This thesis deals with the German political party "Die Linke" (The Left). Die Linke was founded in 2007 by merging two different parties, namely Linkspartei.PDS, which was preceded by the ruling party of the GDR, and WASG, composed of West German activists and former party members of the Social Democratic Party. The opening parts contain definitions of basic terminology and a brief history of parties preceding Die Linke. The following sections deal with how the dual history of the party reflects in its organisation, its program and electorate. The party programs are also used to analyze its key program points and their evolution over time. The party's ideology is also examined. This thesis also deals with the current position of Die Linke within the German party system, in terms of both the voters and election results, and relations with other relevant parties.

This master's thesis is dedicated to the issue of populism in politics. It has been designed as an exploration of the discourse of this phenomenon during the 2020 United States presidential elections. The goal of the thesis was to identify, describe and compare usage of populist elements by both main presidential candidates. Theory of Cas Mudde was chosen as the foundation. Theoretical part is split into two chapters which are devoted to the topics of populism and context of the American society. These segments introduce and define core concepts that will be subsequently used. Practical part is divided into two chapters as well. Initially, we present various aspects of the methodology of our qualitative research. It is based on the analysis of two presidential debates conducted through discursive-historical approach of critical discursive analysis. Henceforth, the following section is focused on the analysis and interpretation of acquired data. The output of this process is the exploration of the discourse as well as description and contrasting of populist tendencies of Joe Biden and Donald Trump. The analysis has shown presence of populist elements in both campaigns. Specifically, Biden's conception of the people is predominantly populist, whereas his approach towards elites and the will of the...

(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.

Europe and North America are currently witnessing dramatic shifts in the existing balance of power. Whether the AfD and Pegida in Germany, UKIP in Britain, the French Front National, the FPÖ in Austria, the Dutch Party for Freedom, Fidesz and Law and Justice, which have already come to power in Hungary and Poland respectively, Donald Trump in the US, and similar parties and movements in Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Italy and elsewhere – while these groups and developments are by no means identical, it is nevertheless obvious that in many places today, national-conservative forces are on the rise and ever more forcefully – and successfully – making a bid for power (the most recent and, perhaps, most shocking instances of this success being the Brexit in June of last year and the election of Donald Trump as president of the US in November). The essays collected in this issue tackle these and other issues connected with the rise of the new right. They address topics such as populism and ‘affective politics’, neoliberalism, political rhetoric, the Brexit, Donald Trump, gender and sexuality, ‘race’ and class, the realm of culture, as well as the role of the left, of Cultural Studies and of the university more generally. In line with Hall’s conception of intellectual work, our issue is intended not just, or even primarily, as an academic publication, but also as a political intervention. Thus, I am hopeful that it will make a contribution, even if only a small one, to the task of finding ways to understand and adequately respond to the challenge presented by the new right.

The presented paper deals with a theoretical concept of populism and analysis of political style and politics of one of the most important but also most controversial figures of Italian politics over the past few decades, Silvio Berlusconi. The main objective of this paper is to verify the initial hypothesis that Silvio Berlusconi is a pragmatic contemporary politician whose politics and the political style includes identifiable elements of populism and to answer the question whether Silvio Berlusconi, due to the theories outlined on populism, could be considered as a representative of populism and whether his case meets the definition criteria set out in the theoretical part. A secondary objective is to provide a clear overview of the conceptual aspects of populism and it' s causes and identify these on the case of Italy. The work is divided into three parts. After introduction in a second chapter the theoretical and methodological framework will be defined. With a general focus on the concept of populism we will map the contemporary theoretical knowledge concerning this issue. The paper briefly summarizes the historical development of the populist movement in contemporary Western democracies, clearly and comprehensively summarizes the defining features of the theoretical concept of populism and...