The European Union (EU) is a unique foreign policy actor, because of its history and the diversity of its member states. The EU has developed a distinct approach to promoting human rights and democracy in third states. Its focus lies on positive engagement through constructive dialogue. This preference for using positive rather than negative engagement is the subject of this thesis. It is argued t

The events of 9/11 and the subsequently launched ?war on terror? ushered in a new era of world politics. The new, global security agenda came to dominate international politics bringing about the securitization of a range of international policies. As a part of this process, international development cooperation has come to be increasingly articulated in the language of security as well, i.e. it h

Glimmingehus is one of the most well preserved medieval castles in Sweden. This essay examines why it was built ? what were the intentions of the Lord, Jens Holgersen? Even though we?ll never be able to ask him, the answer to the question ?why?? can give us an insight of how a man of his position thought in the Late Medieval time. To answer the question the castle are explored through three diffe

This study sets to investigate the reasons behind state action in an enlarged Europe through its regional policy and the structural funds for the budget period 2007-2013 by the example of Poland. The question posed is: why is there a centralization trend on a national level in Poland when EU decentralizes its regional policy? The analysis suggests that the answer can be found by adopting a state-c

This Master-thesis assesses the possible difficulties that surround the implementation of EU directives into the legal systems of the EU member states. The aim of the thesis is twofold. Firstly, It introduces a structural framework that is able to structure the analysis of implementation in the European Union. It starts from the premise that the EU can be studied as if it was a Federation. The fra

This article attempts to broaden the analytical framework of the European Union (EU) security policy literature. The wider aim is to provide a conceptual link between the engagement in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), crisis resolution and post-conflict peace-building in general. I develop a context specific analysis of the EU's role in the DRC, while enabling the extrapolation of gener

This thesis examines the impact of the objects that surrounds us and the practices of consumption in which we engage on the cultural constructions we live and vice versa taking its point of departure in an examination of the objects and consumption practices that have been used in the definition of the construct of modernity in various cultures. Theoretically it develops a framework based on speec

Kvinnor har under lång tid arbetat för fred världen över och kopplingen mellan kvinnorörelsen och fredsrörelsen är stark. Den poststrukturalistiska feministen Nira Yuval-Davis har sammanställt tre förklaringar till varför kvinnor arbetar med fred och varför de ofta väljer att göra detta i fredsorganisationer för enbart kvinnor. I denna teoriprövande studie har jag testat denna förklaringsmodell de

Den här uppsatsen söker svaret på vad som genererar hög kvinnorepresentation i parlamenten. Vi har valt att göra en kvantitativforskning av alla världens fria demokratier som inledning, sedan en fallstudie av Sydafrika, Mongoliet och Ghana. Avslutningsvis följer en jämförande studie mellan dessa tre länder, för att ytterligare fördjupa vår forskning. Vi kommer med hjälp av våra analyser påvisa

Veto player have come to serve as an explanatory fact in the divergence of policy outcomes. Contemporary research on the subject of policy making argues that policy stability is more likely in political settings with multiple veto players, although it restricts a government's ability to push through reforms. The ambition of this thesis is to examine the affect political institutions have

The topic of homosexuality was until recently a taboo in Russian public discussion, but has during the last years become a hotly debated issue. Analyzing what I call the new homophobic narrative I isolate and examine two ways of ?othering? homosexuals, constructing them as strangers, when sexual minorities are discussed in today´s Russia. Sexual deviants are portrayed as threats to the nation and

This article seeks to re-imagine the Alandish hembygdsrätt to a regional citizenship. Hembygdsrätt is a judicial tool that regulates acquisition of property and voting rights. Its a central part of the autonomy as it constitutes a social-border between Finns and Alanders. However as Åland and Finland became members of the European Union questions arouse concerning the legitimacy of the current st

The essay is an evaluative study of student democracy in the Swedish high school, its departure point being the 1994 national curriculum for the voluntary school forms (Lpf 94). We adopted an interview method, the survey units consisting in a number of high school teachers. The analysis has two principal theoretical departure points, involving democracy theory and implementation analysis, respecti

Detta är en komparativ teoriutvecklande studie av fallen Baskien och Katalonien. Vi behandlar civilsamhället och nationalismens roll i regionernas strävan efter ökat självstyre. Med hjälp av en historisk tillbakablick söker vi förklaringar till den samtida politiken. Resultatet leder till att vi kompletterar en väl etablerad teori på området nationalism. Vi kommer fram till att både det politiska

Qatar är ett ekonomiskt välmående land, med ett starkt auktoritärt politiskt system. Landet är därför ett avvikande fall ur moderniseringsteorin, som menar att ekonomiskt välmående leder till demokrati. Vi börjar med att förklara varför Qatar avviker från moderniseringsteorin, och fortsätter sedan med att pröva ett antal teorier och perspektiv, för att se om dessa bättre förklarar frånvaron av dem

This essay is about security and safety in the city. More precisely it is concerned about the role of the institutions that aims to raise the perceived security and safety and their understanding of these concepts. I study two of the municipality's project in this field in the city of Malmö. Documents concerning these projects are analysed with a discourse analysis inspired by Chantal Mouffe a

The Swedish alcohol policy has by tradition a restrictive composition, with high taxes and the Swedish Alcohol Retailing Monopoly as important elements. The Moderate Party has been powerful critics of the alcohol policy and has advocated a reformation. However, today the Moderate Party seems to have changed the attitude towards the alcohol policy and it even supports the Swedish initiative to crea

Ett nytt globalt system, inte nytt i tiden, dock i omfattning och påverkan, håller på att förändra maktordningen och de politiska relationerna så som vi känner dem. Detta innebär bland annat att ansvarsfördelningen mellan offentliga och privata aktörer blir mer oklar och tar nya former. Begreppet Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) syftar på det etiska ansvar företag bör ta för sin verksamhet, s

Uppsatsen ?Hur mår du lilla hjärnan?? syftar till att klargöra varför det finns få kvinnliga chefer på toppnivå inom den offentliga sektorn. Studiens första del utgörs av en litteraturstudie där vi utifrån teorier om glastaket, könsmärkta organisationer samt socialkonstruktivism, fastställer rådande ledarskapsdiskurs samt klarlägger de hinder som är mest relevanta. Studiens andra del är empirisk o

Sjukvården har sedan slutet av åttiotalet varit satt under en konstant press för att sänka sina utgifter. Reformer och besparingar har blivit en del av vårdarbetets vardag. I denna uppsats försöker vi skapa oss en bild av hur läkaren, som är vårdens viktigaste aktör, ser på den ?nya? sjukvården. Med stöd i teori har vi sökt svaret hos den enda tillförlitliga källan som finns att tillgå, läkarna s