<p>The purpose of this thesis is to examine the role of nationalism in the former Yugoslavia conflicts, with focus on the most involved parts: Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The conflict was characterized by extensive ethnic cleansing between all ethnic groups (Muslims, Croats and Serbs). This study looks at three different nationalism theories formulated by Ernest Gellner, Benedict Anderson and Thomas Hylland Eriksen through a case study of former Yugoslavia. When the president of former Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito died and the communism in Europe was brought to an end Yugoslavia went towards its disintegration. This is when nationalism and ethnic separatism begins. When the nationalism powers won in the elections of 1990, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence. Both republics had a Serbian minority which was in interest for the dream of creating a Great Serbia. Serbian nationalists declared their independence in these minorities and the conflicts lead to war, first between Croatia and Serbia and later in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The conflict in former Yugoslavia has its roots in various political, cultural, ethnical and religious problems. Ethnic cleansing on the civil people from all ethnic groups started and the ethnic nationalism in the conflicts led to war between three nationalities.</p><p>Keywords: Nationalism, etnicitet, Serbien, Kroatien, Bosnien och Hercegovina</p>

<p>Abstract</p><p>The purpose of this study is to illustrate Serbia’s democratic development on the basis of consolidate democratic perspective. Linz & Stepan´s five arenas (political, civil, economic, legal and bureaucratic) are required for the possibility to become a consolidate democracy. In order to fulfil the aim, I have chosen to focus on the political and civil arenas that are most central in the study of consolidate democracy.</p><p>The purpose of this study is to process how far Serbia has come towards a consolidate democracy and which obstacles still remain in the transition.</p><p>The questions in this study are:</p><p>• What problems has Serbia faced since the democratic transition in the beginning of 1990?</p><p>• What possibilities are there for Serbia to consolidate the democracy, with focus on the two key arenas of consolidation?</p><p>By applying the theoretical framework to the data, I have been able to present answers and build up an analysis. As the analysis shows, Serbia has come a long way since the transition faze. Still there are a lot obstacles and further improvements are necessary before the country can finish the transition faze and become a consolidate democracy.</p><p>Keywords: Serbia, democracy, consolidation, civil society, political society, human rights</p>

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<p> The 1st of July 2006 Sweden made a change of authorities in the system concerning the reception of separated asylum seeking children. Prior to the change, the Swedish Board of Migration was held completely responsible for the reception of these children, who arrives in Sweden without their parents or any other relatives to care for them. Since the alteration of the law (1994:137) the responsibility for the housing of these children now lies within the Swedish municipalities, while the Board of Migration still handles their legal commissions. The change was intended to fundamentally improve the conditions under which these children were taken care of. However the implementation took a severe wrong turn when the municipalities weren't prepared for their new responsibilities and the immediate result was alarming.</p><p> </p><p>This qualitative study is based upon interviews with the people responsible for the reception of the separated asylum seeking children in the municipalities of Kronobergs County, as well as one of the two people in charge of the new system at the Swedish Board of Migration. The study aims to illustrate the causes to the problems in the process of implementation and the different types of steering that was used to improve the situation. This, combined with a report on the actual status of the system, finally provides a brief analysis of the complete Swedish system regarding the reception of these children. A system that even though it has improved considerably, still struggles with problems caused from the damages of the bad implementation, two and a half years ago.</p>

<p>Abstract</p><p>The purpose of this minor thesis is to describe and systematize the Swedish debate about Sweden’s participation in the defence community of the European Union. Should Sweden take part of this or not? My aim is to describe the debate in a structured and legible way, so that the reader can get a comprehensive picture. The questions of the study are:</p><p>· Which actors join in the Swedish debate about Sweden’s military participation in the EU:s defensive community; the possible common defence of the EU and the EU:s military crisis management?</p><p>· Which arguments are delivered (for and against) in the debate?</p><p>To be able to fulfil the aim of this study I have done an argumentation analysis. I have searched the empirical data in literature, periodicals, newspaper articles, articles on the Internet and so on.</p><p>The results from the analysis show that many different actors have joined the debate since the summer of 2003. I have divided these actors in eight categories: Political parties, Politicians, Newspapers, Writers, Researchers, Military officers, Interest organizations and Foreign actors.</p><p>The results also show a fairly big number- and variation of arguments. The pro-arguments (arguments for Swedish military participation) are about Sweden’s- and the EU:s needs and duties, Swedish experiences, menaces and terrorism, and the national perspective versus the international perspective. The contra-arguments (arguments against) are about risks and menaces for Sweden, the militarisation of the EU, Sweden’s military costs and resources, the Swedish people, the non-alignment and the UN (United Nations).</p>

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Bulgaria and Romania – The Road to EU The main cause with this study was to examine if Bulgaria’s and Romania’s road to EU have been similar, and which possibilities the EU has had to directly influence the countries, and which problems were the main explanation/reason to why the countries did not get the possibility/opportunity to accede to the EU already in 2004. This took place through a qualitative text analysis where the multipel case study was the method used. The study was divided into two different dimensions; macro and micro, where macro have been the tools that the EU uses in an enlargement process, and micro have been the way the tools were used in the study’s two different countries, and the way the countries worked amongst the tools. The study has had two theoretical approaches; the neo-realistic, and the constructivistic. By this two contrastory theories it was explained which way the two dimensions took. In the analytical description the two countries way to the EU was compared, where only marginal differences between the countries were found, and the same result were found amongst the citizens’ attitudes towards the EU and Europe. The two tools mainly used in the accession process were the Copenhagen Criterias, and an invisible tool in the shape of pressures and threats from the EU to push the countries into change. The defining reasons to why the countries were unable to accede to the EU in 2004, were the high level of corruption in the countries, the discrimination of the Roman minority (within the countries) and finally the administrative confusion which lead to ineffective authorities. The study was able to explain the macro level foremost from a neo-realistic view, mainly because the chief aim was to create equal states and the micro level mainly from a constructivistic perspective since the countries act in collusion with its citizens. Keywords: Bulgaria, Romania, Neo-realism, Constructivism, the EU, Copenhagen Criterias / <p>2008-06-05.</p>

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The overall issue addressed in this thesis is the challanges to the Swedish welfare state. This topic has been the subject of several different interpretations in the academic as well as political debate in Sweden over the last decade. The first of two questions raised in this thesis is therefore what the main challenges to the Swedish welfare state are. It is concluded that the main challenges are the challanges to the representative democracy that originate in measures to meet the economic challenges to the Swedish welfare state by making it more efficient and rational. The main challenges to the Swedish welfare state are, therefore, a mix of interrelated economic and democratic challenges. A specific factor is tested for its possible impact on these challenges and that factor is third sector provision of welfare services. The second of the two research questions is therefore in what way and to what extent the third sector can influence how the identified challenges affect the welfare state. Childcare is selected as an example of a welfare service where there are a considerable proportion of third sector providers, primarily parent and worker cooperatives. The diversity, level of participation and service quality of different types of childcare is analysed with regard to how they affect the here presented challenges to the welfare state. It is concluded from this analysis that there are democratic benefits in the third sector provision of childcare that can act complementary to the challenged representative democracy. It is also concluded, however, that not all Swedish childcare can be provided by the third sector and that its democratic benefits therefore also should be produced by other types of childcare by imitating the third sectors active participation, small scale and independence. This study shows that Sweden is rapidly moving towards a greater diversity in its delivery of welfare service and that there are no policies or institutions for facilitating a more diverse service provision. An additional conclusion is for this reason that the outcome of the economic and democratic challenges varies with the direction of this diversification, which tells us that such policies and institutions are desirable. The Swedish welfare state will be getting a more diverse provision of welfare services regardless if there is any readiness for it or not and the results from this thesis show that the third sector is the non-public type of welfare provider that best facilitate the values and morals of the welfare state.