Populismen är en ideologi som i Europa har fått ett ökat stöd bland väljare. Sverigedemokraternas tillväxt under de senaste åren är någonting som inte är ouppmärksammad. Sverigedemokraterna är det partiet som oftast anses vara populistiskt på grund av deras uttalanden av framför allt invandring. Men det som tydliggör populismen eller populistiska partier brukar inte uppmärksammas, utan ett parti som anses vara populistiskt får den stämpeln främst på grund av deras åsikter kring invandring. Av den anledningen är syftet med denna studie att lyfta den populistiska slöjan och se om påpekanden som Sverigedemokraterna står inför kring populismen endast är retorik eller verklighet.  För att kunna lyfta den populistiska slöjan gällande Sverigedemokraterna har studien lagt fokus på en textanalys som metod med hjälp av en idé- och ideologianalys, med idealtyper kring populismen som analysverktyg. Studien har även använt sig av en analys för att kunna avgöra om Sverigedemokraterna är populistiska, då analysen fokuserar på de demokratiska problemen som avgör anledningen till att väljare röstar på detta parti och om partiet anses vara populistiskt i sig.   Resultatet visar att Sverigedemokraterna har populistiska drag till viss del. Det visar sig att Sverigedemokraternas framväxt tyder på de demokratiska problemen i samhället som har lett till ett ökat väljarstöd. Studien kan slå fast att partiet är ett svar på genuina missnöjen bland en ganska stor del av väljarna.

This thesis is aimed at analysing key similarities and differences of the Englsih Defence League and the German-born social movement PEGIDA. Whereas both movements have a common goal, to stop the perceived Islamisation of their respective countries, and Europe as a whole, the means and methods vary greatly. Moreover, it is argued that the followership of said organisations differ in age, social background and motivation. Both organisations are able to exert a certain amount of influence on their supporters, the rest of the society, as well as policy- makers and the political elite. Both organisations have influenced the societal and political climate of their respective countries of origin and also in the countries in the European neighbourhood with links to individuals and organisations in North America.

(in English): Main goal of this diploma is to analyze the relationship between populism and representative democracy. The theoretical part of my work is researching populism as a vague concept and determining its minimal definition and esential constituents (I have declined the possibility that populism is only anti-essentialy formed attitude/phenomenon). In the analytical part I've studied the relationship between populism and representative democracy, and defined drawbacks of this uneasy coexistence. However I believe that representative democracy can't be successfully fulfiled without this phenomenon and I have also found not only positive moments of this relationship - I assume that populism is necessary supplement of representative democracy.

Jakob Marcks Master's Thesis Budapest versus Brussels: Viktor Orbán's Politics of Memory Against the European Union Abstract Since Viktor Orbán came to power in 2010, disputes between Hungary and the European Union have increased. Among the contested issues are legislative changes, Hungary's new constitution as well as the so-called refugee crisis. While the European Commission criticizes violations of EU law and EU principles, Orbán accuses "Brussels" of illegitimate interferences with domestic affairs. In this context Orbán frequently uses historicizing arguments, which means that he invokes Hungarian history in order to explain present-day politics. Orbán paints a picture of brave Hungarians who repeatedly fought for freedom in the past, and who repeatedly became the victims of foreign Empires. Today, he claims, Hungarians are in a similar situation again, yet this time they have to defend their freedom against the European Union. While doing so, Orbán often blurs the line between past and present and creates a strict antagonism of "us against them". Historically, "us against them" refers to freedom fighters against communists. Today, "us" refers to a Christian Hungary that values work, family and national sovereignty, and "them" refers to a global liberal elite, represented by the European Union and...

This master thesis deals with the development of the protest movement PEGIDA, which was founded on October 11. 2014 in Dresden. This movement speaks loudly against the Islamization of Germany during the regular demonstrations and criticizes the political situation in the country. In times of its greatest popularity it has attracted thousands of people. Nowadays its importance is still diminishing. The aim is therefore to describe the development of the movement and its characteristics. The work is divided into four main chapters. The first one explains the development in Saxony, the second one describes the development of the movement and its programmatics. It also contains the change of relationship towards Alternative für Deutschland (AfD): from an animosity into an open collaboration. PEGIDA was created as a Facebook group: with tools like Google Trends and Fanpage Karma this chapter analyzes its evolution in an online world. It also shows a declining search rate on Google and its popularity on Facebook. The last chapter is based on studies conducted among demonstrators concerning their demographic data and their views on the functioning of democracy and politics. It follows that most Pegidists do not believe in political representation and see an AfD as an alternative. The stagnation of the...

This thesis aims to explore the spread of populist propaganda on social media on the case of the Dutch politician Geert Wilders and Twitter. The research questions of this thesis focus primarily on the message that is being spread by Mr. Wilders and his followers, the way his followers react to this content and the attempt to securitize Islam through populist propaganda. The thesis uses the methodology of discursive thematic interpretation to analyze the narrative that is being spread. In order to collect data for this analysis, the analytical tool NodeXL Pro has been employed. This tool made it possible to not only collect data and identify the people interacting with a theme, but also visualize their position within the network. The thesis uses datasets collected by NodeXL for the discursive thematic interpretation of data. The analysis itself is divided into different sections, first analyzing the content shared by Geert Wilders and identifying the themes and reconstructing the narrative. Next, the analysis moves on to more specific subsections, such as important hashtags or examples of active users from Wilders' proximity. NodeXL was also helpful in modelling the networks and discovering the echo chambers formed around Geert Wilders.

The minimual amount of Muslims currently present in Slovakia are experiencing hatred towards them and Islamophobia is on the rise. Research has shown that Islamophobia is produced by prejudice and fear of the uknown. This study aims to examine factors which contribute to the negative perception of refugees in Slovakia and what contributes to the rise in Islamophobia. It builds to extend the work of other scholars which have previously looked into this issue, by testing the theory and combining numerous factors together. This study therefore asks: Do economic factors and the influence of news outlets and political parties lead to negative perceptions of Muslims and therefore support Islamophobia in Slovakia? Based on this question, primary and secondary qualitivave research was conducted to test to which extent media, politics and economic situation affect perception of refugees. Analysis of responces indicated that the biggest factors contributing to Islamophobia was prejudice conducted and spread by news oultets and politians, with economic economy playing a big role in people perceived safety of their welfare first. Further research is required to identify cultural and historical reasons behind prejudice and Islamophobia in this region. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

This diploma thesis aims to argue for compatibility of liberal perfectionist political theory with liberal-democratic system and sketch desirable consequences of liberal- perfectionistic policies in practice. It is divided into three main parts. The first one presents the perfectionistic theory and tries to clearly define ethical, political and liberal perfectionism. The second part argues for compatibility of liberal- perfectionistic theory with democratic practices through referring to intrinsic contradiction of principle of state neutrality as presented by John Rawls. The last part presents considerations about liberal-perfectionist practice, mainly in civic education, and its possible applications for weakening of populism.

This bachelor’s essay discusses the Swedish political party The Sweden Democrats’ presence on the social media Facebook and Twitter during the month of January 2017. The essay’s purpose is to discuss and analyse the party’s posts with picture- and text analysis, in relation to nationalism, populism and from a historical perspective. The party’s connections to nationalism and populism are visible in their social media posts and an ongoing theme of their social media presence is the connection between fugitives and crime, where rape and gang crimes are blamed on fugitives from the Middle East. The party’s self-announced political standpoint as Sweden’s only oppositional party is also discussed in relation to their social media posts. The conclusion of the essay is that the political party has internalized a postcolonial view of Europe and the rest of the world as binary opposites, where Sweden and the West has come further in their social and cultural development than the world outside of Europe. This causes The Sweden Democrats to post and retweet/share posts on social media that represents and reproduces the image of immigrants as a threat to the Swedish nation.

The present study explores Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s online communication on the microblogging platform Twitter. The study aims to present the populist characteristics embedded in the president’s tweets, as well as the strategies he uses in his communication on the social media platform. The pillars that structure this work are the different theories on the topic of populism, which address central points concerning the phenomenon’s characteristics, such as dichotomization between groups (the good and the bad people), a strong anti-establishment stance, creation of scapegoats and enemies, and the centrality of the leader. Additionally, theories that explain the relationship between populism and social media are also employed for the full comprehension of the problem at hand. The analysis examines Bolsonaro’s first year in office (2019) and focuses mainly on three different periods within that year. The data consists of 110 tweets submitted to analysis utilizing Discourse-Historical Approach, an analytical approach with a strong focus on context. The findings show how Bolsonaro’s communication on Twitter is immersed and dependent on strategies common to populist discourse, employing argumentative and discursive strategies that rely on the aspects such as topoi, the demonization of others, shifting of blame, positive self- and negative other- presentation, provocation and calculated ambivalence. This study contributes to the understanding of populist online communication in the Brazilian context, shedding light on the phenomenon of populism, in particular the current populist wave, outside the European and North American contexts, expanding the understanding about the topic to the global south.