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This article criticizes the article by Ludvig Beckman (2006/3) about Herbert Tingsten, named "the father of the criticism of ideas." The author states that unclear and unfair quotations put Tingsten in an unfavorable light. Also, his different public roles were not considered separately. References. Adapted from the source document.

The article investigates the conception of social justice endorsed by the Swedish Green party. It is argued that the prime mover in the realisation of the party's vision of social justice is the introduction of a universal basic income, a reform that has been advocated by the party since 2001. The conception of justice implied by the party's version of a basic income is best understood against the backdrop of the ideas of social justice of the contemporary Brian Barry. Just as Barry, the Green party embraces a basic income out of concern for the safety of the least well off groups in society and out of concern for equality of opportunity. For both Barry & the Swedish Green Party, moreover, the latter ideal not only implicates justice for all inhabitants in society, but also justice in global & intergenerational terms. References. Adapted from the source document.

Political commitments in our time are often described as characterized by political de-collectivization & increasing individualism. In the article this polarity between individualism & collectivism is addressed. Empirically, it is based on a survey which 1066 global justice movement activists participated in. Among these, activism has both strong individual & collective orientations. Personal commitment & individual political action is emphasized at the same time as the activism aims at reforming institutions & is carried out in collective contexts, involving traditional political actors as parties & trade unions. Furthermore, this is done despite a low degree of trust in political institutions & traditional political actors, especially among activists who participated in the events during the EU summit meeting in Gothenburg 2001. Tables, Diagrams, References. Adapted from the source document.

A professor in public law discusses her experience with interdisciplinary sciences, especially between public law and political science regarding peace and conflict research. Public law and political science are unified in many ways, especially after the increasing influence of the highly politicized EU-law, and have yielded good results within the study of soft law (i.e. informal rules), conflict, human trafficking, and the power of the EU jurors. However, maybe the most ambitious project of them all is the research of how states of war and dictatorships can be transferred into states of peace and democracy. Despite its many opportunities, interdisciplinary science has its problems, such as a lack of a mutual scientific language and different theoretical structures. Luckily, many of these problems can be countered with thorough planning. L. Pitkaniemi

By affecting conceptualizations of crime, media depictions of crime play a crucial part in the way criminal policy is shaped. An analysis of Swedish newspaper articles suggest that crime today is depicted in a more exclusionary way than a few decades ago. This is particularly true for the culprit, whose actions are accounted for in an individualized way. Crime victims are described in a manner that invites identification. During the 1980s, media depictions change from structural accounts of the crime to individualized accounts of the culprit and the criminal deed, often in terms of the psychology of the culprit However, it is not until around 1990 that the media depiction of the crime victim change, with fairly neutral descriptions being replaced by more detailed and personal images. In contemporary media stories, crime and criminality are seen as external threats to society. The culprit is depicted as an intruder, and often also as disordered or irrational. The victim, on the other hand, is depicted as a human being just as you and I, with a particular personality. The consumer of these media stories is primarily encouraged to identify with the victim and those close to him or her. Adapted from the source document.

Argues that because of its international status, the English speaking world has an overly dominant position in formulating theories, models and research problems, which the Swedish political science merely copies. Repeating studies and applying the same methods is hardly a sign of a mature and cumulative science. Swedish political science could offer much more by studying fields such as Nordic social democracy, Swedish criminal policy or Nordic far right parties with unique theories and methods. L. Pitkaniemi

Manifest is an application, a declaration, the given, the obvious, direct or by observable and clear notice. But the manifesto also get their meaning by the non-manifest non-manifest: its meaning is created in relation to all this that the manifest is not. Therefore contains the manifesto also what is excluded by an inherent negation of its manifest importance, and that which has been in line with the structuralist laws, conditions manifest's very existence. Without the latent, not manifest. The latent, that is precisely the precondition for the manifest manifest importance, thus becomes a part of the manifesto by defining it. The manifesto is thus always more than what is observable and clear notice, it holds a surplus. This excess, surplus or net is in theory unlimited, and may in economistic terms, compared to a profit. A great gain for the good political science. Adapted from the source document.

In 1870, political science was established as an academic discipline, attached to history, at the Lund University. In 1877, a chair in history and political science was created. Twenty-five years later, it was transformed into a chair in political science and statistics. In 1926, that symbiosis was put to an end and political science was awarded a chair of its own. Pontus Fahlbeck, professor from 1889 to 1917, was a historian who developed into a social scientist with broad interests: political science, statistics, economics, and sociology. Several of his books were also published in foreign languages and he had many contacts with colleagues abroad, particularly in France and Germany. However, the critical period in the modernization of political science in Lund happened just after the middle of the 20th century, with Nils Stjernquist, holding the chair from 1951 to 1983, at helm. The dependence of history and legal science waned; the influence of social science, especially in its American version, increased. The result was a modern political science department with broad interests and worldwide contacts. References.

In a comparative perspective, Sweden is a society with high social trust, corruption, law and high political trust. Research shows that the presence of social trust in society is crucial for economic growth, corruption, law and functioning democratic institutions. A society with high levels of trust leads to positive effects of increased security, more economic equality, more tolerance, better health and increased ability to solve social problems of various kinds. Adapted from the source document.

Locating the beginning of the modern state-church debate at the end of the Protestant Reformation, the article (1) briefly traces the development of Pufendorf's theory of the church as a collegium under state law & the opposing doctrine of the Catholic Church as a societas perfecta independent of the state; (2) surveys the state-church relationship in Germany, Switzerland, & France; & (3) summarizes the development in Swedish law toward greater freedom of religion up to the most recent reforms, decoupling the (Lutheran) Church of Sweden from the state machinery (while retaining ultimate state control). Noting that, apart from the Church of Sweden, religious groups may only, now as previously, organize themselves in private-law associations, it concludes that the recent reform has preserved the traditional Swedish structure along majoritarian lines by endorsing Pufendorf's theory, thus in a sense further pursuing the Protestant Reformation in Sweden. 84 References. Adapted from the source document.

The Swedish Committee on Constitutional Reform worked during the period 2004-2008. It was charged with conducting a comprehensive review of the Instrument of Government, which is the fundamental law regulating the governing of Sweden. A gender researcher was engaged by the Committee to conduct an analysis of the Instrument of Government and to propose necessary changes. In the end no changes were made in the content of the law. Rather, the main result was the adoption of gender-neutral language. In this article I show that that gender was basically a non-Issue for the Committee. There are two main explanations for this. First, gender is the basis of a hierarchical power structure in Society. Issues of gender tend to be seen as deviant and not as priorities. Thus, gender is not easily formulated as a constitutional rule. Second, the Swedish tradition of constitutional minimalism makes it difficult to incorporate new issues into the constitution, because to do so violates institutionalized norms and traditions. Adapted from the source document.

This article contains an overview of how the study of human rights issues has developed into a separate multidisciplinary field of academic study & education in Sweden. Its relationship to the different fields of political science is outlined, as well as general problems of a multidisciplinary subject. Three contributions to an edited volume containing Swedish & foreign scholarship on human rights issues drawn from the Swedish Forum for Human Rights, a biannual gathering of practitioners & scholars, are discussed. Those contributions deal with the tensions between universalist & relativist approaches to the character of human rights, the tensions between the development of international law & power relations in international politics, & tensions between group rights & individual rights. 25 References. Adapted from the source document.