The purpose of this study is to describe and compare eurosceptic elements of the Swedish Left-Party and the Sweden Democrats leading up to the European Parliament elecetions of 2014 and 2019. Previous research has focused on many different aspects of eurocepticism; the definition and meaning of euroscepticism, eurosceptic voting among citizens and euroscepticism in democratic party-systems. Hence, this case-study aims at explaining euroscepticism in a Swedish context among the two clearly eurosceptic parties in the Swedish party-system. The two parties both have eurosceptic sentiments, although they have different ideological starting points and values. The Sweden Democrats consider themselves social conservatives with a nationalistic basic view. On the other hand, the Swedish Left-Party consider themselves as socialists and feminists with an ecological basic view. In order to find and compare these eurosceptic sentiments, a text analysis is combined with an analysis of arguments used in the two party’s election platforms leading up to the European Parliament elections. The empirical evidence is consequently interconnected with Taggart and Szczerbiak theory of soft and hard euroscepticism. This theory, or model of analysis, is used the catogorize parties based on their ”resistance” against different aspects of the European Union or the European process of integration as a whole. The study finds that the euroscepticism of the Swedish Left-Party and the Sweden Democrats have somewhat changed from the elections of 2014 and 2019. The resistance has mitigated to some degree leading up to the 2019 elections, in comparison to the elections of 2014. Although netither party could be categorized as soft or hard eurosceptics, they both lean more towards the features of soft euroscepticism.

This thesis studies women politicians’ journey along the path from candidates to elected representatives in party list proportional representation (PR list) systems. While past literature provides sufficient evidence that more women are elected in proportional electoral systems than in majority / plurality systems, there is limited research explaining the differences in women’s representation across varying types of PR list systems. This thesis aims to fill that gap, by focusing primarily on the election of women across preferential (open and ordered list systems) and non-preferential (closed list systems) PR list voting systems. Moreover, unlike the vast majority of previous research, which has relied on aggregate level data only, this research investigates the election of women at the individual candidate level. Such an approach allows the present thesis to consider, next to traditional aggregate level predictors, how party gatekeepers and the news media may either support or hinder women in progressing from candidates to elected representatives. Since the focus is set on the 2009 European Parliament elections, this thesis investigates the process of electing women cross-nationally. The results show that female candidates have a higher likelihood of being elected in non-preferential closed list voting systems than in preferential ordered list voting systems. The results suggest that this is the case because, first, party gatekeepers in ordered list systems place women in less viable electoral list positions than party gatekeepers in closed list systems; second, media cover female candidates less in ordered list systems compared to closed list systems; and finally, female candidates in ordered list systems fail to make up their less competitive starting position with preference votes because preference votes in ordered list systems do not significantly alter the initial party list rankings.

This is a study about the extreme right and populist meps in the European Parliament, and the purpose of this study is to explain how the ways they organise themselves in a political group within the European Parliament can influence EU:s democratic system in a negative direction.     The essay explores the rise of the right-winged parties in the European Parliament. Populism as a phenomenon is the ideology upon which the extreme right parties have based their politics and is something that could change shape dependent on the situation.     The essay thus investigates whether there is a connection between the phenomena and the low voter turnout in the European Parliamentary elections. The two research questions are 1. Can the low-level participation be a root cause of the extreme right and populist parties gaining power in the European Parliament? and 2. Is the impact a threat to democracy?      The European Parliament is one of the most important institutions in the European Union and is the only institution whose leaders are elected in public elections, therefore the low level of participation is an important issue to study.      The result of the study is that the extreme right parties pose a threat to EU:s democracy when they get to much power and the opportunity to change the political agenda.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore whether the drop in voter turnout between the 2009 and 2014 European Parliament elections, as well as the general apathy toward the politics of the European Union, in the Czech Republic was contributed to by the mass media. Specifically, this thesis will examine the two most read daily newspapers of both 2009 and 2014, Blesk and Mladá Fronta Dnes, and analyze its articles with the use of search words in order to assess whether any change occurred in the way the European Union, its policies and institutions, were presented immediately prior to the 2009 and 2014 European Parliament elections. This will be achieved through the use of content analysis, both quantitative and qualitative, while evaluating the articles in comparative fashion. The thesis will argue that, given the essential role of the media as intermediary between the world of politics and the electorate, the portrayal, or lack thereof, of the European Union is a factor in explaining the electoral dynamics of the country. Key Words: voter turnout; European Parliament elections; mass media; electoral apathy Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

This diploma thesis focuses on changes in voting behaviour among voters in the Visegrad Group states (V4), specifically electoral volatility between the European Parliament elections and the national elections in the particular state. The approach to examining electoral volatility in this work is based on the second-order national elections theory, which divides elections into less and more important ones. The aim of the work is first to describe the overall electoral volatility in the V4 states in a cross-section of all European elections based on individual data from post-election questionnaire surveys. Subsequently, I find out what are the specific causes and motivations for changes in electoral behaviour. The analysis shows that there are several different patterns of volatile behaviour in the V4 countries, but the consistent and general pattern is a high degree of electoral demobilisation in the European elections. This may be due to political attitudes or the level of trust in the European institutions. I then analyze voters' demobilization among government and opposition voters, who differ mainly in their views of the national political situation. Keywords Electoral volatility, vote switching, electoral behaviour, second-order national election theory, European Parliament elections,...

The thesis focuses on election campaigns for the 2014 European Parliament elections by French political parties. The thesis deals with a rising popularity of the National Front party in France - nowadays an often discussed topic. The party is becoming increasingly popular and is attracting more and more voters. The biggest proof of the increasing popularity of FN is the party's victory in the 2014 European Parliament elections. There exist many explanations for this victory such as an unfavourable economic situation in France, the unpopularity of the socialist government lead by French president François Hollande, or anti-immigrant sentiments spreading throughout the whole of Europe. The thesis seeks to find another possible view on the phenomenon by comparing the FN election campaign with those of its main opponents, UMP and PS, and searching for certain differences. This comparison is based on usage of political marketing tools in the campaigns: election posters, advertising spots and profiles on the social network Facebook. The aim of the thesis is therefore to analyse how the French political parties used these tools in their campaigns, and also trying to find certain particularities in how they conducted the election campaigns. It is posited that if FN uses the tools in a different way and...

This diploma thesis deals with the political marketing of selected political entities on the czech political scene. Primary goal is to analyze and furthermore compare political marketing of ANO and TOP 09 in before of elections to the Chamber of deputies in year 2017 and ANO and the coalition of TOP 09 and STAN in before the elections to European parliament in year 2019. Partial goal of this thesis is to understand the difference between parliamentary elections and European elections, ie first and second order elections, but also to understand differences in financing campaings in before mentioned elections. From the point of view of metodologyis this diploma thesis is drafted as a comparative case study examining two different elections in the Czech Republic. Theoretical part will introduce the concept of political marketing, chosen model of political marketing, election campaings and the concept of first and second order elections. Analytical part will provide deeper analysis of election campaings of chosen subjects. Campaings will be compared at the end of this thesis.