The past decades have witnessed a surge in the scholarly use of the concept „populism‟, especially where the European context is concerned. Populism is a problematic concept, however, as it is often ill-defined and haphazardly applied. The surge of populism is, nevertheless, important as it is considered to be an indicator for the state of representative democracy. This study has two main aims. The first is to relate the concept populism to political parties and to identify the populist parties that have recently managed to enter parliament in 31 European countries. In the European context, populism has predominantly been associated with extreme or radical right parties. This study broadens the scope by also considering populist parties that are not typical examples of this type of party. This dissertation further contributes to the scholarly literature by moving beyond Western Europe and studying populist parties across the whole of Europe. An important lesson of this dissertation is that scholars should be very careful when applying the concept populism to political parties to prevent further concept-stretching. The second aim of the study is to explain the electoral performance of populist parties in Europe. A relatively novel technique, Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), is applied. This method is particularly geared at demonstrating causal complexity. The results of this analysis are triangulated with three in-depth qualitative case studies of populist parties in three countries: The Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom. The study explicitly focuses on the agency of political parties and the credibility of populist parties in particular. In addition to the presence of a conducive environment, this turns out to be a crucial factor in explaining the electoral performance of populist parties. Further comparative research should, therefore, not refrain from taking the agency of populist parties themselves into account.

The aim of the thesis is contribute to the growing comparative literature on regionalist parties in Western Europe, focusing on strategy and ideology. The research questions correspond to the three ideological dimensions/domains which are taken into consideration (centre-periphery, leftright and European integration), as well as to the links amongst such dimensions/domains: why are some regionalist parties more moderate (i.e. autonomists) while other are more radical (i.e. secessionists)?; why do some regionalist parties position themselves to the left, while others position themselves to the right?; why are some regionalist parties pro-integration, while others are against?; are there relationships between regionalist parties‟ positions across the diverse ideological dimensions? The analytical framework brings together sociological theories of political alignments with theories of party competition and theories of party change. The empirical section is made up of a comparison of four case studies (LN, PC, SVP and SNP), which are analysed in depth, plus a final chapter that includes the most important regionalist parties in Western Europe. Data are gathered through interviews with prominent party members, party documents (primarily manifestos), election studies and secondary sources. In brief, in the conclusions it is argued that: regions that have been independent states in the past and regions with concentrated ethno-linguistic minorities tend to produce more radical parties on the centre-periphery dimension. Competition between regionalist parties acting in the same region also increases radicalism; 'working class' regions tend to produce leftist regionalist parties, while 'bourgeois' regions tend to produce rightist regionalist parties; positioning on European integration depends mainly on the compatibility of the selfgovernment project with the process of European integration and on parties‟ satisfaction with the policy output of the state vis a vis that of the EU; only weak relationships can be discerned between centre-periphery and left-right positioning, and between centre-periphery and European integration. A stronger relationship is apparent between left-right and European integration positioning.

Egypt faced three central pressures to introduce its own competition law in 2005: first, EU/Egypt trade relations, second, introduction of the 1991 privatisation programme and third, its long-term desire by virtue of its Constitution to follow Islamic principles that condemn monopoly. However, Egypt was not forced to transplant EU rules as a result of EU/Egypt trade relations, although it is implicit that the EU deems it desirable to do so. By employing the functional method of comparative law for the purposes of the study on EU, Islamic, and Egyptian laws, the central argument of this thesis is that the Egyptian treatment of abuse of dominance is distinctive in three ways. First, Egyptian rules do not prohibit the practice of excessive pricing. Although in jurisdictions that prohibit it, most notably the EU system, competition authorities do not contemplate it as an investigation priority, it is argued that the lack of its prohibition raises Islamic law concerns and may lead to potential effects on the Egyptian economy. However, the difficulties which investigators face in settling such practice (as the South African Mittal case demonstrates) suggest that the Egyptian legislator may have adopted the right approach not to prohibit it; otherwise, this may have increased the likelihood of committing type II errors and, as a result, violate Islamic law principles of injustice. Second, in contrast with EU law, Egyptian rules do not cover the practice of below-cost margin squeeze. Although it is argued that its omission does not pose potential effects to the economy, it is suggested that it raises Islamic law concerns on the basis of fairness and intentions principles. Given that it is relatively easier to investigate, compared to excessive pricing, it is suggested that the Egyptian legislator should re-consider encompassing it in the future while drawing on the approach adopted in EU law. Third, the Egyptian Competition Law reflects the EU Commission‘s initiative of employing an effects-based approach to abuse of dominance. However, the Egyptian system, arguably influenced by the Islamic principles on market intervention, goes a little further to require an actual effects standard. Despite an effects-based analysis being difficult to employ in emerging economies with inadequate economic expertise like Egypt, it is argued in its favour for two reasons. First, it increases the chances of avoiding type II errors, which, similar to excessive pricing and margin squeeze, violate Islamic law and; second, the Egyptian Competition Authority‘s analysis in the Steel study shows that it is capable of employing this approach at this stage. For the purposes of re-considering the foregoing (gaps) in the future, the Egyptian Competition Authority should focus on increasing economic expertise and seek technical assistance from competition authorities of the developed world.

This study is the first in-depth examination of military religiosity in the Holy Roman Empire in the 16th and early 17th century. Despite a lack of research into military religious sensibilities historians have uncritically repeated a contemporary stereotype that branded soldiers as ‘un-Christian'. The study argues that soldiers were not religiously deviant but that their spirituality differed little from that of their contemporaries. However, one aspect of post-Reformation culture, confessional thinking, was noticeably absent in the military, both structurally and in everyday life. These latitudinarian attitudes were fostered by warlords, as is reflected in martial law, and become evident in military diaries as well as the conduct of warfare in the period. The occurrence of military religious violence does not detract from this general atmosphere of ‘toleration'. Instances of confessional violence have to be considered exceptional given the predominantly unproblematic coexistence of adherents of different confessions within the military and daily encounters with populations of all creeds. An examination of attitudes towards dying, death and burial shows that, while the importance of dying well according to the ars moriendi was recognized in the military, the reality of soldier life made orderly deaths frequently impossible. Soldiers' religious attitudes were therefore in some ways more pragmatic than those of the civilian population but soldiers of all denominations shared universal Christian norms, a finding that fundamentally challenges previous negative estimations regarding military religiosity.

The dissertation deals with the archaeological context of Baltic-zone silver hoards deposited in the Viking Age. Its main objective is to investigate the hoards and the context of their deposition to determine how hundreds of thousands of silver artefacts, mainly Oriental dirhams, arrived in Northern Europe, why they were put in the ground and never retrieved. The review of the published sources on hoards was undertaken in three case studies: Gotland, Pomerania and Svealand. The data on hoards, archaeological sites, geology and topography was collected in geodatabases, and analysed in detail by applying descriptive and advanced statistical methods: regression modelling and GIS-based spatial analysis. The results were presented in the historical context depicted in contemporary literary sources. Hoard deposition was most pronounced near sites which afforded conditions suitable for mercantile exchange and facilitated the flow of silver: the network of emporia, regional trade hubs, local power centres, and harbours, generally situated near major communication routes and within populated areas. However, exchange networks needn't have been strictly hierarchical, and emporium-scale sites were not indispensable for a fair share of silver influx, and trade, to occur. Chronological changes in hoard distributions, their composition and fragmentation of objects indicate how these networks operated and meshed with economic and political conditions in c. 900 and c. 980. A method, which uses the information about the presence/absence of a container, crossreferenced with the weight of silver, was devised to provide an indication as to whether particular hoards were deposited with the aim of retrieval - as savings accessed periodically, or for protection in the face of danger - or whether they were meant to be permanent ritual or symbolic offerings. Ritual behaviour took a variety of forms, but the most widespread were the depositions in recently occupied land in marginal soils, where they were aimed at forging a personal bond between the land and the owner.

This thesis advances several core arguments surrounding the need for a dynamic and nuanced conceptualisation and multi-dimensional framework to position parties towards European integration; that Europe does play a more important role in European elections than previously thought; that ideology is the strongest predictor of party positions; and finally that the quantitative study of party manifestos produces valid and reliable data for positioning political parties. The study finds that the European issue is the most important in European election manifestos and that parties do exhibit similar behaviour in both national and European elections. Furthermore, it finds that ideology remains an important and strong predictive factor, but its explanatory power diminishes in the analyses towards the newer dimensions of integration (social, cultural, and foreign policy). With the in-depth examination of party positions, it is possible to identify a significantly greater number of Eurosceptic parties using the new definition, that Euroscepticism is now found in all political party families, and that there remains a strong ideological component in the content of their positions towards integration. However, ideology is a stronger predictive factor for the left-wing parties, with those on the right being more fragmented and heterogeneous

This thesis re-evaluates farming practices in Iceland up to c.l600. Advancing Þorvaldur Thoroddsen's early twentieth century work, Lýsing Íslands, this study incorporates modem archaeological investigations, documentary evidence and recent scholarship to advance the discussions of lceland's livestock economy. The study examines farms and their land to give a holistic understanding of pastoral farming and fodder acquisition. An evaluation of the textual sources demonstrates long-term stability in the relative livestock values, though the kúgildi fluctuated in value. Herd sizes and the composition of these herds are also examined to show the purpose of these animals. The vast corpus of máldagar are analysed to show the economies of church-farms (staðir and bændakirkjur), including the changing nature of livestock farming between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, on local, regional and countrywide scales. Livestock products and consumption beyond the much discussed milk, meat and wool economies are critiqued. It is here argued that Icelandic farming generally moved towards a wool-producing economy, however, masked by this wool economy generalisation were a diversity of farming practices. It is only by examining the complexities of these practices that we discover that Icelandic farming was not declining, but adapting to the challenges of this period.

<p>The report is about globalization, when Chinese companies come to Europe. The aims are to sum up this phenomenon by answering three key questions thanks to the literature (why coming to Europe, how, what challenges may be encountered on the way), and then to update the challenges we found to make them more actual. We would like this report to be the reference in this field.</p><p>In order to do so, we built up a model explaining the process of Chinese companies coming to Europe, and then took contact with Chinese and Swedish companies with deep knowledge of internationalization and interviewed them, starting with the challenges we found out after a literature review. They helped us to sort these challenges between “no longer relevant” (despite recent information from the literature) and “still relevant”, and also added some new ones.</p><p>Then we updated our model: among the 16 challenges we had at the beginning, we kept 11 of them, removed 5 and added 2 new ones. The aims and means for coming to Europe remained unchanged.</p><p>We conclude this report by giving possible further studies such as listing which culture differences matter when doing business, or finding solutions to the problems found.</p>

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The report is about globalization, when Chinese companies come to Europe. The aims are to sum up this phenomenon by answering three key questions thanks to the literature (why coming to Europe, how, what challenges may be encountered on the way), and then to update the challenges we found to make them more actual. We would like this report to be the reference in this field. In order to do so, we built up a model explaining the process of Chinese companies coming to Europe, and then took contact with Chinese and Swedish companies with deep knowledge of internationalization and interviewed them, starting with the challenges we found out after a literature review. They helped us to sort these challenges between “no longer relevant” (despite recent information from the literature) and “still relevant”, and also added some new ones. Then we updated our model: among the 16 challenges we had at the beginning, we kept 11 of them, removed 5 and added 2 new ones. The aims and means for coming to Europe remained unchanged. We conclude this report by giving possible further studies such as listing which culture differences matter when doing business, or finding solutions to the problems found.