This article addresses itself to the crisis of democracy in inter-war Europe which saw the breakdown of one democratic regime after the other with Czechoslovakia as the only survivor case in Eastern and Central Europe by the end of this period. It is cast within the framework of Stein Rokkan's seminal conceptual map of Europe which is expanded in order to account for countries and variables originally not included in his analytical scheme. The analysis leads to the following conclusion: where the state building was weak and the legacy of empire strong, or where secular nation building was still impaired by deeply rooted religious sentiments, or where significant segments representing major cleavages where not coopted into a constitutional compromise, the chances for democratic survival in inter-war Europe were slim indeed. The conclusion applies to the inter-war era alone, but it clearly has implications for contemporary Europe. Noting that statehood and secularization ranked high on the agenda of communist Eastern Europe, the authors raise the paradoxical question if the success of democracy in this part of the world may in fact be a byproduct of the extent to which the now defunct communist regimes were successful in promoting their pet goals.
This chapter examines public opinion regarding European Community integration in the five small but comparatively prosperous countries in the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The evidence reveals a split. On the one hand, there is the positive endorsement expressed in Austria, Finland and Sweden; on the other, there is the negative assessment expressed in Norway and Switzerland. This ambivalence confirms that the impact of centre-periphery location is complex. Moreover, as the Norwegian and Swiss cases indicate, the centre-periphery cleavage within countries is as relevant as that between countries to an understanding of support for internationalized governance.
Differences in descriptions of boys and girls are studied in 26 child protection cases. There are several differences, i.e. boys are described as aggressive and girls as worried.
In this article, we examine empirically a key element of individualization theory—the democratic family. We do so using the “acid test” of family policy, and family practice, in Sweden. First, we review the progress of family policy in Sweden since the 1960s, which has expressly promoted an agenda of gender equality and democracy in families, with individual autonomy for both adults and children as one key element. We then turn to family practice, looking particularly at negotiation and adult equality, lifelong parenting after separation, and children's autonomy. While Swedish policy makers and shapers seem to have developed the idea of the democratic family long before the sociologist Anthony Giddens, the results in practice have been more ambivalent. While there has been change, there is more adaptation to pre-existing gender and generational norms.
In recent developmental research, sleep-wake patterns and preferences, in other words Morningness-Eveningness, have been shown to be related to various kinds of problem behavior. Previous research on adolescents has demonstrated that individuals with a sleep-wake preference toward staying up late in the evening and arising late in the morning (i.e., Eveningness), are more likely to face problems in development. Accordingly, Eveningness has been proposed as a risk factor in development, but through processes which researchers have not been able to fully explain. The present dissertation focuses on the relationship between Morningness-Eveningness and developmental patterns across contexts in adolescence. Links between Morningness-Eveningness, and negative adjustment, life style, personality characteristics, family relationships, peer networks, and school achievement, are discussed within an interactionistic framework. Also, factors that might explain and/or moderate these associations are elucidated. The empirical material stems from two cohorts of 8th grade adolescents in a middle size Swedish community. Eveningness is proposed to be a concurrent marker of risk behavior. However, there seems to be different kinds of Evening types that encounter different kinds of problems. Also, the present findings do not support the notion of Morningness being protective. How temporal patterns in general, and Eveningness in particular, are connected to other behaviors is emphasized as important knowledge for stemming negative developmental processes and facilitating positive outcomes.
The purpose is to study how police interrogators and children go into different role states during the interrogations. Both interrogatiors and children go into different role states and influence each other to go into role states.
Syftet är att undersöka hur barns svar i utredande samtal påverkas av ledande och/eller pressande frågor och påståenden samt av olika instruktioner angående betydelsen av korrekhet hos svaren. Totalt 36 barn i sexårsåldern medverkade i studien. Resultaten antyder att instruktionen påverkar korrekthet, konfidens samt utförlighet i svaren.
Twenty child protection investigations are critically examined out of a gender perspective. Differences in arguments and attributions are shown.
The purpose is to investigate what categories of conversation memories occur from police interrogators and from interviewed children. Twenty police interrogations were examined. One category system is shown for different conversation memories by the interrogators and two category systems are shown for the conversation memories from those who are interviewed.
Preschool children (N = 32; boys and girls 3 and 5 year old) were interviewed, first in a neutral manner and then with some press. The resulats showed changed patterns of responding when press was used.
This chapter begins with a macro-level analysis of post-Cold War attitudes to European Community integration within the CEE countries, and examines the extent to which these attitudes reflect differences in character and pace of progress towards democratization. It then turns to micro-level analysis of public opinion survey data for answers to three issues: the state of CEE public opinion about European integration in general and about EC membership in particular; the identity of groups favouring or opposing EC membership; the extent of nationalism and xenophobia in the CEE countries, and their likely impact on support for EC integration.
The Stalinist and neo-Stalinist system of government was imposed on Eastern Europe by the leading member of the Soviet bloc. It was a centralized and authoritarian system that was capable of transformation only within boundaries defined by the ruling communist parties. The revolution of 1989-90 was a byproduct of a permanent legitimacy crisis in Eastern Europe compounded by a series of serious political and economic mistakes. In the aftermath of the anti-communist revolution, a new process of evolution away from the Stalinist system has been entered upon, in which the party systems of Eastern Europe have undergone profound change, as new cleavages have appeared and old cleavages have reasserted themselves.
A fifty-year period of tranquility in the Scandinavian party arena was broken in 1970 with the success of the Finnish Rural Party and the Swedish Center Party. Three years later, Denmark and Norway witnessed the break-through of heretofore unknown parties: the Progressive Party, the Center Democrats and the Norwegian Anders Lange's Party. Social Democracy consistently came out as the big loser.
This paper focuses on party system stability and its correlates in postwar Scandinavia. What was it that the losing parties failed to adapt to: changing social conflict structures, changing political realities or both?
The data from all four countries concur in highlighting the importance of the political as opposed to the sociological. The social changes which manifested themselves in the early '70s, most notably the decrease in class voting, were not dramatic enough to undermine the class character of the party systems. Even the new arrivals make sense in a left-right perspective. The drop in class voting was an asset to whatever party knew how to take advantage of it; and the realigning elections in the early part of this decade testify to the unwillingness rather than the inability of most parties to do so.
Denna bok behandlar chefskapet i landstingen ur ett genusperspektiv. Några resultat som framkommit visar, att de största skillnaderna mellan de kvinnliga och de manliga chefernas situation står att finna i hemmasfären. De kvinnliga cheferna förefaller leva ett mer jämställt liv med sina makar än manliga chefer gör. Vidare framträder tecken på att kvinnliga och manliga chefer har tillgång till och bygger olika typer av kontaktnätverk, vilket i sin tur kan påverka deras förutsättningar att bli framgångsrika i sitt jobb. Bland andra intressanta resultat från studien kan nämnas att kvinnliga och manliga chefers villkor och arbetsförutsättningar är olika så att de på grund av sitt kön ställs inför olika krav och förväntningar om hur de ska uppträda i sin chefsroll.
The purpose of the article is to discuss in what way stereotype notions of leadership and male and female leaders mig affect executive´s conditions and changes of working on equal terms, irrespective of what sex they are. By means of a study of Swedish county council administration managers, which was carried out using three different methods, the author has found that male and female administration managers look at their executive work in a similar way, but still seem to accomplish their tasks differently. Also, women are generally seen as being of less authority than men. The author holds, however, that this may be an effect of people´s forming an opinion of male and female leaders respectively on the basis of their own expectations.
The purpose is to based on literature investigate how the social services control citizens. Four case examples are used. The values and interests of those in power dominate the social services, research and use of knowledge. Those in power control research resources and produce knowledge for own interests and purposes.
This study investigates the historic development of the management of the international hazardous waste (HW) trade problem, between 1972 and 2000. The method used in the study is discourse analysis, and it is undertaken through the usage of two different perspectives. The first deals with the research question: 'What kind of discourse is produced?' The second relates to Foucault's question: 'What kind of an actor is produced?' A third question is added: 'What kind of global environmental discourse is created?'
These questions are considered during eleven international negotiations. In the first part of the study the discursive development is scrutinised and in the second the actors interaction with the HW-trade discourse is in focus. The empirical material comes from literature, documents, interviews and direct observations.
The result of the early development in this area was a discourse that created the OECD-system for HW-trade. This system was expanded to a global level with the Basel Conference in 1989. The resulting convention was based on regulation of the HW-trade. This order of things was challenged and was later 'changed' by an amendment to the convention. This amendment demanded a total ban on the HW-exports from developed to developing states. In the end of the studied period it has been argued that the HW-trade ought to be a part of the World Trade Organization (WTO) dominated free trade discourse.
The result of the study's second part show that no state is powerful enough to enforce its will upon the others in this issue area. In 1989, when the Basel Convention was negotiated, it was made possible because various actors operated in a coherent manner and that the most important actors supported the draft convention that the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) had been promoting during two years of prenegotiations. Changes of substance are made possible through this type of discourse coalition. The ban amendment was enforced by a similar but less powerful discourse coalition. The 'real' changes are rare though.
Modern central-local relations are in general characterised by decentralisation in nearly all policy fields, with growing demands for local adjustment and direct democracy. At the same time, the political parties are criticised of trying to implement environmental politics in the municipalities, which are strongly characterised by national goals and strategies. The aim of this study is to describe and analyse changes in the responsibility distribution between the state and the municipalities in a historical perspective with a focus on two environmentally oriented policy areas - health protection and environmental protection , and seek to understand and explain why these changes occur.
The fundamental explanatory approach of the thesis is historical institutionalism, a combined actor-structure approach which presumes that institutions and ideas are expected to institutionalise certain central-local relations over time. The study is based upon the assumption that changes in municipal responsibility are presumed to happen slowly, but at certain formative moments, actors carry through fundamental changes. The study shows that health protection, from the end of the 19th century, has had a tradition of local responsibility. When environmental politics appeared on the political agenda during the 1960ies the political debate resulted in a centralised organisation, which however changed and the municipalities were gradually given a more active and important role. It is shown that general state and municipal ideas, as well as policy specific ideas and the already established responsibility distribution between the state and the municipalities have institutionalised the municipal responsibility development in certain ways. The formative moments do not crystallise automatically, but depend on what approach we adopt, and what we characterise as fundamental and incrementalistic changes.
The ability to remember a 30 word long military order given as number 2 of 3 orders was studied for N = 53 conscripts. The participants remembered tha first part of the order best.