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In the context of California’s progressive political culture and growing economic inequality, a grassroots secessionist movement in rural northern California called the State of Jefferson movement arose in 2013. While the movement resembles other populist uprisings, its grievances are particular to its geographic, historical, and political context. Many tend to generalize populist campaigns as sinister or illiberal; however, this thesis finds that the State of Jefferson movement contains elements of populism as well as classical liberalism and republicanism. Through qualitative research, this thesis argues that movements of this sort are both inevitable in liberal democracy and also serve a legitimate purpose in strengthening democracy by calling for reform and good government. Growing political polarization, especially with the rise of Trump, and rural-urban cleavages in the United States beg for movements like the State of Jefferson to receive inquiry.

The essay Let us be the second body is a written pensive and companion in the process of creating a performance with the same title performed in January 2021 at SKH in Stockholm. It describes the main task of the project which was about realizing interdependencies, in a search for political movement towards a non-violent way of relating with and within the world. In the essay, it is described how this can be imagined like crawling through a compost pile. What you find digesting in the pile are conversations and encounters with strangers on the street such as Blurry-Believes/ Pretend-Poems/ Slippery-Statements, and composed fragments of thoughts from thinkers like Maria Lugones, Judith Butler, Ta-Nehsi Coates, and Michael Ende. Composing those fragments within this essay is forming the sentence: “I cannot be out of violence until the system that I am living in is, even though I am not the target of that violence. The essay is longing to get into the muddy work of investigating the concepts of ‘transformation’ and ‘change’. A work that is meant to be, as the structure of the text, mirrored, messed up and ambiguous.  (And through being honest in that ambiguity the essay regains a response-ability.) Concretely, the essay reflects on how I use this ambiguity as a tool for creating the performance Let us be the second body, in which textile art, scenography, sound design and dancing linger in interdependence with the realm of transformation. I will and I will not change the world with this essay. So, I guess you will and you will not be changed by this essay. / <p>This master work includes both a performing and a written part.</p>

The mass character of political mobilization is not the only measure for the strength of civil society. It turns out that, in post-communist countries including the Czech Republic, transaction capacity became the characteristic of protest movements and initiatives. It referrs to the ability to cooperate, take advantage of inter-organizational network and share resources and know how. These transactions, to a certain extent, compensate for poor mobilization capacity, which is typical for new transactional activism and civic self-organizations. The contrast between "old" social movements, episodic mass mobilisations, new transactional activism, along with civil self-organization, illustrated that even without mass mobilization a mature structure of civil society and advocacy organizations can emerge and operate. The year 1998 brought the beginning of favorable conditions for political activism. It turns out that the activity of the "old" activism decreases with the number of members of trade unions, which is typical for this mode. At the same time, people prefer forms of direct action and direct public protest. Using five selected case studies we described the nature of episodic mass mobilization, civil ad hoc and informal self-organization and new transactional activism,whose repertoire is besides petitions...

Aim of the thesis is to describe and analyse the role of nationalism in contemporary Czech extreme right movements. Its author has two fundamental objectives. The first is to evaluate strength and relevance of contemporary Czech nationalism within extreme right movements. The second objective consists in the analysis of nationalism itself, which should reveal the true nature of these organizations and their ideological platform. This thesis presents an overview of Czech extreme right spectrum. It was essential to select movements that mutually differ and therefore represent various manifestations of Czech right extremism. All three platforms can be classified as extreme right movements strongly resonating with Czech nationalism. They see themselves as patriots who defend conservative values and national traditions. Revue of The National Idea represents an attempt to create a sophisticated, intellectual forum providing conditions for ultra-right views and ideas. D.O.S.T. movement acts as a conservative "people's initiative", standing against multiculturalism and the European Union. The National Party is then an example of extreme political grouping with traces of populism, xenophobia and pure racism. Content analysis of these three movements is the main topic of the thesis. Examining their goals,...

Throughout history the Sami community have been excluded from Swedish society. They were submitted to discrimination, abuse and the denial of rights. Although the political movement of Sami people is long, we have in recent years seen how a demand for truth and justice is taking more space within the official Sami political movement. The aim of this thesis is to gain a wider understanding of Sami political demands and the idea of justice in Sweden through a Truth Commission. Applying a post-colonial theory and Bacchi’s “What’s the problem?”-methodology I have set out to analyse how the discourse of the idea of justice and a Sami Truth Commission (STC) is being constructed by the Sami political movement, non-affiliated Sami and the Swedish government. The secondary material I have used is earlier research and pre-existing interviews with Sami people. My primary material is documents made by Sami political movement and the Swedish government regarding a STC. The conclusion is that the Sami political movement are constructing the discourse on a STC with a homogenous view of accountability. The non-affiliated Sami is constructing the discourse with a diversity of notion such as accountability, moving on and internal responsibility. The government’s discourse on STC is constructed with non- accountability and silence. However, there is a discourse on the idea of justice and it is constructed with notions of increased participation and to combat racism. / Det samiska samhället har genom historien exkluderats från majoritetssamhället i Sverige. De har blivit utsatta för diskriminering, övergrepp och blivit nekade sina rättigheter. Den samiska politiska rörelsen har en lång historia men det är på senare tid som vi sett ett ökat krav för sanning och rättvisa inom den parlamentariska samiska politiska rörelsen. Syftet med denna uppsats är att nå en bredare förståelse av de politiska kraven inom rörelsen och idén om rättvisa utifrån idén om en sanningskommission. Genom att använda mig av en postkolonial teori och av Bacchis ”What’s the problem”-metod vill jag analysera hur diskursen om idén om rättvisa och en samisk sanningskommission (SSK) konstrueras av den samiska politiska rörelsen, icke-politiska samer och den svenska regeringen. Mitt sekundära material består av tidigare forskning och genomförda intervjuer och mitt preliminära material består av dokument från den samiska politiska rörelsen och regeringen gällande en SSK. Mina slutsatser är att den samiska politiska rörelsen konstruerar diskursen om en SSK med en homogen bild av statens ansvar. De icke-politiska samerna konstruerar diskursen med en mångfald av begrepp så som ansvarighet, idén om att gå vidare och internt ansvar. Regeringens diskurs av en SSK är konstruerad med ett icke-ansvar och tystnad. Däremot går det att utröna en diskurs om rättvisa som är konstruerad med begrepp som ökat deltagande och kampen mot rasism.

This thesis examines the nature of mass factionalism and rebellious alignment during the Chinese Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1968. This period in Chinese history presents an internecine mass conflict that boasts the largest political upheavals of the 20th century. The most puzzling question of the explosion of this intense rebellious rivalry lies in the mechanisms and processes of insurgents’ political choices: Why did people join and affiliate with different insurgent groups? What decision did people make and what were their reasons? In conventional social structural analyses of contentious politics, mass actors’ decisions are affected by functionally differentiated interests inherent in their pre-existing social positions. This model defines mass rebellion and factional alignment as a form of interest group politics, attributing political choices to participants’ pre-existing sociopolitical status quo and thus pits different social groups against one another. As a result, similar occupational and status groups in the previous hierarchical structure would make similar political choices that lead them to form well-defined competing factions. In contrast to this static structural interpretation, I propose a contextual process model to analyze processes of political division and factional contention within political movements. With a case study of Guangzhou, I argue that rebellious alignment was rooted in their political interactions in a rapidly evolving phase of the conflict, rather than rising from the tensions that existed between different socio-economic layers of society. During the times of radical instability such as the Chinese Cultural Revolution, political ambiguity and contingency were the defining characteristics. In such unstable political environment, the basic elements of the movement changed so many times: each phase of the rebel movement projected itself by means of different actors, agendas, targets, and so on. Consequently, individual rebels observed their embedded local political environment, interpreted it, and subsequently chose a course of action in a dynamic process. In this regard, mass actors from identical social strata in the previous hierarchical structure would make different political choices and tactically choose their factional camp.

基隆港市1980年代後期經濟衰退，以及台灣青年面臨崩世代的情境，基隆都市治理失能如同台灣發展的縮影，全球化下艱困的大環境，讓青年世代無法追求「大幸福」而轉向「小確幸生活」，看似微小的幸福，卻也是個體能動性的所在；青年對於國家施政的不滿，透過新媒體串聯，興起2014年318太陽花運動，新世代青年開始展開行動，訴求返鄉或在地紮根，醞釀政治上的第三勢力和青年參政風潮。 2014年基隆老中青三代文史工作者集結，展開C23行動聯盟抗爭運動，訴求保留西二三碼頭倉庫，要求經濟與文化發展並存。而後基隆各青年團體相繼成立，依持他們的秉性、習癖和握有的各類資本，依照旨趣分別關注在政治、文史、新公民運動等面向，將台北的現代性發展、社運精神帶回基隆操練，像是基隆青年陣線的民主小草青年參政的政治實驗；黑鳶之都與基隆青年陣線的許梓桑古厝打掃運動，以行動介入，翻轉地方空間，舉辦梓桑文化祭與「影．響．台．灣」活動；雞籠霧雨則關注地方文史和社會議題，深具批判意識的犀利文筆，持續展開新文史運動；阿普蛙工作室形塑的「新公民運動」，誓言立足基隆，創辦社會企業，走入學校、團體與社區，目標形塑寰宇主義的世界公民，不斷積累社會資本，在都市或台灣各地社區不斷行動，是進行社區(會)場域的改造與復興的「遊戲世代」。 基隆青年的都市改造運動，間接促使2014年民進黨籍林右昌市長的當選，而基隆青年都市改造運動持續與「新政治」的交互影響。最後，本研究認為「世代共融」乃是尋覓理解台灣都市新政治的解藥。 / Since the economy of Keelung city had declined in the latter mid of 1980’s, the youth in Taiwan is now experiencing the situation of the “declined generation”.(崩世代) In 2014, through the connection of new social media, the youth had took the streets and stepped forward defending the importance of local development in Taiwan, which is called “the Sun Flower Movement”. In this study, one can see how the trend of youth participation was formed, and the path of “the third power” in politics to be deliberated. In 2014, the culture workers from every ages in Keelung gathered together for the movement of C23 action, fighting for reservations of the west no.2 and no.3 wharf warehouse and asking for the coexistence between economic and cultural development. And lots of youth people groups have sprung up in Keelung since then, bringing back into Keelung the essence of modern developments and social movements in Taipei. These youth people groups, such as Keelung Youth Front(基隆青年陣線), KeelungRain(雞籠霧雨), and Wa’s up studio(阿普蛙工作室), etc., have different dispositions, habiuts and capitals, and they have divergent interests in political, cultural, new civil movement fields. The youth people group in Keelung give rise to the youth movement of urban renaissance in Keelung, and it also indirectly contributes to the rotation of ruling parties in Keelung. The youth movement of urban renaissance is continuously interacting with the “new politics”. This article considers that “the integration of ages” is the key to understanding the new politics in cities of Taiwan.

1 The thesis Populist Movements in the Czech Republic considers people and political groups using populist appeals which refer to "well-behaved people" and go against unfriendly élites. The thesis describes main topics of these political subjects, and on the base of it it develops a few populist families. In the introductory part, a few theoretical approaches to populism in general and its relationship with democracy are discussed. The main purpose of the thesis is to describe the environment of populist subjects in the Czech Republic and to classify them according to their similarities and cleavage lines.

In 1979, a handful of Nevada state officials sparked a movement to transfer the large unappropriated domain to the western states. For two years what became known as the Sagebrush Rebellion swept across the American West like brushfire, engaging westerners of all stripes in a heated dispute over the question of the public lands. In Utah, as elsewhere in the West, public officials, rural ranchers, miners, developers, academics, environmentalists, and concerned citizens joined the debate and staked sides. This episode underscored western relationships between people and nature and featured contests over competing ideologies in the West. But it probably did more harm than good in solving the problems of the West and even further polarized westerners against themselves. After just two years in the limelight, the Sagebrush Rebellion unspectacularly faded into public memory, partly as a result of environmental opposition but mostly because Ronald Reagan's administration steered public land policy in a new direction. Interior Secretary James Watt took steps to appease disgruntled westerners by loosening federal regulations on the public lands, but he opposed any efforts for a large-scale transfer. Thus the Sagebrush Rebellion ultimately failed; but still today the sentiment and conflicts that propelled it persist, continuing to color the panorama that is the American West.