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The global consensus is that the ongoing global warming is unsustainable and that human activity is responsible. The 2015 Paris Agreement aims to keep the Earth's average temperature below 2 degrees and ideally not more than 1.5 degrees. However, currently, we are losing this fight as greenhouse gas emissions and the Earth's average temperature continue to increase. Sweden has embraced its responsibility to lead the transition towards sustainability and has set the world's most ambitious climate goals. However, the new government in 2022 appears to have put Sweden's climate policy on the back burner, causing concern among environmentalists and the general public as Sweden's ambitious climate goals are at risk of not being met. This essay examines the reasons for the climate skepticism of right-wing populism in Sweden, a country known for its leadership in environmental issues. The conclusion is that the reasons for the climate skepticism of the right-wing populist party in Sweden (SD) are primarily based on ideological values. This conclusion is based on the analysis of how SD frames and argues about the climate issue, which is a consequence of their ideology. This essay discusses the political and societal challenges in achieving Sweden's climate goals and the potential consequences of not meeting these targets, particularly in the context of right-wing populism.

This study examines trust in Swedish government agencies based on individuals’ left-right political ideology. Two theories, the Cultural backlash theory and the Economic insecurity thesis, traditionally used to explain the rise of right-wing populist parties, are applied to identify factors influencing trust. The Cultural backlash theory focuses on conflicts between social-liberal and social-conservative values, while the Economic insecurity thesis emphasises the impact of globalisation on economic winners and losers. The results reveal a trust gap between left- and right-wing voters, but other factors seem to play a more significant role in explaining trust levels. Factors associated with the economic insecurity thesis marginally surpass factors associated with political ideology in explanatory power, while those linked to the cultural backlash theory explain more of the variation. The study suggests that, despite the influence that political ideology has on trust in government agencies, the trust gap might be better characterised as a social-liberal/conservative gap. Overall, it highlights the nuanced interplay between cultural and economic factors in shaping trust dynamics within the Swedish context.

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The essay examines how Polish representatives defend constitutional sovereignty over EU-law by analyzing, and comparing, the argumentation from the Polish prime minister Matteuz Morawiecki and the Polish constitutional court. The primary source material is Morawiecki’s letter to heads of governments as well as his statement in the European Parliament. After close qualitative content analysis the argumentation has been categorized and concrete analysis questions have been formulated from the theoretic framework’s three main headlines: democratic backsliding and illiberalism; the rule of law and the constitutions precedence and eurosceptic populism. The tribunal argues mainly from a legal standpoint while Morawiecki’s argumentation is based on EU-skepticism influenced by populism. The main result of the essay is that Morawiecki and the tribunal’s argumentation to defend Polish constitutional sovereignty is categorized as “soft” euroscepticism. Morawiecki furthermore argues that Poland is a strong supporter of the EU, while the tribunal does not take a definitive stance. Both argue that Poland is a liberal democracy that lives up to the Copenhagen criterias while questioning to what extent the EU does so in practice.

[pt] É importante diferenciar o Maquiavelismo do Maquiavelianismo. O primeiro está baseado na crença de que todos os meios disponíveis são justificáveis para ascender e manter o poder, ainda que imorais; enquanto o outro consiste na verdadeira essência do pensamento de Nicolau Maquiavel, trazer as lições deixadas pelos antigos para os tempos moderno, principalmente no que consiste a chamada liberdade republicana. Isto faz total sentido se enxergarmos a renascença como o período de substituição da vida passiva, marcada pela pura reflexão espiritual e contemplação divina, pela vida ativa em que o homem assume uma atividade criadora perante o mundo, não apenas nas artes como nas instituições políticas. Essa é a pratica do viver civiles, em que toda forma de organização social é moldada pela própria comunidade com o objetivo de aprimorar o convívio social. Esta noção está na própria essência do movimento do humanismo cívico que marcou todo o período da Renascença. É sob esta perspectiva que devemos interpretas a obra de Nicolau Maquiavel. O príncipe novo nada mais é que a forma alegórica desta engenharia institucional que posteriormente ganharia a alcunha de Poder Constituinte, mas já estava presente na dinâmica renascentista. Ainda segundo Maquiavel, o príncipe novo necessariamente assumiria a forma de um Oxímoro, figura alegórica em que duas partes de natureza opostas se unem contraditoriamente em um todo harmônico. Aqui, ele se refere aos pequenos e aos grandes que em uma eterna disputa, sempre dentro de um determinado arcabouço institucional, colaboram para aprovar leis uteis para o beneficio mutuo de toda a sociedade. Este processo consiste na fundação continua que deve ser encarado como a próprio essência do poder constituinte que possuía uma natureza invariavelmente aberta. É assim que devemos ler as referencias ao governo misto ao longo de toda a obra maquiaveliana. A figura do Oxímoro exclui qualquer associação do pensamento do secretário florentino com o fenômeno populista, ao menos se levarmos em consideração a definição dada por Laclau em a Razão Populista. O populismo é marcado pela ascensão de uma particularidade (plebe) e sua consolidação como totalidade (populus), enquanto Maquiavel propôs com a cooperação ainda que forçada entre os dois polos antagônicos da sociedade com a manutenção de suas respectivas funções sociais. Entretanto, podemos identificar no conceito de virtù, a vagueza conceitual necessária para caracterizar o conceito de significante flutuante. Isto explica a facilidade das mais diversas correntes ideológicas em se apoderar do legado do secretário florentino em prol de uma causa própria. Ironicamente, Maquiavel parece ter aberto a caixa de pandora do populismo, ainda que contra a própria vontade. / [en] It is important to distinguish the Machiavellianism from the Machiavellian commonwealth. The first is based on the believe that all available means are justifiable to ascend and preserve power, yet imoral; while the other consistes on the true essence of Nicolà Machiavelli s thought: apply the leassons let by the ancient to modern times, specially about the so called republicana liberty. It makes all sense if we analyse the renaissance as the moment of substituition of the passive life, marked by purê spiritual reflexion and divine contemplation, for the active life that the man adopts a creative active before the world, not just in the arts as the political instituitions as well. This is the practice of the viver civiles in which all the forms of social organization are shaped by the own community. in order to improve the social life. This concept is in the own essence of the civic humanism that forged all the period of the Renaissance. It is under this perspective that we should interpret all the Machiavellian work. The príncipe novo is just the alegorical form of the popular statecraft that would later be named constituitional power, but it was already present in the renascence dynamic. Accorduing to the florentina secretary, this príncipe novo would necessarily assume the shape of an Oxymoron, figure of speech in which two parts of opposite nature contradictorily unite in a harmonious whole. Here, he refers to the eternal dispute among the small and the big when operete inside a framework tend tocooperate aproving useful laws for the whole civil society. This process consists in the continuos foundation and caracterizes the own essence of the constitucional power which always have an opened nature. That is the way we should read the references to the mixed government all along the machiavellian works. The Oxymoron figure exculpes any association of the machiavellian Thoughr to the populista phenomenom, at least if we consider the definition given by Ernesto Laclau in his Razão Populista. The populism is caracterized by the ascention of a particularity (plebe) and it s consolidation as totality (populus), while Machiavelli proposed the cooperation yet forced between two antagonical Poles with the preservativos of their respectiva social functions. Nevetheless, we might identify in the concept of virtù, enough conceptual vaporousness to classify it as a flowing significant. It explains the easiness with the most diverse ideologia corrents apropriated from the Machiavellian Legacy. ironically, Machiavelli seemed to have opened the populism pandora box, yet unwittingly.

The year 2024 started with newspapers filled with articles on farmers taking over European cities. In Germany, the farmers protested the recently announced tax break reduction on agricultural diesel. The protests were quickly instrumentalized by various political actors, which made them highly controversial. This thesis explores how two actors, the German radical right AfD and the center-right CDU, discursively construct climate change within the debates surrounding the farmers’ protests. The focus lies on their use of populism as a strategic communication tool and legitimation strategies that politicize climate change. As such, climate change and environmental discourses are critically reviewed and contextualized, and theories on populism and politicization are presented. The thesis applies a discourse-historical approach (DHA) based on the analytical tools of nomination, predication, and legitimation. The findings conclude that discourses of climate policy conservatism, green patriotism, and climate elitism are applied to re-politicize climate change according to the right-wing agenda. As expected, the AfD mainly applied green patriotism, whereas the CDU applied climate policy conservatism. Both also relied on a newly identified discourse of climate elitism, highlighting the protest dynamics.

This paper examines how the eight parties in the Swedish parliament pit different social groups against each other, in the 2015 Almedalstal compared to the 2016 Almedalstal, when using the Dutch political scientist Cas Mudde’s definition of populism. The speeches are analysed using a qualitative content analysis. The results show that several parties are more populist in the 2016 speech than the 2015 speech and that the parties have shifted focus from solutions to blaming as well as elevating their own core electorate and their primary areas of confidence with the electorate. The analysis shows that some parties have tendencies to use some populist discourse. The paper identifies that the Swedish Democrats continues to use a populist discourse while the Left party has become more populist in their discourse in the 2016 speech. The Christian Democrats and the two major political parties, the Moderate party and the Social Democrats, tend to accentuate more of a populist discourse in the 2016 speeches but not to the extent to say that they use a populist discourse as defined by Mudde.

Statistics from Freedom House show that 2018 is the thirteenth consecutive year with democratic decline. This paper examines underlying causes to this democratic decline. This is done through literature review of current research in the field of democracy development. By using descriptive idea analysis of selected research literature, the paper aims to clarify the current debate on the challenges of democracy. The study somewhat supports that long-term liberal democracy creates conditions that potentially cause its own retreat. This is because long-term liberal democracy provides peace and growth, which is unequally distributed in society and leads to increased social divisions. As a result, large groups of people no longer feel included in society, which in turn will pave the way for populist movements and potential autocratic leaders. The study also somewhat supports that there has been a weakening in the functioning of the democratic institutions to act as gatekeepers, keeping potential autocrats out of power. Increased democracy and transparency in the democratic processes has made it easier for potential autocrats to come to power. All in all, there is some support for the hypothesis of the essay: The more democracy the greater the risk that the democratic system will weaken.