Thesis title: Contemporary populism in Europe This thesis maps the development of populism across Europe and investigates its manifestations and core elements in its complexity, which is the groundwork for analysis of populist party, movement or individual. Populism is not considered solely as the relieving strategy meant to maximize the voter's votes by comprehensible, straightforward and hardly feasible promises. Without this attitude in mind, we would hardly be able to put some reason behind the populist boom, which we had chance to witness during the last decade. Therefore this thesis considers populism as the ideological construct, the way politicians present themselves, the rhetorics, the mastered political style or the structure, which provides the foundations of programme documents of political movements and parties. It would be a mistake to a priori consider it as some kind of purely negative phenomenon, but more of as the reflection of various and continuously changing demands of European electorates. Desperation, which mainstream parties evoke in their voters, is toxic and continues to spread across all society classes. This creates a space for various populists to dominate. Thus while tracking their activities, specific kind of critical thinking is necessary, because populists...

Members of the European Parliament are chosen according to 28 different election systems. The European Union determines only few basic rules, which are concretised by member states in their law systems. Diploma thesis "Election system of European Parliament" deals with similarities and differences between these regulations in order to show inequality of European elections. In the second part of this thesis the author compares a partial aspect of the election system, election threshold in Germany and in the Czech Republic. While the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany invalidated firstly the five-percent-threshold and then even the three-percent-threshold because of its contradiction to Basic Law, the Czech Constitutional Court confirmed it as constitutional afterwards. Both courts judicated that it is a violation of election equality but in the opinion of the Czech one fragmentation of the Parliament would hinder its work with such intensity that election threshold preventing from this fragmentation is justifiable. The judgements are compared and their argumentations analysed if reasonable. This thesis comes to the conclusion, that considered the current state and predictable development election threshold has its justification. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Representative democracy at the European level This thesis deals with representative democracy, as one of the fundamental principles underpinning the organisation of states or, as the case may be, interstate-type entities. At the European level, this principle is embodied by the European Parliament and the national parliaments of the Member States whose functions and competences complement each other. In the context of the role of the European Parliament the fundamental question concerns direct elections as an instrument of political legitimacy. This thesis offers a comparison of the findings of the Czech and the German Constitutional Courts, which took different views on the case of the electoral treshold in elections to the European Parliament. Arguments of these courts enable the reader to see European Union, position of the European Parliament in its institutional structure and its democratic legitimacy in wider context.

This diploma thesis has several objetcs. The main objective is to answer the research question and seven hypotheses including elections to the European Parliament and MEPs behaviour from individual europarties. Some hypotheses include the participation of the electorate of the member states in elections to the EP, while others relate to participation of MEPs in voting, cohesion and coalitions that are formed in the parliament. Data on voting are obtained thanks to a project created by the London School of Economics. These data are already clearly adjusted, because official data on voting the European Parliament show in a form that could not be analyzed without software support. After the introduction follow two chapters, in which there is described theoretical framework involving the search of relevant sources on the European Parliament, describing his position within key institutions of the EU, its function, history, and empowerment to the election of MEPs to the europarties. The results show some charasteristic patterns in the European Parliament. MEPs in most cases hold the party line rather than national. However, there are some cases, where individual nations across europarties vote uniformly, even though this behavior in some of them oppose to the attitude of a majority of the party. Large...

The purpose of this study is to describe and compare eurosceptic elements of the Swedish Left-Party and the Sweden Democrats leading up to the European Parliament elecetions of 2014 and 2019. Previous research has focused on many different aspects of eurocepticism; the definition and meaning of euroscepticism, eurosceptic voting among citizens and euroscepticism in democratic party-systems. Hence, this case-study aims at explaining euroscepticism in a Swedish context among the two clearly eurosceptic parties in the Swedish party-system. The two parties both have eurosceptic sentiments, although they have different ideological starting points and values. The Sweden Democrats consider themselves social conservatives with a nationalistic basic view. On the other hand, the Swedish Left-Party consider themselves as socialists and feminists with an ecological basic view. In order to find and compare these eurosceptic sentiments, a text analysis is combined with an analysis of arguments used in the two party’s election platforms leading up to the European Parliament elections. The empirical evidence is consequently interconnected with Taggart and Szczerbiak theory of soft and hard euroscepticism. This theory, or model of analysis, is used the catogorize parties based on their ”resistance” against different aspects of the European Union or the European process of integration as a whole. The study finds that the euroscepticism of the Swedish Left-Party and the Sweden Democrats have somewhat changed from the elections of 2014 and 2019. The resistance has mitigated to some degree leading up to the 2019 elections, in comparison to the elections of 2014. Although netither party could be categorized as soft or hard eurosceptics, they both lean more towards the features of soft euroscepticism.

This paper investigates the correlation between how Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) vote and their respective domestic democracy level. In doing so, it tests two hypotheses – first, that domestic democracy level affects MEP voting conduct. Second, that domestic democracy level affects the way MEPs tend to be disloyal to their European Party Groups (EPGs). The first hypothesis regarding the correlation between democracy level and MEP voting conduct is analysed statistically through logistic regression, the data for which has been collected from VoteWatch, whereas the second hypothesis is tested in a qualitative discussion based upon a smaller dataset.                       Both hypotheses are supported by the data, but because the study is based on a single issue, one can only feasibly generalise the findings to similar cases voted upon by the European Parliament. This paper uses a motion in the Parliament that directly concerns democratic values – as such, any conclusions drawn only apply to other cases similarly centred on democratic values. However, the findings of this study underline the importance of further studies on the topic of the influence of democracy levels on the political process of the European Union.

<p>Participation in the European Parliament Election has steadily declined since the start in 1979. In 2004 less than half (47.8%) of the voting-age population of the European Union used their right to vote. This has actualized questions asking if the European Parliament is a good representation of the European citizens. The paradigm when it comes to explaining the electoral turnout in the European Parliament Election is the second-order theory. Though the theory explains the low voter participation, it does not explain why the European Parliament Election has become a second-order election. Thus, in this thesis will search for the underlying variable explaining why the European Parliament Election is a second-order election. Through our research we find that distances are important in the European Union, and they create centres and peripheries within the European Union. By looking at Rokkan and Urwin‟s horizontal and vertical types of peripheries, where the vertical type consists of Rokkan and Urwin‟s three domain of social life, our research concludes that centre-periphery structures within the European Union are the underlying variable, explaining why the European Parliament Election is a second-order election.</p>

<p>Abstract</p><p>Title: The Junilistan in the elections of the European Parliament in 2004 A media drama in three acts</p><p>Number of pages: 42</p><p>Author: Kristiina Ruuti</p><p>Tutor: Amelie Hössjer</p><p>Course: Media and Communication Studies C</p><p>University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University</p><p>Date of submission: 2007-01-13, autumn term of 2006</p><p>Purpose/Aim:</p><p>The purpose of the essay is to examine the media coverage of the Swedish Junilistan in the elections of the European Parliament in Sweden 2004. My hypothesis is that the media coverage of the political party Junilistan was a media drama with elements of classical dramaturge.</p><p>Material/Method:</p><p>Qualitative content analyses of four Swedish newspapers from a narratological perspective.</p><p>Main results:</p><p>The media coverage of the political party Junilistan was a media drama with elements of classical dramaturge. The coverage became a drama with three acts. Diverse actors with different projects could be identified from the articles.</p><p>Keywords:</p><p>Narrative, election journalism, classic drama, mediadrama, actant, European parliament</p>

Abstract Title: The Junilistan in the elections of the European Parliament in 2004 A media drama in three acts Number of pages: 42 Author: Kristiina Ruuti Tutor: Amelie Hössjer Course: Media and Communication Studies C University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University Date of submission: 2007-01-13, autumn term of 2006 Purpose/Aim: The purpose of the essay is to examine the media coverage of the Swedish Junilistan in the elections of the European Parliament in Sweden 2004. My hypothesis is that the media coverage of the political party Junilistan was a media drama with elements of classical dramaturge. Material/Method: Qualitative content analyses of four Swedish newspapers from a narratological perspective. Main results: The media coverage of the political party Junilistan was a media drama with elements of classical dramaturge. The coverage became a drama with three acts. Diverse actors with different projects could be identified from the articles. Keywords: Narrative, election journalism, classic drama, mediadrama, actant, European parliament

I denna uppsats undersöks om, och i så fall hur, man översätter könsneutralt på Europaparlamentet. Man kan översätta könsneutralt genom att till exempel skriva han eller hon, använda passiv eller plural. För att kunna undersöka hur man översätter könsneutralt, redogörs för vad genus och könsneutralt språk är, vilken roll genus spelar för denna typ av översättning, vilka olika genusaspekter som är viktiga för tyska och svenska, och terminologiska aspekter. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten bygger på feministisk lingvistisk och översättningsteoretisk litteratur som Simon, Thüne och Leonardi, Jobin och von Flotow. Material och metod baseras på interna dokument som Europaparlamentet gett ut. Jag har använt mig av Europaparlamentets arbetsordning som material och två rekommendationshäften om könsneutralt språk i Europaparlamentet som utgångspunkt. Därutöver gjorde jag intervjuer med två tyska och två svenska översättare på Europaparlamentet i Luxemburg. Resultaten visar att alla rekommendationer om könsneutralt språk faktiskt inte används, utan att man har valt olika strategier på tyska och svenska. I båda språken används passiv form och plural, medan användningen av pronomen skiljer sig mycket mellan de båda språken. Vidare ansågs omskrivning med substantivering som mycket tveksam och förekom inte heller i arbetsordningsanalysen. Det som undersöktes var adjektivböjningen och användningen av pronomen vad gäller funktionsbeteckningar i Europaparlamentets arbetsordning. Det visade sig vara lättare att översätta könsneutralt på svenska än på tyska. Han eller hon används inte på tyska, inte heller den så kallade Binnen-I med vilkens hjälp man kan markera båda könen på tyska. Sammanfattningsvis kan man säga att översättarna, med hjälp av rekommendationerna i de ovan nämnda häftena och sin egen språkkänsla försöker att formulera sina översättningar könsneutralt, och att könsneutralt språk i stort sett också återspeglas i Europaparlamentets arbetsordning. / This thesis is an empirical study on gender neutral translation at the European Parliament. In order to translate gender neutraly, the translator can write he or she, use passive-constructions or plural. In order to be able to analyze how a translator translates gender neutraly, I will first present how gender and gender neutral language is defined, how gender affects translation, which aspects are of importance for Swedish and German, as well as terminological aspects. The theoretical background is based on feminist linguistic and translation theory such as Simon, Thüne and Leonardi, Jobin and von Flotow. The research material and method are based on internal documents of the European Parliament, videlicet the Rules of Procedure and a broschure on gender neutral language. In addition, I interviewed translators of the European Parliament in Luxembourg, two of them being German and two of them being Swedish. It can be said that not all of the given recommendations for gender neutral language are used and that the usage differs in German and Swedish. Recommendations such as passive-constructions and plural are applied in both languages, while nominalization was considered to be questionable. Furthermore, the usage of functions, pronouns and adjectives in the Rules of Procedure was analyzed. In Swedish translations, the use of he and she is quite common, while it is not recommended for German, nor is the usage of Binnen-I for that matter. Summing up, it can be said that it is easier to translate and write gender neutraly in Swedish as in German and that all translators pay attention to the given recommendations and translate as gender neutral as possible, which is also reflected in the translation of the Rules of Procedure.