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Political science research in Sweden depends heavily on external financing. The Swedish Research Council and the Riksbankens jubileumsfond have long played a major role in this. A list of applicants who received research grants from those two organizations in 2007 is presented. Adapted from the source document.

Confidence and corruption in Swedish municipalities Corruption in public institutions can seriously undermine trust and cooperation. Corruption prevention requires an understanding of the mechanisms which cause individuals to engage in corrupt behavior. Against this background there is a need to determine which types of institutions can stop confidence and cooperation from degenerating into distrust and corruption. Traditionally Sweden and its institutions have been seen as relatively free of corruption. In recent years, increasing media coverage and expert reports suggest that corruption in Sweden is increasing, but how accurate is this perception? Greater empirical knowledge is needed concerning the scope and nature of corruption as well as the extent, if at all, it is increasing. Many corruption studies have focused on countries in transition from a non-democratic to a democratic form of government. Literature has therefore focused on how trust and cooperation can arise out of situations characterized by the opposite. However, a useful corruption theory ought to be able to account for how corrupt behavior can vary over time. It has been pointed out that researchers lack a commonly accepted theory that would explain both how trust and cooperation arise and how they break down. The article's authors describe how, in their upcoming project, they propose to address this question. Adapted from the source document.

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.

The liberal state, it has been argued, must be neutral between different conceptions of the good. Honoring individual autonomy & embodying ideals such as fairness & impartiality, the doctrine of state neutrality is intuitively appealing. Working as a restraint for state actions it is however problematic. In this paper, a possible solution to this predicament is outlined. Drawing on the distinction between liberty & what gives worth to liberty, it is argued that we must never accept non-neutral restrictions of liberty itself, but may pursue non-neutral policies affecting the distribution of what gives worth to liberty & may impose taxes funding non-neutral state actions, although such taxation inevitable limits the worth of our liberty. It is suggested that we, by adopting such a policy of limited state perfectionism, can recognize the right to individual autonomy without having to restrain the state from doing the good it can. References. Adapted from the source document.

PerOla Oberg, from the University of Uppsala, who is the vice-chairman for the Federation of Political Science, currently engaged in changing the structure of their yearly meeting. This includes attracting more established scientists & advanced graduate students, planning workshops with more focused topics, & giving prizes for promising and novel presentations. Adapted from the source document.

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.

How political scientists appear in different media & how these appearances may result in distorted information is analyzed. Scientists may present their research, comment on ongoing political issues, or lift up particular issues to public debate. Adapted from the source document.

Project Hybrid regimes has democratization and non-democratic regimes as its focus. In recent years, research has shown how a number of authoritarian regimes have adopted a blend of democracy and authoritarianism rather than converting outright to full democracy. A country might for instance hold free elections but show little regard for the political and human rights of citizens. Project collaborators are operating on the premise that this type of blended or hybrid regime constitutes a distinct regime type alongside democracies, full authoritarian regimes, or totalitarian governments. They seek to explore the question of whether outside aid from full democracies can aid hybrid regimes in converting into full democracies. While the number of democratic governments around the world has increased in recent years, researchers have noted that hybrid regimes often resist efforts on the part of foreign democratic organizations to aid them toward a process of greater democratization. Citing the case of post-Soviet countries, and the Ukraine, the authors question the widely held perception by researchers that countries possessing a blend of democratic and authoritarian elements are at a transition point on the way to full democratization and that non-democratic elements of their governments merely constitute temporary setbacks. The authors, noting that heads of such regimes resist full democracy because they aren't prepared to accept challenges to their political power, argue for a new for the recognition of a new, lasting hybrid type of government characterized by elements of both democracy and authoritarianism. Adapted from the source document.

Beckman answers to the criticism of the article in p67. While he cannot comment on the lack of clarity of quotations as the precise issue was not described, he defends his approach on analyzing Tingsten's work using his different public roles (professor and redactor-in-chief of Dagens Nyheter). Adapted from the source document.

The research project described in this article starts out with the hypothesis that new forms of bureaucracy have arisen within public administration as a consequence New Public Management-related reforms which have swept through the West in recent decades. The main goal of these reforms is to make public administrations more business-like and therefore more effective and customer-oriented. Administrations are thereby coming more to resemble businesses and are becoming decentralized while retaining central management and control. Herein lies the danger that NPM reforms will have the effect of creating bureaucratic expansion within these administrations. This situation is paradoxical since the NPM wave builds on the very economic research which has been critical of the phenomenon of bureaucratization within public administration. Within the framework of ongoing efforts to incorporate public activity, a series of new organizational forms has been created, all with a need to justify their activities upward and outward. The bureaucratization of these secondary functions within the decentralized level of the state is the focus of the research project to be undertaken. The project will involve three case studies of NPM-influenced forms of management in a municipality, a hospital, and a college. Adapted from the source document.

Recent years have proven formative for the Swedish administration as the disciplinary commission and committee on the Constitution consider proposals whose adaption will have a far-reaching impact on the nation's social organization. As the constitutional changes can impact significantly on government at the local level, research focusing on questions of local government structure is urgently needed. A major strength of local government is political leadership, which is the key to bridging the gap between democracy and management research. The authors note that the influence of political leaders at the local level is often greater than that of their counterparts in the national government. The direction of future constitutional change will determine the extent to which local government and its leaders can preserve their strengths. Adapted from the source document.