<p>How can we explain variation in support for radical right parties over time and across post-communist democracies? This project suggests that support for radical right parties is driven by the politics of accommodation, and is aimed at counteracting the political inroads, cultural concessions and economic gains of politically organized minorities. It differs from other studies of extremist politics in three primary respects: (1) Unlike current approaches that focus on competition between the extreme and mainstream parties, I emphasize dynamics between the radical right party and non- proximate parties that promote minority rights. (2) Several approaches argue that xenophobia drives support for the radical right, whereas I show that xenophobia is not a distinct feature of the radical right party support base; what differentiates radical right voters from other voters is opposition to governmental transfers towards politically organized minorities. (3) I endogenize issue salience and identify coalition politics - i.e., coalitions of mainstream parties and parties supporting minority protection - as a key mechanism that increases the salience of identity issues in political competition, and benefits radical right parties. The project tests these propositions empirically, and finds supportive evidence using two unique micro-level surveys and an original party-election-level data set covering all post-communist democracies.</p> / Dissertation

Was wird unter „nachhaltiger Prävention“ in der Präventionsforschung verstanden? Welche guten Beispiele für nachhaltige Prävention gibt es in der Praxis? Und v. a.: Wie lässt sich Prävention in den verschiedenen Bereichen wie Kriminalität, Gewalt und Rechtsextremismus nachhaltig gestalten? Diesen Fragen will der vorliegende Sammelband nachgehen und damit der Präventionsdebatte neue Impulse verleihen. Der Band will insbesondere die nationale sowie internationale Fachdebatte konstruktiv aufgreifen, Theorie und Praxis verbinden, „good practice“ Beispiele darstellen sowie Perspektiven nachhaltiger Prävention aufzeigen. Mit diesem Themenspektrum richtet er sich sowohl an die Wissenschaft als auch an die Praxis sowie insgesamt an eine interessierte Öffentlichkeit. / What is meant by „sustainable prevention“ in prevention research? What are good examples for sustainable prevention? And above all: How can prevention in fields like crime, violence and right-wing extremism be arranged sustainably? This miscellany is focused on these questions and it is intend to give new inputs for the current discussion on sustainable prevention. Especially, the miscellany is meant to connect the national and international trade debate, to combine theory and practice, to describe examples of “good practice” as well as to show prospects of sustainable prevention. These range of topics focus on science and practice as well as an interested public in general.

British politics at the start of the 21st century provide a good setting for examining factors associated with mobilisation for extremist politics. This thesis is concerned with the relationship between individuals' preferences, their local setting and political behaviour. With focus on two outcomes - participation in urban rioting and support for a far right party - this thesis is divided into two parts and consists of five research papers addressing different aspects of mobilisation. In the first part we focus on urban disorder and examine police arrest records from the London riot of 2011. Much of the sociological literature has focused on variation in rioting across cities; here we examine variation within London by mapping the residential addresses of 1,620 rioters onto over 25,000 neighbourhoods. Our findings challenge the orthodoxy that rioting is not explained by deprivation or by disorganisation. Furthermore, we present evidence suggesting the importance of political grievances, in particular relations with the police, and examine the process of mobilisation to show that it was aided by spatial proximity and social similarity. In the second part we look at factors associated with engagement with far right politics. We use individual attitudinal data from the British Election Study to examine whether concerns over immigration are associated with the actual experience of immigration in one's place of residence. The results suggest that local setting does play some role, although individual factors seem to be more important. Secondly, we use leaked British National Party membership list to map 12,536 far right supporters onto over 200,000 neighbourhoods in Britain. Our findings underline the importance of a larger geographic context, where some spatial configurations present particularly fertile grounds for the far right; we also report the relative unimportance of cultural threat and significance of the social distance. Lastly, we question the recently advocated 'legacy effect' and suggest that white flight mechanism may possibly be an alternative way of thinking about organisational continuity.

The presented graduation thesis deals with radical right wing parties in the political system of the Czech republic. The far-right wing parties occured in the area of the present Czech republic in the second half of 19th century. In the following years their number and importance fluctuated. In the last twenty years the Dělnická strana appeared. This party was the most important far-right wing party since 1989 until present days. Dělnická strana was founded in 2002 and cancelled was by the Supreme Administrative Court eight years later. Many far-right wing parties acted in Czech republic besides this one after 1989. None of them, including Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti, which is the successor party of Dělnická strana, had ever achieved such popularity and elective results.

This thesis deals with the issue of extremist manifestations of youth and the impact of these occurrences on the societal climate in the class. The first part of this thesis defines the terms and analyzes the current situation of the problem. It displays the intolerant attributes typical to extremist attitudes, the main current extremist streams and ways of disseminating extremist ideas. The aim of the second part is a case study conducted on the sample of a class. At first there is a selection of a sample class and a choice of the methodology of the study. Subsequently the thesis explains the obtained results. These results are then analyzed, interpreted and compared with expectations.

This master thesis focusses on the issues of sanctioning antidemocratic political parties in the Czech Republic and in the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as the discussion of the expert public in reaction to practice of the Supreme Administrative Court or Federal Constitutional Court. It is a comparative paper, therefore all issues are analysed from the Czech as well as the German point of view and the comparative chapter summarizing main coherences and differences always follows. The thesis is divided into six parts, which aim to map the matters related to banning political parties. Firstly, the theses is focused on the regulation of political parties in the Czech Republic and in the in the Federal Republic of Germany to provide theoretical backgrounds for better understanding of the topic. Consequently, both the introduction into problematic of the concept of defending democracy and the analysis of its demonstration in the constitutional law of the Czech Republic and of the Federal Republic of Germany follow. Moreover, substantive law aspects as well as procedural law aspects of dissolution of political parties are introduced ending up with comparison of both. The thesis contains also detailed insight into Czech case regarding Dělnická strana and in German case the NPD...

Islaam as a world religion is most often associated with terrorism and numerous bombings and conflicts around the globe. While, Islaam does not encourage these actions there exists movements within the Muslim community which use violence as a means of political expression similar to the early extremist Khawaarij sect who abused the concept of takfeer. Many modern day ideologues seem to adopt the main tenets of the Khawaarij creed and as a result exhort and carrying out actions of violence under the guise of Islaam. In addition, Western media, secularists, and United States policy also appears to have a direct role in fostering the growth of these movements. Therefore, there is a need for further study into the ideological roots of these groups, their actions, and how societies can look for solutions to combat their ideals before they evolve into terrorist actions. / Religious Studies and Arabic / M. A. (Islamic Studies)

Sects as a Threat Sects are both a social and religious phenomenon in contemporary society. We often hear about religiously motivated violence. Therefore, the phrase Sects as a threat is not a very suprising term. Often, there appears a situation in which sects threaten not only their members but also the whole society. Based on that, it is important to characterize them and determine where religiously motivated violence or extremism could be seen. In the introduction of the theoretical work I mention the basic terminology, explain the nature of religion and differentiate the basic religious faiths. Next, the new religious movements follow. Related to that is the legislation of churches and religious societies, their registration, rights, obligations and the like. Followingly, the religious movements which could represent a potential threat or raised public awareness by their controversial affairs are described. Despite the fact that Jehovah's Witnesses are a registered church, the thesis includes also them. I have mentioned them because the majority of respondents believe that they actually are a sect. A similar situation is with Satanism. Even they have church associations. At the same time, there sometimes happen situations, when extremist groups refer to satanism, for example after an act of violence. This phenomenon appears in far more religious movements. The next step is to sketch the negative influences of new religious movements on both an individual and society as a whole. After that the term Sect is described in detail. This part contains information on the features of particular sects, psychical manipulation methods and the ways of recruiting new members. Nevertheless, even the characteristics of sect leaders is included. What we cannot forget is the prevention of affecting of these dangerous groups and also help for the sect members who want to escape them. In the last part of the theoretical work I concentrate on The Czech Republic as a state. I describe the attitude of the state to churches and religious societies. Next, I aim at the religion policy of the state and how different govermental and nongovermental organizations participate in the problem. The thesis also deals with the rate of participation of different governmental offices, such as Home office and Culture office and also with the rate of participation of Police. The main goal of the thesis is the evaluation of the activity and threats of religious groups active both in the area of The Czech Republic and foreign countries as well. I have also dealt with a statistic qantitative research strategy using the questionaire research in both non-professional and professional public. The questions were asked in the areas possibly threatened by sects and mainly concerned the security risks of The Czech Republic related to the activities of sects. Next, the statistic evaluation of differences between non-professional and professional public awareness of the issue followed. The thesis also dealt with the analysis of available literature sources on the issue of sects. The result of the research shows a considerable difference between non-professional and professional public awareness. The thesis could be possibly used as a summary of possible risks originating in sects and can also serve as a source of information of the problem of religious groups.

Uppsatsen handlar om att pröva en teori som menar att en hög internetanvändning kan leda till ökad polarisering och därmed bli ett hot mot demokratin genom att ta bort debatt, diskussion och konsensus. Polariseringen ska framkomma genom att internetanvändarna har större möjlighet att förtränga information och åsikter som strider mot ens egna. Samtidigt ska dessa individer även ha större möjlighet att gå med i grupper som endast innehar likasinnade människor. Genom the daily me skapar människor även sig ett ramverk över hur deras vardag ska se ut gällande vilken information som de tar del av. Uppsatsen prövar huruvida samhällets åsikter är mer extrema i Norge och Polen år 2010 och år 2016 bland dem som använder sig av internet ofta kontra sällan, vilket det enligt teorin borde vara. Metoden för att testa detta utgår från en kvantitativ statistisk analys där variabler ställs mot varandra för att identifiera ett samband. Resultaten av uppsatsen visar på att det finns ytterst små mönster av en ökad polarisering bland de som använder internet ofta. Jag argumenterar för att resultaten visar inte på en tillräckligt stor polariseringstrend bland de som använder internet ofta. Värt och nämna är att på grund av att en stor del av kapitel 5 (resultat och analys) består av diagram och tabeller så kommer det att finnas en del större mellanrum mellan vissa delar. Utan dessa mellanrum hade till exempel en halva av en tabell hamnat på en sida och andra halvan på den andra.

In 2001, George W. Bush, the former president of the United States, declared war on terrorism after the 9/11 attack at the World Trade Centre in New York. Since then, terrorism and terrorist attacks have perceived to be rather frequent and the problem of radicalization has become a new phenomenon in societies, especially the western societies. Therefore, in 2014, the Swedish government decided to create a National Strategy Against Violent Extremism (NSAVE) which was released in 2016. In this strategy, it is argued that the main responsibility of the preventative-work against radicalization is directed at the local levels in Sweden, which is the municipalities. The research on the implementation of the strategy is however limited to non-existing. Therefore, this study is conducting a review of the national strategy and two case- studies with a qualitative approach to get an understanding of how municipalities are working with prevention of radicalization and violent extremism as well as how the national strategy is implemented at the local levels. The data collection that is used is semi-structured interviews with professionals working within two municipalities in Sweden. The findings show that the two municipalities are working with prevention of radicalization but use different strategies. The result is analyzed with the theoretical approach of inclusion and exclusion. The result shows that both municipalities are using the inclusive and development approach in their strategies. The last part of the thesis argues for recommendations in future work on national, regional and local levels as well as direct recommendations towards the two municipalities.