<p>ABSTRACT</p><p>This C-essay in political science is written by Ingrid Karlsson, autumn 06. Advisers: Gregg Bucken-Knapp and Susan Marton.</p><p>“ The identity of Tornedalen, a study about identities and its affect on the view of the Swedish state.”</p><p>The purpose of this essay is to investigate the identification amongst the population in Tornedalen and if their identity affects the view of the Swedish state. I am going to look into how people from that region looks upon their identity. Do they consider themselves as Swedish, Tornedaling or Finnish? I have two research questions on this topic: 1) What does a person from Tornedalen consider their identity? 2) If the way the Swedish state treated Tornedalen, from around the middle of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century, has affected the way people from this region looks upon their own culture, and if the treatment has affected peoples view of the Swedish state. The methods I am using for this essay is case studies and to my help to collect data I am having a focus group in Pajala. My reason to use a focus group instead of surveys is because I find focus groups to be a much more interesting way of finding out what people really think.</p><p>My conclusion on the question about identity is that the people in Tornedalen have different ideas on how they see themselves. Some consider themselves as both Tornedaling and Swedish, and others see themselves as Finnish and Swedish. One thing that I found out through the focus group is that a mutual thing amongst the participators is that they see themselves as Swedish. On my second question, my conclusion is that the way the Swedish state treated this region had a great impact on how they look upon themselves and their view of the Swedish state.</p>

<p>The aim of the present study is to investigate a multilateral law enforcement cooperation, theBaltic Sea Task Force, and explain some of the factors that may be the reasons for itssuccessful implementation. Choosing to see the Baltic Sea Task Force framework similar toan attempt to create a cooperation forming one international epistemic community fromseveral national ones, I investigate how and to what extent knowledge has been transferredbetween the communities, and how this was planned for in the original mission mandate. Iinvestigate problems of knowledge transfer across the network of communities (national lawenforcement agencies). Since knowledge is context based, the specific context encodes theknowledge, reflecting the nature of the subject area and the community’s norms and values.Explicit knowledge needs embedded tacit understanding to fully work. In turn, embeddednessneeds trust, common processes, joint norms and values. Consequently, there must also be atransfer of these norms and values in order for the embeddedness to take place. I investigatehow this context-dependent knowledge is received, and how such decoding is assisted by theframework. Where decoding seems to have been slow, I examine possible reasons for this,and study how the framework has dynamically altered its modi operandi to achieve itspurpose. I conclude that the Baltic Sea Task Force framework’s enterprise policy contains abroad and holistic perspective, conforming to definitions of a holistic epistemic community.</p>

Many social problems have proved unexpectedly difficult to solve. To analysethe unintended social repercussions of intentional human actions is considered to be the most important task of the social sciences. The ’unintended’ stand inthe way of satisfaction for human needs. The purpose of the thesis is to explain why political intentions are different from practical results. The political science sub-discipline of implementation research can make a contribution inthis aspiration. But there are problems. The top-down approach-researchers (Sabatier et al.) focus on the state, and in this way they tend to leave out extrastate activities (even if they themselves deny it). The bottom-up approachresearchers (Hjern et al.) can accurately map social problem solving, but they can not explain why identified differences exists between functional problem solving institutions and formal institutions (political assemblies). The thesis attempts to increase the capacity of the bottom-up approach to explain results. A framework of analysis is constructed with regard to this aim. It draws on Myrdal (1968) and Popper (1979). The thesis also aims to demonstrate how the framework works in practice. This is accomplished with a case study. It investigates political intentions andpractical results in relation to the heated controversies surrounding the institutionalisation of a National City Park in Stockholm, Sweden. This is the first law-protected national park in the world that is set in the heart of densely populated urban area. The institutionalisation of the park thwarts one leg of ahighway called the Northern Link. This starts a chain of events that stops awhole system of highways supporting the wider Stockholm area. It means thatone of the most expensive infrastructural projects in Swedish history collapses. Instrumental in setting this turn of events in motion is an old man living in ahouse on top of a hill close to the Northern Link. He takes the plans on the Northern Link to court and unexpectedly wins. The court agrees that thehighway intrudes on the park. Hence the name of the thesis – the Man On the Hill (Gubben på kullen).

No description available.

<p>The Egyptian civil society operates under a number of formal restrictions and the government’s repressive policy has held back the emergence of autonomous organisations and made them lose their power and impact. Nevertheless, civil society organisations in Egypt have grown in number, scope of activities and impact. In addition, the press has got relatively greater freedom of expression. Taking this evolution in account, this essay examines the contemporary Egyptian civil society in practice through two Egyptian newspapers; Al-Ahram and Al-Wafd.</p> / <p>Det Egyptiska civil samhället verkar under en mängd formella restriktioner och regeringens hämmande politik har förhindrat utvecklingen av autonoma organisationer, vilket har bidragit till att de har förlorat makt och påverkan. Trots detta har de civila samhälls organisationerna i Egypten ökat i antal, omfattning och påverkan och pressen har fått relativt ökad yttrandefrihet. Med hänsyn till detta undersöker föreliggande uppsats det samtida Egyptiska civil samhället i praktiken genom två Egyptiska tidningar; Al-Ahram och Al-Wafd</p>

<p>Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) from Europe have been very active in the field of development in third world countries. This thesis therefore is based on the topic ‘The Role of European Non Governmental Organisations in the Development and Democratisation of Cameroon.Challenges and Prospects’. Increasing fundings from the EU and the national governments of these organisations have been made available to these NGOs to carry out development projects in the south but unfortunately as reports say, the level of global poverty has been rising especially in Africa that has 30 nations among the world’s poorest 32 nations (UNHDR 2005). Taking Cameroon as a case since 1990 is because of the researcher’s interest in that country’s poverty reduction programmes as well as decentralisation which are in line with the activities of the European NGOs. In critically looking at their roles, attention is focused on the following NGOs: The Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV Highlands), The Swiss Association for International Cooperation (HELVETAS) and Plan International- Cameroon which is a UK based organisation. The previous two have been working in Cameroon for over twenty five years in the field of development. Some of their projects carried out are looked into also and some of the challenges they face in the field. From this point, we could know if there are prospects for economic development or not.</p><p>Possible theories like Osvaldo Sunkel’s ‘External Dependence and National Development Policy’ would be reviewed but the main theory however will be Democratisation theory that can suit the role of civil societies and NGOs. Analysis of related literature or document will be the methodology used because of the inability to undertake field research. It is hoped that this work will provide an additional framework on which development organisations can rely in the fight against poverty and underdevelopment in third world countries.</p>

<p>The debate about a possible crisis of democracy has been present over 30 years. Questionable is what researchers mean when talking about a potential crisis. What are the factors that are causing it? Are we in a crisis of democracy in Western European countries?The goal of this thesis is to evaluate how different authors characterize what some call a crisis of democracy, to define core topics and to test one of these on empirical data. This will be achieved by firstly, analyzing pieces of literature related to the scientific crisis of democracy debate. Secondly, using Hirschmann’s theory of exit and voice, mass data from will be categorized and analyzed under the light of participation and trust in political institutions.Issues that return are overload on government, individualism, participation and a new culture versus old structure. Analyzing people’s trust in political institutions depending on their intention to go to national elections shows trends: people lose trust in the institutions government, parliament and political parties. Separating the data into groups of potential voters, non-voters and blank voters shows that the latter two show a greater mistrust in political institutions and less interest in politics.Overall, the debate on a potential crisis of democracy is multifaceted and varies between different authors. People are less active in traditional ways of participating, but that does not mean that Western European democracies stand before collapse. It could however mean that new forms of participation are needed to engage people in politics again.</p>

<p>This study examines Romania’s way from being a candidate country, to full membership in the European Union in January 2007. The main focus is how the EU has handled the Human Rights accusations directed towards Romania, particularly in the area of Child Protection. The case is analyzed by using a maximalistic definition of democracy, examining the importance of social rights in a country’s ongoing process of democratization. The results of the study reveal that the European Union, throughout the years of accession negotiations, has imposed much pressure on Romania to fulfill the EU-criteria. It is also apparent that while the European Union accepted Romania as a new member state, and considered these serious child abuses to be solved, many other international organizations are still critical. The concluding chapter analyses the findings of the study, actualizing the questions of whether the children’s situation have vitally been improved and if the Romanian process of democratization has reached its consolidating phase.</p>

<p>Abstract</p><p>University of Växjö, School of Social Sciences</p><p>Course: PO 5363, Political Science 41-60</p><p>Title: US and UN, cooperation or conflict?</p><p>Author: Charlotta Bjuvling</p><p>Supervisor: Lennart Bergfeldt</p><p>Date: Autumn 2007</p><p>The international society changed a great deal after the end of the cold war. It gave the United Nations a new oppertunity to act after the deadlock during the war, and it gave the United States a new hegemone role in the world politics. The aim of this paper is to investigate wheter the United States foreign policy action have been accordence to a realistic way of thinking since the end of the cold war. I will do this with the help of my research questions:</p><p>• Have the United States followed the guidelines of the United Nations in their foreign policy?</p><p>• Are there signs that show of a change, either towards more or less cooperation between United Nations and the United States?</p><p>To answer these questions I will use the theories realism and Hedley Bulls concepts of fairness and his ideas of an international system in his book “An Anarchical Society”. This will be done through a qualitative literature study.</p><p>The study concludes that the Unites States indeed follow a realistisc way of thinking in their foreign policy. Their cooperation with the United Nations is limited to times with special circumstances, such as the end of the cold war and the terror attack after the 11 September. However, United Nations still fills an important role in the international system.</p><p>Keywords: American foreign policy, United Nations, hegemon, realism, change</p>

<p>The main purpose of this paper is to examine and compare the democratic situation and developement in Malung and Nyköping, through a perspective of participatory and deliberative democratic theories. The questions I’ve examined are On what priorities the actions of developing democracy are built? Which positive effects have been reached and what problems have arisen? What are the solutions they have found to the problems? How does one experience the results of the experiments and actions taken? What are the similarities and differences between the two cases? and What is their relationship to the theories mentioned above?</p><p>The questions are answered through interviews with four central actors in each case and examined in relation to participatory and deliberative democratic theories and in comparison of the two cases.</p><p>The results have been that even if none of the cases respond to one theoretical ideal, they have touches of both theories as well as representative theory. It shows, however, that in Malung the representative democracy theory is the strongest represented in actions and politics, while in Nyköping the participatory democratic theory is stronger. In short, the most positive and negative effects respond well to the theories.</p>