Suchergebnisse

The article compares the Norwegian & the German political debate on changes to the respective countries' citizenship laws. The Norwegian law will come into force in September 2006, while the German law was introduced in 2000. In citizenship laws we can find a contrast between an ethnic & cultural understanding of political community & a rights-based understanding. This contrast was hardly touched upon in the Norwegian debate. Among the Norwegian political parties there was broad agreement to carry on with the principle of ethnic decent. Moreover, all parties, with an exception of the Socialist Left Party (SV), wanted to introduce more restrictions on the established Norwegian practice to accept dual citizenship. The German debate dealt with the contrasting principles, & the conflict followed the left/right cleavages. The main difference found between the two countries refers to the left parties. Both with regard to the principle of ethnic decent/territorial principle & the acceptance of dual citizenship, the Social Democrats in Norway & Germany presented opposite standpoints. References. Adapted from the source document.

An open debate where the eight central figures from the eight largest Norwegian political parties explain their foreign policy goals for the term 2009-2012. While all three leftwing parties stress the importance of climate change and equality, the criticism towards NATO intensifies when we moved from the center-left to the far left. The traditional center and right wing parties all emphasize the importance of free trade and globalization with an increased degree of skepticism in the center. The Progress Party stands out from the crowd by attacking foreign aid for increasing corruption and diminishing human rights in developing countries. L. Pitkaniemi

The author describes some of the main trends in the political development of Haiti after president-for-life, Jean-Claude Duvalier, fled the country in February 1986. The claim is made that the political and administrative vacuum left by Duvalier has been filled by competing sectors of Haiti's military establishment that has thus prevented a development toward democracy in the foreseeable future

In 2004, 20% of the Israeli population consists of people who immigrated from the former Soviet Union. 1.3 million Russian Jews live in Israel today. Of these, 800,000 have come to Israel over the last 10 years, after the fall of the Berlin Wall & the breakdown of communism. For a number of Russian Jews, meeting the realities in their new society in "the promised land" has become a harsh experience. Many Russian Jews feel that they have been left on the sidelines, notably by orthodox Israeli Jews who do not recognize them as "proper" Jews. Simultaneously, quite a few of the Russian Jews are critical to what they perceive as a Labour party softness on the Palestinians. All in all, these experiences have led to a concentration of Russian-born Jews on the Israeli political, but nonclerical, Right. 17 References. Adapted from the source document.

Discusses what problems were present in the world economy on a macro and a micro level, how it resulted in the financial crisis and how the authorities were trying to intervene in order to stabilize the situation. On the macroeconomic level Americans bought cheep Asian goods while printing a lot of money, but inflation was kept at bay since the money was sent to Asia. The circle was complete when Americans lent the money back from Asia and speculated with it. On the microeconomic level structured investment vehicles (SIVs) and asset backed commercial paper (ABCP) created problems especially when they were combined with collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and mortgage-backed securities (MBS). The boom turned into bust after 2006 when there were not enough house buyers left. L. Pitkaniemi

The Foreign Affairs Committee has been a central point in the Norwegian political life ever since 1917 when the committee began its activity in its current role under the chairman J. L. Mowinckel. Since then the committee has been led by three prime ministers and three foreign affairs ministers, mostly under left wing rule, even if the Christian People's Party and the Conservative Party have also chaired the committee for three terms each. The first female committee member was Rakel Sewerin from 1961 to 1969 and the only female committee chairman was Gro Harlem Brundtland from 1980 to 1981 and from 1989 to 1990. L. Pitkaniemi

A review essay on books by (1) Walter Russell Mead, Special Providence. American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World (New York: Routledge, 2002); (2) Anders Stephanson, Manifest Destiny. American Expansion and the Empire of Right (New York: Hill & Wang, 1995); & (3) Warren Zimmermann, First Great Triumph. How Five Americans Made Their Country a World Power (New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2002). 20 References.

Since small countries like Norway can seldom affect the policies of superpowers, an important question to ask is whether Norway could influence the human right situation in China through dialogue and co-operation? In the West, China has been known for human rights violations exemplified by the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. During the first decade of the 21st century the tone has changed, however. While the human right situation is still bad in China, the country has signed and ratified many UN conventions, engaged in human rights dialogues with Norway, Canada and Australia, and slowly increased the civil liberties of its citizens. The Norwegian dialogue with China has taken place on three levels: political consultation, roundtable discussions, and diplomat meetings. L. Pitkaniemi

This thesis studies three major reforms in the public sector of Norway. The sectors studied are the police, higher education, and primary schools. The main motive for studying these reforms are of a theoretical nature, the reason to study them is to produce general knowledge about reforms. The study aims to answer two main questions. One is about the possibilities and limitations contained in using reforms to change organizations. The second is about how organizations can promote the ideals of representative democracy. In its efforts to attain answers to these questions the thesis blends empirically-oriented research with aspects of organization theory and political theory. The thesis is divided into four different parts. First, there is a descriptive presentation of the three reforms. Secondly, there is a discussion of various theories of reforms and organizations. The primary aim of this analysis is to illuminate and explain the empirical data, but this discussion should also provide its own answers to the main questions asked in the thesis. Thirdly, these theories are applied to analyze data from the three reforms. And finally, the study concludes with a summary of what general insights about the reforms we are left with after studying the Quality Reform, The Police Reform 2000, and the Knowledge Reform. The study shows that reforms have both policy and content aspects, and that it is important to distinguish between the two in order to analyse and understand them. The policy aspect is that reforms are a strategy for change - they are tools for implementing change in organizations. The content aspect is that reforms have a specific content - they have certain objectives that they want to realize. The study concludes that in order to understand this complex and fascinating phenomenon, we need to understand reforms both as instrumental tools, institutional adaptations and symbols.

In a world marked by surging international conflicts, labour market globalisation, ever-widening economic inequities, steady improvement in the flow of information, and increasing possibilities for mobility over greater distances, the number of migrants on a worldwide basis is hardly likely to decrease in coming years. Immigration regulations are devised within a confluence of national interests, international laws, and attention to migrants' individual rights. The tension between these disparate considerations begs the question: How can we best safeguard both universal rights issues and European economic integration, as well as the Norwegian state's obligation, vis-à-vis the distribution of benefits, to its own citizens. We are moving into extremely complex ethical and legal territory, where there are no easy answers. In this book, the author puts Norway's immigration policy under a moral-philosophical loupe for a thorough analysis of various answers to key questions in the Norwegian immigration debate.

This book is aimed at anyone interested in immigration policy issues, but especially persons working professionally in the field, such as political philosophers, politicians, lawyers, case managers and political scientists. - I en verden der internasjonale konflikter stadig blusser opp, arbeidsmarkedet globaliseres, økonomiske ulikheter blir stadig større, informasjonsflyten kontinuerlig forbedres og mulighetene for å forflytte seg over store avstander er gode, vil antallet migranter på verdensbasis ikke bli lavere i årene som kommer. Innvandringsregulering finner sted i spenningen mellom statlige interesser, internasjonal rett og hensynet til migranters individuelle rettigheter. I lys av disse spenningene må vi stille spørsmålet om hvordan vi best mulig kan ivareta både universelle rettighetshensyn og europeisk økonomisk integrasjon, samt den norske stats forpliktelse overfor egne innbyggere i fordeling av goder. Vi beveger oss inn i et etisk og juridisk felt med stor kompleksitet, hvor ingen enkle svar er gitt. I denne boken legger forfatteren norsk innvandringspolitikk under en moralfilosofisk lupe, og drøfter grundig ulike svar på en rekke sentrale spørsmål i norsk innvandringsdebatt.

Boken retter seg mot alle med interesse for innvandringspolitiske spørsmål, men særskilt personer som arbeider profesjonelt innenfor feltet, slik som politiske filosofer, politikere, jurister, saksbehandlere og statsvitere.