Interest groups play a big role in the functioning of the democracy of the EU. These players that lobby for different interests can make a positive, but also a negative contribution to EU politics. The influence of the interest groups on the EU institutions can vary, and some will always be more influential …

Silvio Berlusconi was Italy's longest serving Prime Minister since the Second World War. As Prime Minister, he exercised control over the three public television channels in Italy. The combination of a strong political figure that controls large parts of public media and has considerable business interests …

Nowadays, the Rule of Law is seen as more and more important for international relations. The concept of the Rule of Law means that ordinary citizens and those who govern should obey the law. It means that the society is ruled by law and not by men. Several main principles are identified, namely government …

The nation-state had a long history of success, but today it is failing its citizens on a global scale. Over the last hundred years, nation-states focussed on maximizing internal unity and jurisdictional sovereignty. Benjamin R. Barber’s ‘If Mayors Ruled The World’ is the central source of this thesis …

Summary Social impact assessment (SIA) developed alongside EIA in the early 1970s as a mechanism to consider the social impacts of planned interventions. The early understanding tended to limit the practical application of SIA to the project level, usually within the context of regulatory frameworks, …

The western, capitalistic world has been trying to influence the political values of the Russian government since the collapse of the Soviet Union, advocating for implementation of a strong democracy and improvement of human rights. Putin has been active in the centre of power of Russia since he became …

In its past, terrorism has evolved from old terrorism into new, even more catastrophic terrorism. Today, hundreds or even thousands of people can become victim from one moment to the other, through which the fear for terrorist attacks has increased a lot lately. Next to that, Europe has become much more …

This thesis focuses on the promotion of democracy by the European Union in Egypt with special regard to the differences before and after the so called 'Arab Spring'. More specific, the guiding question of this thesis is in what extent the EU's promotion of democracy in Egypt has changed after the Arab …

Corporate Social Responsibility is an emerging term often used in the globalizing world. The concept CSR has many definitions. The general idea is that companies involved in CSR improve their activities on economic, social and environmental level. This theory is called the Triple Bottom Line. Thus, a …

For centuries the Netherlands had struggled against water. After years of struggle the Netherlands had turned from a swampy and unstable river delta into an orderly country with a strong agricultural image. Since 1990, however, the Netherlands are no longer primarily known as the country that reclaimed …