Previous research on public ethics has mainly focused on how civil servants should act. Until now, empirical studies investigating how civil servants actually behave, and how this can be understood, have been lacking. By conducting a case study, this thesis provides empirical research on how civil servants within the public administration act when faced with ethical dilemmas. The aim of the study is to gain a better understanding of why civil servants have chosen to act the way they have in two specific cases, here referred to as “The letter at the Government Offices” and “The resignations in Hörby municipality”. Based on this discussion, the study also seeks to answer the question whether these individuals have acted ethically defensible, and thus lived up to their role as “guardians of democracy”. The results are reached, using three theoretical starting points. These are 1) Lennart Lundquist’s theory about different “kinds of ethics”, 2) Jan Olsson and Erik Hysing’s theory about “inside activism”, and 3) Lennart Lundquist’s theory about different kinds of “measures”. Through interviews with the civil servants themselves, the study finds that the respondents in both cases have acted with concern for our public ethics. In addition, the study argues that all interviewees have acted ethically defensible, when referring to the above-mentioned theories.

Migration has frequently been debated during the 2010s. The large flow of refugees that came to Europe in 2015 has initiated a debate about migration in Sweden and has been widely discussed both in the Parliament and in households. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the ‘most desirable migrant’ is portrayed in the Swedish political debate regarding migration and integration during 2015 and 2019. Using Critical Frame Analysis, the study aims to identify whether the cultural or economic frame is mostly used in the debate. This paper is based on the research article “The migrant with poor prospects: racialized intersections of class and culture in Dutch civic integration debates” by Saskia Bonjour och Jan Willem Duyvendak (2018) which examines Dutch civic integration debates and policies in order to reveal which migrants who are likely to integrate in the Dutch society, and which migrants who are seen as unlikely to integrate. This study is positioned as an extension of Bonjour and Duyvendak’s research in a Swedish context. Findings suggest that the use of the cultural or economic frames in the debate varies over time. In 2015, the economic frame was mostly used whereas the cultural frame was more frequent in 2019. Further, the results also propose that the ‘most desirable migrant’ is presented as a human resource that participates in the labor market, has good education and has knowledge of the Swedish language, preferably Swedish speaking. In addition, the ‘wanted migrant’ must be responsible, secure, equal and have an understanding of Swedish customs and norms to be included in the Swedish community of value.

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States that lack complete control of peripheral regions might be qualified as weak, and previous research suggests that they face an increased risk of state failure. Yet, in the periphery of many states, authority is shared by the government and non-state actors. Far from all these “weak” states are “failed” in the sense of failing to provide services and political order to their inhabitants. Before exploring this enigma, an attempt to clear the conceptual haze surrounding the notions of weakness and failure is made. An investigation into when state weakness leads to state failure – and when it does not – is thereafter undertaken, using a process-tracing method. The thesis explores the structure of state-society relations in two pairs of most similar cases: first Mali and Niger, then Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. All cases are studied over a period of 15 to 25 years and with the aim of determining whether any of two theoretical mechanisms developed from former research holds more value in explaining when weak states fail and when they do not. The first mechanism portrays how weak states construct informal networks of power and fail when these break down, the other depicts how a weak state’s survival is dependent on its ability to uphold a negotiated relationship with non-state actors. State failure in Mali is found to be explained by the failure of negotiated relationships between state and non-state actors. State failure in Tajikistan, on the other hand, can be explained by the government’s incapacity to dominate non-state actors through informal networks of power. However, support for the conclusion that weak states generally seek to govern through negotiated agreements with non-state actors, in line with the second theoretical perspective, is found.

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In 2011 the state of South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan and thus became the world’s youngest country to date. During its nine years of existence the country has ratified several major conventions and protocols on women’s rights, whereas Sudan has yet to ratify any. Despite being the same country until barely a decade ago the two authoritarian countries have approached the legislative rights of women in very different manners. Based on a Method of Difference-design, and with the help of process-tracing, this study seeks to answer why this is. By consulting previous research on why authoritarian states advance women’s rights, this study distinguishes three main, indicative theoretical patterns from earlier research which argues under what circumstances authoritarian states advance women’s rights, and when they do not. These patterns include the stability of the government, the work of women’s rights movements and the states relations with the international community. It is concluded that the explanation for the different behaviours of the two Sudans lay mainly in their tactics of governing. South Sudan adopts reforms on gender equality to keep its population content but makes sure to closely control and monitor these reforms. Their women’s rights organisations can be outspoken, and they share the goals of ratifying certain women’s rights conventions. Furthermore, their main donors often include conditions of state-building on their foreign aid, forcing South Sudan to advance on issues such as women’s rights. In contrast, Sudan applies a more violent and oppressing stance against its population, suppress women’s movements and rely mainly on unconditional investments rather than conditional aid from the international community. Furthermore, the women’s movements of Sudan have not expressed a shared goal of ratifying conventions on women’s rights.

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This paper aims to study the correlation between the Swedish high school curricula and educational materials, i.e. educational books. More specifically if a selection of market available books fulfils the curriculums set requirements for the educational goal surrounding privatekonomi, personal finances. Because this is a new subject in Swedish social studies since 2011 for teenagers between the ages of 16–19, the author of this essay argues that it is therefore relevant to study educational books which are supposedly tailored to meet the new requirements, to see if they meet the set goals. To reach the goal of this paper, nine books have been studied with the help of läroplansteori, curricula theory, as Nina Wahlström presents it. Four so called kunskapstraditioner, traditions of knowledge, wherein “worthy” knowledge is subjective to each tradition, have been used in the interpretation of the selected books in order to correlate potentially flawed materials to one of these four traditions. Firstly, the books were studied with the purpose to discern if their contents were lacking. The curricula theory was applied afterwards to the interpretation of the books’ relevant chapters. In the end, four out of the nine books were deemed to have fulfilled every single goal the curricula had set for the subject of personal finances, whilst the remaining five were flawed to a varying degree. However, no set conclusions could be made if the faulty books were inherently different from their complete counterparts. Although the flawed books showed less of a connection to some traditions compared to the complete ones, this fact can be argued that it is the inclusion of personal finances itself that makes these books associate with some traditions more than the others. Further study on the subject is advised.