Three models are developed to analyze the state level conditions fostering the rise of far right parties in the European Union in the last two decades. The political background of these parties is examined. This study offers a definition for far right parties, which combines several previous attempts. The research has focused on the effects of the number of the parties, immigration, and unemployment on support for the far right in Europe. Empirical tests, using a random effects model of fifty elections in eight nations, suggest that there are political, social, and economic conditions that are conducive to electoral success. Specifically, increases in the number of "effective" parties favor the far right, while electoral thresholds serve to dampen support. Immigration proves to be a significant variable. Surprisingly, changes in crime and unemployment rates have a negative effect on support for the far right. Suggestions for future research are offered.

Syftet med den här kvalitativa innehållsanalysen har varit att undersöka hur ett högerpopulistiskt nyhetsmedie kontra ett traditionellt nyhetsmedie gestaltar knivdådet på Ikea i Västerås samt skolattacken i Trollhättan som skedde med kort mellanrum hösten 2015. De båda dåden fick stor uppmärksamhet och den redan intensiva debatten om invandring blossade upp ytterligare. Detta på grund av att dådet i Västerås begicks av en asylsökande, och det i Trollhättan av en ung svensk man med högerextrema åsikter som valde sina offer utifrån deras etniska ursprung.Det teoretiska ramverket innehåller tidigare forskning om alternativmedier, populism och journalistik. Vi har valt att använda oss utav två betydande teorier inom medieforskningen. Först gestaltningsteorin, främst med Scheufele och Entmans forskning som utgångspunkter. Sedan diskurs, med forskning av Foucalt och Fairclough. Valet av metod till vår studie är kritisk diskursanalys. Detta för att metoden lämpar sig väl för att undersöka politiska budskap i texter och tyda gestaltningar och diskurser. Det studerade materialet består utav fyra stycken nyhetsartiklar, två för respektive nyhetshändelse. Två stycken artiklar från den högerpopulistiska nättidningen Fria Tider samt två stycken från den mer etablerade morgontidningen Dagens Nyheter. Dessa jämförde vi sedan med varandra i en komparativ studie. Diskurser i dessa nyhetsartiklar har brutits ut med hjälp av ett analysschema för att operationalisera vårfrågeställning. Resultaten visar på två helt skilda nyhetsdiskurser och olika sätt att gestalta händelserna. Fria Tider gestaltar händelser till förmån för sin invandringskritiska agenda medans Dagens Nyheter agerar som en slags motpol med en betydligt mer objektiv gestaltning av händelserna. Den här studien vill bidra till förståelsen för vårt polariserade medieklimat, samt den oberoende journalistikens viktiga roll i samhället i en tid av nedskärningar och mediekonvergens. Det behövs en öppnare samhällsdebatt om frågor gällande invandring och kriminalitet för att inte ytterligare öka polariseringen av medielandskapet. / The purpose with this essay is to study how a right-wing populist alternative news medium, versus a more mainstream news medium, reports on two different news events. First off is the stabbings at the furniture store Ikea in Västerås, second is the attack on students at a middle school in Trollhättan by a masked adolescent armed with a sword. Both of which took place in the fall of 2015 in Sweden. Both events gained much attention from the news media, and sparked the already intense political debate on immigration issues. This due to the facts that the perpetrator at Ikea in Västerås was a refugee seeking asylum in Sweden, and the masked assailent in Trollhättan showed interest in right-wing extremist content on the internet as well as targeting students and faculty of immigration background.The theoretical framework consists of earlier research on populism, alternative media as well ason traditional journalism. We chose to work mainly with two distinguished theories within media and communication studies. The first theory is framing, based mainly on research done by Scheufele and Entman. The second theory is discourse, as defined by Foucalt and Fairclough. The method used for the study is a critical discourse analysis. This method together with the twotheories have been proven useful when studying political discourses and framing in political news articles similar to the ones we picked for our essay. The material used for this study consists off our news articles of which two are linked to each news event or “case”. Two of the articles are published by Fria Tider, a right-wing populist alternative news medium, while the other two by Dagens Nyheter, a well established and more mainstream oriented morning news paper. Different frames and discourses have been revealed in the material after our analysis, based on our schematics in an attempt to operationalise.The results points towards two widely different news discourses and ways of framing the news content. Fria Tider portrait the events in favour of their agenda of critical views on immigration and immigrants, whereas Dagens Nyheter acts as a counterpart with far more objective framing of the events. This study seeks to build a better understanding of today’s polarised media landscape, as well as the importance of independent journalism and news media in a society where the mass media experience cutbacks and convergence. A more explicit and honest public debate regarding immigrational issues is needed, to avoid further polarisation of the media landscape.

Auf Grundlage einer qualitativen Text- und Inhaltsanalyse, die sich auf zentrale Schriften des völkischen Nationalismus stützt, untersucht die Studie die antisemitische Großstadtwahrnehmung der völkischen Bewegung in den Jahren zwischen 1902 und 1940. Im empirischen Material werden drei zentrale Topoi identifiziert: Eine Personifizierung des Verstädterungsprozesses in den Juden, die rassentheoretische Annahme einer unterschiedlichen Anpassungsfähigkeit von Juden und Deutschen an das moderne Großstadtleben und die Darstellung der Großstädte als ein System der Verführung und sexuellen Pervertierung, für das Juden verantwortlich gemacht werden. Die Studie kann zeigen, dass Juden und Jüdinnen einerseits eine besondere Eignung für das Großstadtleben zugeschrieben wird und dass die modernen Großstädte andererseits als Versinnbildlichung von als „jüdisch“ apostrophierter Ideen gesehen werden (Geldwirtschaft, Kosmopolitismus, „Genusssucht“ etc.). Die Untersuchung leistet zudem einen Beitrag zur anhaltenden Diskussion über das Verhältnis des völkischen Antisemitismus zur Moderne, in dem sie nachweist, dass der völkische Nationalismus durch eine disparate Großstadt- und Technikrezeption geprägt ist: Die technisch-wissenschaftliche Rationalität der Moderne ist mit völkischem Denken vereinbar, das moderne Großstadtleben hingegen nicht.

Wie kann "Forschendes Lernen" noch besser in die politikwissenschaftliche Lehre integriert werden? Dieser Frage gingen sechs Lehrende an den sächsischen Universitäten Dresden, Leipzig und Chemnitz im Wintersemester 2015/2016 mit einem gemeinsam entworfenen Projektseminar unter dem Titel "Rechtsextremismus und Zivilgesellschaft" nach. Im Interview berichten die Beteiligten von ihren Konzeptionen und deren Umsetzung.

Like elsewhere in Europe, the tides of nationalist right-wing rhetoric in Sweden have become instrumental in generating a wave of anti-liberal and anti-immigration sentiments in politics and media. In particular, one branch of right-wing alternative media has become a breeding ground for normalizing such rhetoric. Does the anti-immigration stance in such media disguise racist inclinations? In this thesis we examine the discourse of three right-wing alternative media sites in Sweden to explore the possible employment of different types of racism in their articles. By taking the constructivist viewpoint and adopting the post-colonial conceptions of the 'Self' and the 'Other', racist discourse was analyzed and characterized as either biological or cultural. From these two theories, we derived concepts concerning descriptions of contemporary and ideal Swedish society that will be used as further indicators of racist discourses. In this single case study, 94 articles from Fria Tider, Nya Tider, and Samhällsnytt were analyzed on the topics of immigration, integration and crime through a qualitative content analysis. The results show that most of the articles contain cultural racist discourse.

Utilizada para reprimir movimentos sociais e manter a ordem, a polícia é tradicionalmente identificada com os interesses da direita. No Brasil, a criação da Polícia Militar no contexto político da ditadura civil-militar instaurada no país em 1964 facilita essa associação. No entanto, se por um lado policiais militares tendem a se aliar politicamente a setores da população que se opõem a instrumentos de responsabilização da polícia, encarados como fatores que dificultam o trabalho policial, por outro, são servidores públicos que reivindicam melhores condições de trabalho, o que abre a possibilidade para que se aproximem da esquerda ou pelo menos se distanciem da direita neoliberal. Alguns dos candidatos a deputado estadual mais votados em São Paulo são oriundos da Polícia Militar. O presente trabalho almeja investigar se os deputados da Assembleia Legislativa do Estado de São Paulo oriundos da Polícia Militar, das 14ª, 15ª e 16ª legislaturas (1999-2011), são responsivos ao eleitorado de direita; se adotam pontos de vista homogêneos sobre diversos temas (militarização da polícia, corrupção policial, missão da Polícia Militar, policiamento comunitário, ditadura, política criminal, movimentos sociais etc.); e como exercem a defesa dos interesses da Polícia Militar, uma corporação marcada por inúmeros conflitos internos, principalmente entre praças e oficiais. Para tanto, pesquisou-se em que zonas eleitorais esses deputados são proporcionalmente mais votados; problematizou-se a associação entre sensação de insegurança, defesa de bandeiras repressivas, percepção da corrupção e o voto em candidatos e partidos de direita; identificaram-se seus projetos de lei; compararam-se suas votações em plenário na 16ª legislatura (2007-2011); analisaram-se seus discursos na tribuna da ALESP, que foram contrastados com pesquisas de opinião pública, pesquisas de opinião de policiais militares e literatura sobre subculturas policiais. Da mesma forma, o trabalho discute as possíveis razões que levam policiais militares a se candidatarem a uma vaga no Poder Legislativo estadual. / The police are used to repress social movements and to keep the order, and are traditionally identified with the right wing interests. In Brazil, the Military Police was created within the political context of the civil/military dictatorship established in 1964 and eases such association; however, if on one hand military policemen tend to politically ally themselves with the population sectors contrary to instruments that hold the police liable, faced as factors making police work more difficult, on the other hand, military policemen are public servants claiming for better work conditions, and there is the possibility of they getting nearer to the left wing, or at least distancing themselves from the neoliberal right wing. Some candidates for deputies of the House of São Paulo State Legislative derive from the Military Police. The aim of this work is to investigate whether the deputies of the House of Representatives of the State of São Paulo from the Military Police, in the 14th, 15th and 16th legislatures (1999-2011), are responsive to the right wing electors, if they adopt similar viewpoints on several themes (police militarization, police corruption, Military Polices mission, community policing, dictatorship, criminal policy, social movements, etc.), and how they defend the Military Polices interests, a corporation marked by uncountable internal conflicts, mainly among police force and officers. For such purpose, the following issues were addressed: research about in which electoral zones those deputies are proportionally more voted; where one can see the connection among feeling of insecurity, defense of repressive flags, perception of corruption and voting in right wing candidates and parties; identification of their bills of law; their votes in plenary sessions in the 16th legislature (2007-2011) are compared; their speeches at ALESPs tribune are analyzed and contrasted with public opinion polls, opinion polls with military policemen and the literature on police subcultures. Likewise, the work discusses the possible reasons for military policemen running for an office in the State Legislative.

Nowadays, liberal democratic societies comprise the breeding ground for thriving right-wing populist parties. They share the “fundamental core of ethno-nationalist xenophobia, (…) and anti-political establishment populism” (Rydgren, 2004 p.475). Coeval research has acknowledged the threat that is entailed in the bespoken phenomenon; yet, its account is incomplete.  This study follows Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, in objecting to the individualist and rationalist tenets that inform previous research, to accentuate a neglected lens on the thrive of right-wing populism in Western liberal democracies. Their discourse theoretical frame was herein used as both theory and method, in a discourse analysis of the Alternative für Deutschland’s (AfD) identity in German online newspaper discourse. The empirical material comprised 97 articles from Germany’s most popular national daily newspapers, which reported on the AfD in parliament, an AfD demonstration in Berlin, and the AfD’s youth organisation’s congress throughout April, May and June 2018. Ultimately, the study arrived at the conclusion that the sampled newspaper discourse identified ‘us’, the ‘benevolent democrats’ via the exclusion, and rejection of ‘them’, the ‘wicked right-wing populists’. Since such relation was markedly antagonistic proper, newspaper discourse may be considered to have contributed to the recent thrive of right-wing populism in Germany.

Abstract Title: Konstruktionen av sverigedemokraternas väljare Author: Magnus Persson & Max Lindberg Tutor: Leonor Camauër Course: Bachelor thesis, Media and communication.   The aim of this essay is to use a Critical Discourse Analytical (CDA) approach to analyse the construction of the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) voters in news articles to see if and how they are separated as a group from the Swedish democratic community. This aim is broken down into two questions. How are the Sweden Democrats (SD) voters constructed in news articles in Dagens Nyheter (DN) and Aftonbladet (AB) regarding the aftermath of the national elections? What differences are there between the portrayal of the Sweden Democrats voters and the agents that are used as opposition to them? To answer these questions we have used CDA. We have taken our approach from a modified version of Teun Van Dijks CDA model for analysing news articles. Theoretically we have a CDA approach, we also use theory regarding “the other”. The methodological tools we have used are primarily analysis for Global and Local Coherens, analysis of lexicalization and Faircloughs analysis of Framing. We have also analysed the thematic and schematic structures of the news articles. The analysis is based on a schema and from that schema we have analysed nine news articles selected from a time period of seven days after the Swedish national elections in 2010. Four of the articles come from AB and five from DN. From our analyses we have identified three themes. The first one is common for both DN and AB. It is a theme where the SD voters are consistently portrayed as being dissatisfied both on a political and a social level. AB has also had a tendency to enter articles from a position that expects to find that SD is dependent on a climate of conflict between different social groups to be able to grow regionally. In DN we have found a theme where SD voters are portrayed as less politically aware and generally less knowledgeable than those who vote for the other parties of the Swedish parliament. Keywords: Critical discourse analysis, Sweden Democrats, Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, the others, political, right wing, populism.

This paper is a case study of the Sweden Democrats with the aim to better understand the nature of the immigrant-critical nationalist parties, often referred to as right-wing extremist, right-wing populist etc. who has had success in several countries, and their ideological roots. A comparative descriptive analysis has been done of the ideas of the Sweden Democrats' ideology, with the aim to identify and examine the presence of fascism ideas in SD's ideology. On the basis of the existing research has an ideal type been formulated what fascism most basic ideas are. With this idealtype as an analytical tool has SD's party platform, political speeches, SD-kuriren and Jimmie Åkesson's book, etc. been analyzed. It has been possible to demonstrate the similarities and differences between the SD's and fascist ideas. Ideas of SD which is also a typical feature of fascism is the opposition to the conduct of immigration policy and to stop or limit immigration which appears as the party's most prominent idea that is also a typical feature of fascism. The myth of the betrayed people's home “Folkhemmet” appears to be a typical "mystical core" in the SD's thinking which is similar to the example stab-in-the-back legend of Nazism. The idea about the third way and a excluding nationalism that sees diversity as a threat is common within fascism while the differences is that the SD profess democracy and denounces anti-democratic ideas. SD is like the fascists not pacifists but has not, moreover, any typical fascist ideas on the war in its program. The multicultural society is considered a threat, which is similar to the ideas of fascism, and SD considers that a culture war is going on, especially with Islam. SD has some ideas in common with fascism that indicates continuity from the interwar fascism. Other ideas differ from the ideas of fascism, which shows that the party has been partly done up with its ideological roots. The type of thought structures identified in the analysis of the Sweden Democrats have several ideas in common with the fascist discourse, but there are also similarities with the humanist Enlightenment discourse in the affirmation of democracy.

Terror management theory predicts that when people are reminded of their own mortality (mortality salience), they cling more strongly to cultural worldviews which provide them with a sense of security (Greenberg et al., 1986). For some people, this reaction to mortality salience also involves derogation of, and discrimination against, “other” people and cultures. An increasing tendency towards sensationalism in the news media has resulted in even more frequent reminders of vulnerability and death (e.g., terrorism, violent crime, health and safety concerns). In two experiments involving 868 introductory psychology students, the present research examined the extent to which their (a) support for authoritarian social policies relevant to Canada and (b) authoritarian attitudes in general are influenced by mortality salience. Specifically, right-wing authoritarianism, attachment security, and political orientation were measured in participants in both experiments. Participants were then prompted to think about either their own mortality or about another aversive experience having nothing to do with mortality. Next, participants were asked their opinions regarding authoritarian social policies (Experiment 1) and beliefs indicative of right-wing authoritarianism (Experiment 2). Multiple regression, analysis of variance, and t-tests revealed that individuals with (a) high pre-existing right-wing authoritarian attitudes and (b) conservative political beliefs increased their support for authoritarian social policies following mortality salience (Experiment 1). In contrast, individuals with (a) high attachment security and (b) moderate political beliefs decreased their support for right-wing authoritarian beliefs following mortality salience (Experiment 2), although the former relationship only approached statistical significance. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the news media, for social policies and political opinions, and for social justice.