Because of a more globalised world the national states have been forced to make structural changes at both national, regional and local level to cope with different challenges. The regional community has become an important area which has resulted in a policy of more self governing, both for the regional and the local level. The aim of the thesis is to study the relation between regional and loca

This thesis is dedicated to analysing the relationship between Islam and democracy and the role played by Civil Society in a process towards democracy. This theme is further elaborated through a comprehensive study of three modern Muslim intellectuals: Abdolkarim Soroush (Iran), Hasan Hanafi (Egypt), and Tariq Ramadan (Switzerland), and their thoughts about and views on Islam and democracy. Islam

Studien koncentrerades på den ökade uppmärksamheten kring pokerspel i media. Intresset tycks ha ökat kring detta "fenomen" vilket fört med sig både kommersiell uppmärksamhet och kanske en ökad nyfikenhet för dem som tidigare inte varit spelintresserade. Föreliggande analys diskuterade varför ett sådant intresse plötsligt fått genomslagskraft. Diskussionen inleddes med ett teoriavsnitt dä

This thesis deals with democratic responsibility and accountability in a globalized world. The ambition is to provide the reader with tools to analyze responsibility issues at the global level. To achieve this, three types of analytical approaches are used; empirical-, normative-, and constructive. The thesis starts out by concluding that to be democratically responsible is to be responsible f

The aim of the thesis is to examine how central collective actors in the Swedish subsystem of renewable fuels use their positions of power and influence to their own specific interests and needs. In particular the thesis looks at the problems of climate change and oil scarcity and how renewable fuels are described as a potential solution. Using agenda setting theory and Steven Lukes three dimensio

The purpose of this study was to enlighten the views of male social work students on; the social work profession, social work status and their career options. Also, the study aimed at getting these students angles of approach on the fact that they, being men, are a minority group within the profession of social work. Some of the main questions were: Why does not social work as a profession seem to

Are NATO and the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) destined to be roommates or rivals? The transatlantic relationship between the EU and the United States permeates this question, which is examined by three theoretical approaches. Firstly, a realist perspective is used to answer: What are the national interests of the four pivotal states regarding the ESDP and NATO? For France, the ESDP

För cirka ett år sedan, hösten 2004, skedde en intensiv debatt i Sydsvenskan kring hur stadsdelen Rosengård i Malmö presenterats i media. Man menade att mediebilden som presenterats var skev i jämförelse med hur verkligheten faktiskt såg ut. Problemet med att den mediebild som presenteras av förorterna i dagspressen är skev i jämförelse med hur verkligheten ser ut är ingen ny frågeställning. Debat

This thesis examines the possibility of Bolivian indigenous women’s social movements’ getting their demands of a gender equal society fulfilled in the new state which was initiated in 2005 when Evo Morales became the first president representing the indigenous people of the country. By using a qualitative method I have showed that although the Bolivian indigenous women’s social movements’ historic

This essay examines the international communitys intervention in Bosnia. The purpuse i to give the reader a deaper understanding of the problems appeared in re-building the bosnian state. Office of the higher representive (OHR), was to become the koordinator of the recontruction of the institutions and governance. The theory used fore the examination is state-building, whith an alingnment of st

In Jaunuary 1995 Sweden became part of the European Union. Consequently Sweden agreed upon beeing part of a greater integration project with influences of federalism. However, many argue that the discourse that has been been dominant in Sweden is the discourse where we focus on the national state instead of the EU. In my essay I question whether the discourse about ?nationalstatslogiken? is found

Allteftersom makten i viss mån har förskjutits från "government" till "governance", bör det följaktligen medföra ökat krav på demokrati inom governance. När internationella organisationer med tiden får mer makt och inflytande i olika delar av samhället bör dessa också ta mer ansvar för att främja demokratin. Detta eftersom demokrati anses vara grundpelaren i "moderna"

Syftet med den här analysen är att ta reda på hur konstruktivistisk teori förklarar skapandet av israelisk identitet. För att utföra studien använder vi oss av en narrativ metod, där vi analyserar en bok skriven av en judisk, israelisk kvinna - Susan Nathan - och en intervju med en judisk, israelisk man. Vi undersöker deras tankar angående deras identitet med utgångspunkt i teori om nationalitet,

Prior to the end of the Cold War, China's foreign policy was in large shaped by a confrontational, power-based discourse. However, since the early 1990s, China's foreign policy in general and its regional policy in particular has undergone significant change. Today, China operates in large with, and within major international and regional institutions and regimes. This is also notable conc

The purpose of this thesis is to study how homosexuals and homosexuality were represented in the press during the trials against the Pentecostal pastor Åke Green, and to what kind of social representations and narratives these representations can be related. Using critical discourse analysis and theories about the differentiation between in- and outgroups I try to unveil implicit meanings and att

Scholars, philosophers, politicians, and citizens alike have been fascinated, since their first implementation in old Athens, with the conceptualisation of separation of powers principle, and the checks and balances mechanisms. Through a case study of the US constitution, this essay analyzes how the separation of powers principle and checks and balances mechanisms, with regards to foreign policy,

Every now and then new political ideas appear which creates debate. A current example of political debate is the one which concerns the creation of a feminist political party in Sweden -Feministiskt initiativ. Apparent in the current debate is that there are two existing conflicts of ideas present. The liberal thought of politics of ideas stands against feminism's demand for presence in the po

The special relationship between Israel and the US has been subject to questioning, and good many theories have tried to explain why it is so strong. The most common explanation is rooted in the school of realism, where strategy and national interest decide who one's ally is. This essay aspires to examine another possible reason for allianceformation; identity. Several books, which make for th

The aim of this thesis is to discuss the construction of Taiwanese identity in Shanghai and compare with the studies on identity formation in Taiwan itself. The thesis is divided into three parts: cultural identity, ethnic identity and political identity. A total of 10 male and female students from Taiwan who had resided a year and above and enrolled in higher education in Shanghai were interviewe

Japanese model was viewed as an exemplary capitalism model of successful long-term economic growth. However, after 1990s, Japanese ?bubble economy? burst and Japan turned into the phase of economy winter. Under the new international conditions, the Anglo-American model seems more suitable for globalization and liberalized market, whereas the Japanese model was becoming more problematic and the fea