In recent years a wave of right-wing populist parties has sweep in Europe. Two of these are Sweden’s Swedish Democrats and Norway’s Progress Party. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to research on how political parties are portrayed in mainstream media and how that may influence political party success in the elections. Content of two daily newspapers over two months before the last parliamentary elections in Sweden and Norway is examined within the study. The method used is a quantitative content analysis. The result was added to the agenda setting theory. From the result, an analysis was conducted to reveal how publication in newspapers can be expected to affect or not affect the selected parties’ successes in the elections. The result shows that the Progress Party receives more space in the daily press than the Swedish Democrats. Both parties are often mentioned in relation to other parties. In several articles, other parties want to show that there is a difference between their basic values, as opposed to the right-wing populist parties. Negative value words appear in the articles, especially in the case of the Swedish Democrats. There are both negative and neutral values in the case of the Progress Party. However, the articles often appear in a neutral way. The conclusion is that the daily press does not seem to have influence over the political parties’ successes in the elections in this case.

This master thesis deals with the development of the protest movement PEGIDA, which was founded on October 11. 2014 in Dresden. This movement speaks loudly against the Islamization of Germany during the regular demonstrations and criticizes the political situation in the country. In times of its greatest popularity it has attracted thousands of people. Nowadays its importance is still diminishing. The aim is therefore to describe the development of the movement and its characteristics. The work is divided into four main chapters. The first one explains the development in Saxony, the second one describes the development of the movement and its programmatics. It also contains the change of relationship towards Alternative für Deutschland (AfD): from an animosity into an open collaboration. PEGIDA was created as a Facebook group: with tools like Google Trends and Fanpage Karma this chapter analyzes its evolution in an online world. It also shows a declining search rate on Google and its popularity on Facebook. The last chapter is based on studies conducted among demonstrators concerning their demographic data and their views on the functioning of democracy and politics. It follows that most Pegidists do not believe in political representation and see an AfD as an alternative. The stagnation of the...

As populism in Europe is on the rise there are two sides of populism contesting to make an impact on their societies. In connection with existing research, this study is focusing on the most prominent left-wing populist party in Spain, Podemos, and the  most prominent right-wing populist party in Italy, Lega Nord, and examines differences in their voters’ attitudes regarding a couple of crucial indicators of populism. The study is influenced by a previous study that examined the attitudes of left-wing and right-wing voters. The main distinction between this previous study and the current one is that my study also includes voters from the Spanish left-wing party Podemos, which was not included in the previous research. The result of my study show that Podemos voters are more positive towards the EU and towards immigration in difference to Lega Nord voters, whereas they have comparable attitudes towards material deprivation and elitism.

Bibliography: pages 511-522. / To understand the intricacies of white rightwing politics in South Africa, an in-depth analysis of the roots, strength, policies and strategies of a very small but potentially potent sector of South Africa's diverse population is required. The aim of this dissertation is to provide an objective analysis of interlinking issues associated with the rightwing, the gathering and logical presentation of empirical data, the critical discussion of theories relating to ethnicity, and the provision of a framework in which to evaluate further developments in the sphere of rightwing politics. The thesis is concerned with an assessment of the white rightwing movement as a potentially disruptive element within the process of transformation to a democratic dispensation in South Africa. It argues that Afrikaner ethno-nationalism is the driving force of the rightwing, and discusses this phenomenon in the context of its historical roots, its class base, and its ethnic component. The thesis relies on the theoretical framework of Horowitz, which suggests that the rightwing should be analyzed in terms of a collective drive for power, which in turn could be used to confirm the social status of the Afrikaner ethnic group. It is argued that in the rightwing view, the best way to confirm Afrikaner social status and to protect the group from domination by other ethnic groups and races, is through self-determination. To achieve this goal, the rightwing has placed heavy emphasis on territorial aspects and has structured its territorial demands on the basis of achieving ethnic homogeneity in the Afrikaner 'fatherland'.

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Dissertation｜2460442M Abstract The discourses structuring news coverage of terrorist attacks influence our understanding of the nature, drivers and severity of the threat emanating from a specific extremist actor category. Therefore, they are a powerful tool to further socio-political goals. Acknowledging the role of language in shaping reality, this dissertation project uses Critical Discourse Analysis/Critical Discourse Studies to reveal current discursive trends in the understudied coverage of Islamist and right-wing extremist attacks in the Swiss press. With the dominant social factor distinguishing the two extremist categories being ethnicity, it hypothesises that Western media discourses reflect the presuppositions of Orientalism and Critical Race Theory. Both theories expect texts to express, enact and legitimise social hierarchies based on racial affinity to solidify the supremacy of the white elite. The exemplarily analysis of the reporting of two recent extremist incidents by three newspapers representing political perspectives from the right-wing to the left-wing shows that while the Swiss press is indeed influenced by and reproduces racial inequalities, publications do so to a varying degree.

This thesis examines the intersection of cultural discourse and economic policies of the Hungarian populist radical right party, Fidesz. It classifies the cultural discourse of the governing party as neo-traditionalist by examining how the party's leader, Viktor Orbán, rhetorically shapes his vision of the nation, espouses traditional values, and uses missionary politics to create a personalized moral code under the guise of cultural Christianity. It examines the government's economic policies of nationalization and re-privatization, crony capitalism, and national work program within a neo-feudalist classification. This research finds that the neo-feudalist economic policies of Fidesz serve as a reinforcement mechanism that legitimizes the cultural discourse espoused by Orbán. Furthermore, the neo-feudal economy is reshaping the social system into a highly centralized and hierarchical structure and having lasting macroeconomic effects, including demographic issues and increasing levels of wealth inequality. This emerging illiberal model of governance is not only reshaping Hungary's political, economic, and social systems, but also contributing to a larger movement away from the tenets of liberal democracy within CEE. Keywords Neo-traditionalism, Neo-feudalism, Delayed transformational fatigue,...

This study examined the relationship between exposure to COVID-19 fake news, right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), sociodemographic factors (i.e., race, biological sex), and xenophobia along with anti-Asian sentiment during the pandemic. Participants included 133 female and male college students. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) exposed to COVID-19 fake news, (2) exposed to real news related to COVID-19 news, and (3) no news exposure. All participants from three groups were then asked to complete a series of measures regarding their attitudes toward Asian Americans and xenophobia. Participants levels of RWA and sociodemographic variables of race and biological sex were also examined. There was no significant difference in participants' attitudes toward Asian Americans based on which experimental group they were in. Participant's level of RWA and xenophobia significantly predicted participants attitudes toward Asian Americans. Participants race marginally predicted levels of comfort and kinship with, as well as enthusiasm for Asian Americans. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

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