When the French government decided to raise the fuel taxes hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen gathered to protest around the country, and the movement of the Yellow Vests was created. As the internal communication mainly took place over the internet, it allowed a leaderless structure where a large number of participants quickly mobilized. Researchers in the field of social movements argue that the formation of collective actions are fundamental for the survival of a movement. In this thesis, quotes from the Yellow Vests are studied as a form of opposition with the aim of investigating changes over time. By creating a tool of analyzing opposition from social movements, a quantitative content analysis is used to study 216 quotes of Yellow Vests in two French newspapers. The results imply that the news reporting of the Yellow describes the movement as having a relatively united external agenda with the desire to gain more direct influence over politics with the purpose of reducing the gap between the peopleand the elite. However, this agenda is given less attention as time passes. Instead, the focus shifts to dealing with questions about the use of violence and the role of leadership internally. This may indicate a weakening of the movement, yet there is still a maintenance of a strong willpower to continue mobilizing.

O presente trabalho visa estabelecer quais são as condições responsáveis por permitir à oposição o poder de influenciar o processo decisório em Legislativos. Para tanto, a pesquisa se divide em duas frentes, a primeira teórica e a segunda empírica. Em campo teórico o trabalho chama a atenção para a inviolabilidade do princípio majoritário no que diz respeito à produção legislativa e às suas regras regimentais e, por fim, demonstra como a sua desconsideração pode levar a equívocos no tocante à expectativa sobre o comportamento dos diversos atores envolvidos. Em solo empírico, demonstrarse- á que a incorporação deste princípio é essencial para compreendermos de que maneira a oposição pode intervir no processo decisório, assim como quando e porquê acontecerão mudanças regimentais que aumentem ou restrinjam os direitos da minoria. / The present thesis aims to establish the conditions that give oppositions the power to influence the decision-making process in Legislatives. Our research will be presented in two views, the first theoretical and the second, empirical. On the theoretical view, the study draws attention to inviolability of the majority principle in conducing the legislative process and its regimental rules and ultimately, how disregarding it can lead to mistakes in expectations of involved actors\' behavior. On the empirical view it will be shown that embedding that principle is essential to understand in which way the opposition can intervene in the decision-making process, as well as how and why regimental changes will happen either to restrict or to widen the minority rights.

Esta dissertação visa contribuir com uma agenda específica na Ciência Política, a saber, a questão da transparência de dados econômicos e sociais. Apesar da importância que tem sido dada ao tema, são poucos os estudos que analisam os determinantes políticos da transparência. Quando o fazem, utilizam medidas de democracia e variáveis socioeconômicas em sua explicação. Nosso texto vai além disso e identifica que a variação no nível de transparência pode ser explicada por variáveis institucionais e de competição política, vale dizer, o tipo de forma de governo e força da oposição em países democráticos, em um primeiro momento, e a consolidação democrática na sobre as novas democracias da América Latina em sequência. A nossa análise se debruça sobre uma amostra de 78 países de 1980 a 2007 e evidência efeitos significativos de nossas variáveis explicativas. / This thesis aims to contribute to a specific agenda in political science, namely the issue of transparency of economic and social data. Despite the importance that has been given to this issue, there are few studies that examine the political determinants of transparency. When they do, they are using measures of democracy and socioeconomic variables in their explanation. Our text goes beyond this and identifies that change in the level of transparency can be explained by institutional variables and political competition, that is, the kind of form of government and opposition forces in democratic countries, at first, and the consolidation democratic in on the new democracies in Latin America in sequence. Our analysis focuses on a sample of 78 countries from 1980 to 2007 and evidence significant effects of our explanatory variables.

Depuis l’indépendance du Maroc (2 mai 1956), la monarchie va réussir à instaurer un régime absolu de droit divin. En concomitance, elle va amorcer plusieurs processus qui visent, selon elle, à démocratiser les institutions politiques du Royaume. Le successeur du Roi Mohamed V son fils aîné le Roi Hassan II va aider à l’affirmation de cette monarchie absolue. Cette consolidation va apparaître dans la Constitution de 1962, puis à partir des pratiques institutionnelles qui donnent l’impression que tout marche selon l’ordre donné par l’institution monarchique ou par le Roi/l’Emir des croyants. L’instauration de l’état d’exception en 1965, après une courte expérience constitutionnelle, va plonger le Maroc dans une dictature qui n’a fait autre chose que dégrader les liens entre l’Etat/makhzen et le peuple. A l’issue du consensus national autour du Sahara occidental, le Roi amorce un processus d’ouverture limité qui ne va rien changer aux équilibres politiques du pays et qui était largement éclaboussé par le trucage électoral. Or, plusieurs facteurs d’ordre national et international vont pousser le régime à se libéraliser – et pas forcément à se démocratiser – à partir des années 1990. L’arrivée du Roi Mohamed VI au pouvoir va donner un nouveau souffle à cette politique de libéralisation. Toutefois, aucune diminution des pouvoirs du Roi n’a été réalisée, et ce jusqu’au 1er juillet 2011 qui marque un changement important après l’adoption de la nouvelle Constitution du Royaume. A travers ce qui précède, l’étude cherche à éclaircir la réalité politique complexe du Maroc, cerne les obstacles qui empêchent celui-ci de faire son entrée dans le monde démocratique, et cela avant d’aborder les solutions à la problématique posée. / Since the independence of Morocco (May 2nd, 1956), monarchy will succeed in establishing an absolute system of divine right. In concomitance, it will initiate several processes which aim, according to him, to democratize the political institutions of the Kingdom. The King Hassan II, successor and elder son of the King Mohammed V, will help with the assertion of this absolute monarchy. This consolidation will appear in the Constitution of 1962, then from the institutional practices which give the impression that everything works according to the order given by the monarchical institution or by the king/Emir of the believers. The introduction of the state of exception in 1965, after a short constitutional experiment, will plunge Morocco in a dictatorship which degrade the relationship between the State/Makhzen and the people. At the conclusion of the national consensus around the Western Sahara, the King starts a limited opening process that will not change the political balances of the country and which was largely splashed by the electoral special effects. However, several factors of internal and international order will urge the system to liberalize - and not inevitably to become more democratic - as from the years 1990. The arrival of King Mohammed VI will give a new breath to this politics of liberalization. However, no reduction in the powers of the King was carried out, until July 1st 2011 after the adoption of the new Constitution of the Kingdom.

This thesis examines the turn to conflict in Syria during 2011 to see if it is revolutionary in nature and if so, why has it not succeeded? This thesis aims to analyze the anatomy of Syria's "revolution" in order to determine the causes behind the initial popular mobilization and transition to conflict. Then, further analysis of the essential elements of successful revolutionary movements will be undertaken to reveal what conditions remain unmet for Syria to culminate in a full revolutionary transformation. Special attention will be paid to the revolutionary Opposition itself, since, to date, it has proved unable to generate the power necessary to destroy the old order and rebuild a new system. The significant role of external intervention will also be addressed, since these forces have simultaneously helped cause the conflict, prolong the conflict and prop up the regime. Finally, the negative consequences of undertaking a revolutionary process, especially when left only partially complete, will be highlighted throughout the study. Syria's own "rise of the radicals," has manifested itself in the phenomenon of ISIL or ISIS, which has proven the strongest and most violent Opposition group to emerge from Syria's revolutionary environment.

In solving noise-free and noisy optimization problems, candidate initialization and sampling play a key role, but are not deeply investigated. It is of interest to know if the entire search space has the same quality for candidate-solutions during solving different type of optimization problems. In this thesis, a comprehensive investigation is conducted in order to clear those doubts, and to examine the effects of variant sampling methods on solving challenging optimization problems, such as large-scale, noisy, and multi-modal problems. As a result, the search space is segmented by using seven segmentation schemes, namely: Center-Point, Center-Based, Modula-Opposite, Quasi-Opposite, Quasi-Reflection, Supper- Opposite, and Opposite-Random. The introduced schemes are studied using Monte-Carlo simulation, on various types of noise-free optimization problems, and ultimately ranked based on their performance in terms of probability of closeness, average distance to unknown solution, number of solutions found, and diversity. Based on the results of the experiments, high-ranked schemes are selected and utilized on well-known metaheuristic algorithms, as case studies. Two categories of case studies are targeted; one for a singlesolution- based metaheuristic (S-metaheuristic) and another one for a population based metaheuristic (P-metaheuristic). A high-ranked single-solution-based scheme is utilized to accelerate Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm, as a noise-free S-metaheuristic case study. Similarly, for noise-free P-metaheuristic case study, an effective population-based algorithm, Differential Evolution (DE), has been utilized. The experiments confirm that the new algorithms outperform the parent algorithm (DE) on large-scale problems. In the same direction, with regards to solving noisy problems more efficiently, a Shaking-based sampling method is introduced, in which the original noise is tackled by adding an additional noise into the search process. As a case study, the Shaking-based sampling is utilized on the DE algorithm, from which two variant algorithms have been developed and showed impressive performance in comparison to the classical DE, in tackling noisy largescale problems. This thesis has created an opportunity for a comprehensive investigation on search space segmentation schemes and proposed new sampling methods. The current study has provided a guide to use appropriate sampling schemes for a given types of problems such as noisy, large-scale and multi-modal optimization problems. Furthermore, this thesis questions the effectiveness of uniform-random sampling method, which is widely used in of S-Metaheuristic and P-Metaheuristic algorithms. / UOIT

This thesis aims to study the indirect effects of the Europeanization on national parties and the presence of an established national opposition towards the European Union (EU) and its effects in Sweden, as a result of the so-called conflict of Vaxholm.   The questions asked were whether or not it existed an established national opposition towards the EU, and if so, what the opposition consists of substantially. The research method, which was used, is a quantified text analysis on the chamber debates of the Swedish Riksdag and the party congresses of Socialdemokraterna. The study shows that there is an ambivalent opposition towards the EU and its effects in the aftermath of the conflict of Vaxholm.  Socialdemokraterna presented resistance, but did not manage to present apparent alternatives, which left the party with a rather indistinctive opposition. In contrast to the right-wing party, the left-wing party had some profound difficulties in positioning itself in the new and globalized economy. I therefore suggest, that it might be more providing and exhaustive to introduce Azmanova’s ideal-type analysis, which instead of positing parties on a left-right continuum, posit parties after respective party’s opinions concerning the risks or opportunities which the EU and the internal market’s effects.

Crop Biotechnology could help achieve a more food-secure world. However, the strong opposition to GM food, particularly in Europe, will undoubtedly affect the diffusion of GM crops worldwide, delaying or preventing the world from realizing the potential benefits of GM crops in terms of food security. This braking effect could deprive the world of a potential tool to increase or stabilize the future worldwide availability of food under a changing or more volatile climate. It is therefore essential to understand how the opposition to GM food has and will affect the diffusion of biotechnological innovations worldwide in order to estimate the effect of this opposition on global food security. <p> The main objective of the thesis is to estimate the loss in global food security if the EU does not relax their opposition to GM food. To meet this objective a market model is combined with a GM diffusion model to create a global food security (GFS) model. The focus of the model is GM wheat, due to the vital importance of conventional wheat to global food security. This approach allows us to evaluate dynamic economic responses to food production shocks, such as climate change. The GFS model is calibrated using production, consumption and price data for wheat. A number of scenarios are analyzed to consider the range of potential effects of the EU opposition on global food security. The results of the analyses will better inform the ongoing GM policy debates, which often ignore food security impacts.

Since William Gibson includes a Rastafarian Enclave and a theological compass in <i>Neuromancer</i>, this can be used to examine the troublesome natures of the two Artificial Intelligences, Wintermute and Neuromancer. The Rastafarian's beliefs and interpretations of Babylon and Zion, the oppressors and the liberated, add political significance to the Tessier-Ashpool's and their enslaved Artificial Intelligences. Since the Artificial Intelligences are both created of Babylon the Tessier-Ashpools and also wanting to be free of them, they are something outside of both. In the Artificial Intelligences, then, Gibson collapses the straightforward dichotomy of Babylon and Zion.

La présente étude porte sur l'évolution de l'opposition en République démocratique allemande (RDA) avant 1989. Cette opposition s'est avérée singulière en raison de sa marginalité et de son désir de réformer le régime communiste de l'intérieur. Notre examen du phénomène contestataire est-allemand s'appuie d'abord sur la typologie des oppositions sous les régimes léninistes proposée par Christian Joppke. Cette typologie distingue trois types d'opposition : le révisionnisme, la dissidence et le nationalisme. Ce cadre d'analyse nous permet de constater que l'opposition est-allemande a été caractérisée par sa tendance révisionniste. Nous cherchons ensuite à connaître les facteurs qui permettent d'expliquer cette particularité de l'opposition ainsi que sa marginalité. Notre thèse stipule que ces spécificités sont dues à la situation particulière de la RDA, c'est-à-dire à ses particularités historiques, culturelles et géopolitiques. Cette thèse comporte quatre principaux axes. En premier lieu, il appert que l'opposition est demeurée fidèle à l'idéologie socialiste à cause du mythe fondateur antifasciste de l'État est-allemand. En second lieu, la délégitimation du nationalisme a fait en sorte que les opposants n'ont jamais pu utiliser un discours nationaliste contre le communisme. L'opposition s'en est, par conséquent, trouvée affaiblie. En troisième lieu, l'Église évangélique, qui a soutenu les groupes contestataires dans les années 1980, a fait également obstacle à l'émergence d'un mouvement contestataire plus large. Enfin, la situation géopolitique de la RDA, c'est-à-dire son statut de partie d'une nation divisée ayant comme vis-à-vis la République fédérale d'Allemagne (RFA), a eu un impact majeur sur la trajectoire de l'opposition en contribuant à sa marginalisation et au maintien de la tendance révisionniste. Nous appuyons notre thèse en décrivant et en analysant l'évolution de l'opposition jusqu'à la fin des années 1980. Les différents épisodes contestataires qui ont marqué l'histoire de la RDA sont ainsi examinés dans le but de mettre en lumière les particularités de l'opposition est-allemande. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : République démocratique allemande (RDA), Opposition, Révisionnisme, Dissidence, Régime communiste.