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This thesis is a study of women in Belfast in two working-class ethno-national communities: Falls (Catholic/Nationalist/Republican) and Shankill (Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist). Theories of gendered nationalism and transversalism are used to analyze the material from a qualitative interview study. The study focuses on intersections of gender and nation: women’s identity as biological, cultural and

A global trend of decentralisation has been present in the last decades. Since the 1980s, most countries have transferred power and resources from the centre to subnational levels of government. This trend has also been present in the developing world where it has been encouraged by international organisations as a way of promoting citizen participation and democracy. The purpose of this thesis is

This study focuses on the part of the policy process called implementation. Theorists like Lipsky (1980) and Rice (2012) assign the street-level bureaucrats a major role in this process. The street-level bureaucrats of object in this study are personnel on group homes for unaccompanied minors. Since the children do not have anyone else to look after them, it is the welfare states responsibility to

As part of the 2013 foreign proposal Sweden’s foreign minister Carl Bildt announced that the Swedish embassies were to be obliged to be present on Facebook and Twitter. Today you can find all the Swedish embassies on social media and one of the aims is to engage directly with citizens by posting updates regarding Sweden. The Internet is enabling new approaches to diplomatic communication. This cas

The aim of this master´s thesis is to identify the implied problem behind the activation policy jobb- och utvecklingsgarantin as well as uncover the discourses that make this problem thinkable. The thesis relies on an understanding that policies imply an understanding of a problem that needs to be solved. According to this thesis theoretical approach, the understanding of a problem doesn’t reflect

This paper will deal with why party funding regimes in established democracies differ. It examines the variation of funding in two ways: the new trend towards more public funding and the growing tendency for state intervention in party finance regulations. By using new, comprehensive data, it is hoped to contribute to the field of political finance. The data set is used with a large-n research str

According to Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau’s discourse theory, language is a social practise that constructs knowledge. Thus, how we name a political problem in society defines it’s actual content and how we are able to define a solution to the problem. The purpose of this paper is to examine how we may use logics from the discourse theory to destabilise the gender order in Swedish gender equa

This thesis explores the diversionary use of force in the context of The United Kingdom. Building on theory that suggests that diversionary tactics are most likely when domestic turmoil affects the core constituents of the incumbent party, I operationalize domestic turmoil as macroeconomic conditions that disfavor the core constituents of the incumbent party and test its effects on the initiation,

There is an urbanization process going on all over the world and even if the process has a slower pace in Sweden now than during the industrialization period, the rural areas has experienced a general population decline the last two decades, despite a population growth nationally. This population decline has negative consequences for the Swedish rural municipalities and most of them uses, beside t

An increased regional trade in Africa is often defined as a key tool for a continued development of the continent, but although a numerous of policies aiming at increasing the trade have been adopted, the intra-regional trade remains stubbornly low. Why is that so? In this thesis some of the factors that potentially are affecting the trade are studied in a qualitative design. By conducting case st

This essay is a rational choice study sculptured after Allison, Zelikows famous study, Essence of decision. It debates the options Putin had when he annexed Ukraine’s, Crimean peninsula? We try to put ourselves into the shoes of Putin to see what he sees and to make an investigation. What else could he have done and for what reasons? There are four options debated, 1, to annex Crimea with illegal

When talking about gender equality work in public sector in Sweden two words come to mind, ‘gender’ and ‘mainstreaming’. Gender mainstreaming is Sweden’s official strategy to reach the national gender equality goals. Despite its popularity the strategy has received criticism for being too fixated on process and thus mainly focusing on methods, tools and policy instruments instead of addressing the

My thesis aims to examine the steering of the organisation and activities of the governmental agency ‘svenska ESF-rådet’, the agency responsible for the administration of the European Social Fund in Sweden. The main part of the organisation and its activity takes place on the regional level and my thesis is a case-study of the region ‘Sydsverige’ which encompass the counties of Scania and Blekinge

Every now and then some politician or political scientists argues publicly that Sweden's democracy would benefit from a change from the current electoral system, PR-system, to a First Past the Post system. A country's electoral system is far from the only tool that can develop the democracy. However, it is a rather forgotten tool. This thesis examines the advantages and disadvantages of Sw

Då Sverige rankas vara ett land utan korruption enligt Transparency international så väcktes det stor uppståndelse när Uppdrag granskning avslöjade Göteborgshärvan med fall av mutor, bedrägeri och klientelism. I vår studie vill vi ur ett teoretiskt perspektiv analysera implementeringen av New Public Management inom offentlig förvaltning och dess påverkan på maktmissbrukande tendenser inom organisa

This thesis analyse different understanding of the world how this leads to different actions with real consequences for people. In a public policy chain from the government of Sweden down to the field in Burkina Faso, civil servants have been interviewed in order to identify changes in discourses and what they may potentially mean. The use of qualitative data gives a deeper understanding of how in

This Bachelor thesis critically studies how women’s identities are constructed in resolutions put together by the United Nations. The thesis focuses on three Resolutions on Democratic Republic of the Congo, (RES/2053(2012))(RES/2098(2013) and (RES/2147(2014) in order to highlight how women are being portrayed in new mandates given to intervention forces. By applying Critical Discourse Analysis, Po

This thesis explores depolitication as an institutional and discursive phenomenon in the context of Swedish political economy. Although a number of scholars have argued that depolitication is a process that operates on both institutional and ideational levels in politics, existing research has overwhelmingly been occupied with an institutional approach. Building my theoretical framework on two bod

After the economic recession suffered during the eighties decade, the population under poverty conditions has increased dramatically. With the purpose of amend the situation; President Carlos Salinas has established the biggest anti-poverty program in Mexican history, the Programa Nacional de Solidaridad (PRONASOL). The following three administrations continued the implementation of these policies

In this thesis I analyze the Star Wars saga and its description of the rise of dictators and compare them with common criticism of the US Congress and President. Central to the Star Wars Saga is the tale of how democratic societies transition into military dictatorships. As creator George Lucas has mentioned in interviews he sees democracies as weak during political upheaval, democratically electe