This dissertation addresses the question how democracies defend themselves from political parties and groups which profess antidemocratic values and use violence as one of the means to achieve their goals. In particular this dissertation analyses the range of formal-legal measures and provisions that democracies have at their disposal to constrain their non-democratic groups and political parties, looking at eight advanced European democracies Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. These measures and provisions are identified in constitutional documents, civil law, criminal law, in electoral laws, and other pertinent legal sources passed by the legislature and issued by courts of these countries, pertaining to the regulation of political freedoms, public order, and homeland security. On this basis, the thesis provides an encompassing and systematic assessment of differences and similarities between these democracies and thereby assesses their relative formal-legal democratic defensiveness.

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 main research question of this thesis is how history is used for political gain by the far-right in Finland. The aim is to study not only the use of history but, rather, specifically, the patterns of that use. Two theories have been utilized. The first is the far-right as a milieu, as presented by Colin Campbell in the cultic milieu theory, which would shed light on the fragmentation of the milieu. And the second is the waves theory by David C. Rapoport, which would shed light on the persistence of far-right violence and militancy through time. I have utilized Pieter Geyl’s analysis of the use of history in identifying patterns of use even though it is not considered a theory per my knowledge. Methods applied are content analysis, netnography, comparative and discourse analysis. Through the utilization of these theories and methods applied to the source material, I have found that the Finnish far-right uses history in six different ways, which are centralized around both the use of national history and the predecessor’s history.

Narrative identity in biographical narratives of extremist scene leaders in Central Europe Mgr. Adéla Zelenda Kupcová Abstract: Dissertation Narrative identity in biographical narratives of extremist scene leaders in Central Europe deals with analysis of biographical narratives of the extremist scene's prominent leaders in select Central European countries (the former German Democratic Republic, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary). It is based on the theory of social constructivism, and its aim is to analyze how and under what experience the leading representatives of the extremist scene construct their narrative identities, what life events have influenced their attitudes and worldviews, how they present themselves and how they understand themselves and their roles in life. It is focused mainly on the narrators' personal myths and life themes that they indicate as essential. Key words: political extremism, narrative, identity, personal myth, value, cultural pessimism

Narrative identity in biographical narratives of extremist scene leaders in Central Europe Mgr. Adéla Zelenda Kupcová Abstract: Dissertation Narrative identity in biographical narratives of extremist scene leaders in Central Europe deals with analysis of biographical narratives of the extremist scene's prominent leaders in select Central European countries (the former German Democratic Republic, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary). It is based on the theory of social constructivism, and its aim is to analyze how and under what experience the leading representatives of the extremist scene construct their narrative identities, what life events have influenced their attitudes and worldviews, how they present themselves and how they understand themselves and their roles in life. It is focused mainly on the narrators' personal myths and life themes that they indicate as essential. Key words: political extremism, narrative, identity, personal myth, value, cultural pessimism

While domestic fascism within the United Kingdom has never critically challenged Parliamentary sovereignty, it has decisively disrupted public order since its roots were established in the inter-war political scene. The violence provoked by Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF) was one of the stimulating factors behind the enactment of the Public Order Act 1936. This Act significantly strengthened the powers of the police to regulate or proscribe varies forms of political activism. This thesis analyses the legal responses of Parliament, the police and the judiciary to interwar British fascism. In addition, by analysing the legal responses to public disorder from before and after the 1930s, it positions the BUF within their wider historical context which enables this thesis to assess and evaluate consistencies and discrepancies within the application of the law. By enhancing the historical contextualisation of the period with a critical legal lens, the principal forms of fascist propaganda are evaluated, including public processions, public meetings and the wearing of political uniform. It is argued that the application of a historico-legal methodology challenges the perception that the authorities were inherently politically biased. This thesis explores alternative factors which explain why the responses of the legal authorities appeared inconsistent in their approach to the far-Right and the far-Left. In order to critically analyse the police’s decision making process when monitoring political activism, the limitations of public order law and the nature of police discretion itself become fundamental components which offer a more balanced explanation for the appearance of political partiality within the police force.

right assailants within the past five years. The thesis uses David Rapoport's seminal theory political pressures. Therefore, using Rapoport's measurement criteria, the project focuses on methods empirical analysis, the thesis contends that the data's common themes and patterns fulfil Rapoport's distinctive wave conditions within the phenomenon's international nature, the American and European experiences. Therefore, in satisfying Rapoport's conditions and

Тема магистерской диссертации - "Технологии профилактики политического экстремизма в молодежной среде". В первой главе проведено исследование сущности политического экстремизма, выявление его признаков и классификации видов политического экстремизма. Кроме этого, определены особенности политического экстремизма в молодежной среде, выявлены основные направления в современном российском молодежном политическом экстремизме. Во второй главе диссертационной работы представлены результаты исследования эффективности использования технологий таргетинга в профилактике политического экстремизма среди молодежи и разработаны конкретные предложения по их использованию. / The topic of the master's thesis is "Technologies for the Prevention of Political Extremism in the Youth Environment". The first chapter examines the essence of political extremism, identifies its signs and classifies the types of political extremism. In addition, the features of political extremism in the youth environment have been identified, and the main trends in contemporary Russian youth political extremism have been identified. The second chapter of the dissertation presents the results of a study of the effectiveness of the use of targeting technologies in the prevention of political extremism among young people and developed specific proposals for their use.

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This thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter examines empirically the relationshipbetween foreign aid and economic growth in the Least Developed Countries. Instrumentalvariables techniques are used to estimate the effect that economic growth has on foreign aidand to adjust for the reverse causal effect that growth has on aid when estimating the effect thataid has on growth. The second chapter examines the effects that fiscal expansions have on theunemployment rate. The chapter presents SVAR evidence for ten OECD countries and builds aDSGE model with a labor force participation choice and workers' heterogeneity to explain theempirical findings. The third chapter examines the effects that economic growth has on thesupport for extreme political platforms. The chapter provides a theoretical model in favor ofgrowth effects (as opposed to level effects) on the support for extreme political parties, andinvestigates empirically the relationship between growth and extremist votes for 16 OECDcountries.Esta tesis consiste en tres capítulos. El primer capítulo examina empíricamente la relación entrela ayuda exterior y crecimiento económico en los países menos adelantados. Técnicas devariables instrumentales se utilizan para estimar el efecto que el crecimiento económico tienesobre la ayuda exterior y para ajustar el efecto de causalidad inversa que el crecimiento tiene enla ayuda al estimar el efecto que la ayuda tiene sobre el crecimiento. El segundo capítuloanaliza los efectos que las expansiones fiscales tienen sobre la tasa de desempleo. El capítulopresenta pruebas SVAR para diez países de la OCDE y construye un modelo DSGE con unaparticipación en la fuerza de trabajo y heterogeneidad de los trabajadores para explicar losresultados empíricos. El tercer capítulo analiza los efectos que el crecimiento económico tieneen el apoyo a las plataformas políticas extremas. El capítulo ofrece un modelo teórico a favorde los efectos del crecimiento (en contraposición a los efectos de nivel) con el apoyo departidos políticos de extrema, e investiga empíricamente la relación entre el crecimiento devotos y extremistas para 16 países de la OCDE.