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I am a senior analyst at the Swedish Research Council and have more than 20 years' experience in the field of evaluation from positions at different Swedish government agencies. I have also been a politician at municipal and regional level for 5 years. In my reflection on the article "Democratic values in evaluation systems – a circle that can be squared?", I will focus on the model for systematic quality work that is described in the article, the similarities with other concepts for implementing evaluation systems, and the challenges of limiting the scope of the evaluations to be defined within the system.

This research represents a first attempt to measure to what extent Swedish Social Services were familiar with quality assurance processes at the time of the introduction of a new article in the Social Services Act which stipulated that `measures within social services shall be of good quality'. The philosophy of total quality management is drawn upon as a reference point from which to assess the preparedness of the social services to fulfil the requirements of the new law, especially from a managerial point of view. The social service management's ability to assess the quality of organizational performance, the use of evaluation and perceived obstacles to evaluation practice, are explored and tested against evaluation activities undertaken within the social services.

A central notion among green political theorists is that deliberative engagement enhances environmental values. Despite the centrality of this claim within green political theory, there is a lack of empirical research evaluating its promise outside formal deliberative forums. Here, an empirical large-N study is provided that tests whether everyday political discussion between individuals of different political orientations is positively associated with stronger pro-environmental attitudes in the US. The main finding is that individuals who engaged in this type of cross-cutting discussion reported significantly stronger pro-environmental attitudes compared to individuals who did not engage in this type of discussion. Moreover, the association remained positive for different clusters of individuals regardless of political engagement, party affiliation, or socio-demographics.

There is considerable disagreement among scholars as to whether social media fuels polarization in society. However, a few have considered the possibility that polarization may instead affect social media usage. To address this gap, the study uses Dutch panel data to test directionality in the relationship between social media use and affective polarization. No support was found for the hypothesis that social media use contributed to the level of affective polarization. Instead, the results lend support to the hypothesis that it was the level of affective polarization that affected subsequent use of social media. The results furthermore reveal heterogeneous patterns among individuals, depending on their previous level of social media usage, and across different social media platforms. The study gives reason to call into question the predominating assumption in previous research that social media is a major driver of polarization in society.

"This is the fifth volume in the series Swedish Studies in European Law, produced by the Swedish Network for European Legal Studies. It focuses on EU criminal law and transnational police cooperation. Against the background of the most important changes introduced by the Lisbon Treaty in the area of criminal law and police cooperation, the book is divided into four main sections, with each section analyzing some specific challenges. The first section of the book includes a critical analysis of the boundaries of new criminal law competencies, as well as some more general challenges for EU criminal law. Specific focus is set on the lawmaking process. The second section deals with EU criminal law and fundamental rights, in particular the protection of personal data and individual privacy. It focuses on the implementation of EU law into national legal orders and the challenges that this process brings with it. The third section maps out specific challenges in transnational police cooperation - in particular, the important issue of the sharing of information between law enforcement agencies and its potential impact on the protection of fundamental rights. In the final section, the focus shifts toward networks, the horizontal agency, and multi-level cooperation in a wider sense within the area of freedom, security, and justice."--Bloomsbury Publishing

The state of the civil justice union / Burkhard Hess -- Lis pendens and jurisdiction clauses : open issues / Gilles Cuniberti -- ADR/ODR : too much optimism in the promotion of cross-border trade? / Jim Davies -- Top-level domains and ADR : what protection of consumer interests under ICANN's new gTLD program? / Cristina M Mariottini -- "Trusted with a muzzle and enfranchised with a clog" : the British approach to European civil procedure / Carla Crifò -- European procedures on debt collection : nothing or noting? : experiences and future prospects / Xandra E Kramer -- The small claims regulation : on the way to an improved european procedure / Cristian Oro Martinez -- The Nordic input on the EU's cooperation in family and succession law : exporting union law through "Nordic exceptions" / Maarit Jänterä-Jareborg -- The European certificate of succession : portrait of a new instrument in European private international law / Björn Laukemann -- "Opt-in is out and opt-out is in" : dimensions based on Nordic options and the commission's recommendation / Laura Ervo -- The crux of the matter : funding and financing collective redress mechanisms / Stefaan Voet -- Legal standing in collective redress actions for breach of EU rights : facilitating or frustrating common standards and access to justice? / Rebecca Money-Kyrle -- Abolition of exequatur, all in the name of mutual trust! / Marie Linton -- On the abolition of exequatur / Marta Requejo Isidro -- Mutual recognition as a governance strategy for civil justice / Eva Storskrubb -- Mutual recognition in civil and criminal justice : towards order and method / Maria Bergström

Introduction to the directive on competition damages actions / Ulf Bernitz -- Private enforcement of EU competition law : a comparison with, and lessons from, the US / Alison Jones -- Welfare effects of rights to damages--a practical approach and the Swedish perspective / Lars Henriksson -- Challenges for Swedish courts : will the new directive on competition damages actions help? / Ingeborg Simonsson -- The damages directive and other enforcement measures in EU competition law / Vladimir Bastidas Venegas -- Embedding procedural autonomy : the directive and national procedural rules / Pieter Van Cleynenbreugel -- Private enforcement of competition law in intellectual property cases / Paul LC Torremans -- Transparency and liability in leniency programmes: a question of balancing? / Xavier Groussot and Justin Pierce -- Access to documents for cartel victims and cartel members--is the system coherent? / Björn Lundqvist and Helene Andersson -- Practical private enforcement : perspectives from Portugal / Sofia Oliveira Pais -- Practical private enforcement : perspectives from Poland / Anna Piszcz -- Practical private enforcement : perspectives from Finland--causal links, the principle of effectiveness and requirements for national solutions / Katri Havu -- Practical private enforcement : perspectives from Greece and the Netherlands / Agis Karpetas -- Indirect purchasers--is there anything new in the directive? An introductory overview of the current and future status of indirect purchasers in the EU / Elisabeth Eklund -- Beyond the competition damages directive : what room for competition law restitution? / Magnus Strand -- The presumption and quantification of harm in the directive and the practical guide / Marios C Iacovides