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In Norway, 2005 was a year of celebrations, linkel, first & foremost, to the fact that 100 years had passed since the peaceful dissolution of the personal union between Norway & Sweden. Despite the absence of broad popular support for the idea that this should merit any celebrations, government & media spent considerable resources on high-profile promotion of the 1905 story, including the side-events leading up to or following the famous 7 June Declaration of the Norwegian Storting (Parliament). In the context of nation-building, historical milestones tend to take on a flavor of history-building, -- the stuff that national myths are made of. In the saga of Norwegian nation-building, 1905 had come to play a perhaps surprisingly inflated role. Thus -- less surprisingly -- in the interpretation handed over to a contemporary audience, the various events of 1905 have been suffused with a series of myths, some of which have assumed the character of national dogmas. In particular, the author explores the myths surrounding the referendum of 12-13 November 1905, & demonstrates how vested interests have been instrumental in consolidating the popular (but false) interpretation that the real issue of the referendum was Norway's constitution (monarchy vs. republic) & not the conditions set forth by Prince Carl of Denmark for accepting the offer made by the Norwegian Government & its parliament to assume the Norwegian throne. In fact, employing devious tactics, prime Minister Michelsen succeeded not only in winning a comfortable victory for prince Carl's candidacy (whereby the prince became King Haakon VII of Norway), but he also managed to entrench the notion that the referendum above all was a resounding confirmation of a (continued) monarchical constitutional order. The long-term effect (which is still very much a defining feature of Norway's political self-image) was to give the country's republicans (who, at the onset of 1905 were a dominant force in the Norwegian political discourse) a permanently marginalized position as a fringe movement of eccentrics & certified losers. References. 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.

The article is a comment to an article appeared originally in European Political Science (2004) by Simon Hix from London School of Economics. In it, Hix ranks European Political Science Institutes according to their publication record 1993-2002, regarding quantity & impact. Swedish institutes ranked low (Uppsala Institute, the highest, in place 148). Different reasons for this evaluation are discussed, & the author proposes more articles published in English, more articles in international publications, & an increased presence in international conferences is suggested. A. Barral

Introduces political psychology as a field that began in the early 20th century in the United States when Charles Merriam from the University of Chicago was researching how psychological factors are affecting political choices. In Europe political psychology has mainly been concerned with the reverse questioning: how politics are affecting psychology. Since the 1950's political psychology has been associated with analyzing and understanding international conflicts as is exemplified with Kelman and Fisher's research. L. Pitkaniemi

Scholarship in international law aims at addressing global forest governance comprehensively. This article reviews the recent contribution Global Forest Governance - Legal Concepts and Policy Trends by Rowena Maguire and puts it into the perspective of recent political and policy science research on global forests. While finding Maguire's volume being a very timely and valuable contribution to the interdisciplinary discussions on international forest governance, we identify some weaknesses which are mostly rooted in methodological critique and a lack of a systematic framework for analysis.

This study is about seven women's organizations in Belgrade, Serbia and their relations to domestic and international donors during the period 2003-2006. My main research questions focus on their choices of either domestic or international cooperation partners. How and why did the women organize themselves? What factors were essential when selecting donors? In what ways were the organizations influenced by donors? Through interviews, with organization representatives' concepts such as gift and reciprocity, power and dependency, trust and mistrust and collective identity emerged. These concepts were used as points of departure for developing deeper understanding of women organizations' choice of cooperation partners. The women organizations' basically had two alternatives for cooperation: cooperation with foreign donors which offered funds, organizational development and social networks. Alternately, cooperation with local donors, which offered the equivalent except for the organizational development. Cooperation with the foreign donor has resulted in more professional attitudes to the work that have been desired by other international donors. A result is that they can compete with other women's organizations' for international funding. Cooperation with local donors has led to fewer resources but more independent working practices. For these women organizations' independence was important so they choose partners who, they felt more respected this allowing them to write articles or discuss gender in the media with little external influence. Regardless of the chosen donor the reciprocity is embedded in the relation between the donor and the receiver of aid, which in various ways is beneficial for both parties.

In Sweden, there is a consensus that Swedish membership of substantial parts of the European Union (EU) entails cooperation that at least in parts implies supranationalism. Due to this consensus one may assume that there is also some sort of common understanding of the concept of supranationalism. However, while many researchers includes majority voting in their definition of supranationalism, this is rejected outright by others. As shown, both sides have a point and this article, therefore, suggests that three dimensions are noteworthy when it comes to supranationalism: (1) when states have transferred the right to exercise public power to an organization the states cannot make decisions alone, (2) the institution is autonomous and makes binding decisions, (3) the decisions taken by the institution have effective precedence over national ones. Adapted from the source document.

A strategically weighed discussion on the reasoning, history and consequences of the Nordic balance. After the Second World War, large security and defense policy decisions were made that affected Scandinavia when the Soviet Union wanted a higher stake in Finland and Norway and Denmark sought to protect themselves against another occupation by joining NATO. In practice this came to mean that foreign policy in Finland was virtually dictated by the president, Sweden remained neutral but strongly defended, and the strategic importance of Denmark diminished. The balance remained functional as long as Norway kept permanent NATO bases and nuclear missiles outside its borders and Finland prepared a strong defense force against possible NATO and Soviet attacks. L. Pitkaniemi

A world government based on democratic principles would be ideal, but this is unlikely to come about any time soon. However, the mere impossibility of immediately implementing an idea does not make that idea wrong. Meanwhile one can work through existing institutions such as the UN and European Union to improve accountability in the arena of world politics. Adapted from the source document.

To what extent is Swedish political science influenced by its international surroundings? It is a commonly held view that the US has hegemony within the political science discipline. Using three different indicators -- percentage of foreign references in doctoral dissertations, percentage of foreign references in the articles of Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift, & a questionnaire to the professors in political science at the five major universities -- this article demonstrates that the alleged US hegemony is a myth. It is more appropriate to talk of an Anglo-American axis of dominance. Although Swedish political science is strongly influenced by international theory & methodology, we have not found any major changes in foreign reliance (apart from internal variance) over the last 30 years. Hence, Swedish political science -- according to Swedish political scientists, at least -- is as strong as it was one scholarly generation ago. 7 Tables, 2 Appendixes, 18 References. Adapted from the source document.

Among those under consideration, evaluator Leif Lewin has found that four of the candidates are qualified for the professorship. Of those qualified, three in particular, in his opinion, stand out as experts in international politics. He has given top ranking to Jens Bartelson. Adapted from the source document.

This thesis aims to explain how small states, in this case Sweden, security politics adapts to new circumstances after great conflicts in the 20th century. The analytical model is built by a combination of the opposite theories of international politics, realism and idealism, combined with actor based and structure based perspectives and thus creating a four field analytical matrix. The empirical foundation constitutes of three post conflict periods; post-first world war, post-second world war and post-cold war periods. For every period three cases are analyzed; one foreign politics initiative, one association to an international organization and one defence politics decision. In the post-first world war period the focus is on the Swedish intervention of the Åland archipelago, the association to the League of Nations and disarmament decision in 1925. In the post-second world war period the focus is on the association of Sweden to the United Nations, the Swedish initiative to a Scandinavian defence alliance and the defence decision of 1948. In the post-cold war period the focus is on the Swedish association to the European Union, the Swedish participation in the NATO led IFOR operation in Bosnia and the defence decision in 1996. The main conclusions of these investigations are that small states, like Sweden, both are restricted in their foreign and security politics by international structures and able to use the same structure to promote their interests. Time is a key element for analyzing both structural and actor based aspects of a small states capacity. Also, in the case of Sweden, there tends to be a tension between an idealistic dominated politics and a realistic dominated politics when it comes to foreign and security politics, and that idealism seems to have increased in the latter period.

Roses and other cut flowers from Kenya can be found in innumerable European and Asian supermarkets, floristry shops and online mail-order firms. The importance of the floricultural sector is fundamental for the Kenyan economy. However, during the last two decades, international media and scientific reports have pointed out the problematic working conditions and negative environmental impacts of the industry. In response, at the beginning of the 21st century, the international Fairtrade initiative came into the picture to improve the problematic production impacts of the sector. The Fairtrade initiative has a broadly positive reputation and quantitative data show an improvement in production manners. Nevertheless, it remains unclear if and how Fairtrade is perceived and experienced by ordinary workers on a subjective level. This study examines whether Fairtrade initiatives are an attainment for general workers or if they are considered as more of a top-down development approach. Through a qualitative, phenomenological inspired research design, a comparison of working conditions on a Fairtrade and non-Fairtrade cut flower farm is done on a local micro level. Results show that the Fairtrade initiative on the examined farm is perceived and experienced as rather negative and inhuman while, on the contrary, workers on the non-Fairtrade farm reported their conditions as positive in comparison. Also, the empirical data shows that this specific Fairtrade farm might not be an individual case in Kenya. Due to weak compliance with international Fairtrade standards and national legislation, workers and worker's unions point out lacks in the Fairtrade system in the cut flower business in general. Therefore, starting from this study's results on worker's subjective negative experience of their working conditions, a broader, mixed method study on a meta level is required. Meanwhile, the Fairtrade initiative should re-evaluate its standards and inspection systems to prevent the dilution of its own standards and reputation.