Title: The battle of the budget – Communication in a modern policy (Slaget om budgeten –Kommunikation inom den moderna politiken)Numbers of pages: 39Author: Niclas KarlssonTutor: Peder Hård af SegerstadCourse: Media and Communication studies CPeriod: Autumn 2009University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science,Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: The purpose of the paper is to see how Minister of Finance Anders Borg andthe Social Democratic economic spokesman Thomas Östros communicate their messages tothe public.Material/Method: The material is the minutes of the budget debate in the SwedishParliament. The method is rhetorical analysis and content analysis.Main result: Trust making is very important for both of them, especially when the financecrisis reached Sweden. The most common rhetorical quality is ethos.Keywords: Strategic political communication, rhetorical analysis, political trust.

International trust is a perception about how people can trust other nations, it can also be an explanation for people¡¦s perception about the nature of international environment. The study shows that when people have higher levels of international trust, they are more optimistic about the nature of international environment¡Fon the contrary, people are more pessimistic about the nature of international environment. There are many variables that can influence international trust, and political trust is one of the most influential. Therefore, I try to analyze international trust and political trust in Taiwan through telephone interviews and intend to testify my hypotheses. Furthermore, I will make international trust a standard for people¡¦s attitude towards foreign aids in order to respond to revisionists¡¦ point of view. Thus, we can prove that people surely can form their own information shortcut and express their own feelings without the suggestion of political elites.

This thesis aims to gain insight to lockdowns and social distancing measures taken by European governments during the early period of the Covid-19 pandemic. Questions have been raised of whether the variations of responses can be systematically explained, which have so far received little attention in research. However, prior research has stressed the importance of government capacity and legitimacy for the facilitation of a crisis response. On the one hand, capacity to coordinate within governing authorities, and with external actors is crucial. On the other hand, emphasis is put on cultural factors, such as citizens’ trust in political institutions. Through a quantitative analysis of 30 European countries, this thesis maps the stringency of measures implemented by governments. Furthermore, utilizing an expert survey from SGI (Sustainable Governance Indicators) and the Eurobarometer survey (2019), this thesis asks how coordination capacity and political trust are associated with the maximum stringency of policy responses implemented by governments. Using bivariate and multivariate regressions, the models suggest that European countries with high coordination capacity are more likely to implement modest policy responses, while European countries with low coordination capacity are more likely to implement strict policy responses. A possible understanding is that countries with high coordination capacity weigh alternatives and address certain issues, instead of beating the drum all at once. As expected, there is a negative relationship between political trust and stringency of policy responses, but further research is needed to confirm this covariation. The complexity of the Coronavirus crisis complicates a comprehensive understanding of governmental responses. However, this thesis contributes with early insights and provides a piece of the puzzle as to why European governments have acted so differently.

Currently, nearly 25% of people living in Sweden have foreign background. With one in every four people having immigration background, the question “how does civic engagement and political trust of people differ depending on their immigration backgrounds?” becomes important. More to the point, how does civic participation and political trust differ amongst young people living in Sweden in relation to their immigration backgrounds?In order to answer these questions, this thesis uses data from the European Social Survey and looks into the political trust and civic engagement behaviors of young people living in Sweden who have different immigration backgrounds by forming three groups; native- Swedes, second-generation immigrant-origin individuals and first-generation immigrants.The analysis is done by using SPSS and performing statistical analysis. Chi-Square and Kruskal-Willis tests were used, as well as descriptive statistics and cross tables. The results show that there is a statistically significant difference for civic participation due to immigration background, but the same cannot be said for political trust.

This thesis aims to examine how political participation and trust in Lebanon have been affected by the economic turmoil in Lebanon in recent years. The main aim is to study the respondents’ experience of political participation and whether political participation is different depending on demographic factors, such as age, religion, gender, and education. Furthermore, the study will examine whether the respondents trust the political elite. To do this, the method used is qualitative in the form of semi-structured interviews. The study includes even interviews with respondents from different religious groups, ages, and gender. Lebanon has a long history of political instability and political deadlocks with religion being the foundation of their political system.  With recent years' events of the 2019 revolution, Covid-19, the Beirut Port explosion, and economic collapse, political trust in the country has decreased drastically. Therefore, the thesis will use political trust as a theoretical aspect to reach the purpose. Political trust will be used to understand how the respondents trust the political establishment and institutions. The thesis shows that economic turmoil, religion, and political deadlocks affect how the respondents feel that their trust in politicians has changed between 2018 and 2023. Furthermore, the thesis also shows that high levels of corruption and political inefficiency affected the trust of the respondents.

The political uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa in 2011 created a new political order in the region. This research is aimed at examining how political trust has developed from 2011- 2022 in Tunisia and Egypt. It also aims to understand which variables affect political trust and whether the two countries differ. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the field by using the most recent data up until 2022. The research has been conducted with a comparative quantitative method, using Arab Barometer survey data. The results of the study results align with previous scholars’ results, the political trust declined in both countries after the Arab Spring but the most recent results from Tunisia show that the trust is slightly recovering. The results also indicate that the institutional theories of political trust are the more relevant theories when it comes to explaining political trust in the studied countries.

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This study investigates the experiences of a minority group regarding the fulfilment and implementation of their minority rights within a local context. It explores the impact of this implementation on the affected minority group's trust in the political institution responsible for its execution. The research specifically focuses on examining the minority rights of Swede-Finns residing in Örebro municipality, which is an administrative area with extended minority rights for this group. The study employed qualitative interviews conducted with Swede-Finns living in Örebro municipality, followed by transcription and thematic text analysis of the interview data. In terms of theoretical perspectives, an institutional micro-perspective was adopted to interpret and analyze the results related to trust. Lipsky's theory of street-level bureaucracy and Lundqvist's theory of implementation were utilized to interpret and analyze the minority group's experiences with implementation. The findings reveal significant deficiencies in the implementation of minority rights across various areas as perceived by the minority group. Furthermore, the results suggest that the group's trust in the political institution responsible for implementation has been undermined due to the perceived long-standing failure to deliver and the perception that minority rights are not taken seriously within the local context. / <p>2023-06-01</p>

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More and more foreign spouses have been immigrating to Taiwan. The ¡§New Taiwan Children¡¨ are consequently expected to become the elites of Taiwan¡¦s next generation. The political education and learning in families, as well as the political attitude of the husband¡¦s family, will all influence the political attitude and national identity of foreign spouses and their children. Most of the dissertations regarding foreign spouses now, however, are focused on the life adaption and Chinese character recognition services for foreign spouses. Little effort has been made to explore their political attitudes. In this research, therefore, we focus our research on the participants of the Chinese-character Recognition Classes in 24 elementary and junior high schools in Kaohsiung City and probe their political attitude after attending the courses. In this paper, we will discuss the factors influencing the political attitudes of foreign spouses, particularly, their personal backgrounds (including nationality, language and education), family backgrounds of their husbands (e.g., the political party supported by their spouse and their perspectives on unification or independence), and social inclusion factors (for example, political-related discussions with neighbors and friends, community activities, participation in Chinese-character recognition classes or life adaptation-courses organized by the government, etc.) The ultimate purpose of the study is to determine whether innate factors (i.e., personal backgrounds) or environmental factors (i.e., the social factors) are more influential on their political attitudes. If environmental factors turn out to be more influential, we may expedite the social inclusion process through collaborative efforts between the government and private agencies. We will also incorporate in the ¡§conclusion¡¨ our recommendations for further facilitating social inclusion. It was found in the research process that, in terms of political inclusion, a significant level (P<.001) has been reached in four aspects including ¡§Evaluation of Government Performance¡¨, ¡§National Identity¡¨, ¡§Political Participation¡¨ and ¡§Political Efficacy¡¨. The correlation coefficients between social inclusion and political inclusion are, respectively, .370, .362, .187 and .270. It is therefore recommended that increasing the political participation of foreign spouses may be achieved by encouraging their social inclusion. The research results also show that, for foreign spouses with different language proficiency, there is a significant variance in the extent of social inclusion. On the average, more foreign spouses communicate with the families of their husbands in English, Mandarin or Fukienese, as compared with those communicating in the language of Thailand, Philippines or Indonesia. We suggest that the authorities should provide more subsidies/incentives to encourage foreign spouses to participate in language-training courses. The survey also shows that foreign spouses rarely attend the community activities or discuss with their friends, mainly because of language barriers. Improvement of language ability will be a motivating factor for their social inclusion. Foreign spouses seldom participate in community activities or in political discussions. The main reasons for this include busy with childcare or household chores, language problems or inadequate Chinese proficiency, which causes insufficient social inclusion. It is recommended that the government should provide subsidies/incentives to encourage their participation in community activities, including attending the life coach classes and Chinese-character Recognition Classes, etc. The research shows that foreign spouses with better Chinese proficiency are better prepared to participate in political activities. For example, they will find it easier to read election-related information. Among the foreign spouses surveyed this time, few have the habit of reading political commentary in newspapers or TV programs; this is due to their incompetency in Chinese language. One of the ways to improve their abilities in political participation, therefore, is to encourage them to participate in the Chinese-character Recognition Classes. In our visit to the Immigrant Center of Learning in the city, we learned from an instructor at the YMCA that free Chinese courses are now offered by the YMCA to the foreign spouses. It is our hope that through close cooperation between the government and the private institutions we can expedite the social and political inclusion of foreign spouses, enabling them to enjoy a happy life in Taiwan with all of us.