Copied from the mimeographed version, issued by the Statsvetenskapliga institutionen in 1994, ISBN 91-506-1030-9, which in its turn was copied from the 1966 original in the Skytteanum archive. The investigation analyses the Swedish public debate in newspapers, booklets and pamphlets on Norways secession from the union with Sweden in 1905. In the first part covering the period from February till June 7, Norway´s strategy is at the centre of attention. After the Norwegian break-out on June 7, Swedish reactions to the secession are clarified. Above all, the right-wing nationalistic agitation is analysed. While targeted at the Norwegian secessionists, it was also directed at the allegedly unpatriotic Swedish left-radicalism as well; the argumentation of the latter was debunked as repulsive courting of and loathesome ovations for the Norwegian revolutionaries. One line of argument in the dissertation is that Swedish right-wing parties and parliamentarians were motivated by an internal domestic agenda. They were using the union issue to agitate a Swedish nationalistic opinion wave against Norway in order to beat the left in the upcoming elections in order to stop a development towards universal suffrage and progressive income tax.

The process of building the identity of the European union in the world is constantly ongoing. The common foreign and security policy of the union conveys the purpose of the external actions of the EU, led by the foreign policy chief. Hence, the role that the union is ascribed by the foreign policy chief is of great interest to foreign policy analysis. The purpose of the study is to investigate the differences in role conception of the EU between two EU foreign policy chiefs: Catherine Ashton and Federica Mogherini. The study applies Holsti’s theory of national role conception, which was developed to suit leaders of countries. The study is an exploratory, comparative case study applying qualitative content analysis on official speeches. The quotes expressing different role conceptions were sorted into different role categories, followed by a comparison within each role category between the foreign policy chiefs. The result of the study indicates Ashton standing out by perceiving EU’s role to be an active actor in neighbourhood of the union, as well as the importance of economic aspects in EU’s external role. Mogherini is distinctive by emphasizing the importance of the EU ensuring the security of the union. The signification of this study’s result is proving Holsti’s theory being applicable beyond countries - this time on the EU. Demonstrating differences in role conception of the two foreign policy chiefs, also shows that the role that the union is ascribed by the foreign policy chief differs depending on who is holding the position in question. One out of many hypotheses that can be formulated in order to explain the demonstrated differences in role conception, is the leader’s background in countries with differing views of the EU. To test this hypothesis as well as formulating others, further research is welcome.

Ukraine is a state that has been characterized by authoritarian trends for a long time. This is due to political division. The political regime in Ukraine has consequently been influenced by pro-Russian and pro-European actors. A minority of Ukrainan population has a desire to join Russia, while the majority of the Ukrainan population wants to join the EU. Therefore, this study will examine the influence of the European Neighborhood Policy on Ukraine’s democratic development between the period of 2009 - 2020. By using the theoretical framework of Daniel Silanders thesis “Democracy From the Outside-In? The Conceptualization and Significance of Democracy Promotion” this study has implemented the six democracy-promoting aspects - actors, interets, methods, channels, relations and impact of the ENP in Ukraine. The main result of this study shows that the European Neighborhood Policy has left a major impact in Ukraine with the different instruments that the EU has provided. For instance, the Association Agreement (AA) and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA). However, Russia’s involvement tends to slow down the democratization process in Ukraine, the geopolitical interests of the EU tend to consider cooperation and the lack of down-top strategies has prevented the civil society from becoming involved in the development of democracy.

The purpose of this paper is to answer how/if Swedish school literature in social studies have changed their content and presentation of the European Union since before the Swedish entrance in the union 1995; and if that change has followed the discourse regarding the European Union in Sweden. Earlier studies have shown how Sweden’s stance on European Union changed since its creation after the second world war and how the entrance of the European Union in curriculum affected the school system in Sweden. However, no study has been made to see if the literature which is used in Swedish schools has changed in its presentation and content of the European union since the entrance 1995. Few studies have also focused if the literature follows the discourse and attitudes that Sweden have had regarding the European union during these years. The study has been done by analyzing 6 different social studies books form different years starting in 1986 and ending 2017. What the study shows is that a clear change in the socials studies literature about the European union has happened since 1986 and that the change follows three clear stages, resistance stage, approachment stage, collaboration stage, and is affected by the discourse which runs in Sweden.

The aim of this essay is to use Linz and Stepan’s theory on their five interactive arenas (Civil Society, Political Society, Rule of Law, State Bureaucracy and Economic Society) of a consolidated democracy, to examine whether the Republic of Poland can be considered a consolidated democracy. I will base my research on facts from the year 2015 to 2021, since I want to see how the political changes that have been implemented since the party Law of Justice (PiS) entered into government, and how that has affected Poland as a consolidated democracy. This research is a case study, and the main results of it is that Poland can no longer be considered a consolidated democracy, since it has deficiencies in all five arenas, but they are strongest within the Rule of Law.

The European Union (EU) began as a prevention of future wars. Thereafter the work of the EU has been further integrated, partly linked with ongoing crises in order to follow common goals for the Union. The EU is a central actor affecting freedom and the future of the inhabitants within the member states, and therefore its development needs to be researched. This essay looks at the development of health politics within the EU. Has the pandemic crisis of Covid-19 fostered further integration of health politics within the EU (a political area that has historically been handled by the member states themselves)? This essay assesses the degree of integration and centralization of health politics, based on qualitative research on the conclusions of the European Council during the end of 2019 and 2020. The results of this research indicate further integration of health politics based on its conclusion documents of the European Council during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since I argue that the European Council is a central institution for the EU’s overall development and direction this results indicates a further integration in health politics during the pandemic. However the result needs to be supplemented by research of other institutions such as the Commission and the Council of the European Union (the council of ministers) in order to have wider implications on the overall integration within the European Union.

Europeiska kommissionen har inom ramen för klimatmålen 2030 inrättat två politiska styrmedel, handelssystemet (EU ETS) och förnybarhetsdirektivet (2009/28/EC), för att reducera koldioxidutsläpp. Tidigare studier inom ämnet riktar dock viss kritik mot denna form av kombination och menar att införandet av förnybarhetsdirektivet har en motverkande effekt för priset på utsläppsrätter. Studien ämnar därmed att undersöka om handelssystemet och förnybarhetsdirektivet utgör en målkonflikt. Till följd av att studien inkluderar en interaktionsvariabel i en panelregression med fixa effekter, kan ytterligare belägg för det negativa förhållandet mellan 2009/28/EC och EU ETS adderas. Undersökningen baseras på paneldata över tidsperioden 1990–2018 från 35 OECD länder, och finner att interaktionsvariabeln antar ett positivt och signifikant värde. Resultatet tyder därmed på att 2009/28/EC har en motverkande effekt på handelssystemet. Vidare visar även resultatet att 2009/28/EC har en större negativ påverkan för länder som understiger det nationella förnybarhetsmålet, än för länder som överstiger målet. Studien tillför således vidare insikter om att en målkonflikt kan föreligga.

In November 2020, The European Commission came out with a fact sheet regarding their LGBTI- equality strategy for 2020-2025. This strategy mentions the goal to fight discrimination against LGBTI-people, build a society that includes LGBTI-people, and more. Even if countries are members of the European Union, it is not a guarantee that they embrace every opinion that the European Union have. The same goes for political party groups. There are many aspects in LGBT politics that can vary among the party groups. Everything from which letters should be used, to what the European Union should meddle in and not. The purpose of this thesis is to study the ideological elements that can be found in the European People's Party (EPP), Socialists & Democrats (S&D) and The European Commission concerning their political views on LGBT, then compare the differences and similarities found in the analysis. This is carried out by using different ideologies characteristics and keywords to analyse the material from the different party groups and the equality strategy. The conclusion is that The European Commission's equality strategy has elements from several ideologies, but liberalism and social democracy are the ideologies that are mainly present in the material. In the material representing The European People’s Party, there are only ideological elements present from conservatism/christian democracy, while in the Socialist and Democrats one can find ideological elements from social democracy and socialism. The party groups and the equality strategy had similar opinions about discrimination but had different opinions about how much The European Union should meddle in other member countries laws and if they should be punished.

This study analyses the bank market competition and bank interest margins in the European Union member countries banking sector during the period 2007–2019, using panel data analysis and aggregated data for each country ́s banking sector. Our starting point is the theory about market structure and two structural indexes are used as proxies of the degree of market competition. The methodology is based on the model developed by Ho and Saunders (1981), where the bank is viewed as a risk averse dealer amongst borrowers and lenders. This model has later been extended to fit analyses on nationally aggregated levels, which is appropriate in this study. The result show that bank concentration is not statistically significant in explaining variability of interest margin in the EU banking sectors. Instead, the statistically significant determinants of interest margins are more bank specific variables, such as average operating cost and credit risk. Although this study cannot claim economic significance, it provides information that economic policies should be designed to lower average operating cost rather than market competition, in order to lower interest margin. / I denna studie analyserar vi konkurrensen på bankmarknaden och bankernas räntemarginaler i Europeiska unionens medlemsländers banksektor under perioden 2007–2019, genom paneldataanalys och aggregerad data för varje lands banksektor. Vår utgångspunkt är teorin om marknadsstruktur och vi använder två strukturella mått för att mäta konkurrens på marknaden. Metoden är baserad på den modell som Ho and Saunders (1981) utformade, där banken ses som en riskavert förmedlare mellan låntagare och långivare. Modellen har sedan utökats till att lämpa sig för analyser på en nationellt aggregerad nivå, vilket är passande för denna studie. Resultatet visar att konkurrens på bankmarknaden inte på ett statistiskt signifikant sätt förklarar variabilitet i räntemarginalen. Istället visar resultatet att de statistiskt signifikanta faktorerna för räntemarginalen är mer bankspecifika variabler, såsom genomsnittlig operationell kostnad och kreditrisk. Trots att denna studie inte kan påvisa ekonomisk signifikans, ger den information om att ekonomiska policys bör utformas för att sänka den genomsnittliga operationella kostnaden snarare än att öka marknadskonkurrens, för att minska räntemarginalen.

Digital undervisning har blivit alltmer vanligt i skolans värld vilket har många fördelar. Tillgängligt undervisningsmaterial, öppet för alla att ta del av, består bland annat av videor på YouTube. Däremot finns det inte mycket forskning kring lärare och undervisningsmaterial på sociala medier som YouTube då dessa tillvägagångsätt fortfarande är väldigt nya, med tanke på teknologins snabba utveckling. Denna studie ämnar ta reda på hur lärare framställer undervisningsinnehåll om EU, närmare bestämt om EU-undervisningen ges en inrikespolitisk eller utrikespolitisk inramning. Studien syftar även till att ta reda på hur EU integreras i undervisning om nationell politik. Materialet består av ett flertal videor uppladdade av tre olika lärare på YouTube vars undervisningsinnehåll analyseras. Undersökningen kommer fram till att lärare tar upp olika ämnesinnehåll kring EU och därför inramas det också på olika sätt när det kommer till inrikespolitiska och utrikespolitiska kännetecken. Denna studie kan bidra till att hjälpa lärare förstå hur de kan lägga upp undervisningen om EU med hjälp av YouTube som ett digitalt verktyg. Studien kan även ge blivande och erfarna lärare verktyg att ge undervisningen en inrikespolitisk inramning med rätt förutsättningar att främja en politisk deltagarkompetens på EU-nivå hos eleverna.