Demokratiskt eller problematiskt? Nämndemännens representationsfunktion och demokratiska legitimitet
(2025) STVK04 20251Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- The following thesis examines the representational function of Swedish lay judges based on Hanna Pitkin’s and Suzanne Dovi’s representation theories and Robert Dahl's democracy theory. It also examines how well the intended purpose of the lay judges representation function in the court corresponds to how the representation is carried out in practice, and how this affects the democratic legitimacy of the lay judges. An idea analysis has been used to examine the lay judges representation function based on material collected from the Courts of Sweden, governmental committee reports, and media debates. The analysis shows that the lay judges' purposes are to be descriptive and symbolic representatives who, through democratic legitimacy, create... (More)
- The following thesis examines the representational function of Swedish lay judges based on Hanna Pitkin’s and Suzanne Dovi’s representation theories and Robert Dahl's democracy theory. It also examines how well the intended purpose of the lay judges representation function in the court corresponds to how the representation is carried out in practice, and how this affects the democratic legitimacy of the lay judges. An idea analysis has been used to examine the lay judges representation function based on material collected from the Courts of Sweden, governmental committee reports, and media debates. The analysis shows that the lay judges' purposes are to be descriptive and symbolic representatives who, through democratic legitimacy, create trust in the court among the Swedish people. In practice, the lay judges are rather formal representatives who do not meet the criteria of a good descriptive representative, based on the theories that have been used. The lay judges stand for, rather than act on the behalf of, the Swedish people, making them symbolic representatives. The lay judges were found to have shortcomings in their representative capacity and democratic legitimacy. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9189600
- author
- Nielsen, Nora LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- STVK04 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- Nämndemän, lekmannadomare, representation, Hanna Pitkin, Suzanne Dovi, Robert Dahl, demokratisk legitimitet
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 9189600
- date added to LUP
- 2025-08-08 11:08:41
- date last changed
- 2025-08-08 11:08:41
@misc{9189600,
abstract = {{The following thesis examines the representational function of Swedish lay judges based on Hanna Pitkin’s and Suzanne Dovi’s representation theories and Robert Dahl's democracy theory. It also examines how well the intended purpose of the lay judges representation function in the court corresponds to how the representation is carried out in practice, and how this affects the democratic legitimacy of the lay judges. An idea analysis has been used to examine the lay judges representation function based on material collected from the Courts of Sweden, governmental committee reports, and media debates. The analysis shows that the lay judges' purposes are to be descriptive and symbolic representatives who, through democratic legitimacy, create trust in the court among the Swedish people. In practice, the lay judges are rather formal representatives who do not meet the criteria of a good descriptive representative, based on the theories that have been used. The lay judges stand for, rather than act on the behalf of, the Swedish people, making them symbolic representatives. The lay judges were found to have shortcomings in their representative capacity and democratic legitimacy.}},
author = {{Nielsen, Nora}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Demokratiskt eller problematiskt? Nämndemännens representationsfunktion och demokratiska legitimitet}},
year = {{2025}},
}