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The procedural aspects surrounding the currently suspended process of selection for the Position "Lars Hierta's" Professor in Political Sciences is reviewed. In a highly unusual manner according to the author, the Board of Educators proposed him over the Experts' Opinion to the position, which he declined. Then it was offered to Tommy Moller, who accepted & had a salary discussion with the Dean. However the Rector stopped the process. The author analyzes also seemingly subjective judgments by the "Experts" while evaluating the applicants' merits. A. Barral

The author reviews Bo Rothstein's book from 2003, "Social traps & the problem of Trust." Compared to Robert Putnam, Rothstein gives more importance to political processes & institutional arrangements. Studying the Swedish welfare state, Rothstein concludes that social trust is greater in Sweden than in other states, due to these institutional arrangements. The author on the other hand argues that institutions can both be a central factor to attain a new form of legitimacy & social integration, & be part of a deeper informal cultural structure. However, they can never be independent from the historical and cultural context. As generated by & themselves generating norms, they form part of "culture", but can never be treated as independent variables. References. A. Barral

The author complains about how surveys analyzing her professional activities seldom ask questions about her real professional concerns. Moreover, answers often do not fit the possibilities given in the surveys, thus, surveys often may result in biased or inaccurate information. Adapted from the source document.

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 objective behind this article is to study the proliferation of the politics of information technology (IT) in Sweden, 1994-2003, based on a discourse analysis. The article argues that the Swedish IT political discourse is characterised by a guiding rule according to which there exist an autonomous & inevitable historical path towards the "information society." Swedish citizens are defined as dependent subjects, without any means to influence the advent of this new society. Instead they have to comply with new requirements in terms of swift social adaptation & life-long learning. In addition, the IT-political discourse is distinguished by nationalist optimism, as well as democratic ambitions. This also gives rise to peculiar contradictions within the discourse, for instance in the educational arena where there is a clash between individualist pedagogical doctrines & collective compliance to the information society. The author concludes that Swedish IT politics have hitherto mainly focused on affecting definitions & perceptions through the persuasive use of a model of steering which the author labels "visionary governance," ie, the establishment of an authoritative definition of the future by certain experts or "visionaries." Discursive power within such a model consists in making all actors addressing the political issue unanimously. 24 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

International Politics has been characterized as an American social science. This article traces the early development of the discipline in Sweden in the shadow of US hegemony. The advantages & disadvantages of the Swedish decision to keep International Relations (IR) within the broader discipline of Political Science are discussed. Recalling the early tensions between International Politics & Peace & Conflict Research, the author identifies some prominent traits in the development of Swedish IR in recent decades. Finally, broader developments in IR research generally are outlined in terms of consecutive debates, continuously broadening research themes, fashions, reaction to dramatic events in the world, & dialectics between paradigms emphasizing anarchy or order. References. Adapted from the source document.

This article aims to identify what critical categories are applied to review of doctoral dissertations in political science & what patterns of change might impact these same categories through time. Some of the fundamental concepts entailed in faculty review of dissertation are presented here on the basis of centuries-old thought. While these concepts remain valid today, their application is assumed to have changed. Through a content analysis of reviews made of political science dissertations over a 20-year period, a notable shift in emphasis is made from critical attention to source material & empirical analysis to critical attention to perspective of the writer & theoretical approach. Important developments in the composition of review committees are also discussed, including an increase in the committee's number of professors within one discipline, international profile, & departmental balance regarding the department of the dissertation author. These & other changes are here situated in the larger framework of character shifts that have affected political science & other disciplines throughout the last generation. 2 Tables, 14 References. C. Brunski

The thesis of this article is that logic/science does not exclude but requires knowledge of rhetoric. Rhetoric is not merely a technique for persuasion but, more importantly, a science of how we structure our knowledge through language. Logic & science are nothing but instruments that natural language constructs to handle observable factual circumstances, something that became possible with the invention of the alphabet & written language. A positivistic, reductive science is suitable only by research on given facts. Alongside the knowledge of facts, we must also handle the knowledge of action, which is impossible to do only with the positivistic methods of conventional social science. Drawing on his personal experiences of municipal politics & communal planning the author suggests that rhetorical conceptions & methods of research can play a big role in community planning research & in sciences of man, which necessarily brings facts & actions together. The article refers to a rhetorical based theory called 'human-scientific theory of action.' While science helps us to know (knowledge of causes), rhetoric helps us to understand (knowledge of intentions & meanings). 40 References. Adapted from the source document.

This dissertation is about expert influence and democracy and focuses on how political decision-making about issues highly dependent on qualified scientific expertise should come about in order to be democratic. The primary purpose of the study is to evaluate, from a democratic perspective, the Swedish legislative process concerned with medical gene technology ? an archetypal case where the decision-making processes involve a marked level of expertise. It is argued that a democratic decision-making process should be characterized by openness and transparency and the possibility for a variety of standpoints to be visible and open to debate. This democratic norm is valid for all decision-making processes and the crucial question is whether a decision-making process highly dependent on qualified scientific expertise would have difficulties meeting such posed democratic criteria. The author makes a systematic empirical and normative analysis of the decision-making process in question, which is anatomised and evaluated against the democratic norm. The overall result of the study is that scientific experts have been able to define the problems on the political agenda and, thereby, had influenced the process as a whole. However, this has not constrained a variety of standpoints to be visible, but views expressed about the experts? problem definitions have prompted more frequent responses from the political decision-makers than other views, which only occasionally have been responded to. The Swedish legislative process concerned with medical gene technology has thereby partly deviated from democratic ideals.

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.

In this report future annual emissions amounts of gaseous pollutants, particulate matter (PM10) and noise from the non-road mobile machinery sector in Sweden were estimated. The estimates over future emissions amounts were conducted for each year from 2006 to 2020. Special focus has been taken to the impact of European and national legislations, the age distribution of different types and sizes of machinery and measures to reduce the annual emissions. Besides different measures to reduce emissions, corresponding costs were also estimated. The study comprises fuel consumption and emissions of CO2, carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM), and noise from non-road mobile machinery equipped with diesel engines with a rated engine power of 37 to 560 kW. Non-road mobile machinery for example includes tractors, wheel loaders, excavators, articulate haulers, mobile cranes, combined harvesters, forestry machinery and trucks. The current report was a supplementary study to a report describing a methodology for estimating annual fuel consumption and emissions from the non-road mobile machinery sector in Sweden for year 2006. Inventory data of the year 2006 study was obtained from the Swedish machinery testing institute's machinery inspection operation, statistics of sale returns from trade organisations and the Swedish motor-vehicle register. The number of machinery and annual fuel consumption and emissions amounts for year 2006 is presented in table S1. Besides estimates of annual fuel consumption and emissions amounts, emissions of noise was also derived both at a national level and for a specific construction site. For the case study the results showed that it was possible to reduce the average noise level with more than 3 dB(A) compared with the base scenario just by choosing the machinery fulfilling the strictest noise limits, i.e. Stage II which was mandatory for most machinery from 2006. Other measures simulated included various types of retrofit of noise reduction packages. The specific cost for the different measures to reduce average noise emissions from the specific construction site varied from 4 000 up to more than 500 000 SEK dB-1. For the estimate of future fuel consumption and emissions amounts various simulations were conducted, each with a different measure for reducing the annual amounts. Five main emission reduction measures or programs were studied: - Scrappage program - Alternative fuel program - Voluntary emission regulation program - Retrofit of aftertreatment program - Noise reduction program The impact on engine exhaust gas emissions and noise of the current European emission and noise regulations, Stage I to IV and Stage I to II for emissions and noise respectively were common for all simulations or programs. Besides the impact of European regulations, annual work was set to a fixed value for each type of machinery and year simulated, thus eliminating any potential changes of the state of the market. The result of the baseline scenario "Business as usual" (BAU), i.e. only taking account to the impact of European regulation, is presented in table S2 for four different years Both fuel consumption and emissions of CO2 remains fairly constant as an effect of the assumption that the annual work was set at a fixed value. However, emissions of especially NOx and PM showed a major reduction due to the tighter and tighter regulations. All programs simulated were able to reduce the emissions compared with the BAU scenario with exceptions for emissions of nitrogen oxides, which increased in some of the alternative fuel programs. Both the absolute reduction and cost varied significantly between and within the various programs. Reduction of NOx varied from an accumulated increase in emissions of 25 000 tonne to an accumulated reduction of 22 000 tonne for the studied period from 2006 to 2020. At the same time the accumulated cost for the programs varied from a few hundred million SEK to more than 60 000 million SEK. In table S3, specific reduction cost for each pollutant in SEK kg-1 for eight typical emission reduction programs are presented. The results showed that the most economically favourable alternative for reducing emissions from non-road mobile machinery was the voluntary emissions regulation program, i.e. early introduction of machinery fulfilling coming emission limits. Another important result was that the introduction of alternative fuels as a mean of emissions reduction was associated with rather high costs compared to the actual reduction in emissions. For emissions of nitrogen oxides the specific reduction cost varied from almost 100 SEK kg-1 up to a few hundreds of SEK kg-1 except for the alternative fuel programs, which resulted in a considerable higher cost.