O presente trabalho, através do estudo da trajetória dos membros da "geração de 1970", busca explicar como, contando com que recursos e em quais condições um grupo de políticos rio-grandenses logrou, ao final da década de 1920, ascender a posições de poder no Brasil. Definiu-se também os contornos do jogo político no Rio Grande do Sul e no Brasil em termos das práticas e dos recursos que os agentes que nele atuavam deveriam possuir para serem bem sucedidos. Desde os níveis paroquial, estadual e nacional, se pode verificar que este jogo era jogado enquanto uma disputa entre mediadores, que encarnavam posições alcançadas, a partir da liderança sobre parcelas da sociedade que tinham neles seus canais de relação com o mundo jurídico-político. / The present work, through the study of the "generation of 1907" member's trajectories, tries to explain how, counting with which resources and in what conditions agroup of rio-grandenses' politicians achieved, at the end of the 1920, to ascend to powerpositions in Brazil. We also defined the contours of the political game in Rio Grande doSul and Brazil in terms of the practices and resources that the agents that acted in it should possess to be succeed. From the parochial, regional and national levels, it was verified that this game was played as a dispute among mediators, that embodied positions reached through leadership on portions of the society that had in them its relationship channels with the juridical-political world.

O presente trabalho, através do estudo da trajetória dos membros da "geração de 1970", busca explicar como, contando com que recursos e em quais condições um grupo de políticos rio-grandenses logrou, ao final da década de 1920, ascender a posições de poder no Brasil. Definiu-se também os contornos do jogo político no Rio Grande do Sul e no Brasil em termos das práticas e dos recursos que os agentes que nele atuavam deveriam possuir para serem bem sucedidos. Desde os níveis paroquial, estadual e nacional, se pode verificar que este jogo era jogado enquanto uma disputa entre mediadores, que encarnavam posições alcançadas, a partir da liderança sobre parcelas da sociedade que tinham neles seus canais de relação com o mundo jurídico-político. / The present work, through the study of the "generation of 1907" member's trajectories, tries to explain how, counting with which resources and in what conditions agroup of rio-grandenses' politicians achieved, at the end of the 1920, to ascend to powerpositions in Brazil. We also defined the contours of the political game in Rio Grande doSul and Brazil in terms of the practices and resources that the agents that acted in it should possess to be succeed. From the parochial, regional and national levels, it was verified that this game was played as a dispute among mediators, that embodied positions reached through leadership on portions of the society that had in them its relationship channels with the juridical-political world.

Cette thèse examine deux modèles alternatifs de prises de décision motrice à travers des données comportementales humaines et des données électrophysiologiques de singes obtenues lors d'une tâche de décision multi-attributs. Les théories psychologiques classiques suggèrent que la prise de décision soit une fonction de l'exécutif central (EC). En accord avec cela, de nombreuses études ont montré des modulations neuronales concernant les décisions dans le cortex préfrontal (PFC), renforçant la notion que les décisions sont prises à un niveau abstrait dans l'exécutif central du cerveau : le PFC. Cependant, de telles corrélations neuronales se trouvent également dans les régions sensorimotrices, qui étaient traditionnellement considérées externes à l’EC. Cela a conduit à un modèle alternatif de prise de décision dans un EC, impliquant plusieurs zones cérébrales, y compris les zones exécutives et sensorimotrices. Ce second modèle suggère qu'une décision est prise lorsque les compétitions au sein et entre les aires cérébrales arrivent à une résolution, ce qui permet d'atteindre un consensus distribué (CD). L'objectif principal de cette thèse est de tester les prédictions faites par ces deux modèles. Pour ce faire, nous avons conçu une tâche d'atteinte basée sur la valeur d'attributs multiples et créé une situation dans laquelle les deux modèles font des prédictions neuronales distinctes. Dans cette tâche, deux attributs visuels indépendants indiquaient le montant de la récompense associé à chaque cible. L'un était un degré de luminosité, information ascendante (BU pour "bottom-up"), ciblant le réseau de saillance par le biais de la voie visuelle dorsale. L'autre était un indice d'orientation de ligne, information descendante (TD pour "top-down"), ciblant le réseau de catégorisation basé sur la connaissance par le biais de la voie visuelle ventrale. Nous avons effectué des enregistrements dans la région d’atteinte pariétale (PRR) et le cortex pré-moteur dorsal (PMd) du singe, dont les activités neuronales ont été précédemment impliquées comme étant modulées par des attributs BU et TD similaires. Dans la plupart des essais, les deux attributs étaient congruents – tous les deux favorisant la même cible. Cependant, un sous-ensemble d'essais avait des cibles avec la même valeur de récompense totale, mais où les deux attributs étaient en conflit (les caractéristiques BU et TD favorisant des cibles opposées). Le modèle de l'EC prédit que dans ce cas, l’activité neuronale la plus précoce doit apparaître dans une région exécutive et que les régions sensorimotrices doivent recevoir la diffusion de cette décision. Ainsi, ce modèle prédit que la différence du temps de réaction entre le PRR et le PMd sera constante, quelle que soit la manière dont la décision est prise. En revanche, le modèle CD prédit que l’intervalle de décision doit refléter le rôle d'une région dans la décision en cours. Plus précisément, si PRR et PMd font tous deux parties du réseau de décision distribué et jouent un rôle dans l'évaluation des attributs BU et TD, un choix en faveur de l'attribut BU devrait apparaître d'abord dans le PRR et par la suite dans le PMd, tandis qu'un choix en faveur de l'attribut TD devrait apparaître dans l'ordre inverse. Notre étude démontre que le temps de réaction des participants humains était plus rapide dans les essais congruents et lors de l'utilisation de l'information BU par rapport à l'utilisation de l'information TD. La distribution ne reflétait pas linéairement la complexité de l'attribut et semblait plutôt suggérer une intégration incomplète des informations disponibles. Ainsi, le résultat n'était pas entièrement explicable par un modèle d'EC pur. Le temps de réaction des participants était également plus rapide lorsqu'ils choisissaient entre deux options de grande valeur par rapport aux options de faible valeur, ce qui suggère que la loi de Weber ne s'applique pas aux attributs visuels indiquant des informations de valeur. La distribution du temps de réaction de notre premier singe était similaire à celle des participants humains. Sur le plan neuronal, l’intervalle de décision du PMd était presque toujours plus rapide que celle du PRR et le PRR ne précédait jamais le PMd; aussi, la différence de l’intervalle de décision entre ces régions n'était pas constante. Le PMd a montré un biais de base pré-stimulus dans les essais de choix libre, alors que ce n’était pas le cas pour le PRR. La distribution de l’intervalle de décision dans le PMd variait également en fonction des conditions d'essai, tandis que celle du PRR ne distinguait que les cibles uniques des cibles multiples. Une tendance similaire a été observée dans les analyses préliminaires des potentiels de champ locaux (LFP). Enfin, les résultats préliminaires suggèrent des effets plus cohérents de la micro-stimulation dans le PMd que dans le PRR. Nos résultats soutiennent le rôle causal du PMd, mais pas celui du PRR. Nos résultats sont cohérents avec les rapports précédents sur l'activité neuronale liée au choix dans les régions pariétales, car l'activité du PRR reflétait le choix du singe dans notre tâche. Nos résultats sont également cohérents avec d'autres études montrant l'absence de preuves du rôle causal des régions pariétales dans la prise de décision, car l'ordre relatif de l'activité prédictive du choix dans le PRR et le PMd ne variait pas entre les différentes conditions. À la lumière de ces deux modèles, nos résultats suggèrent une troisième alternative, qui inclut potentiellement le PMd en tant que partie du réseau de décision, mais pas le PRR. / This thesis examines two alternative models of action decisions through human behavioural and monkey electrophysiological data obtained during a multi-attribute decision task. Classic psychological theories suggest that decision-making is a function of the Central Executive (CE). In line with this, many studies showed neural correlates of decision variables in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), strengthening the notion that decisions are made at an abstract level in the brain’s central executive: PFC. However, such neural correlates are also found in sensorimotor areas, which were traditionally considered outside the CE. This has led to an alternative model to the decision making in a CE, involving multiple brain areas including both executive and sensorimotor areas. This second model suggests that a decision is made when competitions within and across brain areas come to a resolution, thus a Distributed Consensus (DC) is achieved. The main objective of this thesis is to test the predictions made by these two models. To do so, we designed a multi-attribute value-based reaching task, and created a situation in which the two models made distinct neural predictions. In this task, two independent visual attributes indicated the amount of reward associated with each reach target. One was a “bottom-up” (BU) brightness, targeting the saliency network through the dorsal visual pathway. The other was a “top-down” (TD) line orientation cue, targeting the knowledge-based categorization network through the ventral visual pathway. We recorded from monkey parietal reach region (PRR) and dorsal premotor cortex (PMd), whose activities have previously been implied to be modulated by similar BU and TD attributes. In most trials, the two attributes were congruent – both favoring the same target. However, a subset of trials consisted of a conflict between the two attributes (BU and TD features favoring opposite targets), but the targets had the same total reward values. Here, the CE model predicted that the earliest choice-predictive activity should appear in an executive region, and sensorimotor regions were expected to be receiving this decision broadcast. Thus, the model predicted the latency difference between PRR and PMd to be constant, regardless of how the decision is made. In contrast, the DC model predicted choice latency should reflect a region’s role in the ongoing decision. Specifically, if both PRR and PMd are part of the distributed decision network and play a role in evaluating the BU and TD attributes, a choice in favor of the BU attribute should appear first in PRR and then in PMd, whereas a choice in favor of the TD attribute should appear in the opposite order. We report that human participants’ reaction time (RT) was faster in congruent trials and when using the BU information compared to when using the TD information. The RT distribution did not linearly reflect the attribute complexity, and instead suggested an incomplete integration of available information. Thus, the result was not fully explainable with a pure CE model. Their RT was also faster when choosing between two high-valued options compared to low-valued options, suggesting that Weber-Fechner law does not apply to visual attributes that indicate value. Our first monkey’s RT distribution was similar to that of human participants. Neurally, choice latency of PMd was almost always faster than that of PRR and PRR never preceded PMd, and the latency difference between these regions was not consistent. PMd showed a pre-stimulus baseline bias in free-choice trials, whereas PRR did not. The distribution of choice latency in PMd also varied with trial conditions, whereas that of PRR only discriminated single versus multiple targets. A similar trend was seen in preliminary analyses of local field potentials. Finally, preliminary results suggest more consistent effects of microstimulation in PMd than in PRR. Our results support the causal role of PMd, but do not support that of PRR. This is consistent with previous reports of choice-related neural activity in the parietal regions, as PRR activity did reflect the monkey’s choice in our task. Our results are also consistent with other studies showing the absence of evidence for parietal regions’ causal role in decision-making, as the relative order of choice-predictive activity in PRR and PMd did not vary between different conditions. In light of the two models, our results suggest a third alternative, which potentially includes PMd, but not PRR, as part of the decision network.

In the context of Western, European, Nordic, and Swedish radical nationalism, this study is an analysis of the various ways the political party the Sweden Democrats talks about religion; primarily about Swedish Evangelical-Lutheran Christianity and the Church of Sweden.   The study investigates the party expressions on religion and nationalism, using theoretical models of interpretation, constructed for this specific purpose, out of hermeneutic methodology.   The purpose has been to analyse the different functions of the various ways the Sweden Democrats talk about religion, and to investigate how the references to religion legitimize the ideology of nationalism, with the aim to answer the following questions: How do the Sweden Democrats’ talk on religion function as an identity marker? In what way is it possible to distinguish an aspiration for cultural purity in the Sweden Democrats’ talk on religion? Is it possible to distinguish neo-racism in the Sweden Democrats’ talk on religion? In which ways can the Sweden Democrats’ talk on religion be regarded as political strategy?   The results demonstrate in which ways the Sweden Democrats apply religion to promote the party perceptions of nationalism, as well as to legitimize the party conceptions of the Swedish nation and the Swedish people: Swedish Christianity and the Church of Sweden are used to identify Swedish culture and to identify contrasting foreign culture. Swedish Christianity is used as the determining factor between the good Swedish people and the bad other people. Swedish Christianity is used as the determining factor between the right Swedish values and the wrong values of the other. Swedish Christian values are used as dividing criteria between the culturally pure Swedish people and the culturally impure other people. The degeneration of the Church of Sweden mirrors the degeneration of the Swedish society. Swedish Christian homogeneity will guarantee security for the Swedish people and the Swedish nation within the Swedish nation-state. Elements of religion and culture sort different peoples into different categories in the hierarchical view of humanity. Swedish Christianity and Swedish culture identify and define the Swedish people as innocent to the current precarious situation of the Swedish nation, and Swedish Christianity and Swedish culture identify and define the people of the other, which is to blame for this situation. The Swedish people is superior, to the non-Swedish people, because of superior Swedish religion and superior Swedish culture. Swedish Christianity is used to promote anti-democratic political positions. Swedish Christianity is used to legitimize coercion and force in the enforcement of Swedishness.