<p>Abstract</p><p>“Political participation by the citizen”</p><p>- Citizen proposals in Karlstad municipality</p><p>Essay in Political Science, C-level</p><p>Author: Tobias Gustafsson</p><p>Tutor: Michele Micheletti</p><p>In Sweden the political parties are losing more and more of their members. That in combination with a tendency that the participation in the elections is getting lower is a problem for the representative and parliamentary political system in Sweden.</p><p>In order to strengthen the democracy in Sweden and to make the gap between the citizens and the elected smaller there has been some democracy-projects. The purpose of these democracy-projects is to make the political participation by the citizens, between the elections, higher. One of them is “citizen proposals to the municipality”.</p><p>The purpose of this essay is to examine this democracy-project in order to see what influences it might have on the local democracy. The local democracy is defined as “the big democracy” within Karlstad municipality. The study is mainly conducted as a survey.</p><p>In order to determine the purpose three specified research questions has been constructed:</p><p>1. How is “citizen proposals to the municipality” dealt with?</p><p>2. Who are the citizens which utilize the right to “citizen proposals to the municipality”?</p><p>3. How effective is “citizen proposals to the municipality”?</p><p>The answer to the first question is: There is a developed formal way of dealing with the proposals at Karlstad municipality. The dealing with the “citizen proposals to the municipality” is a procedure that is time-consuming and there is a lack of information of the right to give “citizen proposals to the municipality”. The answer to the second question is: those citizens most likely to be political active are a man with high education, in his middle ages with an average income. He has an occupation and is political active in the local elections, but he is not a member of a political party. Observe though that there is a broad spectrum of those who propose suggestions in the examine group. The answer to the third question is that it is possible to get your proposal sanctioned. However the citizens feel’s that there is a problem with how the municipality handles the proposal after it has been sanctioned. Most of the citizens are not happy with how their proposal has been handled after it has been sanctioned. They feel that there pass to much time between the sanction and that the proposal is accomplished.</p>

Abstract “Political participation by the citizen” - Citizen proposals in Karlstad municipality Essay in Political Science, C-level Author: Tobias Gustafsson Tutor: Michele Micheletti In Sweden the political parties are losing more and more of their members. That in combination with a tendency that the participation in the elections is getting lower is a problem for the representative and parliamentary political system in Sweden. In order to strengthen the democracy in Sweden and to make the gap between the citizens and the elected smaller there has been some democracy-projects. The purpose of these democracy-projects is to make the political participation by the citizens, between the elections, higher. One of them is “citizen proposals to the municipality”. The purpose of this essay is to examine this democracy-project in order to see what influences it might have on the local democracy. The local democracy is defined as “the big democracy” within Karlstad municipality. The study is mainly conducted as a survey. In order to determine the purpose three specified research questions has been constructed: 1. How is “citizen proposals to the municipality” dealt with? 2. Who are the citizens which utilize the right to “citizen proposals to the municipality”? 3. How effective is “citizen proposals to the municipality”? The answer to the first question is: There is a developed formal way of dealing with the proposals at Karlstad municipality. The dealing with the “citizen proposals to the municipality” is a procedure that is time-consuming and there is a lack of information of the right to give “citizen proposals to the municipality”. The answer to the second question is: those citizens most likely to be political active are a man with high education, in his middle ages with an average income. He has an occupation and is political active in the local elections, but he is not a member of a political party. Observe though that there is a broad spectrum of those who propose suggestions in the examine group. The answer to the third question is that it is possible to get your proposal sanctioned. However the citizens feel’s that there is a problem with how the municipality handles the proposal after it has been sanctioned. Most of the citizens are not happy with how their proposal has been handled after it has been sanctioned. They feel that there pass to much time between the sanction and that the proposal is accomplished.

Allt fler kommuner väljer att arbeta med deltagardemokratiska forum. Medborgarförslag, en ny kommunikationsväg mellan medborgare och politiker, är ett sådant Gestaltande del:Planerad kommunikation. Informationskampanjen "Vi vill veta vad du tycker!" för en fiktiv kommun (Vår kommun) som bestämt sig för att införa medborgarförslag. Kampanjen innehåller förutom en tidsplan: annons

” 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.

This case study has looked at the significance transition from petitions to e-petitions has have for the proportion of approved proposals in the municipal council within Östersund municipality. The study has used a deliberative approach to how conversations are conducted between institution and citizen, this has been tested using a quasi-experiment and included a comparison with an after-before scenario with petitions and possible effects within different social groups that can be affected. The results of the study show that the difference between petitions and e-petitions is small, but that the color of the political majority in the council has a decisive factor behind whether proposals are approved more or rejected. Gender turns out to have a certain factor in how decisions are approved or rejected, where women received more approval than men which is interesting as it goes against previous research. / Denna fallstudie har tittat på vilken betydelse som en övergång från petitioner till e-petitioner har fått för andelen bifallna förslag i kommunfullmäktige inom Östersund kommun. Studien har använt sig av ett deliberativ tillvägagångsätt för hur samtal förs mellan institution och medborgare, detta har prövats med hjälp av ett kvasi-experiment och en jämförelse med ett efter-före scenario för möjliga effekter inom olika sociala skikt som kan påverkas med en ändrad petition. Resultatet av studien visar att skillnaden mellan petitioner och e-petitioner är små, men att den politiska majoritetens färg i fullmäktige har en avgörande faktorn bakom om förslag bifalls eller avslås. Kön visar sig även ha en viss faktor för hur beslut bifall eller avslås där kvinnor fick fler bifall än män, vilket är intressant då den går emot den tidigare forskningen. / <p>2021-06-04</p>

This study examines cinematic storytelling by looking at screenshots from episode three of the tv-series The Last of Us (2023). The purpose is to illustrate how scenography in the chosen material can represent meaningful concepts about the main character's identity and statues. The study examines how scenography in the character Bill's home can be seen as identity markers based on Pierre Bourdieu's capital theory. The study further uses Petter Skult to contextualize the world and zombie genre in which the tv-series takes place. Through a qualitative visual analysis the screenshots are described and analyzed in relation to Bourdieu's ideas about economic and cultural capital. The results suggest that Bill's status has increased both in terms of economic and cultural capital in the context of a unraveling zombie apocalypse. Scenography in Bill’s home further suggests his contradictive identity as both tough survivalist and cultural connoisseur. His home in an idyllic small-town neighborhood further suggests his identity as a symbol for American patriotism. The result is lastly followed by a discussion about class and xenophobia. / This media production is a fictional marketing campaign for the city of Malmö which uses visual communication with the aim to encourage young people to send in citizen proposals.

Most researchers and democracy theorists who define what democracy is or should be, agree that civic participation is the core of a democracy. Without citizen participation, there would be no democracy. The broad participation in political processes symbolizes the idea of political equality. A high level of political participation among citizens is usually seen as a sign that democracy is functioning satisfactorily. Unfortunately, today's political reality, on the other hand, shows that actual democracy does not reflect the democratic ideal models. The economic and social gaps in society largely explain how participatory activity is distributed among the citizens. The purpose of this master's thesis, which is a case study, has been to study the political equality in the e-proposal process within Linköping municipality. This means that the socio- economic representativeness among the proposers has been studied between the years 2016 and 2021. Furthermore, the geographical spread of the proposals has been studied between the years 2016 and 2018, together with the political priority areas of the proposers.  A web survey was conducted to gather information on the proposers’ socio-economic conditions. In total, the survey was answered by 207 respondents. This survey has contributed to either verifying or falsifying the research hypothesis. The hypothesis states that it is mainly socio-economically resourceful individuals who submit Linköping proposals. In summary, the study shows that it has been particularly resourceful individuals who have submitted Linköping proposals. Furthermore, the proposals are intended to be implemented in areas where the socio- economic standard is relatively high. The study has also shown that the proponents to a large extent (80.9 percent) have requested initiatives that relate to urban planning issues and culture and leisure. Finally, the results of the study illustrate that the approvals mainly refer to socio- economically strong areas. In conclusion, the empirical results of the study have contributed to the hypothesis being verifiable, as it has mainly been socio-economically resourceful individuals who have submitted Linköping proposals.