This essay examines the implicit relationship between political science and rare events, or so called Black Swans. The purpose is to analyze Black Swan weakness by evaluating the nature of political analysis and political theories. The key to this assessment is the analysis of the predictive powers of political analysis and theories. This essay claims, on the basis of Karl Poppers historicism crit

During the devastating civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone women’s organizations played an important role for the emergence of peace, and are still influential in the building of equal and democratic societies. In Liberia, however, the women’s movement was more successful in influencing and affecting the warring parties for peace and gender equality and the purpose of this thesis is to outline

This thesis aims to develop a theory on the role of water in an intrastate peacebuilding process, which is an area of research that has not yet been explored. The notion presented and which drives the following argumentation is that water with its practical, essential, local and cooperative characteristics could be an important factor in a peacebuilding context. The theoretical discussions take as

Giant Unilamellar Vesicles (GUV) have the potential to play a dominating role in future scientific efforts to understand and model biological systems through the creation of artificial cells. GUV:s span a wide range of possible applications that include their use as biosensors, cell encapsulation agents and biomicroreactors. In order to allow GUV:s to reach their full potential, efficient, reliabl

̊r 1947 utbröt den så kallade Kashmirkonflikten och det har sedan dess varit mycket oroligheter mellan Indien och Pakistan om vem som har rätt till Kashmirområdet. Denna avhandling syftar till att förklara vilka faktorer som har bidragit till Kashmirkonfliktens uppkomst samt analysera hur dessa faktorer påverkat konfliktens utbrott . Det görs genom att analysera både internationella och inhemska f

This study is about citizen participation in regional visionary development and focuses on what makes the democratic system legitimate. The primary purpose of the study is to evaluate the regional visionary plan in aspect to normative ideas about democracy. This democratic norm is borrowed from K. Sjövik and focuses on citizen participation in all aspects of democracy. The primary material for thi

Since the mid 90s more focus has been put on the problems surrounding hooliganism, especially in the media. This began when football referee Anders Frisk was injured during a football game. Nowadays, the police use more and more resources to prevent the problems with hooliganism and new laws have been instituted to handle the problem. More and more politicians, football players, coaches, and club

Through discourse analysis I investigate how the Swedish liberal party, Folkpartiet, constructs two opposing identities in their discourse of alienation (in Swedish utanförskap). I draw from Torben Bech Dyrbergs theory on how identities are constructed through the logics of difference and equivalence (1997). Laclau and Mouffe are the main inspirations for analyzing the organization of the discours

That democracy brings peace has been long known. That war may, in certain cases, bring democracy has not. However, the essay begins by exploring the history of humanitarian and liberal interventions, as well as the history of ideas behind them. I have found that the first cases appeared in the 19th-century, though they were rare until the second half of the 20th. I have also discussed legal and et

The use of walls as divider between countries has, since the fall of the Berlin wall, been thought of as a dead tradition. With the common thinking of globalization as an opening and integration force, walls between countries could be seen as a paradox. They symbolises closed borders and cold relations. Since 1991 no more than 26 walls between countries has been built. This thesis examines why wal

This study adds to the extensive body of research concerning different aspects of the Securitization Theory formulated by Buzan, Waever and de Wilde in Security: A New Framework for Analysis (1998) and focus on the theoretically underdeveloped relationship between the securitizing actor and the audience. The case studied is the securitization of homosexuality in Uganda with the proposal of the “An

Vårt syfte med arbetet är att bidra med en större förståelse av de olika konflikter och dilemman socialsekreterare kan hamna i, genom att se närmare på hur etik och lojalitet tas in i deras arbeten. Vi ser även på detta utifrån olika värde perspektiv: demokrativärden och ekonomivärden. Vårt huvudsakliga material består av åtta samtalsintervjuer med socialsekreterare från Malmö och Lund. Vi har ana

This comparative case study tries to answer the question why the budget consolidation process began earlier in Latvia then in Greece after the 2008 financial crisis. The established theories predict one-party majority governments to be more decisive than coalition governments, but in this essay the opposite is the case. Theories regarding the impact of protests on budget consolidations are also te

I denna uppsats undersöker vi problemrepresentationen av migration i EU:s gemensamma migrationspolitik. Analysen har gjorts med hjälp av Carol Bacchis metod för policyanalys ”What’s the problem represented to be?”. Policyn som analyseras är Stockholmsprogrammet. Undersökningen mynnar ut i att migration representeras främst på tre olika sätt, som frihetsproblem, rätteviseproblem och säkerhetsproble

För drygt tio år sedan infördes sluten ungdomsvård som ersättning av fängelsestraffet för lagöverträdare mellan 15 och 17 år. Tidigare var fängelse enda påföljden som fanns att tillgå för unga som gjort sig skyldiga till mycket allvarlig brottslighet. Lagstiftaren fann situationen otillfredsställande, eftersom fängelsemiljön ansågs olämplig för unga personer. Istället skulle de unga nu beredas indOver ten years ago closed institutional youth care was introduced as a substitute of the prison sentence for offenders between the ages of 15 and 17. Previously, imprisonment was the only sanction for young people who have committed serious delinquency. The legislature found the situation unsatisfactory as the prison environment was considered harmful and inappropriate for young people. The respon

Gender mainstreaming has since the mid-1990s been the strategy adopted in order to incorporate the gender perspective in all decision making. Although the strategy existed for almost 18 years, research shows that the implementation of gender mainstreaming still suffers from shortcomings. Many municipalities mention the lack of methodological support, knowledge and specific Equality strategists as

In this essay I have examined the factors that may be underlying the fact that the co-operation between the Trade Union Confederation, LO, and the Social Democratic Workers Party, SAP, in Sweden is still strong. In Norway and Denmark this collaboration broke a few years ago and so I made an account of various factors that may have contributed to this break in Norway and Denmark, which I then compa

Economic growth has for a long time been the policy goal for Western cities. Since the decline of the Keynesian economic model, cities have to compete against others – on a global arena – to attract citizens and corporations to their cities. To reach the policy goal of economic growth cities develops growth oriented strategies. In a Swedish context, local politics have often been understood as the

This thesis analyzes the legitimacy of lay judge’s participation in Swedish courts, addressed as ‘nämndemän’. The Swedish lay judges are assigned in accordance to the proportional share that the political parties receive in the municipal elections. Lay judges therefore represent a political party in court, though sworn by oath not to be affected by it in their judging. The question stated is wheth