Populism is on the rise, anti-globalism, nationalism, and xenophobia run rampant, andtraditional mainstream parties seem unable to curb the tide. Sweden is no exception, eventhough it in some cases seems like it should be, with the populist party the SwedenDemocrats gaining more support by each passing election. In this thesis, the rise of theSweden Democrats and the slow decline of the mainstream Social Democrats and ModerateParty are explored and explained through the use of the term issue alignment. The thesisexamines if the reason for mass migration from the established mainstream parties is due tothe Sweden Democrats being better aligned with voters’ stance on issues and policy.Furthermore, the thesis investigates if the mainstream parties’ voter loss is due to worseningalignment, but not finding any significant decline over time. Similarly, the thesis investigatesif the improving national vote results of the Sweden Democrats are due to improvingalignment between the party and the voters, again, finding no proof for this theory. TheSweden Democrats’ level of issue alignment with voters has not improved consistently overthe period, and similarly, the mainstream parties’ level of issue alignment has not decreasedconsistently over the period.

The thesis examines the development of right-wing populist discourse in the Czech Republic and aims to define the forms and possible changes in populist discourse with a special emphasis on argumentation, then to interpret the changes in a broader social and political context. The research focuses on three organizational incarnations of right-wing populism: Public Affairs, Dawn of Direct Democracy - Tomio Okamura and Freedom and Direct Democracy - Tomio Okamura. The research method is a discursive-historical approach, which draws on the analysis of topoi. An analysis of the programs of the two movements and the party showed that the right-wing populist discourse has shifted from the original themes that the Public Affairs party has raised. These are included in the other two movements, but each adds something extra. From the initial anti-elite attitudes, social chauvinism and emphasis on direct democracy in the case of Public Affairs to nationalism and the promotion of national pride in the case of the Dawn, to the harsh euroscepticism, Islamophobia and anti-immigration appeals in the case of the SPD. The topoi used in the VV program is primarily topos of abuse, but the Dawn, with its specific appeal to national awareness, also introduces topos of people or topos of advantage, and the SPD clearly...

The domain of rhetoric has changed dramatically since its inception as the art of persuasion. It has adapted to encompass many forms of digital media, including, for example, data visualization and coding as a form of literature, but the approach has frequently been that of an outsider looking in. The use of comprehensive computational tools as a part of rhetorical analysis has largely been lacking. In this report, we attempt to address this lack by means of three case studies in natural language processing tasks, all of which can be used as part of a computational approach to rhetoric. At this same moment in time, it is becoming all the more important to transition to renewable energy in order to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius and ensure that countries meet the conditions of the Paris Agreement. Thus, we make use of speech data on climate policy from the Swedish parliament to ground these three analyses in semantic textual similarity, topic modeling, and political party attribution. We find that speeches are, to a certain extent, consistent within parties, given that a slight majority of most semantically similar speeches come from the same party. We also find that some of the most common topics discussed in these speeches are nuclear energy and the Swedish Green party, purported environmental risks due to renewable energy sources, and the job market. Finally, we find that though pairs of speeches are semantically similar, party rhetoric on the whole is generally not unique enough for speeches to be distinguishable by party. These results then open the door for a broader exploration of computational rhetoric for Swedish political science in the future.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse Italian political parties, which are active in both state and regional governance level. The research is focused on the internal structure of political parties and tries to understand, how this structure is influenced by decentralization. The thesis is based on the theoretical framework of stratarchical organization of the political parties in multilevel political environment. The empirical part is dedicated to the test of the hypothesis claiming that the internal organization of Italian political parties is stratarchical. The research method is the analysis of formal profiles of selected political parties (Il Popolo della Libertá, Partito Democratico, Lega Nord and Unione di Centro). The topic is set into the time period 1993 - 2014. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

The thesis How Do Ordinary Party Members Perceive Themselves? The Case of the KDU-CSL explores both the relation between an ordinary party member and his political party and his role within the party. Therefore, the subject or our research represents the ordinary party member of the KDU-CSL defined as a member without any elected or executive political office. The theoretical framework of the thesis refers to a range authors concerning with political parties and their organisational aspects. The principal empirical part of the thesis is devoted to an analysis of party members in two Czech regions - Prague and the South Moravian region. The thesis is based on the primary qualitative research (semi-structured in-depth interviews and content textual analysis) conducted by the author herself.

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Depuis plusieurs décennies, le Canada tente de mettre en place des politiques de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre (GES), dans le but de lutter contre les changements climatiques. Cet enjeu a gagné en importance pour les électeurs de telle manière que tous les partis, peu importe leur orientation politique, doivent maintenant l’aborder lors des campagnes électorales. Ce mémoire se penche sur les élections fédérales canadiennes de 2019 afin d’analyser la manière dont les partis politiques d’orientations idéologiques différentes ont cadré l’enjeu des changements climatiques. Il est indispensable de comprendre que l’enjeu des changements climatiques était un enjeu incontournable lors de ces élections. En ce sens, le Parti libéral, le Parti conservateur, le Parti vert, le Bloc Québécois et le Nouveau Parti démocratique ont dû converger vers cet enjeu et le cadrer afin de maximiser leurs gains (ou de minimiser leurs pertes). Afin d’analyser les cadres privilégiés par les partis politiques d'orientations idéologiques différentes pour discuter des changements climatiques au Canada, une analyse de contenu sera effectuée sur les programmes électoraux des principaux partis lors de l’élection fédérale de 2019 au Canada. Ce mémoire, principalement basé sur les concepts de convergence, de cadrage et d’idéologie politique a révélé que malgré la convergence générale des partis politiques à aborder l’enjeu des changements climatiques, des distinctions notables ont émergé. Effectivement, en fonction de leurs orientations idéologiques, les partis politiques ont adopté des approches distinctes pour aborder la question climatique. Ainsi, nos résultats ont démontré d’une part que l’enjeu des changements climatiques est véritablement devenu un enjeu majeur de la politique canadienne. D’autre part, ils ont mis en lumière le fait que tous les partis politiques ont tenté de répondre à ces défis causés par cet enjeu tout en respectant leurs orientations idéologiques. / For several decades, Canada has been trying to implement policies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with the aim of combating climate change. This issue has gained in importance for voters to such an extent that all parties, regardless of their political orientation, must now address it during electoral campaigns. This master thesis looks at the 2019 Canadian federal elections in order to analyze the way in which political parties of different ideological orientations framed the issue of climate change. It is essential to understand that the issue of climate change was an unavoidable issue during these elections. In this sense, the Liberal Party, the Conservative Party, the Green Party, the Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party had to converge on this issue and frame it in order to maximize their gains (or minimize their losses). In order to analyze the frameworks favored by political parties of different ideological orientations to discuss climate change in Canada, a content analysis will be carried out on the electoral platforms of the main parties during the 2019 federal election in Canada. This thesis , mainly based on the concepts of convergence, framing and political ideology, revealed that despite the general convergence of political parties in addressing the issue of climate change, notable distinctions emerged. Indeed, depending on their ideological orientations, political parties have adopted distinct approaches to addressing the climate issue. Thus, our results demonstrated on the one hand that the issue of climate change has truly become a major issue in Canadian politics. On the other hand, they highlighted the fact that all political parties tried to respond to these challenges caused by this issue while respecting their ideological orientations.

The researcher used the integration of both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The respondents were drawn from three district, one regional, one academic and two private hospitals. Data was collected by means of questionnaires. The open-ended questions in the questionnaire allowed the respondents to respond in their own words (“etic” description). This enhanced the organisation and reduction of the relevant data for analysis as well as the validity and trustworthiness of the study. The study revealed that even though most of the South African government health policies were very advanced and among the best in the world, some crucial policies appeared to have encountered problems with implementation, from conflicting ideologies and opinions from hospital management, different unions, professional associations, the provincial government, the South African Nursing Council (SANC) and patients. Too many groups appeared to have discussed nurses‟ issues with government and made decisions for nurses, leaving nurses disillusioned. The majority of the respondents attributed this to poor representation at government level. Furthermore, some decisions, resolutions and strategies agreed upon between the unions and bargaining councils appeared to have worked against nurses, further dividing RNs and failing to accomplish the intended purpose. Although most of the respondents had hoped that the Occupational Specific Dispensation (OSD) for nurses would address chronic low salaries for all nurses in the PHS, it favoured certain specialty qualifications (which were based on the description of post-basic courses in R212 and R48, which were not clearly delineated). In addition, RNs were not informed about the meaning and implications of the OSD prior to implementation. The study thus found an information gap between government and RNs at the production level, which appeared not to be with the government and the nurses, but in between. Most importantly, nurses seemed to be represented more by unions to government and bargaining councils, as opposed to nurses, while most of the respondents did not favour the division of nurses between professional associations and unions. Decisions in the PHS appeared to have been dominated by leaders who had no experience with pragmatic issues of health care services (HCS), particularly at the operational level, and the dynamics of the nursing profession. The study therefore concluded that, if the right people (nurses, doctors and systems) were put in place, and nurses were represented by nurses at government level, bargaining councils and parliament, discontent among RNs in the PHS could be reduced significantly. Existing strategies were found to deal with the symptoms and not the root cause of discontent among RNs in the PHS. / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

Floor crossing was an unknown phenomenon in Malawi until the re-emergence of multiparty politics in 1994. Since then the number of MPs crossing the floor in the Malawi National Assembly has steadily increased from around twelve in 1994 to more than sixty in 2005. This practice has continued even today. However, the biggest incident of floor crossing took place in 2005 when the State President, Dr Bingu wa Mutharika, under the United Democratic Front (UDF) decided to abandon the party that sponsored him into office to form his own, the Democratic Progressive Party in February, 2005. Following him were several opposition MPs, a move which sparked a lot of tension in the National Assembly. The purpose of this study was to investigate political factors contributing to this phenomenon, and it was established that, among other factors, institutional weaknesses of political parties and gaps in the Constitution contributed significantly to floor crossing. / Political Science / M.A. (African Politics)

Thesis deals with the issue of dissolution of political parties. States should recognise that everyone has the right to associate freely in political parties. As a particularly far-reaching measure, enforced dissolution of political party may only be justified in the case of party that advocates the use of violence as a political means to overthrow the democratic constitutional order, thereby undermining the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the constitution. The dissolution of a political party is an exceptional measure in a democratic society and should be govern by the principle of proportionality. Apart from Czech legislation and recent judicial cases, this thesis is focused on Slovak and German experience with political party ban. Relevant decisions of European Court of Human Rights are introduced as well. In the first chapter the term "political party" is defined. Essential role of the political parties in parliamentary democracy as well as its extraordinary status among associations is emphasized. This part of thesis discusses situations when state can interfere with freedom of association or freedom of speech. Legally defined reasons for the dissolution of political parties are explained. These legal reasons are defined by criteria abstractly formulated, therefore a statutory interpretation...