The article examines electoral politics over the last 35 years in the Russian Federation, since the end of the Soviet Union to the present day. It traces the party and electoral system through several phases of development, from hyper-pluralism in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse to the electoral authoritarianism of the late Putin period. A particular focus is on the ‘toolkit’ of measures used to constrict competition and ensure favourable electoral outcomes for the Kremlin and its associates, and on public confidence (or the lack thereof) in the legitimacy of the electoral process. Whilst we can over-romanticise the pluralism of the late 1980s and 1990s, there is an inherent danger for the Kremlin in relying on extracting ever greater gains from an ever-narrower base of support, at the expense of systemic renewal. In the long-term, this may presage another epochal shift in the Russian political system.
Corona – a challenge for legal policySociety is challenged by a virus that threatens humanity, calling for intervention in private spheres that belongs to different policy areas. As a result, the regulation becomes like a patchwork quilt without normative consistency. The regulation is ad hoc. Sweden has initially relied on influencing people’s behavior through norm creation and not legislation, partly being forced to since the constitution does not leave room for exemption laws in the same way as other countries. When it comes to formulating policy, the expert authority, Public Health Agency, has a central role. Democracy is replaced by meritocracy. Legality presupposes legitimacy in order to function. This is a balancing act between formal and substantive legal certainty. As a general conclusion, legal regulation is most effective when legality and legitimacy flow together. However, where these meeting points can be found in practice varies with the nature of the problem.
Intelligence service as a method to produce analytical reports has always been controversial within the UN as the use of secret information raises ethical dilemmas linked to espionage and impartiality. As a result of this critical approach, UN missions throughout history have lacked their own capacity for intelligence gathering and analysis. Instead, they have had to rely on the intelligence capability of the troop contributing countries. This has created ad hoc solutions and made it difficult for peace missions to manage their own personnel’s security and to create peace and stability in the field of action. However, the UN’s critical approach to conducting its own intelligence service changed fundamentally when the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon in July 2017 adopted a new Peace Keeping Intelligence Policy in peacekeeping operations. The decision resulted in sharp protests from both colleagues and member countries. Does this mean that the UN has now become a player in the global intelligence community? This report attempts to describe the UN’s reform efforts and analyses what future challenges and consequences this may have.
In recent Swedish political debate a former anonymous group has been noticed, political appointees in the political executives. In media they are often characterized as politicians and in the last decades an expansion of them has taken place, both at governmental and municipal level (Stockholm). However, studies of this key group are surprisingly few. The study is related to "politicization", a concept widely used in international political science. Not only the expansion (and the recent feminization) of the group is here discussed. Even more important is the changing patterns of careers and the creation of staffs of political appointees that surround the politicians. The changes can be viewed as an effort from the politicians to regain control of the bureaucracy. By studying this, at least in Sweden, neglected group, the concept on politicization also is developed. Adapted from the source document.
Introduktion till temanummer om Politikens medialisering
Understanding gender and nation in everyday practises and social science. The nation is often portrayed as a natural political unit, a bearer of common values facilitating democracy and equality. However, the construction and reproduction of nations is also intimately tied to hierarchies and mechanisms of power, not least gender power. This article shows how nation and gender are construed simultaneously in ideas and symbols, as well as in every-day practises. The article argues that memory work is a possible way to gain insight into the every-day construction of gender and nation, and to develop new theoretical understandings. An overview of central themes of the discussion on gender and nation is presented. Memory work makes explicit the ambivalent processes by which women as acting subjects are denied agency and turned into objects of the nation.
The purpose of this article is to examine and compare the construction of a supposednew masculinity ideal, “the new man”, in relation to political leadership, andto interpret how the gender norms there within affect the credibility as a politician.The study extends to the reporting from 2010 in the daily newspaper DagensNyheter about three Swedish male elite politicians with various party affiliation andideologies. Our findings shows that flexibility is a prominent new-man-marker, thatthe relationship between flexibility and credibility as a male politician is complexand that in a Swedish/Nordic context the new man is constructed as gender equal.One conclusion is that some male politicians benefit more than others – who maybe pushing the boundaries (too far) for what may be considered as masculine –from being positioned within the discourse of the new man.
This article explores the question if media power strengthens governmental power. It engages with this question through a study of the Swedish case. The case study summarizes secondary evidence and presents new primary evidence drawn from interviews and documents. It builds on presidentialization theory to develop an argument about why prime ministers, in particular, should be expected to be empowered by media, among other factors. The article advances the argument that the drive for government-wide coherent communication perpetuates trends of centralization. This follows a functionalist logic and changes the balance between premiers and other cabinet ministers in favour of the former. Moreover, prime ministers are the natural foci of media attention. The article concludes that premiers are empowered by the media, but the scope for executive empowerment more broadly is conditional on the domestic political context. These findings have important implications for research on political communication and executives.
Etikprövning av forskning som avser människor ska säkerställa att forskningen bedrivs på ett etiskt försvarbart sätt. En viktig funktion är att skydda dem som deltar i forskningen (fortsättningsvis forskningspersonerna) från fysisk, psykisk och integritetsmässig skada. I Sverige är etikprövning reglerad i lagen (2003:460) om etikprövning av forskning som avser människor (etikprövningslagen, EPL) och det är straffbart att påbörja viss slags forskning utan att först inhämta ett godkännande från Etikprövningsmyndigheten (EPM).2 På senare år har det svenska etikprövningssystemet blivit föremål för hård kritik. Kritiken har rört många olika saker men den har huvudsakligen riktat in sig på systemets utformning och negativa inverkan på humanistisk och samhällsvetenskaplig forskning.
Det internationella biståndet som vi känner det idag är en internationellt formulerad efterkrigsidé. Enkelt uttryckt bygger tanken på att en orättvis global fördelning av resurser kan avhjälpas av de länder som har det bättre ställt. Efter andra världskriget talades det i termer av ”massfattigdom” och ”befolkningsexplosion” för att beskriva den fattiga delen av världen. Som ett litet obetydligt land och med argumentet att man egentligen saknade kolonialhistoria öppnades nu en möjlighet för Sverige att som hjälpande land positionera sig i internationella sammanhang. Och det skulle man. Men hur skulle Sverige ta sig an frågan – denna svindlande uppgift – att bidra till internationellt bistånd? Hur skulle det rent praktiskt gå till och vad kunde Sverige göra för att möta tillsynes oändliga behov? Om detta handlar En svindlande uppgift: Sverige och biståndet 1945–1975.
Democracy, often viewed as noble, relies on politics, which is paradoxically seen as dirty. The aim of this essay is to problematize the bad reputation of politics and to discuss the implications for its place in democracy. The question is: why is politics so ugly? Themes such as conflict avoidance, excessive conflict, deception, and market logic in politics are discussed. The conclusion justifies politics’ bad reputation, citing both theoretical and empirical evidence of deception. The fear of conflict and its opposite, an increasingly harsh tone, are problematic. This results in people’s reluctance to participate in political elections. To protect democracy, we must address these issues and encourage more participation in politics.
The listening to children and young people has been given a prominent role in today’s politics. However, there are good reasons to reflect more closely on the relationship between collective representation and self-organized political participation by children and youth to claim rights. The overall purpose of this article is to scrutinize how established political representation of children and youth relates to young people's own representative claims, and what theoretical issues this give rise to. By comparing the Swedish Children's Ombudsman´s annual reports with young Afghans political protests for a right to stay in Sweden, this article points to how right claims of different actors expose problematic tensions in how we conceive of political representation of young migrants in a time of restrictive migration politics.
I Sverige uppmärksammar vi nu 100-årsjubiléet av införandet av allmän och lika rösträtt 1918–1921. Sedan reformerna i början av 1900-talet har rösträtten och valbarheten utvidgats och fler grupper har getts möjlighet till demokratiskt deltagande. Samtidigt som denna expansion av medborgarskap har inkluderat fler grupper än tidigare kvarstår begränsningar i demokratiskt deltagande för andra. Inte minst gäller detta i relation till de ca 20 % av Sveriges befolkning under 18 år som inte har rösträtt och inte är valbara till politiska församlingar eller som partiföreträdare. Barns och ungas demokratiska och politiska representation har i stället tagit andra vägar. Inrättandet av Barnombudsmannen, Elevombudsmannen och Myndigheten för ungdoms och civilsamhällesfrågor, liksom implementeringen av barnkonventionen i sektorer som skola, vård, socialt arbete och kommunalt organiserade ungdomsråd har tydligt markerat att man från statsmaktens sida sett ett behov av att formalisera representationen av den unga grupp i samhället som inte har rösträtt eller är valbar till politiska församlingar. Vi har i det här temanumret samlat ett antal empiriska och teoretiska undersökningar om barn och ungas egna demokratiska deltagande och hur de representeras av andra i en samtida demokrati som Sverige. På detta sätt vill vi bygga vidare på de pågående kritiska diskussionerna inom statsvetenskapen om demokrati och representation och en växande mängd studier om barn, unga och politik. Vi vill därmed också peka på några av de möjligheter som ett särskilt fokus på barn och unga som politiska subjekt kan erbjuda för vår grundläggande förståelse av demokrati och politisk representation.
Utgångspunkten för den här studien är hur uppfattningar om konkurrens och samverkan använts för att få till stånd vissa målstyrda processer. Inom förvaltningsforskningen har begreppsanvändning uppmärksammats sedan decennier tillbaka. En observation där har varit att motstridiga begrepp kan vara lika gångbara i ett och samma sammanhang trots att de står för diametralt motsatta ideal. Exempelvis kan både centralisering och decentralisering ses som positiva på en och samma gång (Pollitt & Hupe 2011). I den här studien betraktas konkurrens och samverkan som sådana motstridiga begrepp som båda trots det har kunnat laddas med positiva värden. Konkurrens och samverkan har varit eftersträvansvärda på en och samma gång i en rad mer eller mindre kopplade målstyrda processer i Stockholm något decennium in på 2000-talet.
If not Thunberg, perhaps Trump? A study about the relationship between skepticism towards society and attitudes towards global political symbols This article concerns how publics relate to global political actors, including: Joe Biden, Greta Thunberg, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. In an increasingly globalized and digitized era, the influence of political actors increasingly transcends national boundaries, turning them into global celebrities and in this case also global political symbols. In order to explore the growing importance of global political symbols for political behaviour, this article seeks to explore the association between opinions towards several global political symbols, broadly representing either the establishment or the anti-establishment, and attitudes towards the media, politics, science, global warming and the Covid-19-pandemic. Using survey data collected in Finland 2021, the results broadly show that holding positive opinions about establishment symbols are positively associated with holding mainstream opinions, while a similar relationship is found between anti-establishment symbols and populist attitudes. The findings add to the literature about the attitudinal foundations of emerging global political mass movements.
This article contributes with a nuanced picture of the importance of civil society for young people’s democratic socialisation and opportunities for influence, by studying public statistics on changes in membership rates in national youth organisations. Young people have long been given a special status in society and they are often perceived as either a threat or a promise. Young people’s special status is based on the fact that they do not really belong to the rest of society. They depend in different ways on others for their immediate livelihood, socialisation and for risk protection. But they also have the potential to contribute with new perspectives and change to outdated institutions. Because of their age, young people have been considered to need both democratic schooling and opportunities to find a context to express their commitment. Engagements in associations among young people has therefore been actively encouraged and supported by the state since at least the beginning of the 20th century. The results of this article show that until sometime in the 1970s and 1980s, participation in most types of national youth organisations increased, but that membership numbers subsequently decreased more or less drastically in organisations based on traditional popular mass movements, while others have increased or maintained their membership numbers.
We interpret the historical overview as evidence that the state subsidies since long has survived their purpose. The original mass movement organizations are declining in memberships, despite the efforts and those that are growing often follow the democratic procedures more to live up to the rules of the state than because of the desire to be governed by the will of the members and to change society.
The position of school superintendent, established in 1958, was abolished in 1991 as a law regulated position. The equivalent tasks of a superintendent were there after carried out by a local government official with many different titles and a vary-ing set of responsibilities. However, in 2018 the position of school superintendent was re-established in the Swedish Educational Act. The purpose of this article is to study how school superintendents interpret the consequences of this change with regards to their commission and role. One-third of the informants claim that the revision of the law has not affected their daily work, while almost half believe that it has had some effect, albeit to a small extent. Informants believe it has contributed to a more well defined commission, a strengthened mandate, and a clarification of the superintendents’ responsibilities, which can be interpreted as yet an expression of an on-going process of re-centralization in the Swedish school sector.
On 7 February 2019 the largest evening paper in the Nordic countries, Aftonbladet, published an article on the scholar Martin Kragh, head of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs in Stockholm and researcher at Uppsala University. Kragh, according to Aftonbladet, was allegedly working for “a covert state intelligence organization in Great Britain,” and he should therefore be investigated “by Swedish media and the security police.” The problem with Aftonbladet’s claims is that they are false, and that they with a high degree of confidence had their origin in a Russian influence operation against the British think tank Institute for Statecraft. Using quantitative and qualitative method, this article analyses the origins and diffusion of the campaign internationally and in Sweden as an informational cascade.
All Warfare is Hybrid.
It has recently been argued that a new form of warfare – hybrid warfare – is fundamentally changing the way our enemies fight against us. This supposedly unprecedented form of warfare is characterized by the mixing of methods and ways of organization, as well as the blurring of the line between war and peace. This article argues that hybrid warfare is just the newest military buzzword around. While the concept highlights fundamental questions regarding war and democratic norms of civil-military relations, it provides no answers. Rather, it harks back to an imaginary past characterized by simpleness and clarity. A thorough reading of the extensive literature on modern warfare would show that the concept describes what has become the norm: all warfare is hybrid. As with other unclear concepts built on shaky foundations, it is difficult to see how hybrid warfare can contribute to better understanding or policymaking.
The Corona pandemic has, in addition to human suffering, resulted in long-term stress for many organizations and managers. This article summarizes some knowledge gained in previous crises with a focus on leadership. A stress psychological perspective is used as point of departure. At the individual level of managers, decision making models such as rational optimizing and recognition-primed decision making are discussed. A conclusion is that good enough is good in enough in acute stressful situations. Moral dilemmas among healthcare personnel are mentioned, in particular, the forced need for doctors still under training to make independent decisions at intensive care units and covid-19 departments. Leaders’ social skills are emphasized when inter-organizational collaboration is required. At the organizational level the following aspects are discussed: leaders’ containing ability, mission command, boundary spanners and the balance between structure and freedom of action.
It has been widely recognised that national courts play a significant role in the process of European integration. By asking the European Court of Justice for preliminary rulings, national courts have contributed in promoting legal integration. Although previous research has recognised the importance of national courts, we still have only limited empirical knowledge on how they act. This article examines whether national courts act as promoters of legal integration or defenders of the national interest. It does so by providing a systematic investigation of: 1, what type of cases they refer to the ECJ, and 2, what type of opinions they attach with preliminary references. The article utilise data from all 67 cases referred to the ECJ during the period 1995-2009. The results indicate that Swedish courts act strategically to balance the claims of providing the ECJ with preliminary references and the demands for taking national considerations into account.