Vindicating the Right? Populism and the Origins of the Tea Party Movement analyses the founding process of the Tea Party movement using the framework of populism theory. At the centre of populism theory stands the claim that populist movements frame politics as confrontation between the virtuous ‘people’ and powerful elites. The work of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe further argues that populism is used to articulate hegemonic projects. As scholars have found, in contemporary liberal democracies populism articulates hegemonic projects that claim to represent ‘the people’ against unresponsive governments often in response to widespread dissatisfaction with democratic processes. Tea Party populism is no exception. This thesis argues that the foundation of the Tea Party took place in the context of a multi-layered crisis related to the economic downturn, the crisis of contemporary conservatism, rising party polarisation, growing inequality and declining faith in government and democratic institutions. I contend that the initial appeal of the Tea Party was due to the movement’s capacity to respond to this crisis and channelled a deep seated distrust of government into populist anti-elite resentment. With the help of a wide range of sources, including Tea Party literature, blogs, websites, videos and accounts from periodicals this thesis demonstrates how the movement constructed a collective identity of ‘the people’ as defenders of constitutional right, national values and free market capitalism. The Tea Party’s reliance on the themes of conservative Americanism also relates it to the hegemonic project of American conservatism and this thesis demonstrates that the Tea Party movement is as much an outcome as it is a part of the conservative movement’s attempt to use populism to rearticulate its hegemonic claims in the aftermaths of the defeat of the Republican Party in the elections of 2008.

O'BRIEN, Patrick. The Hegemony of Political Power underlying the Development of Supra-State Institutions. 73p. Master thesis. Charles University, Fakulty of Social Sciences, institut politologických studií. Supervisot PhDr. Tomáš Sedláček Abstract This diploma thesis attempts to provide a multi-disciplinary based framework to illustrate the underlying dynamics of the social structures which influence supra-state institutions via case studies in the operation of the European Union and the World Bank. The paper focuses on the role of the individual within the expansionary power of institutions in determining social structures. More precisely, this paper focuses on the hierarchy of powers and the activity within the negotiated creation of supra-state global institutions the influence of epistemic communities within the Triple Helix of industry, government, and knowledge sectors of society. Keywords Epistemic Communities, Structuration, Triple Helix, Supra-State Instituions, Social Constructivism

This study explores both formal and informal arrangements for care of orphans in the Maseru district of Lesotho. The study adopted a qualitative approach using both in-depth interviews and documentary research as the primary methods of data collection. The research findings show that care of orphans in Lesotho is predominantly in the hands of non-governmental and church based organisations. The government’s role is limited to the provision of technical support, including the formulation of policies and laws and some welfare grant provision in the form of free primary education. Care of orphans in the communities is undertaken not only by the extended family members of orphans, but also non-relation community members. It is clear however that while such informal arrangements might provide care and protection to orphan, many are struggling in the face of extreme hardship and poverty. A crisis of social reproduction is therefore increasingly apparent in Lesotho.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston University

This study analyses politics in Pakistan viewed from the perspective of Bhutto and The Pakistan People's Party in the period 1967-1977. This involves a detailed consideration of the nature and performance of the PPP, in terms of its social composition, organisational development and its role in the political system, and of leadership patterns in Pakistan with special reference to Bhutto. In the process of this inquiry we examine the origin and rise of the PPP, its electoral performance in 1970 and the repercussions of the 1971 crisis on the party. In analysing the Bhutto regime in the period 1971-1977, we look at both the internal dynamics of the PPP in terms of its development as a patrimonial-clientele type party exhibiting some 'mass party' features, and Bhutto's relations with the political opposition, the civil bureaucracy and the military. This study attempts to apply the patrimonial model to Bhutto's political system. As a heuristic tool, this concept enables us to explain and relate a wide range of phenomena such as personalism, factionalism, patronage and corruption. The phenomena of a dominating figure as reflected in Bhutto's patrimonialism is viewed against the background of the country's colonial Viceregal tradition and related to its culture and social structure. Bhutto's patrimonial system is viewed as an adaptation of the Viceregal model. Patrimonial features such as the personalisation and concentration of power, the manipulation of clientele support from rural landed groups, and the primary reliance on bureaucratic, rather than participatory and representative instruments of rule are essentially those identified with the Viceregal pattern of governance. It is argued that Bhutto's patrimonial strategy not only resulted in a failure to develop the PPP into an institutionalised party of the type associated with 'modern' political systems, but served to inhibit political development and reinforce Pakistan's praetorian tradition. The materials used in this thesis include official publications, political party literature, Urdu and English language newspapers and magazines as well as information derived through personal interviews with prominent personalities.

Despite the rise of Islamist parties and movements in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, there is a dearth of studies addressing their political communication strategies and approaches. In consideration of this fact, this doctoral thesis examines the political communication strategies of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, henceforth the AKP), from 2002 to 2017. Drawing on social movement theory and approaches to political communication, it analyses the transformations that have taken place within the AKP and Turkey and how these have been informed by religion, and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s charismatic leadership. The thesis describes how the author carried out ethnographic research during the 2014 presidential election; interviewing key personalities from politics, the media, academia and think tanks, and conducting observations at AKP headquarters and campaign rallies. A quantitative content analysis of Erdoğan’s speeches was then performed to triangulate the findings from the qualitative data, ensuring effective coverage of the entire period under consideration, and to provide continuity. The research reveals how the effective communication of a party’s message is fundamental to its political success. Furthermore, in relation to the AKP it clearly identifies two distinct policy periods: 2002 to 2009, when the party promoted a liberal political ideology and pro-Western foreign policy; and 2010 to 2017, when a pro-Muslim agenda emerged. It also highlights the significance of Erdoğan’s dominance of the AKP, and the consequent lack of institutionalisation within the party, before discussing the implications of the study findings for the AKP, Turkey and the wider MENA region. Of particular interest is how the changes in the AKP’s policy appear to have been reinforced by Erdoğan, who has consistently made effective use of a variety of political communication strategies, including Americanisation, and references to pertinent local images and symbols, to create a sense of collective identity amongst the AKP’s supporters.

There has been a steady proliferation of discourses concerned with neutral education in South Korea since the democratisation of 1987. The problem of educational neutrality has been raised particularly by conservative forces. This thesis offers a critical examination of the conservative use of educational neutrality. Three inter-connected questions guide the thesis. First, what events and elements are combined in the discourse of educational neutrality in what ways? Second, how do non-discursive practices (e.g. techniques of power) help realise the discourse of educational neutrality? Finally, how do teachers and students resist pressure to be neutral? In order to address these questions, by drawing on theoretical tools offered by Kim Dong-choon and Michel Foucault, I, first of all, contextualize the conservative use of educational neutrality in relation to war-politics where critical thought and action are punished and regulated in the name of protecting society. I then combine Critical Discourse Analysis with Foucault's genealogical approach in order to grasp multiple dimensions of the discourse of educational neutrality. The construction of the discourse of educational neutrality is investigated through an analysis of a conservative newspaper's editorials. The deployment of power techniques in the realization of the discourse of educational neutrality is examined through a genealogical study of how critical teachers' unions have been regulated and how history textbooks have been sanitised. Last but not least, I explore courageous speech activities carried out by teachers and students. Those speeches, as forms of resistance to the myth of neutral education, serve to introduce a break in war-politics that draws an arbitrary line between what is and what is not say-able and do-able. The thesis concludes by highlighting that education cannot be reduced to the mere transmission of technical knowledge from teachers to students. Rather, education should take on the task of regenerating critical thought and action particularly in a pluralistic democratic society where different individuals, values, and views coexist not in an antagonistic way but in a harmonious way.

In this study, departing from a more general concern with understanding how political frontiers are demarcated in Turkish politics, I aim to show how ‘Europe’ contributed to such a process of constructing political frontiers during the 1999-2008 period. Rather than looking at the debates on ‘Europe’ within the Turkish political landscape through a pro- vs. anti- Europe bifurcation, I attempt to see the discourses through the lens of ‘hegemony’. By using the Laclau- Mouffean discourse analysis, starting from 1999, I argue that discourses on ‘Europe’ were able to hegemonise Turkish political debates and thereby demarcate the political frontiers that constituted that debate which started to change when discourses began to be substituted by different antagonisms, political frontiers and therefore modes of sustaining hegemony.

This thesis investigates the reasons for the change in decision-making patterns in abstract judicial review in Germany, Italy and Austria in the last three decades. The literature on constitutional courts suggests that there are six factors influencing the decision-making of a constitutional court judge: personal political attitudes of the judges, direct influence by political institutions, Black Letter of the Law, Precedent, changes in public opinion and the harmonisation of national law with European law. The empirical data shows that throughout the last three decades the conditions in which legislation is formulated has become more complex through the harmonisation of national law with European Law. This causes the courts to react in three distinct ways: 1. The style of decisions is more interpretative 2. More laws are, at least in part, found unconstitutional 3. The pattern of decisions is leaning towards more unconstitutionality rulings so as to clarify the political framework for future legislation. Worry is expressed by the courts that not all the cases reaching them are referred to them in good intention. Politicians are increasingly using the complexity of the political system to refer cases to the courts on which they would prefer not to take a decision.

This thesis addresses the subject of political dissent during the Khrushchev era. It examines the kinds of protest behaviours that individuals and groups engaged in and the way that the Soviet authorities responded to them. The findings show that dissenting activity was more frequent and more diverse during the Khrushchev period than has previously been supposed and that there were a number of significant continuities in the forms of dissent, and the authorities’ responses to these acts, across the eras of Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev. In the early Khrushchev years a large proportion of the political protest and criticism that took place remained essentially loyal to the regime and Marxist-Leninist in outlook, though this declined in later years as communist utopianism and respect for the ruling authorities seem to have significantly diminished. In place of mass terror, the authorities increasingly moved toward more rationalised and targeted practices of social control, seeking to ‘manage’ dissent rather than to eradicate it either by persuasion or by force. All of this was reflective of the fact that the relationship between state and society was undergoing a vital transitional stage during the Khrushchev years, as both parties began to establish for themselves what had and had not changed since Stalin’s death.