Search results

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.

The article presents a study of religious effects on the environmental opinion among individuals in Sweden & the U.S. in 2000. It is a most different system design, since the comparison is between a highly secular (Sweden) & a highly religious population (the U.S.). The study uses data representing the adult population in Sweden & the U.S. In Sweden, religious people tend to be more positive than secular people to policies of environment protection. In the U.S., Republicans who belong to Evangelical Churches & people with a literal understanding of the Bible tend to be rather negative to suggestions on environmental care, while others who claim to be "born again" are rather positive towards suggestions on environmental caring procedures. Adapted from the source document.

The aim of the overview article is to encircle a research field focusing the role of local government in the Swedish national climate protection policy. First, the policy area of climate protection is historically identified as a part of a third generation policy areas. Secondly, relating to contemporary governance literature some steering measurements are presented. There is thus an increasing steering complexity containing hierarchical, market-based & network based steering. Thirdly, the role of local government is discussed in terms of reasons for engaging or not engaging in climate protection work. Political, institutional, financial & professional aspects are considered important in order to explain variations in municipal climate protection activities. Finally some research questions are put forth, such as how & why municipal leaders are handling uncertainty in certain ways, municipal leaders as network managers & local climate protection policy-making & implementation from perspectives of learning & democracy. 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

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.

The purpose of this document is the following investigation: Political scientists who study environmental issues face major challenges. One is that much future research needs to be developed -- for example, that we may help to better determine and predict the conditions for developing countries and future generations for living a decent life -- in close collaboration with other natural sciences. The thesis postulates that such cross-faculty interdisciplinary research is challenging and will shift our methodological and epistemological bounds. One consequence of this may be that some of our discipline's more well-rehearsed truths about what constitutes good science -- for example, questions about a scientific problem is, whether to research results that can serve as a guide for policy makers, the explanations of historical processes are preferable to forward-looking issues and that we would be better to work with well-defined cases and data than try to give us the and explore large systems (theories) -- can be questioned. Adapted from the source document.

Climate change raises a number of drastic environmental changes, such as soil erosion, water shortages, water contamination and deforestation, which leads people to leave their homes and seek livelihood in other places within or outside their own country. Perhaps the most obvious reason why people are forced to flee for environmental reasons is the rising sea levels and subsequent flooding. The IPCC has estimated that sea levels will rise between 28 and 43 centimeters in the next 100 years. It has also estimated that regional variations in the increase of sea levels mean that some small island states are particularly hard hit in terms of loss of land area. 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.