This study takes a close look at the making of the Spanish left-wing populist party Podemos, paying special attention to the populist project devised by its original group of founders to capitalize on the political opportunities created by the 2008 economic crisis and the Indignados movement of 2011. Part I examines how Podemos’ founders used digital technology to connect with followers and exchange support and influence with them. It shows that online platforms constitute a precious tool in the hands of populist leaders who seek to mobilize plebiscitarian support for their authority and goals while creating a semblance of democratic participation. Part II delves deep into the biographical histories of the main founders of Podemos to investigate the beliefs and desires guiding their populist project. Based on a combination of qualitative research methods, including archival research, expert interviews, participant observation, and textual analysis, this study challenges the common notion that the founders of Podemos subscribe to the populist “ideology.” Instead, it demonstrates that they used populism strategically in order to take advantage of what Podemos’ leader Pablo Iglesias called a “Leninist moment” – an exceptional situation in which the seizure of power (through electoral means) becomes possible for a Communist party. It also shows that Ernesto Laclau’s theory of populism exerted a strong influence on some party founders. This was particularly the case for Íñigo Errejón, the main proponent of populism in Podemos, who used Laclau’s theory as a guide to thought and action and turned his book On Populist Reason into the first “sacred text” of the populist tradition.

The thesis "The Developement of the Electoral System in Estonia and it's Influence on the Party System between the Years 1990 and 2007" deals, after the first chapter about the theoretical attitudes to the influence of the electoral systems on the party systems, with the, firstly historical background of this interwar, independent, and democratic baltic state. The following chapters drala with the changes on the electoral rules in Estonia since 1990 and first of all about the influence of these changes on the stability of a party system and government.

The thesis deals with the attitudes of political parties during the debating of media issues in the National Assembly of the First Czechoslovak Republic between 1920 and 1929. It surveys the parties' positions during the debating of the media legislation and parties' attitudes on the practice of confiscation and censorship in the context of the importance of the press for the party politics. Since the political parties' positions were strongly influenced by the specific context of the era, attention is also devoted to some of the peculiar characteristics of the First Republic.

This study examines the impact of the European Union and the programmatic and policy changes in two Irish political parties, the Green Party and Sinn Féin. The Europeanization concept is the theoretical basis of the study and it is operationalized by the use of EU salience. The study is carried out by content analysis of national and European election manifestos prepared by the parties during the 2009–2020 time period. The findings showed an increased salience on the European Union in national election campaigns by both parties, and in the European Parliament elections by Sinn Féin. A process of Europeanization has taken place in both parties regarding foreign policy and issues related to external relations. The Green Party showed an increased emphasis on the European Union regarding environmental issues. This study contributes to the research on the European impact on national political parties and the increased importance of European level politics in the national systems.

1 Abstract The aim of the thesis is to present a comprehensive picture of the legal regulation governing the status and activities of political parties in the Czech Republic, to point out its weaknesses and, where appropriate, to present de lege ferenda proposals. The thesis is divided into four parts. The first part deals with the general development of modern political parties and the reasons that led to their institutionalization. Then, it presents the development of the legal regulation of political parties in the Czech lands, starting with the revolutionary events of 1848 and 1849 and ending with the establishment of the independent Czech Republic. The quasi-institution of political movements, whose presence in the legal system cannot be defended in any way, is also presented. The second part deals with the constitutional incorporation of political parties. At the constitutional level, the privileged role of political parties in the political system is explicitly recognised. Safeguards for the free development of political parties are enshrined here, but also their obligation to respect fundamental democratic principles. The third part deals with the legal regulation of the most important aspects of the life of political parties - the issues of their formation and dissolution, the regulation of...

The thesis deals with analysis of parties′ documents of four Czech Eurosceptic political parties. The goal is to divide political parties into groups of different levels of Euroscepticism, based on attitudes of political party to European Integration according to typology of Euroscepticism by Paul Taggart and Aleks Szczerbiak. Authors made division of "soft" and "hard" Euroscepticism, which divides political parties by depth of negative positions and attitudes towards European Integration and European union. Furthermore, the thesis answers several research questions and hypothesis. Thesis analyses party documents for election to European Parliament in 2014 and 2019. Examined political actors are Communist party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM), Civic Democratic Party (ODS), Free Citizens Party (SSO), and Dawn of Direct Democracy - Tomio Okamura (Dawn)/Freedom and Direct Democracy- Tomio Okamura (SPD). Because of the principal role of leader, SPD is considered for the ongoing Dawn movement in this thesis. Keywords : Euroscepticism, Czech political parties, party documents Title: Euroscepticism of Czech Political Parties

Changes in persons of parties to civil proceedings in contentious civil proceedings Abstract The subject of thesis' research are changes, which can occur in persons of parties to civil proceedings in contentious civil proceedings. The main focus is therefore naturally concentrated on contentious civil proceedings, nevertheless, there are some passages about uncontentious civil proceedings incorporated into the theses. The reason why is that both proceedings belong to the same category of civil proceedings, original proceedings. They show in certain ways the same features, but it is necessary to clearly define and distinguish them because of their different purpose. The thesis' aim is to entirely cover changes in persons of parties to civil proceedings in contentious civil proceedings. Because of that there is an effective law arrangement described and critically evaluated in thesis, there are also some defects and suggested legislative changes de lege ferenda pointed out. The other subject of research is also case-law of domestic courts related to this issue. On the one hand, there is pointed out in some places on its conclucions, on the other hand, the case-law conclusions are sometimes subjects of criticism. Because the theses is mainly related to parties to civil proceedings, the first part of thesis...

In the past decade, scholars have discovered how European populist radical right parties have increasingly resorted to instrumentalizing issues of gender equality within broader anti-immigration and anti-Islam campaigns. This phenomenon has been coined as femonationalism by sociologist Sara R. Farris; building on her theorization, this thesis aims to investigate thisfurther in a Nordic context by examining whether and how femonationalism can be traced within the politics of the Finns Party (FP) and the Sweden Democrats (SD). This has been achieved by conducting an ideational analysis of the parties’ official election material and policy documents provided on their respective party websites. The analytical framework applied is political scientist Mats Lindberg’s VDP-triad, in which the central task is to capture the proposed value, descriptive, and prescriptive statements in a text. The thesis’ main findings indicate that for the FP, femonationalism could most closely be linked to their policy implications. Here, the FP advocates for extensive anti-immigration and anti-Islam policies, while also promoting policies that uphold a traditional gender order amongst Finns. For the SD, femonationalism was mostly found in their expressed value statements concerning the supremacy of western values in relation to gender equality, which migrants are supposed to internalize and respect. Implications for future research are to examine the phenomenon of femonationalism further in different country settings in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how it presents itself.

The aim of this following study is to clarify the differences between the swedish parties, the social democrats and the moderates strategies for how to prevent men’s violence against women at the national party level. This study is a textanalysis which aims to examine which strategies the parties think is a need for a better gender mainstreaming, the ideological perspective is taken to account when studying the parties strategies. To do the analysis, i have used the ideologies liberalism, conservatism and socialism, to study how different values are weighed against each other which is a general recommendation how something should be conducted. This can also be called a normative statement for how the parties apply ideological points of departure in their strategies. The analysis shows that the parties have differences in their proposals for action. The main difference between the parties is that the Moderates were mostly on improving the judical system, focing more in the individual, which can refer to liberalconservatism. The Social democrats had lower penalty and more measures in terms of knowledge, method development, follow up where the state had the main role. This can further refer to socialism.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the movement party Volt Europa attempts to strengthen European democracy. Using the theory-generating approach of grounded theory, a case study analysis is conducted to assess the prospects of Volt Europa's attempt. The analysis draws on insights from social movement studies, official publications of Volt Europa and information obtained from interviews that were conducted with people who hold a leading position within Volt Europa. The findings reveal that the movement party benefits from a unique organizational structure that allows it to respond to concrete issues of European democracy, by drawing on both the competences of social movements and political parties. Whereas Volt’s movement side offers through its grassroots approach a holistic way of involving citizens in European politics, the political party Volt simultaneously operates in the traditional arena of electoral politics where it strives to induce democracy-enhancing policies from within the political establishment.