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- Daléus, Pär, 1979-
(author)
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Politisk ledarskapsstil : Om interaktionen mellan personlighet och institutioner i utövandet av det svenska statsministerämbetet
- 2012
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This dissertation examines key characteristics and factors shaping the leadership style of Swedish Prime Ministers (PMs). Based on the research of the American presidency, an interactionist framework is developed which draws upon institutional theory and political psychological theory. The analysis is advanced by exploring multiple sources and is based on four cases of leadership styles: two single party Social Democratic PMs, Ingvar Carlsson and Göran Persson, as well as two center/right coalition PMs, Thorbjörn Fälldin and Carl Bildt. Leadership style is studied through a focused comparison of the PMs’ performance of four functions. Thus, the four PMs are studied as staffers and organizers of the cabinet and the Government Offices, decision makers, communicators and crisis managers. The results indicate that the office of the PM is elastic, accommodating a wide-ranging variation of leadership styles. The Social Democratic PMs display the most uniform leadership styles, but, rather surprisingly, they also have the most dissimilar leadership styles among the four cases. The center/right PMs’ approaches differ to a great extent from one another, displaying mixed forms of leadership styles. The analysis explains how the PMs’ leadership styles are shaped based on the interaction between their distinct personal characteristics and surrounding institutions. Thus, the dissertation concludes that leadership theories developed in a presidential setting are largely applicable in a parliamentary setting and that political behavior is not dictated by institutions such as formal structures or norms. The results encourage a reassessment of how personality, as an explanatory factor, is applied in mainstream political science. Furthermore, the analysis highlights the need for reconsidering the presidentialisation thesis and the notion of dominant leadership as there are alternative pathways to prime ministerial influence which are disregarded in the debate.
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| 2. |
- Borevi, Karin, 1968-
(author)
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Välfärdsstaten i det mångkulturella samhället
- 2002
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The theoretical point of departure in this dissertation proposes that the liberal welfare state includes a fundamental logic of integration, viewing the attainment of social equality between different categories in society as a main condition for social integration. But how can this logic of integration be applied to a multicultural society? Is trying to achieve equal access to certain socio-economic standards sufficient, or does cultural diversity call for other measures in order to fulfill the aim of equality and integration?In this study it is argued that the liberal welfare state in a multicultural society is confronted with three tensions. Firstly there is a tension between the welfare state’s aim to promote equality and freedom for the individual and at the same time to fulfill certain collective interests and goals. Secondly there is a tension between on the one hand the aim to promote integration within the community of citizens – demos – and on the other hand to tolerate (or even to actively promote) the fact that citizens also enjoy membership in different ethnic communities – ethnos. Thirdly there is a tension between a policy strategy that is general in the sense that all citizens are in principle involved as recipients, and a policy strategy that is targeted as it identifies only members of a certain category of the population as its recipients.These three tensions are used as Weberian ideal types in analyzing the Swedish discourse about policies targeted towards immigrants over a period of 30 years. The study includes an analysis of the discourse within four separate policy areas: the general policy towards immigrants, policies towards immigrants’ voluntary associations, educational policies and housing policies. The empirical results show that, over time, the discourse has moved from a multicultural policy towards a position of civic assimilation.
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