Support for far-right ideas and parties continues to be widespread despite significant efforts to curb it. Even in Germany, a country that underwent unusually far-reaching reforms after the Holocaust and the defeat of the Nazi regime, and that is often used as an example for how to deal with a fraught past, the threat of the far right gaining power is looming large and attitudes associated with far-right support continue to be widespread. This dissertation examines sources of persistence and change with respect to far-right support, using post-WWII Germany as a case. I used a mixed-methods approach, combining statistical analysis of observational data with in-depth qualitative analysis of archival data and an experiment. The three studies highlight the potentials and limits of three avenues for change: the political incorporation of right-leaning voters into mainstream center-right parties, education reforms to overcome far-right ideology, and interventions that inform people about past atrocities and injustices. Chapter 1 provides an overview of three pathways identified across the social sciences through which the past shapes social and political outcomes in the present: institutional path dependence, political socialization, and collective memory. I explain how these three pathways relate to the issue of far-right support. Chapter 2 draws on historical and contemporary election data and social statistics as well as secondary sources by historians to examine sources of regional variation in the support for far-right parties in Germany over time. I show how differences in the political incorporation of right-leaning displaced Germans resulted in different regional trajectories of far-right support. Where the center-right party was firmly embedded in the local social milieu and focused on its pre-existing voter base, it remained closed to right-leaning displaced voters, and far-right support persisted. Where the party could not build on a pre-existing voter base and collaborated with other parties on the right, it broadly incorporated conservative constituencies across social differences, resulting in a decline in far-right support. Chapter 3 is based on the qualitative analysis of 125 school student essays from 1950s West Germany about the German nation and the idea of an integrated Europe. I investigate ideas about belonging and supremacy among the first generation that grew up after WWII and the Holocaust and that was educated following the Allies’ comprehensive re-education efforts. I show how school students defined German-ness and European-ness based on ideas of shared culture, criticizing nationalism and largely embracing a joint European identity. At the same time, this move to cultural, as opposed to racial, conceptions of belonging, as well as the emphasis on Europe as a meaningful, shared category of belonging, did not preclude claims of superiority both within Europe as well as vis-à-vis other parts of the world. Chapter 4, a co-authored study, uses an original survey experiment to test the effectiveness of confronting people with different forms of factual information about a past atrocity that the national majority group was implicated in, for improving their attitudes towards minoritized groups and mobilizing them for symbolic justice and action against discrimination today. We randomly assigned German participants one of three prototypical representations of the Holocaust or a neutral control condition text. Results indicate that all three conditions are overall effective and that the personal story condition is especially effective for far-right supporters. Chapter 5 concludes with a discussion of implications and limitations, and suggests directions for future research.

Interpersonally aversive, antagonistic, or "dark" traits have been the focal point of research for decades. In more recent personality research, affiliative, prosocial, or "light" traits have become an area of emerging interest. Examining both domains may allow for a more comprehensive perspective to understanding behaviors and social attitudes involved in human nature related to social dominance and authoritarianism. The purpose of this study was to explore the associations among aversive versus affiliative personality traits with social dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). Both SDO and RWA are robustly tied to prejudice and discrimination, as well as other negative interpersonal characteristics. In this way, the current study will help address if expression of SDO and RWA are primarily linked with presence of a negative (aversive traits) or more so with the absence of a positive (affiliative traits) The current study involved a large general population sample of males who were assessed with Self-Report Psychopathy Scale-Short Form (SRP-SF), subscales from the Short Dark Tetrad (SD4), and the Light Triad Scale (LTS), along with variables tapping the multifaceted domains involved in SDO and RWA. In addition to a series of multiple regression analyses, an exploratory structural equation model (ESEM) was tested to uncover the structure and predictive value of aversive and affiliative traits. The findings of this study may help to further understand individual differences in aversive and affiliative dispositions and their link to critical external correlates.

Alors que la reconstruction matérielle du pays s’achevait au milieu des années Vingt, il en allait de même pour le champ politique français. A partir de 1924, le retour à une nette bipolarisation entre gauche et droite eut un effet structurant sur le champ politique français, qui n’avait plus connu une telle configuration depuis le début du XXe siècle. Les élections de 1924, marquées par la victoire du Cartel des gauches face au Bloc national, apparaissent comme une césure politique, largement négligée par l’historiographie de l’entre-deux-guerres depuis les travaux de Jean-Noël Jeanneney sur le Cartel des gauches dans les années 1970. De leur passage dans l’opposition en 1924-1926, les droites françaises tirèrent un certain nombre de leçons. La principale était que le verdict des urnes pouvait être renversé en cours de législature : en juillet 1926, la majorité cartelliste, affaiblie par les contradictions entre socialistes et radicaux face à une crise financière et monétaire qui s’aggravait, laissa définitivement place à une majorité d’union nationale, réunie sous l’autorité du principal adversaire des gauches lors de la campagne de 1924, Raymond Poincaré. Pour les droites de nouveau vaincues en 1932 et en 1936, c’était un précédent à retenir. Autre leçon, les mobilisations anticartellistes, dans leur diversité, au sein du champ politique ou du champ social, avaient contribué à affaiblir la majorité radicale et socialiste : l’action militante, politique et sociale, avait une capacité d’influence non négligeable au sein du régime parlementaire de la Troisième République. De 1924 à 1926, les organisations anticartellistes politiques ou associatives, à l’instar de celles entendant représenter les intérêts des catholiques ou des commerçants et artisans, développèrent une culture et des pratiques politiques d’opposition, qu’elles firent rejouer tout au long de l’entre-deux-guerres. Cette expérience démontra également la persistance, dans l’opposition, des divisions structurelles du champ politique des droites, en raison du maintien de clivages tant doctrinaux (sur la laïcité, la politique étrangère ou le parlementarisme), que stratégiques (attitude d’intransigeance ou de conciliation vis-à-vis des radicaux). Dans leur ensemble, ces divisions, mais aussi les débats et les pratiques politiques qui s’épanouirent pendant ces deux années, perdurèrent jusqu’au milieu des années Trente. / In the mid-twenties, France was achieving its reconstruction, both economical and political. In 1924, and for the first time since the beginning of the century, the general election took place in a context of a clear bipolarization between left and right, which had a structuring effect on French political field. The victory of the Cartel des gauches at this election appears as a political break-point, that the historiography about political life during interwar years has rather neglected since Jean-Noël Jeanneney’s studies upon Cartel des gauches in the seventies. The organizations of the right-wing learnt a few important lessons from this period when they were in the parliamentary opposition. The most important one was that the political majority coming out democratic election could be changed in the middle of the parliamentary legislature. Indeed, in July 1926, weakened by the growing divisions between radicals and socialists incapable of giving an answer to the increasing financial and monetary crisis, the cartellist majority fell definitely. Raymond Poincaré, the main opponent of the left in 1924, came back to the Council presidency, leading a new parliamentary majority of national union. When the right had been defeated again in 1932 and 1936, it remembered this precedent. Another lesson was that the various social and political mobilizations against the Cartel des gauches had played a significant role to weaken the socialist and radical majority. The community movements, such as catholic or professional ones, and the political organizations mobilized in this period, built a culture and abilities of being in political opposition, that they have reactivated later during the interwar years. This episode proved also the persistence, in political opposition, of structural divisions of the political field of the French right-wing, due to the permanence of doctrinal and strategic splits (the first ones about questions of secularism, foreign policy or parliamentary nature of institutions; the second ones about the political attitude toward the radicals, between uncompromising attitude and conciliation). These divisions, but also the nature of the political debates and the political practices which were developed during these two years, had lasted until the mid-thirties.

Three models are developed to analyze the state level conditions fostering the rise of far right parties in the European Union in the last two decades. The political background of these parties is examined. This study offers a definition for far right parties, which combines several previous attempts. The research has focused on the effects of the number of the parties, immigration, and unemployment on support for the far right in Europe. Empirical tests, using a random effects model of fifty elections in eight nations, suggest that there are political, social, and economic conditions that are conducive to electoral success. Specifically, increases in the number of "effective" parties favor the far right, while electoral thresholds serve to dampen support. Immigration proves to be a significant variable. Surprisingly, changes in crime and unemployment rates have a negative effect on support for the far right. Suggestions for future research are offered.

Syftet med den här kvalitativa innehållsanalysen har varit att undersöka hur ett högerpopulistiskt nyhetsmedie kontra ett traditionellt nyhetsmedie gestaltar knivdådet på Ikea i Västerås samt skolattacken i Trollhättan som skedde med kort mellanrum hösten 2015. De båda dåden fick stor uppmärksamhet och den redan intensiva debatten om invandring blossade upp ytterligare. Detta på grund av att dådet i Västerås begicks av en asylsökande, och det i Trollhättan av en ung svensk man med högerextrema åsikter som valde sina offer utifrån deras etniska ursprung.Det teoretiska ramverket innehåller tidigare forskning om alternativmedier, populism och journalistik. Vi har valt att använda oss utav två betydande teorier inom medieforskningen. Först gestaltningsteorin, främst med Scheufele och Entmans forskning som utgångspunkter. Sedan diskurs, med forskning av Foucalt och Fairclough. Valet av metod till vår studie är kritisk diskursanalys. Detta för att metoden lämpar sig väl för att undersöka politiska budskap i texter och tyda gestaltningar och diskurser. Det studerade materialet består utav fyra stycken nyhetsartiklar, två för respektive nyhetshändelse. Två stycken artiklar från den högerpopulistiska nättidningen Fria Tider samt två stycken från den mer etablerade morgontidningen Dagens Nyheter. Dessa jämförde vi sedan med varandra i en komparativ studie. Diskurser i dessa nyhetsartiklar har brutits ut med hjälp av ett analysschema för att operationalisera vårfrågeställning. Resultaten visar på två helt skilda nyhetsdiskurser och olika sätt att gestalta händelserna. Fria Tider gestaltar händelser till förmån för sin invandringskritiska agenda medans Dagens Nyheter agerar som en slags motpol med en betydligt mer objektiv gestaltning av händelserna. Den här studien vill bidra till förståelsen för vårt polariserade medieklimat, samt den oberoende journalistikens viktiga roll i samhället i en tid av nedskärningar och mediekonvergens. Det behövs en öppnare samhällsdebatt om frågor gällande invandring och kriminalitet för att inte ytterligare öka polariseringen av medielandskapet. / The purpose with this essay is to study how a right-wing populist alternative news medium, versus a more mainstream news medium, reports on two different news events. First off is the stabbings at the furniture store Ikea in Västerås, second is the attack on students at a middle school in Trollhättan by a masked adolescent armed with a sword. Both of which took place in the fall of 2015 in Sweden. Both events gained much attention from the news media, and sparked the already intense political debate on immigration issues. This due to the facts that the perpetrator at Ikea in Västerås was a refugee seeking asylum in Sweden, and the masked assailent in Trollhättan showed interest in right-wing extremist content on the internet as well as targeting students and faculty of immigration background.The theoretical framework consists of earlier research on populism, alternative media as well ason traditional journalism. We chose to work mainly with two distinguished theories within media and communication studies. The first theory is framing, based mainly on research done by Scheufele and Entman. The second theory is discourse, as defined by Foucalt and Fairclough. The method used for the study is a critical discourse analysis. This method together with the twotheories have been proven useful when studying political discourses and framing in political news articles similar to the ones we picked for our essay. The material used for this study consists off our news articles of which two are linked to each news event or “case”. Two of the articles are published by Fria Tider, a right-wing populist alternative news medium, while the other two by Dagens Nyheter, a well established and more mainstream oriented morning news paper. Different frames and discourses have been revealed in the material after our analysis, based on our schematics in an attempt to operationalise.The results points towards two widely different news discourses and ways of framing the news content. Fria Tider portrait the events in favour of their agenda of critical views on immigration and immigrants, whereas Dagens Nyheter acts as a counterpart with far more objective framing of the events. This study seeks to build a better understanding of today’s polarised media landscape, as well as the importance of independent journalism and news media in a society where the mass media experience cutbacks and convergence. A more explicit and honest public debate regarding immigrational issues is needed, to avoid further polarisation of the media landscape.

Auf Grundlage einer qualitativen Text- und Inhaltsanalyse, die sich auf zentrale Schriften des völkischen Nationalismus stützt, untersucht die Studie die antisemitische Großstadtwahrnehmung der völkischen Bewegung in den Jahren zwischen 1902 und 1940. Im empirischen Material werden drei zentrale Topoi identifiziert: Eine Personifizierung des Verstädterungsprozesses in den Juden, die rassentheoretische Annahme einer unterschiedlichen Anpassungsfähigkeit von Juden und Deutschen an das moderne Großstadtleben und die Darstellung der Großstädte als ein System der Verführung und sexuellen Pervertierung, für das Juden verantwortlich gemacht werden. Die Studie kann zeigen, dass Juden und Jüdinnen einerseits eine besondere Eignung für das Großstadtleben zugeschrieben wird und dass die modernen Großstädte andererseits als Versinnbildlichung von als „jüdisch“ apostrophierter Ideen gesehen werden (Geldwirtschaft, Kosmopolitismus, „Genusssucht“ etc.). Die Untersuchung leistet zudem einen Beitrag zur anhaltenden Diskussion über das Verhältnis des völkischen Antisemitismus zur Moderne, in dem sie nachweist, dass der völkische Nationalismus durch eine disparate Großstadt- und Technikrezeption geprägt ist: Die technisch-wissenschaftliche Rationalität der Moderne ist mit völkischem Denken vereinbar, das moderne Großstadtleben hingegen nicht.

Wie kann "Forschendes Lernen" noch besser in die politikwissenschaftliche Lehre integriert werden? Dieser Frage gingen sechs Lehrende an den sächsischen Universitäten Dresden, Leipzig und Chemnitz im Wintersemester 2015/2016 mit einem gemeinsam entworfenen Projektseminar unter dem Titel "Rechtsextremismus und Zivilgesellschaft" nach. Im Interview berichten die Beteiligten von ihren Konzeptionen und deren Umsetzung.

Like elsewhere in Europe, the tides of nationalist right-wing rhetoric in Sweden have become instrumental in generating a wave of anti-liberal and anti-immigration sentiments in politics and media. In particular, one branch of right-wing alternative media has become a breeding ground for normalizing such rhetoric. Does the anti-immigration stance in such media disguise racist inclinations? In this thesis we examine the discourse of three right-wing alternative media sites in Sweden to explore the possible employment of different types of racism in their articles. By taking the constructivist viewpoint and adopting the post-colonial conceptions of the 'Self' and the 'Other', racist discourse was analyzed and characterized as either biological or cultural. From these two theories, we derived concepts concerning descriptions of contemporary and ideal Swedish society that will be used as further indicators of racist discourses. In this single case study, 94 articles from Fria Tider, Nya Tider, and Samhällsnytt were analyzed on the topics of immigration, integration and crime through a qualitative content analysis. The results show that most of the articles contain cultural racist discourse.

Utilizada para reprimir movimentos sociais e manter a ordem, a polícia é tradicionalmente identificada com os interesses da direita. No Brasil, a criação da Polícia Militar no contexto político da ditadura civil-militar instaurada no país em 1964 facilita essa associação. No entanto, se por um lado policiais militares tendem a se aliar politicamente a setores da população que se opõem a instrumentos de responsabilização da polícia, encarados como fatores que dificultam o trabalho policial, por outro, são servidores públicos que reivindicam melhores condições de trabalho, o que abre a possibilidade para que se aproximem da esquerda ou pelo menos se distanciem da direita neoliberal. Alguns dos candidatos a deputado estadual mais votados em São Paulo são oriundos da Polícia Militar. O presente trabalho almeja investigar se os deputados da Assembleia Legislativa do Estado de São Paulo oriundos da Polícia Militar, das 14ª, 15ª e 16ª legislaturas (1999-2011), são responsivos ao eleitorado de direita; se adotam pontos de vista homogêneos sobre diversos temas (militarização da polícia, corrupção policial, missão da Polícia Militar, policiamento comunitário, ditadura, política criminal, movimentos sociais etc.); e como exercem a defesa dos interesses da Polícia Militar, uma corporação marcada por inúmeros conflitos internos, principalmente entre praças e oficiais. Para tanto, pesquisou-se em que zonas eleitorais esses deputados são proporcionalmente mais votados; problematizou-se a associação entre sensação de insegurança, defesa de bandeiras repressivas, percepção da corrupção e o voto em candidatos e partidos de direita; identificaram-se seus projetos de lei; compararam-se suas votações em plenário na 16ª legislatura (2007-2011); analisaram-se seus discursos na tribuna da ALESP, que foram contrastados com pesquisas de opinião pública, pesquisas de opinião de policiais militares e literatura sobre subculturas policiais. Da mesma forma, o trabalho discute as possíveis razões que levam policiais militares a se candidatarem a uma vaga no Poder Legislativo estadual. / The police are used to repress social movements and to keep the order, and are traditionally identified with the right wing interests. In Brazil, the Military Police was created within the political context of the civil/military dictatorship established in 1964 and eases such association; however, if on one hand military policemen tend to politically ally themselves with the population sectors contrary to instruments that hold the police liable, faced as factors making police work more difficult, on the other hand, military policemen are public servants claiming for better work conditions, and there is the possibility of they getting nearer to the left wing, or at least distancing themselves from the neoliberal right wing. Some candidates for deputies of the House of São Paulo State Legislative derive from the Military Police. The aim of this work is to investigate whether the deputies of the House of Representatives of the State of São Paulo from the Military Police, in the 14th, 15th and 16th legislatures (1999-2011), are responsive to the right wing electors, if they adopt similar viewpoints on several themes (police militarization, police corruption, Military Polices mission, community policing, dictatorship, criminal policy, social movements, etc.), and how they defend the Military Polices interests, a corporation marked by uncountable internal conflicts, mainly among police force and officers. For such purpose, the following issues were addressed: research about in which electoral zones those deputies are proportionally more voted; where one can see the connection among feeling of insecurity, defense of repressive flags, perception of corruption and voting in right wing candidates and parties; identification of their bills of law; their votes in plenary sessions in the 16th legislature (2007-2011) are compared; their speeches at ALESPs tribune are analyzed and contrasted with public opinion polls, opinion polls with military policemen and the literature on police subcultures. Likewise, the work discusses the possible reasons for military policemen running for an office in the State Legislative.

Nowadays, liberal democratic societies comprise the breeding ground for thriving right-wing populist parties. They share the “fundamental core of ethno-nationalist xenophobia, (…) and anti-political establishment populism” (Rydgren, 2004 p.475). Coeval research has acknowledged the threat that is entailed in the bespoken phenomenon; yet, its account is incomplete.  This study follows Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, in objecting to the individualist and rationalist tenets that inform previous research, to accentuate a neglected lens on the thrive of right-wing populism in Western liberal democracies. Their discourse theoretical frame was herein used as both theory and method, in a discourse analysis of the Alternative für Deutschland’s (AfD) identity in German online newspaper discourse. The empirical material comprised 97 articles from Germany’s most popular national daily newspapers, which reported on the AfD in parliament, an AfD demonstration in Berlin, and the AfD’s youth organisation’s congress throughout April, May and June 2018. Ultimately, the study arrived at the conclusion that the sampled newspaper discourse identified ‘us’, the ‘benevolent democrats’ via the exclusion, and rejection of ‘them’, the ‘wicked right-wing populists’. Since such relation was markedly antagonistic proper, newspaper discourse may be considered to have contributed to the recent thrive of right-wing populism in Germany.