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Fairtrade has become a familiar trademark for most consumers in the developed world and represents an option for the buyer to purchase a product that has been certified to follow the ethical standards of ”fair” trade. This branding has received much critique over the last years concerning Fairtrade's ability to improve the lives of small producers in the developing world. This thesis derives from the theories developed within New Institutional Economics (NIE), which emphasizes the understanding of institutions development as a key factor for analyzing long-term economic growth. By constructing an analytical framework of institutional change this thesis theoretically analyses the impact of Fairtrade’s policies on local credit markets. It concludes that the impact of Fairtrade is highly dependent on the initial conditions and could both increase and lower the incentives of changing the institutional framework.

A concern about the democratic legitimacy of the European Union is a frequent topic when discussing European integration. How can democratic principles be withheld when political power is delegated from the nation-state to a supranational level? Can democracy be secured beyond the nation-state? This thesis derives from a deliberative perspective, which emphasises the need for debate in democratic societies. From a deliberative perspective, the debate about the legitimacy of the European Union has had the wrong focus. From this view, the problem cannot be solved primarily trough the institutions. The solution is not of an institutional character but the development of a fundamental ingredient of democratic politics: a viable public sphere. The aim of this thesis is therefore to contribute to this research by assessing the conditions for the development of a European public sphere. This study focuses on opinion-makers capacity to affect the nature of the debate, specifically the role of political parties. The starting point is that political parties in their role of opinion-makers can affect the nature of the debate by how the EU is conceptualized. Using idealtypes, an analytical framework is developed and applied to Swedish political parties election platforms and manifestos in the 2009 European Parliament Election. The analysis shows that there are two various conceptualisations of the EU among the Swedish political parties. Based on the assumption that these conceptualisations affect the incentives for transnational debate I conclude through these results that there are obstacles for this to occur.

Att en transition till demokrati innebär ett stabilt system är ingen självklarhet. Vissa länder lyckas inte behålla det demokratiska systemet, de misslyckas att konsolidera det. Detta problem blev påtagligt i Honduras under 2009 som efter mer än 25 år av demokratiskt styre utsattes för en statskupp. Vår uppsats syftar till att undersöka varför en demokrati misslyckas med att konsolidera sitt system. Vi kommer att pröva Adam Przeworskis och Larry Diamonds teorier för att undersöka vilken av dessa som bäst kan förklara den instabila demokratin i Honduras. Framförallt har Diamonds fokus på politisk kultur och legitimitet ett högt förklaringsvärde på Honduras, medan Przeworskis teori främst kan förklara hur transitionen spelat en stor roll i att bevara gamla maktstrukturer.

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will soon appoint a special rapporteur to investigate the right to privacy in the digital age. LSE alumna Anri van der Spuy, now a fellow at the UN Secretariat of the IGF and her colleague Carl Gahnberg (who both write here in a personal capacity that does not reflect the views of the IGF) evaluate the contemporary relevance of this thematic mandate in light of a sampling of other recent developments that may have a bearing on the future of the Internet and human rights.