Social capital is a concept that has gained widespread use and recognition in many academic disciplines. This interest stems from an idea that the social capital produced in the organisations and associations of civil society can be beneficial in the creation and furthering of democratic processes and economic development among many other things. Using normative methods of consequentiality I will

In ”Mapping the Policy Space II”, the CMP created a database of the policy positions of all political parties in the EU, OECD, and Eastern Europe. This paper means to use the information of the nordic conservative parties from a hypothesis that the conservative parties has moved towards the midst of the right-left scale. The dataset stretches from 1990 to 2003. Each country's conservative part

In this thesis I try to find out the motives behind the former king of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck decision to democratize Bhutan. I do also try to find out and which motive that has actually been the crucial one behind the democratization. To do this, I have used a method based on Axel Hadenius models for the discretion of motives and rationalistic decision-making. The result of the essay proc

This thesis attempts to develop the understanding of the relation between the concepts of power, communication and cognitive effects. In his analysis, theorist Steven Lukes suggests a “third dimension of power” focusing on power as a means of alterning the ideas and wishes of individuals through influencing perception and cognitive effects – in his view, the most powerful concept of power. This re

Using the protection for exporters theory the thesis analyzes the EU’s quest for world markets in the case of trade negotiations with Singapore. The protection for exporters theory assumes governments to shift bias from the import competing sector to the export competing sector when exporters are exposed to potential losses. The thesis concludes three main findings of why the EU shifted policy tow

There are currently only six countries in Africa that can be considered as free. However, none of them are yet democratically consolidated. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine what issues remains to be dealt with for these countries to become democratically consolidated. The method used is a case study on Namibia that is based on the theory by Linz and Stepan. The findings are that Namib

This paper intends to present a picture of how the employees at three factories in Sri Lanka percieve themselves in terms of influence and power in their workplace. The three factories are all under swedish ownership; Dem Collective, Tailor Store and Trelleborg. The three companies have been chosen because of their ambition to be good employers, but they have all chosen different paths to achieve

This study is about diplomatic recognition, and why some states have not received full diplomatic recognition from the international community. The central research-problem focuses on the factors that affect a state's foreign policy decision not to recognize other states. Taiwan and Kosovo are chosen as research-cases through a strategic case-selection. The theoretical framework used in this s

How does the identity discourse appear when a country is negotiating for an EU membership? Is it positive or negative towards taking part of the European identity? This essay is a critical discourse analysis inspired by Fairclough, where I analyze the Croatian identity discourse during 2005-2010 in three Croatian newspapers. To clarify my analysis and to operationalize my concept, I have selected

Social considerations in public procurement concerns the using of public procurement as a tool in order to achieve political goals of a social nature, such as to reduce unemployment, to ensure a safe and healthy work environment or to combat discrimination. This is potentially a controversial issue since it might come into conflict with public procurement legislation. But the laws concerning this

International organizations have through the past twenty years been criticized for suffering from a democratic deficit. Many researchers have argued that the recipe for curing this deficit is involving civil society actors in the policy cycle. Since this has been applied in practice, an evaluation would be appropriate. This thesis uses a normative evaluation analysis to empirically test the statem

In a world where we can find and do almost anything online, social sciences are obliged to look to online activities as a way of describing how we live our lives. One of the most fascinating things is the emergence of online political activism. The author develops existing theories on hacktivism, digitally correct hacktivism and tries to broaden and problematize these concepts. The reasoning revol

This thesis investigates how gender equality is represented in the regional development policy in Swedish region Skåne. Drawing from a discursive perspective it sees policy as a process in which both problems and solutions are given shape. A method for policy analysis developed by political scientist Carol Bacchi; “What’s the problem represented to be?” is used in the analysis. The method is suppl

What is planning? It is easy to see planning as something who happens between decisions and implementations. But planning can also be viewed as decision-making. There are many different forms of planning. Judith Innes and David Booher say that there are four types of planning especially important. These forms of planning are included in most, if not all, policy processes accordingly to them. The m

The EU has a legacy of being a normative power. They also have a history of cooperating with developing countries trying to promote these normative ideals. This cooperation is for example guided by the promotion of human rights, democracy and the rule of law to mention a few. The study aims to investigate this characteristica concerning the EU’s relations with South Africa. South Africa is a quite

Since 2008, a picture is emerging of a global rush of the world’s farmland, referred to as land acquisition. Several factors underpin these land acquisitions such as the financial crisis and the food prices hikes of 2007/8. Another key driver behind the deals is the biofuel boom that has been a major cosmopolitical topic the last few years. Land acquisition refers to when a wealthier nation, firm

This study examines an ideological content related to Swedish political parties in regards to EMU. In order to do so theoretical starting points has been used, originating from the concepts of cleavages and dimensions. More specifically, the relevant cleavage in this study is the one called: nationalism-supranationalism, and the study also includes two of its dimensions concerning different social

This is a comparative case study with a most-similar design of Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia’s (Zimbabwe) political development prior to the colonies’ first democratic experiences, which coincide with their independence. A historical analysis of Southern Rhodesia’s agricultural export economy shows that it shapes structures that hinder the democratic development. The same analys

The meaning of freedom is a contested concept and so is also the understanding of gestational surrogacy. In this essay these two much-disputed subjects will be united, and the aim for this essay is to detect different understandings for conditions of freedom concerning those women that are acting as surrogate mothers. In sum, if gestational surrogacy can be viewed as an expression of women´s freed

The issue of water in the Israel-Palestine conflict is a long-debated topic that continues to be one of the main obstacles in peace negotiations today. Extensive research exists on the water crisis on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but few studies scrutinizing how the situation plays out in East Jerusalem are available. This thesis aims to fill a small part of this scientific gap. By gathering inf