Master theses

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Om detta må vi inte berätta? En experimentell undersökning om legitimiteten för prioriteringar inom hälso- och sjukvården
(2008-09-09T14:06:14Z) de Fine Licht, Jenny; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
A matter of rights: Human rights adherence and crosscountry HAART access disparities in sub-Saharan Africa
(2009-06-04T08:48:19Z) Olson, Carolina; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
International Maritime Regimes – Business Rules?
(2009-06-04T08:54:07Z) van Berlekom, Willem; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
”Att rösta är ett måste! Men medlem ... det är ju en hel värld emellan!” En intervjuundersökning av politiskt intresserade medborgares skäl till att inte vara medlemmar i politiska partier
(2009-06-04T09:00:20Z) Åsbrink, Rebecka; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
Twingly och Twitter på se2009.eu. En fallstudie av det svenska EU-ordförandeskapets användning av sociala medier på ordförandeskapswebben
(2010-07-07) Svensson, Annika; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
Deliberative democracy theory holds that democracy is about active partaking on formal and informal arenas in the public sphere where fairly equal citizens can obtain knowledge, discuss, evaluate and affect the political agenda before decisions are made. In line with the deliberative vision of online deliberation social media such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Twingly offer such formal and informal arenas where people can obtain knowledge and interact with other people, and politicians. The Swedish EU-Presidency was the first EU-presidency to make use of social media and it was the first time the Swedish Government Offices used other social media than email and chat features. This thesis will examine the Swedish EU-Presidency’s ambitions of using social media as well as the actual use of social media on the Swedish EU-Presidency website in the light of deliberative democracy theory. The aim of this thesis is, through a case study, to analyze the Swedish EU-Presidency’s use of social media in the light of deliberative democracy theory.
Liberty, Equality, Exclusion - Sverigedemokraterna and liberal anti-immigrant frames in western Europe
(2010-07-07) Jansson, Anton; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
In this thesis, I firstly present my view on how to define the anti-immigrant party family in Western Europe. I argue for a broad grouping including parties sharing resentment towards immigration and multiculturalism as central contents of their politics even though they have different origins and partially different ideologies. To assert that anti-immigrant parties are right-wing authoritarian and ethnonationalist is not always accurate; instead parties use frames that work in specific country contexts. Secondly, I analyse the anti-immigrant frames used by Sverigedemokraterna and claim that it is possible to see a diffusion of the liberal frames used by the Dutch Lijst Pim Fortuyn. SD is increasingly claiming to stand up for e.g. secularism, freedom of speech, gender equality and LGBT rights against perceived threats from immigrant groups in general and Muslims in particular. These themes, almost exclusively related to immigrants, are combined with themes like costs and perceived criminality of immigrants. This diffusion of liberal frames to the national conservative SD can be at least partially understood by the fact that Sweden and the Netherlands are both liberal countries. It can be seen as confirmation of the argument that anti-immigrant parties with different ideologies can be grouped as a family.
The many faces of the Council of the European Union: A study of decision making in the Council
(2010-07-07) Nilsson, Magnus; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
Recent research shows that there is a slow but steady decrease in minister involvement in the Council of the European Union. This decrease cannot be explained by contemporary research and recent rational theoretical assumptions rather indicate that the minister involvement should be increasing. This thesis aims to clarify why the empirical evidence of minister involvement does not correspond with rational theoretical assumptions. The thesis clarifies and develops the theory and also makes a contribution to the on-going research of Council decision making theory and how the minister involvement influence Council and EU politicization. By using a mixed-method strategy a quantitative data study is conducted and the analyses of its results are used to implement an interview study with relevant DG units within the Council general secretariat. The result of the thesis shows us that underlying variables affecting minister involvement have not been taken into account when performing research into Council decision making. The main identified variable is instead that the clarity of EU-competence within a certain area clearly influences whether or not a minister becomes involved. These results can be used to further develop and test the theoretical understanding of Council decision making.
"We need both" - Identifying the different stages of norm promotion. The European Union as a promoter of values:the case of the Eastern Partnership.
(2010-08-04) Andersson, Sofie; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
The question of why agents adopt new norms have been adressed by a number of scholars, pointing at the importance of incentives as well as identification. Yet, less attention has been directed towards how norm promoters understand strategies for spreading values. More specifically, previous research has failed to consider the crucial role played by the officials assigned to convert the political goal of promoting values into functional policies. Aiming to bridge this gap as well as to increase our knowledge of the EU‟s newest foreign policy initiative, the Eastern Partnership, this thesis examines how the officials involved in the policy preparations reason about strategies for norm promotion. What assumptions were the basis for the discussions and how are the mechanisms of norm promotion understood? Interviews with civil servants representing the European Commission and the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicate that offering incentives and fostering socialisation are considered mutually reinforcing strategies which should be combined rather than chosen between. Moreover, the result suggests that the issue of context-dependency is a determining factor in the process of norm promotion/adoption. Hence, the main conclusion is that the officials regard the ideal strategy for promoting norms as one which takes the context of the norm target into account and invokes both the logic of consequence and logic of appropriateness.
Will People make it Sustainable? - A minor field study testing if and how public participation improves the environmental sustainability of projects in Kenya.
(2011-03-14) Bergenholtz, Pia; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
Motives behind the Allocation of Aid - A Case Study Regarding Swedish Motives for Aid Allocation
(2011-03-14) Andersson, Maria; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
Tactical voting: A study of voters' tactical considerations in the 2010 Swedish general election
(2011-06-10) Fredén, Annika; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
Most studies on tactical voting in proportional representation system focus on voting to help a party pass the threshold to the parliament. This study extends and develops the definition of tactical voting. The theoretical starting point is the rational choice theory of Anthony Downs (1957), who discusses voters’ strategic considerations in elections. From Downs’s perspective the rational voter considers the governmental consequences of voting. Downs distinguishes general rational voting, oriented towards the next-coming formation of government, from future oriented rational voting. This distinction is developed in the study, and tested on a contemporary electoral context. The specific case investigated is the 2010 Swedish general election. Tactical voting is defined as voting where party tactical considerations have decided vote choice. Among Swedish voters seven variants of tactical voting are identified. Five of these are short term: impact-voting, government-voting, relationship-voting, big party-voting and pass-the-threshold-voting, whereas two types are future oriented: signaling-voting and diversity-voting. In an explanatory analysis tactical voting is found to be related to hesitation about what party to choose and to young age.
The EU-Turkey Foreign Policy Relationship: A Security Approach - An analysis of Turkey’s orientation to the European Security Strategy and human security and its impact on the EU-Turkey relationship
(2011-07-04) Ahlmark, Karl-Fredrik; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
The slowing down of Turkey‘s accession negotiations with the EU has led to an increased emphasis of the foreign and security policy relationship. This thesis argues that this develop-ment, while merging with the EU enlargement policy, will have increased importance in the future. This creates the problem of how to measure Turkish compliance within this area, and the thesis advances the European Security Strategy (ESS) and the theory of human security (HS) as reasonable starting points. Besides elaborating on the possible problems appearing from this emerging merger, three explanatory continua – one treating socio-cultural secu-ritised/normative self-images at an aggregated level, the second traditional political cleavages and the third the notion of geography in the foreign and security policy formulation – are de-vised for the analysis of Turkey‘s orientation to these European views. This methodological skeleton aims moreover to circumvent the methodological nationalism easily trapping coun-try-based studies. In parallel to a discerned duality in the Turkish actorship, suggested to pro-vide a strategic quid pro quo between Turkish foreign and domestic policy, there are clear orientation to the European principles of the HS and the ESS. However, this does not in itself play to Turkey‘s advantage in the EU accession negotiations, the thesis concludes.
Religiosity and trust: a causal cross country approach
(2011-11-03) Svensson, Karl Fredrik; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
The aim and focus of this paper is to examine the origins of social trust and to add a theoretical contribution to the existing discussion regarding this topic. The paper will more precisely focus on the causes of social trust and on one factor in particular, how religiosity could explain differences in levels of social trust between countries. Earlier research has focused on matters such as religious affiliation and religious participation as explanatory factors of generalized trust. This paper tries to show that cross-country differences in levels of generalized trust might not depend so much on religious affiliation or participation but rather on the degree of religiosity in a given country. The first stage of the analysis consists of statistically examining whether a negative relationship can be detected between religiosity and generalized trust, with the results indeed showing a negative correlation between religiosity and levels of generalized trust. A second stage serves to explain why there might be a negative relationship between religiosity and generalized trust. Here variables measuring gender equality, tolerance of homosexuality and individual autonomy confirms a negative relation to religiosity whilst a positive one to generalized trust. The final stage of the analysis aims at verifying whether a causal relationship between religiosity and generalized trust would stand the test when confronted with alternative explanations to differences in levels of generalized trust. The multiple regression analyses confirms that religiosity has an independent and significant effect on differences in levels of generalized trust even when controlling for competing variables.
Gaming Together. When an imaginary world affects generalized trust
(2011-11-03) Lundmark, Sebastian; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
This thesis, by employing a four month self-selected panel-study of players from the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft as well as a control-group of non-players, find that generalized trust is negatively affected by participation in an online gaming environment. By creating an analytical framework of what constitutes a voluntary association this thesis also find that the Guilds in World of Warcraft constitutes such an association and that some of the negative effect by playing World of Warcraft can be explained by playing in ethnically homogenous guilds and off-set by playing in ethnically heterogeneous guilds. In other words, by playing MMORPG:s we are no longer only playing games, we are gaming together and that affect how we evaluate society.
EU Democratic Deficit and the Civil Society: Case study on EU migration policy
(2012-01-05) Dinescu, Mihai; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
The main aim of this study is to provide an insight to the European Union‟s attempt to find a remedy for the long-debated „democratic deficit‟, one of the major issues for the contemporary process of European integration. In the absence of other means for a direct relation with the citizens, as only the European Parliament is elected by all European citizens, the European Commission assumed its role of „guardian of the Treaties‟ and implemented a greater openness towards the civil society since the beginning of 2000s, in total compliance with the values of democracy in Europe. However, as all public policies implemented by national governments have to undergo an analysis of their effectiveness, supra-national policies promoted by the EU institutions need a similar attention. In this context, my thesis should be regarded as an attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of the Commission‟s improved openness towards NGO representatives, while looking not only at the simple presence of those civic groups in public debates at the EU level, but most importantly how much influence do they really hold in the EU institutional environment (in my case, the Commission). Presence does never grant a priori influence. This thesis will employ as research method the so-called „policy tracing‟, which enables a rather detailed focus on a very specific policy area. I will present to the available extent the context of two different Proposals for Directives and the process which determined the European Commission to formulate them, through dialogue with its social partners (especially the European NGOs). The results of my analysis show an unexpected superficiality of the Commission in listening to the civil society‟s inquiries and recommendations, keeping the Member States as the most influential entities in the process of agenda-setting at the European Commission. The Union‟s democratic deficit is still far from being cured.
EUROPEAN UNION – TURKEY RELATIONS REACTIONS OF POLITICAL PARTIES AND PUBLIC IN TURKEY TO THE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND MINORITY RIGHTS REFORMS CALLED BY EUROPEAN UNION AND REACTIONS OF EUROPEAN UNION TO THE IMPLEMENTATIONS OF THESE REFORMS
(2012-01-05) Uçar, Engin; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
After becoming a candidate member of Turkey to European Union at the end of 2005, European Union demanded to continue implement political reforms from Turkey such as religious freedom and minority rights. However, these reforms demands in Turkey were not welcomed by the all political actors and citizens. While European Union declared that Turkey needs further efforts to implement the religious freedom and minority rights reforms; with the negative memories about both ethnic and religious minorities from the history, Turkish side were assessed the religious freedom and minority rights demands of European Union as a threat to country and Turkish side avoided to implement these reforms.
Reforming the Merits: Meritocratic Recruitment and its Effect on Corruption. Case Study of Tajikistan
(2012-01-05) Kataeva, Azizakhon; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
The aim of this paper is to observe the causal mechanism between meritocratic recruitment and level of corruption. Previous cross country analyses showed positive results, however what is lacking in academic literature is micro-analyses that would capture the positive and negative ways of causal mechanism which will be an added value to the academic literature. The current research does not aim to build the hypothesis but rather complements the research on meritocracy by looking at a single case study, taking Tajikistan, a country in Central Asia. The paper identifies and analyses relative difference in implementation of the public administration reform and perception of sample agencies, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Finance pertaining to meritocracy and corruption. The empirical analysis is based on twenty one interviews with persons responsible for reform making and reform implementation. To validate the answers a group of independent observers is included. The findings of the empirical analysis show that meritocratic recruitment does not have an effect on the level of corruption at its earliest endorsement in a transit country such as Tajikistan. It is formally endorsed within the new public administration system, but instead a majority of civil servants are hired and promoted on the basis of patronage and all types of contacts.
Nation centered thinking and human centered work: A study of the conceptual understanding of, and the practical effects from, environmental security linkages in Moldova
(2012-01-05) Edquist, Erika; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
The study takes off from two major research gaps of environmental security and environmental securitization theories regarding the conceptual understanding of environmental security and the effects on awareness, financial resources and involved actors from linking environment and security. The aim is to develop the theories and to increase the knowledge of both the conceptual understandings of environmental security and how the linkage between security and environment affects the treatment of environmental issues. The study was conducted through semi-structured interviews with politicians and actors in organizations in Moldova and the results show that the conceptual understanding of environmental security differs from the practical environmental work. In other words -- the understanding foremost goes in line with national security and the practical work is focusing on the protection of the people and in more human security ways. The results also show that the effects from linking security and environment differ between different fields of environmental issues and that they do not fully support the theories of securitization. Further, the results indicate that the effects from a security linkage are not as state-centric as the securitization theories refer to.
Decentralisation; the road to better Quality of Government? A comparative case study of Multan and Larkana, Pakistan
(2012-01-05) Varraich, Aiysha Kanval; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
This paper investigates whether an institutional reform such as decentralisation results in improved quality of government (better service delivery and less corruption) to the final users –the citizens and at what expense? In the context of developing states, evidence suggests that decentralisation not only results in aggravating both regional disparities and the capture of local government by local elites. An apt case study is that of Pakistan, where both conditions are present; decentralisation of government took place and the presence of local elites capturing local governments within the smaller cities of the provinces. It recreates the conditions of a ‗natural experiment‘ since decentralisation was introduced in 2000 and rolled back after a decade. Also, we can compare the effects of different compositions of local elites over service delivery, i.e. are they able to capture government to their own benefit? Or on the contrary is government closer to the citizens? This is a comparative study focusing on two similar cities known for their elite capture: Multan and Larkana. The quality of government is to be measured through the service delivery of education, health care and law enforcement. The results from the empirical data shows an interactive effect between decentralisation and the structure of the local elite: the result is multifaceted: increased regional disparities, increased quality of services, and contrary to theory –increased corruption. Where the local elite is made up of more than one clan, there ensues competition effectively delivering an improvement of services. Whereas, in a monopoly situation the overall effect of decentralisation results in stronger capture of local governments. Overall, in Multan, the three services have improved. However the citizens‘ perception also highlights an increase in corruption. The structure of the local elite in Multan is such that Multan has a number of local elites that are at ―loggerheads‖. This is evidenced by the number of families as well as the division of its members of National Assembly within the city. It is the stronghold of the present Prime Minister Gilani. Larkana on the other hand has suffered in all three sectors. Education – a lot of ―ghost schools‖ overshadow an efficient education system preventing children from going to school; healthcare has not reached the final users as was planned; and the law enforcement has not shown signs of improvement it was meant to, while corruption has become rampant. The city of Larkana is the stronghold of a single clan - the Bhutto family.
AFRICA’S LOW ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE: An Analysis of the Potential Causes of Africa’s Low Economic Performance
(2012-01-05) Nche, Che; Göteborgs universitet/Statsvetenskapliga institutionen; University of Gothenburg/Department of Political Science
Many development specialists, policy makers, aid donors and recipient institutions have tried, with little or no success, to curb poverty in Africa. Though the continent is the poorest on the globe (more than half of its population still live below the poverty line of 1.25 dollar per day), considerable variations exist in income level among the various countries. Some countries (especially those in the North and South) have been observed to have good living standard and higher GDP per capita than other countries (primarily those at the Center). What then accounts for the difference in income levels among these countries? Reasons like poor institutions, historical slavery, culture, diseases, foreign aid, geography, unfair trade policies, have been used by researchers to explain why some countries are richer than others. This study seeks to investigate and depict the potential causes of Africa’s poor economic performance, and why there are different in income levels among the African countries. The thesis’ objective is thus to investigate if the following three explanatory strands: malaria, institutions, and foreign aid are responsible for the low economic performance in Africa. If yes which of the variable exerts the highest adverse impact on the continent economically, and how could the situation be mitigated? Using the multiple ordinary least square regression method, this study’s findings underpin the view of Jeffery Sachs that malaria is the main cause of low economic performance in Africa. Countries with endemic malaria and good institutions were observed to be poorer than the non endemic ones with poor institutions. However, the results do not fully support Sachs’ approach to alleviate poverty in the continent using financial aid (mainly provision of money by donors) because though malaria was observed to be the main cause, financial aid also significantly affects the economy negatively. However I still maintain that Africa needs foreign assistance to develop. Perhaps, assistance in the form of educational and technological development would be better than financial aid. I conclude this study by proposing measures by which malaria could be control so as to foster economic development.

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