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No description available.

Denna studie undersöker Islamiska Statens nyhetskanaler, Rumiyah och Dabiq och hur de använder sig av propaganda och hatretorik gentemot västvärlden för att utkämpa ett krig. För att genomföra studien har totalt sju utgåvor av tidskrifterna studerats mellan perioden 2014–2017. På grund av begränsad forskning om Islamiska Statens ideologi, hatretorik och våldsutövning syftar denna studie till att öka kunskapen för vidare forskning. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna studien mäter är occidentalism, satanisering, jihad, accounts ochgestaltningsteorin. Arbetsmetoden bygger dokument som datakälla och på en kvalitativinnehållsanalys och med utgångspunkt i teorierna har en innehållsanalys genomförts med hjälp avolika teman i tidskrifterna Rumiyah och Dabiq. Studiens resultat visar på flertal faktorer till hur Islamiska Statens legitimerar sin våldsutövningoch hatretorik mot västvärlden. Allt från historiska händelser i mellanöstern till dagens ockupationerav västerländska krafter försämrar livsvillkoren för de som bor där. Vidare delar Islamiska Statenupp världen i två enheter där de anser ena enheten inte har likadan livsstil eller politiska system då de avviker från Islamiska Statens ideologi. Islamiska Staten använder sig av religiösa krafter och satanisering för att föra krig samt rekrytering av nya sympatisörer med hjälp av sociala medier. Islamiska Staten huvudmål är att dominera världens alla hörn. Nyckelord: Islamiska Staten, Rumiyah, Dabiq, propaganda, occidentalism, satanisering, accounts, jihad, gestaltningsteorin

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No description available.

Compulsory voting has only in recent years been explored beyond how it affects turnout. Variables such as age, sex, education and party identification, income equality and democratic legitimacy and how they affect participation are some topics that have been studied. However, no previous studies have researched how compulsory voting affects ethnic minority groups, and specifically how it affects their satisfaction with democracy. Gaining knowledge about this relationship is of importance not only to better understand how compulsory voting affects the society on the whole. Moreover, minorities’ satisfaction with democracy is of great importance in the process of consolidating democracies. In order to examine how compulsory voting affects the satisfaction with democracy among ethnic minority groups, a quantitative method is being used, analysing survey data from Latinobarómetro covering the period 2015- 2018. Based on earlier research three hypothesis are being formulated and later tested using regression models with interaction terms, resulting in significant results that identify an increased satisfaction with democracy among the indigenous population. However, the same results are not found in the case of the afro-descendent population. The study furthermore does not find any evidence for turnout being a mechanism behind the increased satisfaction among the indigenous population in countries with compulsory voting. The results indicate that compulsory voting has a positive impact on satisfaction with democracy among ethnic minority groups, but in order to better comprehend why the results differ between the indigenous population and the afro-descendent population, further research is needed.

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No description available.

A decline in railroad-building occurred in the 20th century, which made the world think of railways as something attributed to the 19th century. In the 21st century, however, so many new railway projects are planned all over the world, that I choose to call this ‘the world’s second wave of railway development’. Because of this, the development of the discipline studying railroads’ effects on democracy, peace and war has grown immensely in importance. I try to contribute to this discipline by studying railroads’ effects on democracy in small nation-states, and specifically in Jordan. I do this by conducting a theory-testing, comparative study, using the before-after research design and congruence method and by comparing Jordan with Sweden and Albania. My theory is that railroads lead to democracy and is constituted by several theories of effects of railways and Seymour Martin Lipset’s Modernization Theory. I show that railroads have promoted democracy or changes in democratic direction in all three of the studied cases and then discuss and compare these results in an analysis along with an answer to my question. I make some remarks about further studies and think that this essay is a precursor to future process-tracing studies.

This study develops a theoretical framework for the concept of sharp power and applies it on the case of TikTok to gain an understanding of how China can use sharp power through TikTok. The first research question refers to how sharp power can be conceptualized and what its key components are. The second question refers to what extent China uses sharp power through TikTok. This study used a case study as a method to answer the research questions. The key components of sharp power are manipulation, censorship, propaganda, control, and influence. The result shows that China has the ability to use TikTok in its exercise of political power, meaning that they can manipulate, censor, propagate, control, and influence through the app if they want to. One of the conclusions is that the connection between the Chinese government and TikTok is clear, but it was difficult to show a direct link based on the key components of sharp power applied to the empirical material.