursuite de leur collaboration après 1981/82. Dans ce but, elle se focalise sur les travaux du Comité pour l'Union monétaire de l'Europe, créé à l'initiative de Valéry Giscard d'Estaing et d'Helmut Schmidt en 1986, au lendemain de l'adoption de l'Acte unique européen par leurs successeurs. Quel rôle leur initiative a-t-elle joué sur la constitution du Comité Delors en 1988, chargé d'étudier le projet d'Union économique et monétaire de l'Europe, et, plus largement, sur la mise en oeuvre du traité de Maastricht ? L'analyse, en replaçant la conception européenne de Valéry Giscard d'Estaing et d'Helmut Schmidt dans les débats des années 1980 et 1990 entre approches institutionnalistes et intégrationnistes, économistes et monétaristes, keynésianistes et ordolibérales, ou encore françaises et allemandes, met à jour les enjeux du lobbyisme et de l'intégration économique dans le processus de construction européenne. / The present dissertation describe how the construction of Europe, point of confluence of the political measure of Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Helmut Schmidt, was determinant in the pursuit of their collaboration after 1981/82. In this goal it is focussing on the works of the Comity for Monetary union of Europe, created by Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Helmut Schmidt in 1986, before the adoption of the Single European Act by their successors. What role their initiative did played on the constitution of the Delors Comity in 1988, charged to study the project of Economic and Monetary Union of Europe and more widly on the execution of the Maastricht Treaty? The analysis, with the replacement of the European concept of Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Helmut Schmidt in the beginning of the years 1980 and 1990between the approaches institutionalist and integrationist, economist and monetist, keynesianist and ordoliberal, or French and German , reveal the issues of the lobbyist and the economical integration in the process of the construction of Europe.