Despite being free from colonialism for decades, the country continues to experience political instability and a lack of democracy. There is a knowledge gap when it comes to understanding democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the challenges the country faces in establishing and maintaining a functioning democratic government. The purpose of this essay is to examine the political and social situation prevailing in the DRC in light of the challenges to sustaining and establishing a functioning democracy. Through a democratic and institutional perspective, the study will investigate the current situation in the country and how the established institutions impact its democratic development. The study is limited to the Democratic Republic of Congo (also abbreviated as DR Congo or Congo Kinshasa) and will be referred to as Congo in this essay. This limitation is due to the existence of two countries with similar history and destiny. The study is confined to the Democratic Republic of Congo (also abbreviated as DR Congo or Congo Kinshasa) and will be referred to as Congo in this essay. To achieve this purpose, previous research and reports from Freedom House will serve as the primary empirical material, supported by research from Amnesty International and previous studies in the field. The choice of Freedom House as a source is due to the organization's focus on states' situations and their degree of freedom and rights. In conclusion, the analysis of the political situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) reveals a discrepancy between the fundamental principles of the country's constitution and the actual practice. Despite the constitution establishing principles such as decentralized power, citizen participation, and protection of political rights, research from organizations like Freedom House and Amnesty International has shown that these principles are not upheld in practice.

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Africa is the continent having the most coups d'état. From 2020 to 2022, there were six coups and three coup attempts on the continent. This study aims to investigate the causes of these coups d'état in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Guinea, four former French colonies in West Africa. A new theoretical framework has been developed to investigate this pattern. Indicators of political instability and economic factors are taken from earlier theories, but additional external impact and climate change factors have been incorporated. The method applied in this study is a comparative case study with few cases, combining theory testing, theory building, and theory consuming. The findings indicate that while GDP per capita has improved, it is still unequally distributed among the populace, with high unemployment among the young often leading to migration in search of opportunities. About a year prior to every coup, there has been an increase in political violence. In all four of the cases under investigation, climate change factors such as climate migration and violence resulting from scarcity are present along with disinformation campaigns by Russia, a strong anti-French sentiment, and public discontent with the way the government operates. Both economic factors and climate change factors are found to be closely connected to governance deficits.

Internationellt resande är en uppskattad och naturlig del av livet för många människor som lever i Sverige idag. Resande kan vara avslappnande, äventyrligt och en härlig upplevelse men det kan även innebära risker. Brottslighet, hälsoproblem, politisk instabilitet och terrorism är alla reala risker som turister kan råka ut för på sina resor. En risk innebär en osäkerhet om, och i så fall när det kan inträffa och det går inte att förutsäga. Denna osäkerhet innebär att turister får förlita sig på sin uppfattning av hur riskabelt det är att exempelvis besöka en destination med hög brottslighet. Personers riskuppfattning i samband med internationella resor har fastställts påverkas av yttre faktorer och inre faktorer. Personer motiveras även av olika faktorer till att resa och har olika åsikter och preferenser för vad de vill uppleva på sina internationella resor. En del av denna skillnad mellan turister har förklarats med att personer har olika behov av att uppleva nya, spännande och äventyrliga händelser på sina resor. Andra motiveras istället av att ta det lugnt och på ett säkert sätt uppleva vad destinationen och turistindustrin kan erbjuda. Turister kan särskiljas i två extremer. En extrem är människor som motiveras av äventyr och överraskningar, så kallade noveltysökare. Den andra extremen är människor som vill ta det lugnt och resa på ett tryggt sätt så kallade familiaritysökare. Personer kan även motiveras av delar en blandning från båda dessa extremer och kan då kallas för neutrala resenärer.   Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka riskuppfattning vid internationella resor samt att undersöka om det efter en indelning av respondenterna i novelty-familiaritysökande grupper går att fastställa några skillnader i hur riskabla de upplever att riskerna är under internationella resor. För att undersöka detta utförs en kvantitativ enkätundersökning. Med det teoretiska ramverket och den kvantitativa enkätundersökningen har slutsatser dragits utifrån uppsatsens syfte och frågeställningar.   Respondenterna i undersökningen upplever att terrorism, politisk instabilitet, brott och hälsoproblem utgör risker under internationella resor. Terrorism var den risk som i högst grad påverkade respondenternas beslut rörande resande. Med sambandstester fastslogs att det finns samband mellan respondenternas uppfattning rörande riskerna och deras relations till yttre och inre påverkan.   Respondenterna kunde utifrån deras preferenser och motivation för internationellt resande delas in i de tre grupperna familiaritysökande, neutrala resenärer och noveltysökande. Respondenternas tillhörighet i turistgrupperna och deras svar på hur riskabelt de upplever att de fyra riskerna är, sambandstestades. Utifrån detta går det att fastställa att noveltysökande turister upplever att riskerna terrorism, politisk instabilitet och hälsoproblem utgör en lägre risk under internationella resor än vad de familiaritysökande turisterna gör. Detta ger stöd till tidigare forskning som fastställt att ett sådant samband existerar.

The aim of this study is to examine how Belgrade as a tourist destination was affected by previous political disorder during the 1990’s on the query of destination image, destination branding and destination development. The research also discussed how different actors in the public and private sectors work on the issue and how international tourists’ perspectives look like in relation to this topic. A qualitative method was applied through semi-structured and structured interviews with three actors within tourism sector, one from the public sector, and further 15 interviews with international tourists. The study's results show that Belgrade, as a tourist destination, was mainly affected by the civil war in the 1990’s. The war created a negative destination image, undefined destination branding and a non-sustainable destination development. The following led to, reduced number of incoming tourists and economic stagnation, which resulted in a lack of resources to invest in destination development. It created a negative destination image in a global aspect, and in addition to that international tourists usually associated Belgrade with insecurity and political instability. However, tourism started to increase following the new political regime approximately 10 years ago, when major efforts were made by both international and national investors. Accordingly, actors within various private and public sectors are involved in expanding tourism products, increasing marketing efforts and placing the destination on an international tourism market. / Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur Belgrad som en turistdestination påverkades av tidigare oroligheter under 1990-talet i frågan om destinationsimage, branding samt utveckling. Undersökningen berörde även hur olika aktörer inom den offentliga och privata sektorn arbetar i frågan samt hur internationella turisters perspektiv ser ut i relation till detta. En kvalitativ metod tillämpades genom semistrukturerade och strukturerade intervjuer med tre aktörer inom turismsektorn och en från den offentliga sektorn samt 15 intervjuer med internationella turister. Studiens resultat visar att Belgrad som en turistdestination påverkades i en stor utsträckning till följd av krigshändelserna under 1990-talet. Detta skapade en negativ destinationsimage, odefinierad destination branding samt att destinationsutvecklingen som var icke hållbar. Därmed minskade antal inkommande turister, ekonomin stagnerade samt att det resulterade i brist på resurser för investeringar i att återuppbygga destinationen. Detta skapade en negativ destinationsimage för omvärlden då potentiella turister associerade staden med osäkerhet och politisk instabilitet. Dock konstaterades det att turismen började öka i och med den nya politiska regimen, då ca 10 år sedan började det ske stora insatser från både internationella och nationella investerare. Därmed arbetar olika aktörer inom den privata och offentliga sektorn med att utöka sina turistprodukter och marknadsföringsinsatser samt placera Belgrad på den internationella turistmarknaden.

Cette thèse s’intéresse aux questions de soutenabilité dans le financement de la santé au sein des pays à revenus faible et intermédiaire. Elle est articulée autour de quatre chapitres. Les deux premiers chapitres proposent respectivement d’explorer les déterminants de l’efficience technique des dépenses de santé et de leur niveau par habitant dans les pays à revenus faible et intermédiaire. Le premier chapitre analyse l’effet de l’ouverture commerciale sur l’efficience technique des dépenses de santé. Le second chapitre étudie l’effet de la pollution de l’air sur les dépenses de santé. Dans les deux derniers chapitres, nous nous focalisons sur les pays d’Afrique subsaharienne. Le troisième chapitre étudie le rôle que joue le financement prépayé de la santé pour l’amélioration de la santé dans les ménages tandis que le quatrième chapitre se fixe pour objectif d’analyser les déterminants des dépenses prépayées de santé en se focalisant plus particulièrement sur l’instabilité politique. / This thesis focuses on the sustainability issues in health financing in low-and middle –income countries. It is articulated around four chapters. The two first chapters propose to respectively explore the determinants of technical efficiency of health expenditures and their level per capita in low-and middle –income countries. The first chapter analyzes trade openness effect on the technical efficiency of health expenditures. The second chapter investigates air pollution effect on health expenditures. In the two last chapters, we focus on Sub-Saharan African countries. The third chapter studies the role that plays prepayment health financing for health improvement in households whereas the fourth one sets the goal to analyze the determinants of prepayment health expenditures, by particularly focusing on political instability.

Tidigare studier visar att Afrika är en växande marknad med möjligheter för svenska företag, men det är en marknad som innebär risker. De svenska företagen har idag en stark närvaro med ett gott rykte och bidrar med kunskap och kvalitet. Trots stora naturtillgångar och ekonomisk tillväxt råder en ojämn inkomstfördelning med fortsatt utbredd fattigdom och underutvecklad infrastruktur. De afrikanska ländernas egna företagare är en viktig del i deras ekonomiska tillväxt. För att skapa vidare utveckling bör de afrikanska ledarna ta större ansvar för den unga arbetskraften. Studiens syfte var att studera hur, var och varför svenska företag har etablerat sig på den afrikanska marknaden och se om och hur etableringen skiljer sig åt för de utvalda företagen. Studien ville även försöka ta reda på vilka ekonomiska och kulturella problem och framgångar etableringen inneburit och om ett socialt engagemang är viktigt för företagen. Huvudfrågorna var: Vilka marknadsföringsstrategier använder företagen, hur handskas de med kulturpåverkan och är socialt engagemang en möjlighet? Genom bland annat djupgående intervjuer med svenska företag har information samlats in om deras etableringar i Afrika. De marknadsföringsstrategier som huvudsakligen används är att anlita en lokalt etablerad återförsäljare, etablera ett dotterbolag eller ett tillfälligt projektkontor. Företagen är medvetna om kulturskillnaderna och det är viktigt för dem med en politisk stabilitet samt de ser ett stort värde i en lokal branschkompetens hos partnern och lokalbefolkningen. Idag blir det allt vanligare för företagen att delta i biståndsfinansierade projekt där lokala yrkesutbildningar startas i de afrikanska länderna. / Previous studies show that Africa is an emerging market with opportunities for Swedish companies, but it is a market that involves risks. Swedish companies have a strong presence with a good reputation and contribute with their knowledge and quality. Despite vast natural resources and economic growth there is an uneven distribution of income, with continued widespread poverty and underdeveloped infrastructure. The local domestic companies in African countries are an important part of their economic growth. To create further development the African leaders should take more responsibility for the young workforce. The study's purpose was to study how, where and why Swedish companies have established themselves in the African market and see if and how the establishment is different for the companies in this study. The study would also try to find out the economic and cultural problems and successes the establishment brought and if a social responsibility is important for companies. The main questions were: What marketing strategies the companies use, how do they deal with cultural influences and is social responsibility an opportunity? By including in-depth interviews with Swedish companies information has been collected about their establishments in Africa. The marketing strategies which are mainly used are to hire a locally established dealer, establish a subsidiary or a temporary project office. The companies are aware of cultural differences and it is important for them with political stability, and they see a great value in a local industry expertise of the partner and locals. Today it is increasingly common for companies to participate in aid-financed projects where local vocational education is started in the African countries.

This Ph.D. thesis comprises of two parts. Part I develops a framework to provide insights into the understanding of several political macro-economy issues related to fiscal policy making. This framework links the overall macroeconomic performance to the public spending and borrowing decisions. The key feature of this framework is that it makes a distinction between productive (e.g. public investment) and non-productive public spending (e.g. popular spending). It is shown that a high level of political instability may lead to myopic and populist policies and may be associated with less favorable macroeconomic performance in terms of not only future output and inflation but also future popular spending. Part I also suggests an alternative channel for expansionary or Non-Keynesian fiscal contractions based on the productivity enhancing role of productive public spending. It is shown that if the incumbent government reduces popular (productive) spending rather than productive (popular) spending, then Non-Keynesian (Keynesian) effects are achieved. Furthermore, it is shown that the favorable effects of public investment depends positively on its quality in this framework. Moreover, the net effect of productive spending financed by borrowing on the next period&#039 / s macroeconomic performance depends on the benefits of productive spending relative to the costs of borrowing. Even under a capital borrowing rule higher public investment may yield unfavorable effects and also it may not necessarily prevent the strategic use of public investment, even though it prevents strategic debt accumulation. Part II investigates the effects of macroeconomic instability on capital accumulation and economic growth in the Turkish economy over the 1963-1999 period. Descriptive and econometric (time series) analyses suggest that macroeconomic instability not only deters capital accumulation and economic growth but it may also reverse the complementarity between public and private investment in the long-run.

Questo lavoro analizza la relazione tra crescita economica e rischio-socio politico in un campione di 159 paesi per 30 anni. Il principale risultato è che l'instabilità socio-politica diminuisce la crescita mentre l'effetto della crescita sull'instabilità non è statisticamente significativo. Inoltre si evidenzia una relazione negativa tra inflazione e crescita, ma questo collegamento è mediato dal canale dell'instabilità socio-politica. / This paper tests the relationship between economic growth and socio-political instability on a large sample of 159 countries over 30 years, from 1970 through 2000. After a meticulous analysis performed with system estimates, modern econometric techniques that detect endogeneity and a detailed battery of robustness tests I find that socio-political risk decreases economic growth. as regard the other causality link from economic growth to instability, this effect is instead not statistically significant. In addiction a negative relationship between inflation and growth emerges but this link is mediated by the channel of socio-political instability.

During the spring of 2017 the authors of this paper have studied the political instability in Turkey, and its effect on the incoming tourism. The study is done from two perspectives, Swedish tour operators and potential tourists. In 2015 and 2016 Turkey suffered from several attacks and political demonstrations. In addition, the refugee crisis affected the country noticeably. This became the start of reduced interest for traveling to Turkey.  The aim of this paper is to examine how the political instability in Turkey has effected the tourism industry from a perspective of three Swedish tour operators and potential tourists. To explore this aim the authors have used three research questions.  Based on methodological approaches empirical data has been collected. The collected data has been analysed by using selected theoretical starting points; political instability, crisis, marketing during and after a crisis.  The results of this study shows that Turkey has been strongly affected by political instability and that decreasing tourism plays a significant role in the country’s economy. Swedish tour operators notices significant differences in the number of sold trips now, comparing to before the crisis. Exanimated tour operators all agree that the way back to where it was is a long process. Results also show that tourists attitudes regarding traveling to Turkey is based on personal experiences and emotional feelings.