This diploma thesis analyzes the coalition ties that have been established within the anti- Islamic scene in the Czech Republic. The analysis includes the most important counter- Islamic entities in the Czech Republic, namely the National Democracy, the Workers' Party of Social Justice, Dusk and its followers, and the Bloc against Islam and its followers. The theoretical basis of the thesis is the theory of coalitions. The aim of the thesis is to answer the questions why the anti-Islamic subjects of the coalition or other forms of co-operation follow up and why they do not follow them, even if they are offered because of their situation. Another aim of the thesis is to point out the possibility of using part of the theoretical approaches of the theory of coalition with certain modifications to the specific environment of the anti-Islamic scene in the Czech Republic, which is quite different from the national environment, for which the concepts of coalition theory were predominantly created. The thesis is divided into two parts. The theoretical part introduces theoretical concepts and approaches that have been used in the work. The second, empirical, part presents the development of individual subjects and, above all, the established coalition ties and cooperation. The last chapter summarizes the...

The increasing popularity of populist parties in Europe, demonstrated in particular by their electoral success, is attracting increasing attention from the academic community. Although the phenomenon of populism is nothing new and has already been reviewed from a number of different perspectives, it still represents a diverse field for deeper analysis. The thesis deals with the case of the French National Front and its changes during its most successful election campaigns, that is in the presidential elections in 2002 and 2017. Specifically, the thesis also focuses on political communication and especially on the change it has gone through at its management level. By comparing the performance of both leaders and their agenda, the work allows a closer insight into the problem of transforming the ideological base as well as the ways of political communication. The outcome of this work is the analysis comparing the election campaign of Jean-Marie Le Pen and his daughter Marine, the current party leader. The work also contributes to the debate around dédiabolisation, or the de-demonization of the National Front launched under the leadership of Marine Le Pen.

(in English): This thesis deals with the phenomenon of populism on examples from contemporary France. Regarding the complexity of the concept and also the fact that scholars couldn't find a consensus on its definition, the author decided to examine it through Ernesto Laclau`s theory of populism which centers the construction of the people. Being oriented in French modern history and politics, the author chose for her analysis the current political movements - La France Insoumise and the National Front, which are discourses are centered on the construction of the people. Within the period between 2016 and 2018, she observed the way in which the notion of the people was constructed by the main representatives of both movements (especially the chairman of the National Front Marine Le Pen and the chairman of La France Insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon) with the aim to trace whether these movements differed and what role their leaders played. To illustrate her discourse analysis, the author conducted several semi-structured interviews with activists of the investigated movements and participated in organized public events. She concludes that there exists a difference between the construction of the people by National Front and by La France Insoumise same as their leaders often disagree with its activist...

In the last decade, we have witnessed a new stage in the mainstreaming and normalization pro­cess of populist radical right policies and ideas in the Western world. This has resulted in in­creasing politicization of issues related to immigration. In Sweden, this politicization took off when the radical right-wing populist (RRP) party the Sweden Democrats (SD) was voted into the parliament in 2010. Even though the party was isolated by the mainstream parties, its presence in the parliament still contributed to the politi­cization for a long time. Additionally, increased “gang”-related shootings have pushed the po­liticization even further since the shootings in the public and political discourse have often been connected to immigration. Apart from this, certain mainstream right-wing parties, especially the Moderates (M) and the Christian Democrats (KD), have questioned the isolation of SD lately, which led to the presentation of a collaboration between the three parties in the fall of 2021. With this collaboration as a background, the aim of this study is to show the particular roles M and KD play in the process of mainstreaming and normalization of the RRP discourse, espe­cially related to immigration and its alleged connection to criminality. The study draws on crit­ical discourse analysis of political and public discourse in the context of RRP to analyze how M, KD, and SD construct themes and arguments around immigration, immigrants, and crimi­nality on their official Facebook pages. The study argues that there is an ongoing process of normalization of RRP policy and ideas in Swedish public and political discourse. Largely, SD is the strategical enacting actor in this pro­cess. How­ever, both M and KD take part in the process by contributing to gradually changing the existing discourse on immigration towards new forms and new norms. This is conducted by employing strategies, concepts, and rhetoric well-known from RRP discourse.

In this paper, the question of whether Christian preaching is implicated in the growing movement of populism is posed. The paper has identified three critical issues that call for investigation in homiletical hermeneutics. The first issue addresses the problem of biblical interpretation for homiletic practice. The second issue has to do with the impact of social media that often distorts the truth. Alarming dependence on the smart phone suggests that the task of the preacher in this rapidly changing visual and high tech culture is to deliver sermons that are critically aware of visual culture rather than literary culture. Finally, the paper calls for an approach to preaching that seeks to reveal missing, hidden and distorted truth as a way to speak against the demonic power of the profit-driven capitalism and the epidemic of gender-based violence against women and sexual minorities.

This essay researches the link between populism and political trust by comparing the development of these two phenomena in Sweden and Italy. Populism is defined as a political strategy in which one appeals to the people and uses anti-establishment rhetoric. The purpose of the study is to analyze if voters that are less politically trustful are also more prone to vote for anti-establishment populist candidates. By using a temporal comparative analysis with a historical perspective in mind, the development and linkage of political trust and populism is analyzed in the cases’ most recent four elections.  The Swedish case is distinguished by relatively high levels of political trust but have in the latest decade seen an ever-growing proportion of their electorate turning to the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats. Italy, comparatively, is currently distinguished for low levels of political trust and has seen populist politicians thrive in the electorate ever since the 1990s ‘Mani Pulite’ scandal, and over a majority voted for the two populist parties Lega Nord and Five Star movement. The main research findings suggest that political trust, while not being a crucial determinant for contemporary populist successes, certainly helps populist parties gain attention and attraction. It also shows indications that the relation between populism and political trust can go in two directions. Sweden resembles a case where increased support for the SD have led to decreased political trust. In contrast, Italy’s political scandals, volatile voters and drastic decreases in political trust seems to have sparked increased support for populists.

The aim of this thesis is to place Slovak political party SMER in the political and party system of the Slovak Republic and attempt to analyse ideological and programmatic development of this party. The author devotes attention to development of SMER from the emergence in 1999 until last general elections in 2012. First chapter seeks to describe evolution of socialism and following ideologies including the concept of the Third way which was reflected by some Western European social democratic parties. The second chapter is dedicated to left-wing political parties in Czechoslovakia and lately in Slovak Republic. This chapter is divided into two sections. The first section is about parties existing before 1989 and the second one devotes attention to parties after Velvet Revolution in 1989. Next part of this work is focused on the SMER itself. Author describes three phases of development of this party including emergence in 1999, opposition activities between 2002 and 2006 and phase of hegemony following after 2006. The purpose of the last part of the thesis is to analyse ideological and programmatic development of SMER and highlight some problematic features of proclaimed social democratic orientation.

The present dissertation deals with the relationship between democracy and agonism. It attempts to defend the idea that certain problematic aspects of contemporary liberal democracies are not due to their origin primarily in the change of social conditions (the massification of democracy, the growth of complexity in modern societies), that made the original democratic promises unrealizable, but in certain oblivion of the agon. The agon is understood as a constitutive feature of democratic society and its oblivion is seen not to be accidental. To defend this proposition I focuse on an interpretation of the dialogue between populist republicanism (Machiavelli) and elitist republicanism (Guicciardini). This dialogue is usually understood as one of the sources of modern democratic tradition. I try to explain that in Machiavelli's political theory two notions of agonism are present - pragmatic agon that sees conflict as a basis of social cohesion and strategic agon that is described as a ferocious egalitarianism employed by the second class citizens in order to gain equality from the first class citizens. These two forms of agonism are explained to form the axis of Machiavelli's notion of the political and also of a free republic and democracy. Guicciardini's elitist republicanism is shown to stand in opposition...

Aim of the thesis is to describe and analyse the role of nationalism in contemporary Czech extreme right movements. Its author has two fundamental objectives. The first is to evaluate strength and relevance of contemporary Czech nationalism within extreme right movements. The second objective consists in the analysis of nationalism itself, which should reveal the true nature of these organizations and their ideological platform. This thesis presents an overview of Czech extreme right spectrum. It was essential to select movements that mutually differ and therefore represent various manifestations of Czech right extremism. All three platforms can be classified as extreme right movements strongly resonating with Czech nationalism. They see themselves as patriots who defend conservative values and national traditions. Revue of The National Idea represents an attempt to create a sophisticated, intellectual forum providing conditions for ultra-right views and ideas. D.O.S.T. movement acts as a conservative "people's initiative", standing against multiculturalism and the European Union. The National Party is then an example of extreme political grouping with traces of populism, xenophobia and pure racism. Content analysis of these three movements is the main topic of the thesis. Examining their goals,...

Bc. Lenka Loučková 2015/2016 Impact of the economic crisis on the position of Dutch Freedom party towards the European Union Abstract This thesis focuses on the relationship between the economic crisis and the attitude of the Dutch radical right populist Freedom Party (PVV) towards the European Union (EU). The aim of this thesis is to determine whether the economic crisis influenced the opinion of PVV on the EU in a negative way and whether it caused the shift of the party in the categorization of attitudes towards the EU by Petr Kopecky and Cas Mudde. The research also aims at contributing to the wider discussion about the nature of right radicalism, populism and Euroscepticism in the EU by pointing to the similarities and differences between PVV and other European parties belonging to the radical right populist family. The time frame of the research starts with the origins of the party in the year 2005 and ends with the last important elections that PVV participated in, the European Parliament elections in 2014. Election manifestos, as well as official statements of the party and its representatives on the Internet and in the media are used for the analysis. The research itself is focusing on three areas: EU's institutional setup and the direction of European integration; issues related to movement of...