Verschwörungstheorien haben Hochkonjunktur. Jedoch gibt es kaum wissenschaftliche Literatur, die sich mit diesem Phänomen beschäftigen, vor allem nicht auf dem Gebiet der politischen Bildung. Diese Staatsexamensarbeit soll eine Annäherung an Verschwörungstheorien sein und beschäftigt sich insbesondere mit den Erfahrungen von Politiklehrer/innen mit Konspirationen.

Civil wars and intrastate conflicts are characterized by the armed confrontation between the government of a sovereign nation state and at least one non-state group. Accordingly, conflict research has traditionally put an emphasis on analyzing the dynamics of violence between these actors. Recent findings yet suggest that civil war contexts are also increasingly characterized by another type of—mostly nonviolent—behavior: Non-combatants like social movement organizations and local communities, but also armed actors themselves occasionally rely on methods of civil resistance like street protests or general strikes. These behavioral patterns present a fundamental puzzle: Why do rebel groups that normally rely on armed tactics resort to these rather atypical forms of resistance? And how can we explain that civilians even in these highly threatening environments manage to organize collective action in order to articulate their demands? Although a nascent strand of research has examined the occurrence of wartime protests, the influence of conflict-endogenous factors on these phenomena has hitherto been largely neglected. This dissertation aims at addressing this gap and investigates the spatial and temporal dynamics of civil resistance in war contexts. In the course of four research papers, I analyze under which conditions both armed rebel groups and civilian actors use respective tactics. Moreover, I explore how wartime dynamics affect civil resistance both during and in the immediate aftermath of fighting. The results show a strong association between spatial and temporal conflict dynamics on the one hand and the occurrence of civil resistance on the other hand. With the examination of the influence of conflict-endogenous processes, these results contribute to a thriving strand of literature in conflict research that puts an emphasis on the investigation of civil resistance in war contexts.

This thesis deals mainly with the question how and to what extent the 1997 Asian financial crisis influenced the unprecedented development of the welfare system in South Korea while other Asian countries remained or diminished their welfare programs. This research explains the historical development of the South Korean welfare system, which has been entwined with political and economic conditions in the theoretical approach of the path dependence. This research proved that the 1997 crisis was a critical juncture, which explains how unprecedented welfare policy reforms were achieved and that the character of the South Korean welfare system has improved. While the IMF and the World Bank required the reforms and expansion of social safety net as a bailout condition, the political leadership of South Korea was changed by President Kim Dae-Jung, which made possible opening progressive policymaking and decision processes in reform politics to extend the national welfare system, particularly four social insurance systems and the public assistance. Given these occasions, the character of the South Korean welfare system has transferred from the liberal welfare-state regime to the conservative.

Grenzüberschreitende Migrationen stimulieren nicht nur einen politischen Bedarf ihrer Steuerung, sondern bilden auch einen praktischen Anlass für ihre Kontrolle. Dabei haben sich in den drei Kontrollfeldern Grenze, Asyl und Arbeitsmarkt je national und feldspezifisch unterschiedliche Formen der Migrationskontrolle entwickelt und etabliert. Ausgeführt werden sie auf der administrativen Arbeitsebene verschiedener staatlicher Organisationen. Anhand von theoretisch eingebetteten Fallstudien über Österreich, Deutschland und Großbritannien auf der empirischen Basis von Expertengesprächen und schriftlichen Selbstdarstellungen beschreibt und erörtert diese Arbeit drei unterschiedliche nationale, aber auch mehr oder weniger "europäische" Profile der Migrationskontrolle. Dadurch soll exemplarisch gezeigt werden, auf welche jeweiligen Arten und Weisen traditional, geografisch und organisations-strukturell begründete Divergenzen auch und gerade angesichts verschiedener supra-staatlicher Überformungsversuche erhalten bleiben und re-produziert werden. Desweiteren wird dadurch zu veranschaulichen versucht, dass sich entsprechende Resistenzen auch darin äußern, dass politische Entscheidungsvorgaben auf der Ebene der Migrationskontrolle inter-administrativ unterlaufen oder für intra-administrative Zwecke (aus)genutzt werden.

Diese Dissertation beinhaltet eine zweidimensionale Betrachtungsweise, indem sie Überlegungen mit den Ansätzen der europäischen Integrationsforschung zusammenführt. Die Arbeit fußt auf ausführlicher Theorie- und Literaturarbeit sowie auf Interviews mit Experten in Kroatien. Im Mittelpunkt der Analyse stehen die Phasen der demokratischen Transition und die Untersuchung des Transformationsstandes des Parteiensystems sowie die Auswirkungen der Perspektive des Beitritts zur Europäischen Union auf die politischen Parteien in Kroatien. Im Einzelnen werden die Kosten und die Resonanz der EU-Konditionalität sowie die Entwicklung der sozialpolitischen Programmatik der dominierenden Parteien Hrvatska demokratska zajednica (Kroatische Demokratische Gemeinschaft) und Socijaldemokratska partija Hrvatske (Sozialdemokratische Partei Kroatiens) untersucht.

The dissertation revealed that pre-colonial animosities and political divisions remained very strong in the political calculation of various ethnic groups in Nigeria and Kenya. This is proven by analyzing the ethnic mobilization campaign strategy adopted by political actors, especially in Nigeria and Kenya. However, it could be shown how debate on national policy issues directed the 2012 presidential election campaign in Ghana, while in Nigeria and Kenya ethnic identity legitimacy rights dominated public discourse and directed voter mobilization in the 2011 and 2007 presidential elections. The dissertation discovered how the collaboration between the media and the public compelled political actors in Ghana to defocus inter-ethnic grievances and concentrate on issues with national policy implications instead. It revealed that the political party alliances and interest alignments, which produced a “coalition of convenience”, were a direct product of ethnicity and religion identity legitimacy rights in two of the three case study countries; namely Nigeria and Kenya. Consequently, campaigns in the focused elections were streamlined to support the political concerns of each group under the premise of solidarity. Voters’ electoral loyalty was focused on ethnic and regional political concerns. In that sense, ethnicity identity legitimacy rights and political interest were raised above policy goals and national interests during the elections in Nigeria and Kenya. By extension, the active political participation of the people was anchored on the ethnic affiliation of the candidates. This was very evident in the observed voting pattern in Nigeria and Kenya. The use of “Ethnicity-centered Mobilization Strategy” was a disservice to democracy and the electoral processes along the 2011 and 2007 elections in both Nigeria and Kenya. The author is convinced that electoral mobilization strategies, oriented towards inter-ethnic grievances, identity legitimacy rights, regional and religious affiliation, were catalysts to the election violence experienced during these presidential elections. The dissertation argues that the desire and privilege to wield political power and authority in the case study societies contributed heavily to the violent mob action that emerged from the focused elections. It shows how campaigns, anchored on inter-ethnic grievances and the desire to exert identity legitimacy rights for political relevance, created ethnic irredentists, religious hard-liners and shaped the mobilization and voter participatory capacity in each ethnic group during the focused elections. The dissertation was able to establish how campaign strategy as used by the political actors through “material and solidarity incentives” drove the electoral processes. To that extend the use of ethnicity-centered solidarity prepared the ground for violent response in Nigeria and Kenya. Nevertheless, the use of a material incentive strategy to lure voters compromised voters’ electoral conscience and subsequently led to commercialization of the elections, especially in Nigeria. Consequently, the binary effects of the strategy are represented in the compromised status of the voters and the commercialization of the processes. The various events as orchestrated by the political actors devalued the elections and democracy itself. The spontaneous eruption of violence in Nigeria and Kenya was as result of campaign strategy as the “Ethnic Alliance” supporting each of the two opposition groups had expected their candidate to win the election in Kenya and Nigeria in 2007 and 2011 respectively. The violent outcome of the Presidential thus confirmed the negative role of “Solidarity Incentive Strategy” as a campaign method in a distressed society. Ethno-regional voter mobilization methods centered on inter-ethnic grievances, as well as religion influenced voter mobilization to achieve electoral success negatively and distorted the basis for violent-free democratic elections in the case study countries.

Im Zuge ihrer Gründung im Jahr 2002 implementierte die Afrikanische Union (AU), Nachfolgerin der Organisation für Afrikanische Einheit (OAU), fundamentale Reformen im Konfliktmanagement. Den Weg hierfür ebnete der Paradigmenwechsel von der Politik der strikten non-interference hin zu non-indifference, also einer nicht gleichgültigen Grundhaltung der Kontinentalorganisation gegenüber Konflikten. Dieser Beitrag untersucht, wie die AU non-indifference als neuen leitenden Grundsatz in der Konfliktbearbeitung auf rechtlicher und institutioneller Ebene ausgestaltet und fragt, ob dieser Rahmen schließlich in der Praxis Anwendung findet. Dafür wird zu Beginn der Wandel von non-interference zu non-indifference anhand des Übergangs von OAU zu AU dargelegt. Mit einem deskriptiven Ansatz werden im Anschluss die rechtlichen und institutionellen Grundlagen des AU-Konfliktmanagements vorgestellt, in denen sich das Paradigma der non-indifference niederschlägt. In einem weiteren Schritt wird analysiert, wie das rechtliche und institutionelle Gerüst in der Praxis angewandt wird. Drei Mitteln zur Konfliktbearbeitung gilt dabei besondere Aufmerksamkeit: Diplomatie, Sanktionierung und die Entsendung von Friedensmissionen. Wie das Paradigma der non-indifference auf praktischer Ebene zum Tragen kommt, wird anhand der Fälle Libyen 2011, Zentralafrikanische Republik 2013/14, Burundi 2015/16 und der African Union Mission in Sudan 2004-2007 gezeigt. / When the African Union (AU), successor to the Organization for African Unity (OAU), emerged in 2002, it implemented fundamental reforms in conflict management. A paradigm shift from the policy of strict non-interference to a policy of non-indifference towards conflicts on the African continent paved the way for this change. This article examines how the AU has been developing the paradigm of non-indifference as the new guiding principle in conflict management on the legal and institutional level and asks whether this framework has been applied in practice. First, the paper presents the shift from non-interference to non-indifference through the transition from OAU to AU. Using a descriptive approach, it then depicts the legal and institutional framework of the AU conflict management while paying particular attention to the non-indifference paradigm. The study then analyses how this framework has been applied in practice. The focus is on three means of conflict management: diplomacy, sanctions and the deployment of peace operations. By taking the cases of Libya 2011, Central African Republic 2013/14, Burundi 2015/16 and the African Union Mission in Sudan 2004-2007, this article examines how the paradigm of non-indifference comes into effect on a practical level.

Die vorliegende Kurzinformation möchte in der Flüchtlingsarbeit beschäftigte Personen für die Thematik sensibilisieren und dabei helfen, islamistische Einflussnahme zu erkennen und sie von unbedenklichen Angeboten zu unterscheiden. Redaktionsschluss: 31.05.2016

In spite of its authority to claim facts, law is by no means neutral. Deeply imbued with economic and ideological interests, opportunistic goals and hidden motives, its function to guarantee political autonomy has been deeply compromised. This observation, systematically explored in Critical Legal Studies, is the point of departure for this essay. In asking how (a greater degree of ) political autonomy may be achieved, it puts forward an understanding of autonomy along three conceptual distinctions. As (1) self-governance of the individual and the community (Personal and Political Autonomy), (2) as self-governance bereft of external and internal constraints (External and Internal Autonomy), and (3) self-governance as the absence of constraints and the capacity to exercise governance (Negative and Positive Autonomy). The main argument is that critique is not only the prerequisite but also the essence of political autonomy. In discussing four authors that have vitally contributed to the enterprise of the critique of law (Marx, Nietzsche, Weber, Freud) it attempts to disentangle the ways in which critique is essential for disposing of self-instituting capacity. I propose a reading that does not engage with the differences between their theories but stresses their commonality. While distinct in their analysis of the constraints responsible for the lack of political autonomy, their desire for the individual’s liberation of (economic, ideological, despotic, subconscious) forces provides a common ground. Therefore, their critique can be understood as an enterprise deeply indebted to Kant. Not as a rejection of Enlightenment but as an effort to transform it from within.

This thesis investigates the lobbying of religious and philosophical organizations to the EU with regard to the emergence of a European civil religion. First, it proves that convictional organizations unlike usual lobbying groups do not solely defend the individual interest of a reference group or a referred object. Instead they address the common good by defining and promoting convictions and beliefs according to their ideological backgrounds. Second, it states a consensus of certain convictions and beliefs shared by all organizations and concludes that convictional lobbying on the EU level contributes to the emergence of a European civil religion.:1. Introduction 2. Civil religion 3. Convictional lobbying in the EU 4. Analyses 5. Discussion 6. Conclusion 7. Literature 8. Annex