The Council on Legislation (Lagrådet) is a key institution in the Swedish democratic process whose role is to examine proposed legislation. This thesis seeks to combine legal and political literature in order to explain under what conditions governments chose to adhere to, or not adhere to, their critique. The study was conducted as a quantitative analysis of significantly criticized bills pro

In a democratic system, various party political views are set against each other, i.e. there are opposing positions, for voters to choose between, because in a democratic system the power proceeds from the people. However, national parliaments within the EU are criticised for their democratic deficit, which can be caused by the lack of opposition, a so called opposition deficit. The problem is con

The year of 2045 Sweden aims for net-zero emissions, also known as carbon neutrality. Furthermore, the national transport sector accounts for one third of the country’s total carbon emissions. This entails that the transport sector of Sweden is facing a major challenge and this thesis contributes with insights to the current policy process of the nation’s long-term infrastructure planning. By exam

This study concerns digital diplomacy and the changing role of the diplomatic profession. By constructing a survey followed by descriptive in-depth interviews, this study demonstrates that Swedish diplomats have overall a positive view on social media’s role within the profession. The use of social media has increased the transparency of the profession and the citizen dialoge. Furthermore, this th

Protests are a common way for citizens to express their grievances and can occur in almost every regime. Each state reacts to protests in different ways – some listen to citizens' demands and adjust their policies, others resort to forceful methods, but in one and the other case, the media occupy an important place among the tools of response. This becomes especially evident in non-democratic

In this paper I study the implementation of a trust-based governance reform in Malmö municipalitys division of early childhood education. Trust-based governance is a way to relieve the negative effects of New Public Management by showing the profession more trust and giving them more room for maneuver. The questions posed are if the implementation was successful, in other words is the division of

The thesis aims to explain the American automaker’s drastic shift in opinion regarding Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE)-standards. After years of lobbying for weaker standards, the automakers suddenly dropped their support for President Trump’s deregulatory attempts and sided with California, the state Trump had an ongoing legal fight with over fuel economy regulation. The thesis intends

During the last decades, a growing scientific focus has been aimed towards climate change and climate mitigation. As local communities often have more ambitious climate policies than their governments, the role of municipalities and local climate governance has received an increased scientific focus. An area where climate mitigation has been especially hard to achieve is the transport sector. One

Eric Voegelin and Leo Strauss are two prominent critics of modernity. In this paper I inquire into whether or not these two thinkers share a core understanding of modernity, what that would be, and what kind of relevance that would have. I find that they do indeed share a core understanding of modernity, and that this understanding is characterized by modernity as an artificial limitation of the h

There are many policy areas where the different governmental bodies need to work together to provide a service. Healthcare for elders in Sweden is one example where the region and municipality need to coordinate. The collaboration of eldercare has been criticised over the years for not living up to the set standards. The responsible authority for eldercare has changed a number of times since its i

This thesis dives into the issue of conflict-related sexual violence through the empirical case of the African Union and its Peace and Security Council (PSC), aiming at understanding how conflict-related sexual violence is constructed within the PSC between 2010-2020. Applying a feminist power theory and through a discourse analysis, the thesis asks four open-ended questions regarding: conflicts,

This thesis explores a prominent practice in modern society: critique. More precisely, the institutionalisation of critique is investigated, as the thesis aims to understand what sort of critique the Swedish Gender Equality Agency performs. Through a synthesis of thoughts from the poststructuralist tradition and contemporary critical theory, two ideal-types of feminist criticism – system bursting

Bolivia holds among the biggest reserves of lithium in the world. Lithium-ion batteries are essential components in electric vehicles, solar panels, and wind turbines, and are therefore crucial for a global transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Meanwhile, the extraction process of lithium can cause large environmental damage. Bolivia has previously failed to industrialize its lithium,

’Populism’ is a term with contested meanings in both academia and media, but the focus of debate on this topic is often directed towards the former category. This essay focuses on the latter and so examines the different meanings of the term ’populism’ in Swedish opinion journalism. It does so by applying terms and theoretical concepts from the poststructuralist discourse theory developed by

With the adoption of its Global Strategy from 2016, the European Union set an ambition of becoming strategically autonomous in global affairs. The aim of strategic autonomy has been extensively studied as a defence strategy, though scholars have found that little has been achieved due to lack of will in the Union. At the same time strategic autonomy has received increased political attention in mo

The politicization of scientific facts, such as climate change, is a highly debated phenomenon in the US. It is well established that climate change is both real, and human-caused. Still, significant parts of the American political community refuse to adhere to this scientific fact. During the Trump administration this resulted in the American Environmental Protection Agency becoming the focal poi

The aim of this study is to investigate whether crops are a mechanism through which drought affects terrorist activity. The theory suggests that drought can affect conflict if the group or country affected also is dependent on agriculture, experiences low economic development and is politically excluded. This study adds the perspective that decreased crop harvests, due to drought, can be understoo

Why certain decision-making actors frame different conditions as problems within policymaking depends on various political factors. However, in the end, these actors aim to attract attention and cause change. The actors who produce these problem frames can from a theoretical point of view be perceived as problem brokers. A new model, titled Social Impact Bonds, has during the past years attracted

This master`s thesis designed to understand the social policy preferences of unemployed people from human capital investment perspectives. The aim of the research is to explain social policy preferences by referring to human capital theory to understand unemployed people`s preferences between unemployment cash benefits and labor market trainings. The research takes upskilling, earnings, together w

Previous conclusions in the research area established a decline of the European Union actorness on a global scale. One reason for this could possibly be that other international actors have increased their involvement from several aspects in regions where the European Union previously had a major influence, such as Africa and the Western Balkans. Therefore, the aim of this study is to broaden and