The aim of this paper is to examine how the Swedish political parties the Sweden Democrats (SD), Social Democrats (S), and the Moderates (M) relate to the principle of freedom of expression and the burning of the Quran, which has sparked a Koran crisis as well as a security crisis in Sweden in 2023. The analysis methodology applied in this study is a descriptive idea analysis, which aims to identify values, descriptions, and prescriptions conveyed by the parties during their speeches and debates. The paper also applies three theoretical perspectives:Sociological institutionalism, rational choice institutionalism and John Stuart Mill's harm principle, to explain and evaluate the parties' arguments and positions through institutional factors, rational choice, and moral principles. The study reveals noteworthy disparities in the perspectives of the parties concerning the significance of freedom of expression, the causes and consequences of the Koran burnings, and the appropriate measures to deal with the situation. This research facilitates comprehension of the political discourse and the course of action associated with a contentious and delicate topic that impacts the democracy and security of Sweden.

This comparative analysis is based on two theoretical frameworks, called implementation theory and agenda-setting theory, which aims to investigate how the reception of refugees from the year 2015 in Sweden differs in comparison to the reception of refugees in year 2022 as well as looks into how this has affected the Swedish society. The implementation theory focuses on how the reception of refugees is handled within political decisions and changes while the agenda-setting theory centers around how the reception of refugees in the media affected the population further analyzing how these two cases have affected the Swedish society as a whole. The material used for this analysis mostly derives from Swedish government websites and relevant articles that are applied to the chosen theories. With this, the study concludes that the reception of refugees in 2015 shows a case of failure, in relation to the implementation theory, while the reception of refugees in 2022 shows a case of success. In addition to this the reception of refugees portrayed in the media differs in 2015 compared to 2022 which resulted in immigrants from 2015 having a harder time in society as opposed to the immigrants in 2022 being more welcomed and supported in the community in accordance with the agenda-setting theory. From this the Swedish society was affected in negative ways dividing people in 2015 but changing in 2022 because of unity that influenced the community in more positive ways.

The intention of this essay was to conduct two comparative analytical units called, “Most Similar System Design" (MSSD). The first unit is Somalia and the other is Iraq. The main purpose of the essay is to study deeper in Somalia and Iraq’s democratization process and also to analyse the deference’s between these two countries based on democratization-process. The essay's key questions are: How did Iraq get further into the democratization-process compared to Somalia? Why couldn't Somalia make a successful democratization process like Iraq? The essay is implemented by Dankwart A. Rustows democratization factors. The results indicated that: (i) Somalia failed in its democratization-process, due to the absence of national unity and a rapid transition. One of the main obstacles was Puntland and Somaliland which hindered the national unity of Somalia. (ii) On the other hand, Iraq was different in its democratization- process. With the support of the United States, Iraq achieved great success in the unification of Iraqi civil society the embodiment of smooth transition. (iii) Finally, the conclusion indicates that: national unity, societal norms and a rapid transition were the decisive variables.

The end of the Cold War crucially changed the way in which the world is organised and brought an end to what is referred to as the “old” regionalism. A trend towards some form of “new” regionalism has thus been observed during the 1990s. The objective of this thesis is therefore, firstly, to outline the characteristics of the new regionalism in order to examine to what extent the phenomenon is reflected in the reality of regional organisations, and, secondly, to establish which model of co-operation the same organisations can be said to follow. Following this idea, a comparative case study is performed with the selected cases of NAFTA and MERCOSUR, on which a theoretical model for analysis is applied in order to establish whether theories of International Relations, in this case Liberalism and Realism, can explain the emergence and existence of both organisations.

Results show that NAFTA is less inclined to show signs of the trend towards the new regionalism than MERCOSUR does, and that NAFTA to a larger extent follows a realist model of co-operation, while MERCOSUR follows a more liberal model of co-operation.

The purpose of this study is to examine the existng political discourse in the political document Tidö Avtalet, through Carol Baachi's disourse analysis framework What's the problem represented to be (WPR) to uncover implicit problem representation. And by using discourse theory to uncover the power dynamic and the intent of words, also the formation of words and it's meaning in Tidö Avtalet's migration policy. Which is an agreement between the far-right political wing in the Swedish parliament in term of office between the year 2022-2026. Tidöavtalet consist of seven different focus areas, described as problem ridden areas by the far-right coalition parliament. 

The results of the study point to the fact that the existing coalition parliament wants to regulate and rework the migration policy in Sweden and by doing so, will create the existence of proposals and constitutional amendments. This will in turn directly affect those seeking refugee in Sweden. Tidö Avtalet has been literary constructed by using words that emphasizes the asylum seekers obligation to follow the enforced asylum seeking laws in Sweden. There is a rather strict usage of words to describe the current climate surrounding the migration politics in Sweden. Which will affect the processing and investigation of asylum seekers. 

Political trust among immigrants in Western Europe seems to be surprisingly high, especially among immigrants from non-democratic countries with institutions plagued by corruption. Over time, however, trust tends to diminish among these individuals. In this paper we argue that this may neither be explained by acculturation nor by experiences of discrimination. Analysing Swedish survey data we instead conclude, although tentatively, that falling expectations regarding the performance of host country institutions is a fruitful explanation. Such expectations presumably become more modest the longer one has been living in Sweden, causing a time-related drop in the overall confidence in Swedish political institutions.

In order to have some say and to scrutinise the government all member states of the EU today has established an institution within their national parliaments, the Committee of European Affairs. This institution, however, has very different rights and regulations depending on the country it is established in. This study uses two rather similar countries, Sweden and Denmark, and investigates what differences and similarities the two committees show.

By constructing a comparative case study of four units of analysis, the governments and committees of European Affairs in Sweden and Denmark, the formal and informal power relationship between government and committee in each country were studied in order to determine similarities and differences and whether the committee had an impact on the governments’ EU policies. Further they were compared, assessing whether the Danish Committee of European Affairs was more powerful than its Swedish counterpart because of its legal basis in an EU document.

The theoretical framework was built on empirical institutionalism and Lukes’ first and second dimension of power. The similarities and differences were accounted for and compared. In conclusion, the Danish Committee of European Affairs has more formal power than its Swedish counterpart but regarding informal power the Swedish Committee of European Affairs has a slight advantage. Both committees have an impact on the way their government handle negotiations with the EU.

Keywords: formal power, informal power, the Committee of European Affairs, Sweden, Denmark

The purpose with this study is to investigate, scrutinize and to understand the current political situation in Ukraine and why it has not been progressed. The disastrous democratic process and the country´s existing and indefatigable problems are studied through dynamics that deals with the country’s ethnic divisions and the conflict with Russia regarding several regions in Ukraine. In this paper, a case study is used as the method, and by applying Anna Jarstads dilemmas of democracy process and Arend Lijpharts Consociational democracy is as well, the investigation shows that this system of democracy model can be successful Ukraine if they take regards to Anna Jarstads four dilemmas. The conclusion of this study means that it is important to take regards into the dilemmas of democracy and therefore must be regarded to when a country is trying to build a state based on democracy and that no improvement can be done without it. And the process of democracy should take impression of the Consociational democracy model, otherwise it´s more likely that the political volatility will remain and further increase.

If we have to document our professional action, will we then only perform the actions that we are supposed to document? This question reflects the content of this chapter. The chapter includes a frame of reference for studying control of professionals in organizations and illustration on different types of professional controls.

Förod till Albert O.Hirschmans bok "Sorti eller protest"

The purpose of this study is to examine the hypothesis that Moderaterna has developed its migration policy towards a more restrictive direction with the influence of the populist party Sverigedemokraterna, as a measure to prevent Sverigedemokraterna from winning the election. The international migration has in recent years grown significantly and has resulted in the increased numbers of populist parties. After the narrow victory in the 2022 election of the right-wing conservative party Moderaterna, the populist party Sverigedemokraterna has got its position as a cooperation party outside the government. 

​​The focus of this thesis is to use an idea analysis to investigate whether Sverigedemokraterna have influenced the migration policy of Moderaterna towards a more restrictive direction ahead of the 2022 election. The empirical material of the election manifesto has been analyzed based on the theory of party change where the selected questions have helped to fulfill the purpose.  

The final results from the analysis shows that a slightly change in Moderaternas migration policy can be noticed, but that it can not be interpreted as having taken place under the influence of Sverigedemokraterna. 

The aim of this study is to examine the democratization process of Kosovo in the years after the countries independence was assured. Two central questions for the case study consist of whether a democratic improvement in the country has occurred and which factors, positive and negative, are present to further improve or impede the democratizationprocess. The study builds upon two central definitions, democratic states and democratization in order to gain theoretical background to be able to measure these two quite abstract expressions. A socioeconomic model is used to measure favorable or negative developments within Kosovos society and the findings of this model confirms the hypothesis of modernization theory, namely that increased socioeconomic development increases the chance of a positive democratizationprocess. There has been a positive democratic development aswell as socioecomic progress but since the nature of this study is merely descriptive and not explanatory, it doesnt make claims on the explanatory power of modernization theory. A transition model is used for gaining a general overview of where in the democratizationprocess Kosovo currently resides. The findings of this model suggests that Kosovo currently sits in the transitionsphase of the model with problems like corruption and ethnical conflicts between minorities aswell as gender inequality as the main forces holding back the quality aspect of the consolidationphase.

The purpose of this essay is to describe the organization of the Swedish Animal WelfareAgency during the time it was in operation. The Swedish Animal Welfare Agency was established in 2005 by the government who saw it as necessary in order to strengthen the protection of cruelty to animals in Sweden. However, the agency was shut down already in2007 and its responsibilities as an agency was moved back to the government and the department of agriculture. During its time in operation, the Swedish Animal Welfare Agency, received much criticism, among other things because of its interpretations of the law which were seen as too focused on details and thus “bureaucratic”. In order to describe the organization of the agency the theoretical approach of this study is based on three of Bo Rothstein’s ideal administration models; the legal bureaucratic, thepolitical oriented and the user oriented model. The purpose is to see which one of these ideal administrations the Swedish Animal Welfare Agency was most like, through an organizational perspective. There will also be a comparison over time, from the establishing to the shutting down of the agency in order to see if the organization of the agency had changed over time. The method used for this paper is a qualitative text-based analysis where the central arguments concerning the organization of the agency will be highlighted and interpreted from the different criteria of the administration models. The study showed that the organization of the Swedish Animal Welfare Agency can be described as a legal bureaucratic administration. The comparison over time showed that the organization of the agency did not change, it could be described as legal bureaucratic when it was established as well as when it was shut down. This shows that the criticism of the agency of being too “bureaucratic” might be justified but the legitimacy of the agency’s organization was based on bureaucratic principles.

The objective of the thesis is to explore if the European Union membership has changed the Swedish Green Party’s use of parlance, ideology and political content. To explore this, a quantitative content analysis has been done on election manifestos during a 30-year period on national parliamentary manifestos as well as European Parliament manifestos. A framework of green ideology as well as previous research of the Swedish Green’s is used to further the findings from the manifestos.

The thesis has found that the European Union membership has affected the Swedish Greens which is seen in the change of how they use language, their transformation of ideas throughout the years as well as their views on political areas and how that has expanded.

Further research is recommended to additionally explore the subject, a suggestion is to increase the material because that was an issue in this essay.

The secret ballot is one of the cornerstones of democracy. We contend that the historical process of modernization caused the switch from open to secret ballot with the underlying mechanism being that income growth, urbanization, and rising education standards undermined vote markets. We undertake event history studies of ballot reform in Western Europe and the U.S. states during the 19th and 20th centuries to establish that modernization was systematically related to ballot reform. We study electoral turnout before and after ballot reform among the U.S. states and British parliamentary constituencies to substantiate the hypothesis that modernization reduced the volume of trade in the vote market.

This essay aims to present three different perspectives through which to analyse the decision made by Russia to invade Ukraine in 2022. The three perspectives used are based on the three theories of decision making found in the book Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (Allison & Zelikow, 1999) and are as follows: the rational actor model, the organisational model, and the bureaucratic model.

Firstly, all the models are presented and three indicators for each model are determined. These indicators provide a framework for when finding and selecting relevant empirical evidence. Secondly, the decision by Russia to invade Ukraine is presented through the lens of each model – this, paired with empirical evidence, aims to give a deeper understanding of the theoretical models’ application to the case.

Throughout the course of the study, we find that there is empirical evidence that supports theoretical reasoning viewed through all three models. Although there is far more to uncover regarding the decision to invade Ukraine, qualitative case studies such as this one can act as a means to further the interest and understanding of the subject.

This paper is designed to analyse the situation regarding the attempt to implement democracy in Egypt and why it failed. Theories regarding democratic transition and consolidation is acting as scientific instruments to carry out this case study. This essay directs its focus on several key factors that has contributed to the prevention of democratic reforms. The theory concerning path dependence is used to compliment the remaining theories to distinguish vital historic aspects to this issue. Key factors such as the Muslim brotherhood, the Egyptian military and regime, as well as the liberal movement is examined in this paper to illuminate their respective contribution to this situation.

The conclusion of this paper focuses on the military, unwilling to surrender its power, along with the religiously fundamental brotherhood, growing rapidly. A democratic transition was in the making, only to be shut down by the military, regaining its former power. Although chaotic and military-biased reforms continued, they were far from democratic.  Because of all the key factors not sharing any political ideals, the situation has come to an abrupt halt regarding a democratisation process. The democratic ideal has become worn among the protestors and another try at a democratic transition is far from reality. 

The  aim  of  this  study  sought  to  explore  bias  during  the  period  of  the Swedish government  formation of  2018–2019. By  using  a method of  quantitative content analysis the  thesis examines the  frequency  of  favorable and unfavorable  news published by  Swedish  public service  as well  as  measuring  how  the general newscycle were  percieved  in terms of  the  theoretical  framework known as ”framing”.  In order  to assess eventual  prevalance  of  bias,  the  news published during the government  formation  were examined in  relation  to two oppositional  parties; The  green party  and  the Sweden Democrats.  The study  concluded with  no evidence of  systemic  bias  during  the  timeframe, in  contrast  the news consisted  of  a  rather well  balanced  favorability  and disfavorability  towards  both parties with the majority of  news  published being  of  neutral  statue. However  a  clear  majority  of  the published articles  were  deemed to be  framed in  terms of  being  a  ”zero-sumgame”  with ”winners”  and  ”losers”  during  the examined  time-period. 

This thesis is based on a case study of Tanzanian youths’ political participation in urban Mwanza. The purpose of this study is to examine how urban youths understand their participation in various political activities in an emerging democracy like Tanzania. The research question guiding the study is how youths understand and value voting in elections in comparison to other forms of political participation. The study focuses on three different political activities; to vote, to contact a politician and to participate in a demonstration. The three political activities are combined with Verba et al.’s (1995) theory of the attributes of political activities into a theoretical analysis model. The thesis uses a qualitative methodology based on 19 semi-structured interviews with Tanzanian youths living in urban Mwanza. The results indicated that the youths in Mwanza understood voting as their prime opportunity to communicate their political voices to politicians. However, the youths expressed that political activities beyond voting facilitate them with opportunities to communicate more specific political messages to politicians multiple times. 

The liberal theory of international relations primarily associates international cooperation with liberal democratic states, to the point that a theory of scholars Poast and Urpelainen claim that international cooperation with consolidated democracies through international organizations may boost the democratization of or at least prevent democratic backsliding in non-consolidated democracies. This paper investigates the possibility of decoupling these theories from democracies and democratizing by examining whether Chinese efforts within the framework of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Belt and Road foreign policy project have a similar but reverse effect on its target states, prompting developments in authoritarian directions. Though the results of study are inconclusive on account of the relative youth of the studied IOs, they indicate a strong possibility that could do with further study.

This study deals with Swedish newspapers' portrayals of the Treaty which establishes a Constitution for Europe, which then influenced Swedish newspaper readers. This study connects the areas of both media and politics. What the media states can be expected to shape

public opinion, especially when it comes to foreign policy issues. In order to fullfill the aim of the study, I have constructed two problems which I have answered to in accordance with my data, theoretical framework and research method. My data consists of articles from the largest Swedish morning newspaper Dagens Nyheter. The theoretical framework of this study is a combination of political science, media- and communication science and behaviour science. I have utilized two research methods in this study; a qualitative analysis of content, which transcends into different categories, and a method of quantification of the main actors in the

articles. One of the results that I have discovered in this study is that the image of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe offered to the readers is a fairly positive one.

This study aims to investigate, from an institutional perspective, the implications of the

new anti-corruption law in Viet Nam with a particular focus on its impact on civil society

and individual rights to report on corruption. The overarching research question is: How do

formal and informal institutions affect whistle-blowers possibilities to engage in combat of

corruption in Viet Nam? To blow the whistle in Viet Nam can be problematic, with

consequences such as loosing his/hers job and social exclusion. Whistle-blowers in Viet

Nam today seem to have an insufficient confidence to official authorities. Moreover, a

problem of significance is that whistle-blowers have to state their name and contact details

when reporting on corrupt acts to competent agencies. Another problem is that civil society

is strongly connected to the CPV (Communist Party of Viet Nam).

The aim of this thesis is to examine and analyze what discourses about women can be found in three Swedish textbooks in social studies, and to identify the different social roles that are being attributed to the woman in these textbooks. The theoretical and methodological background used is Discourse Theory by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Additional theory used is post strucutral feminism, intersectionality, and critical discourse theory as described by Norman Fairclough. Three questions are asked: Which subject positions are assigned to the women in the material examined? What discourse/s can be found in the textbooks? Do the results change over time? Five subject positions are identified: woman as mother and wife, the teenage girl, woman as a public actor, the vulnerable woman and the other woman. Hence – five different discourses are identified: the caring woman, the teenage girl, the active woman, the vulnerable woman and the other woman. The analysis shows that the discourse about the caring women is reproduced over time. Women are attributed characteristics such as caring whose primary focus is to attend to the needs of others. Particularly noticeable is the fact that the language does not rest solely on a heterosexual binary, but also on ethnocentric beliefs where the ‘other women’ is used to strengthen the community of the Western group – a group in which the other woman can never participate.

Since the 1990s the support for the populist radical right parties has steadily increased. This essay investigates if there is a common policy preference among this party-family that makes them successful, irrespective of each party’s national belonging. This is achieved by utilising a time-series cross-sectional data from the Comparative Manifesto Project. These data range between 1990-2018 and includes 13 different West-European countries. Five different hypotheses containing different policy preferences are tested through multiple regression analysis. The essay concludes that the previously commonly accepted winning formula containing a positive view on welfare, emphasis on authoritarian values and nativism does not hold up. Furthermore, the essay concludes that national context has a decisive role of which policy preference is successful. The common successful policy preference among the populist radical right is their promotion of authoritarian values together with an emphasis on eliminating political corruption and clientelist behaviour (populism). This is explained by societal value changes with major clashing groups in the society, making the authoritarian values a successful policy preference irrespective of national context.

Youth organizations in Sweden try to be a reliable part in the political agenda, to change and improve how the politics affect youths. This study aims to clarify how four different youth organizations work with their political questions: from hbtq-perspective and children’s rights to the right to hearing-aid and involvement in questions regarding youths. The method used for the study was both a comparative study of how the organizations work to improve and change the Swedish political agenda for the better, and interviews with the chairpersons of the four youth organizations for a bigger transparency in their methods.

The results of this study are that there aren’t any strategy or method to affect and change how the political agenda works. Even though each of the four organizations are successful within their own area of expertise, it’s not always possible to apply the same methods on another organization with another structure.

This essay aims to explore the difference in the political system between the Ukrainian regime in the period 2010-2014 and the regime that emerged out of the euromaidan protests in 2014. Through this the essay will determine if there has been any democratical progress between both of the timelines and if any of the periods achieved the status of democracy. Democracy is defined as polyarchy which gives a clear structure to study both periods and compare them to the criteria’s that this type of democracy offers. The areas that will be studied are: Free and Fair Elections, Universal Suffrage, Elected Representatives, the Right to Candidate in Elections, the Right to Organize, Freedom of Speech and Alternative Sources of Information. The essay is a Theory Consuming Case Study with both descriptive questions and a descriptive approach to answer the questions. The framework that is used to analyze the information is of a qualitative nature. This essay concludes that both periods have had large democratic problems. Although the problems for both periods differ, in the first problem there are several events with rigged elections, crime against journalists and restraints of freedom of speech. The second period saw several improvements in several areas but issues with universal suffrage emerged. This caused both periods to not being able to fulfill the criteria’s of polyarchy which, in this study, is the benchmark for a democracy. Instead, both periods achieved the criteria’s for a hybrid regime which in many ways are equivalent of a flawed democracy.

This thesis examines how the president of the EU-Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, is using rhetorical figures in his annual State of The Union speech to describe certain situation and enhance their message. With a qualitative idea analysis together with a rhetorical analysis and Richard Vatz theory about the rhetorical situation, the study analyses four speeches made by Juncker at the European Parliament. The results show how Juncker describes certain situations to favour his own political agenda – a more united EU. The situations are often portrayed in a negative and pessimistic manner. To give these descriptions a better effect he uses a set of different rhetorical figures. The figures help in particular with repeating the importance of a specific message and to illustrate it and explain it better for the audience. 

In this minor thesis I describe and analyze Irish rock star Bono’s social, humanitarian and political commitment using a qualitative method of analysis (literature studies) and a broad theoretical framework. The study discusses such concepts as “agenda setting”, “soft power” and “charismatic authority”, as well as the power resources of the celebrity and the power of the media.

The aim of the study has been 1) to see if Bono’s commitment has influenced/influences politics and policies, 2) to describe and analyze Bono’s commitment with the focus on what issues he has supported and worked for, 3) to describe his approach, and 4) to see if one can trace any concrete or measurable results that can be linked to Bono personally.

More specifically, the study sets out to answer the following research questions:

When was the start of Bono’s commitment? How has it changed or evolved throughout the years? What issues and organisations has he supported and worked for, and in what way?

What do the political elites, the economical and academic institutions, the media and the NGO’s say about Bono’s commitment? And last but not least: Is it possible to ”measure” the results of this commitment ?

The findings show that Bono’s commitment has indeed mattered politically, even though it still, as often the case with qualitative research methods, remains uncertain as to exactly what degree - because of difficulties involved in the process of measuring. What can be concluded, though, is that Bono personally, thanks to his status in the music business and his charismatic authority, as a single actor and as part of a context, structure or network (e.g. Jubilee 2000, DATA), has inspired and empowered individual human beings as well as influenced politics and policies on the national and international level (strengthened NGO or citizen initiatives by providing the sought-after media exposure and persuaded/lobbied politicians to change their positions on for example debt relief).

This thesis aims to examine when democratic consolidation took place in Costa Rica from a maximalistic perspective. The hypothesis is that it’s likely that the democracy was not consolidated as early as 1953 which would be the case if applying a minimalistic perspective. Linz and Stepan’s theory about democratic consolidation has been chosen as the theoretical framework of the thesis and the research has been conducted by using a qualitative text analysis. The thesis comes to the conclusion that Costa Rica’s democracy completed its consolidation 1978 when the previously banned communist party Partido Vanguardia Popular was allowed to compete for votes again in the 1978’s presidential and parliamentary elections. From that point no party was excluded from taking part in free and fair elections.

The purpose of this study is to illustrate why Norway is not a member of the EU from a rational choice perspective. In order to fulfil this purpose, two questions will constitute the framework of the study. These are:

1. What are the arguments of the EU-opposers in the Norwegian EU-debate?

2. Is it rational for Norway to stand outside the EU?

The first question was answered by analyzing and mapping out the arguments of the Norweigan EU-opponents and then using a critical literature study to analyse them. To demarcate the study, only the arguments of the parliamentary parties that are opposing a Norwegian EU-membership, and the official organisation Nei til EU (No to the EU) were included. The second question was tested by using a rational choice theory and a number of keywords from the classical rational actor model; objectives, alternatives, consequences and choice. These keywords constituted the main analyzing instrument of the study and was applied on the empirical material.

The main arguments of the opposers of a Norweigan EU-membership, are widely spoken democracy, freedom of action, environment and solidarity. The debate is hard to map out because of its general character but is very homogeneous. The second question is answered partly in the light of the first one and the result shows that it is rational for Norway to stay outside the EU today, but the question may have to be reassessed in the future, and probably will be since the debate is still so fervent.

Statistics from Freedom House show that 2018 is the thirteenth consecutive year with democratic decline. This paper examines underlying causes to this democratic decline. This is done through literature review of current research in the field of democracy development. By using descriptive idea analysis of selected research literature, the paper aims to clarify the current debate on the challenges of democracy. The study somewhat supports that long-term liberal democracy creates conditions that potentially cause its own retreat. This is because long-term liberal democracy provides peace and growth, which is unequally distributed in society and leads to increased social divisions. As a result, large groups of people no longer feel included in society, which in turn will pave the way for populist movements and potential autocratic leaders. The study also somewhat supports that there has been a weakening in the functioning of the democratic institutions to act as gatekeepers, keeping potential autocrats out of power. Increased democracy and transparency in the democratic processes has made it easier for potential autocrats to come to power. All in all, there is some support for the hypothesis of the essay: The more democracy the greater the risk that the democratic system will weaken.

This is a comparative case study on why nations cooperate based on twodifferent cooperation, between Sweden and Estonia and Sweden andLithuania. Based on the theory on why nations cooperate by Arthur Steinconsidering national level of analysis and individual level of explanation anda theory on norm-regarding and self-regarding actors by Fehr and Gintis Ihave been trying to see tendencies and factors socially, politically andeconomically in the two different cooperation and answer the differencesbetween them. The empirical material used for this study comes fromprevious scientific works and official documents from Estonian, Lithuanianand Swedish departments and governments. Cooperation among nations seemto depend on different circumstances based on norms, history, religion,culture and politics. In the countries studied we can see big differences, butalso great similarities which seem to have affected the cooperation betweenthe chosen nations.