The 2016 Primaries were anything but ordinary: Trump and Cruz represented anti-establishment figures promising to fundamentally alter how the US operated. This thesis investigates the two...Show moreThe 2016 Primaries were anything but ordinary: Trump and Cruz represented anti-establishment figures promising to fundamentally alter how the US operated. This thesis investigates the two forerunners in the Republican Primary and how they utilised different discourses in their bid for The White House. Of particular interest are religious discourses as early commentators discounted Trump’s potential electability among ‘value-voting’ Evangelicals; and populist discourses, as both candidates utilised people’s disaffection with the contemporary system and the discourses surrounding immigrants and other non-American groups to mobilise supporters. To achieve its objectives, this thesis considers twelve speeches by Cruz and Trump that were given during the competitive leg of the 2016 Republican Primary (1st February to the 3rd May). Content and discourse analysis are used, finding that the candidates differed on their use of religious discourse; however, used similar populist discourse. Given the similarity in populist discourses and advantages Cruz had with his religious background the conclusion is drawn that it is not the content that distinguishes Trump, but perhaps his style.Show less
Recognition has been established as a right in political theory, with the argument that it is connected to justice since misrecognition can inflict injury to one’s identity. Meanwhile in political...Show moreRecognition has been established as a right in political theory, with the argument that it is connected to justice since misrecognition can inflict injury to one’s identity. Meanwhile in political theory there is debate about whether recognition drives out redistribution or that redistribution will eventually follow from recognition, however empirical evidence is scarce. One cross-national analysis by Banting et al. (2006) analysed the effect of multicultural recognition policies on redistribution, but concluded that there was no correlation between recognition and redistribution. Nancy Fraser (2000) made a distinction between two different kinds of recognition politics: status and identity politics. She claims that the latter drives out redistribution, while status politics does not. This thesis looks at whether the difference between identity politics and status politics can explain why recognition and redistribution are not correlated in the study by Banting et al., and if identity recognition policies indeed drive out redistribution. The performed cross-national statistical analysis does not support the hypothesis that multicultural identity policies drive out redistribution. However the data does hint in this direction.Show less
Political corruption is a more or less universal phenomenon, but occurs much more frequently in some places than in others. This variation has been attributed to a range of factors on which...Show morePolitical corruption is a more or less universal phenomenon, but occurs much more frequently in some places than in others. This variation has been attributed to a range of factors on which countries perform either poorly or well. Yet, political corruption also occurs in countries that seem to perform well on most known indicators. As this has been an object of little scholarly attention, it remains largely unclear how we can explain the occurrence of political corruption in ‘unlikely places’; countries where such corruption is theoretically least likely to occur. This study explores the contours of an explanation by investigating a particular case in-depth: the case of Jos van Rey. The results suggest four potential explanations, that range from conceptual issues to the possibility that political corruption in unlikely places is to some extent unique, and driven by a distinct set of factors.Show less
War videogames support and reproduce neo-imperialist rhetoric and world views. Videogames, due to their interactive nature, differ from any other cultural product and allow the consumer (player) to...Show moreWar videogames support and reproduce neo-imperialist rhetoric and world views. Videogames, due to their interactive nature, differ from any other cultural product and allow the consumer (player) to actively participate in the embedded narratives present in any game. In the following thesis, interviews with members of the military have been carried out and five videogames have been considered in the analysis (America’s Army: Proving Grounds, Airman Challenge, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Battlefield 3 and Arma 3). Through a Gramscian approach, benefiting from concepts such as hegemony and persuasion and the understanding of ideas as material forces, and the use of audiovisual methods, the research has explored the role of absence and impossibility in the reproduction of hegemonic worldviews in war videogames.Show less
After the Paris attacks on November 13th, 2015, the French government sought to implement counter-terrorism strategic communications amongst other counter-radicalization measures. These measures...Show moreAfter the Paris attacks on November 13th, 2015, the French government sought to implement counter-terrorism strategic communications amongst other counter-radicalization measures. These measures were focused on media-based campaigns, which included several social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and an educational website launched by the government: stop-dijhadisme.gouv.fr. This thesis focuses on one particular anti-jihadist media campaign called: #Toujourslechoix. The campaign was launched in November 2016 and although it is no longer being showcased across French educational institutions, till today the visual campaign is still used as a means to spread awareness and can easily be found on the government’s counter-radicalization website. Although the campaign received praise for reaching a large audience, the effectiveness of the campaign as an actual measure to combat radicalization remains contested. The debate surrounding counter-radicalization measures revolves around whether they are deemed effective, Islamophobic or simply ineffective, however scholars fail to address the reason as to why these measures, particularly these visual campaigns, are still being implemented. This thesis proposes to analyze the case study from the perspective of visual framing theory to answer the research question. This theory can successfully explain how social actors use visual frames to communicate certain messages. As such, this thesis argues that by using secondary frames the French government in fact always targets two audiences through two objectives: the first objective being that these visual campaigns should prevent a certain audience to radicalize and the second objective consists of the government also aiming to reassure the French population that the government is taking political action to combat Jihadism in France through these programs. The frames that the French government utilized serve the purpose of achieving these two aforementioned objectives. By using visual methods to analyze the two interactive governmental videos, this thesis will seek to reveal the first and second frames the government uses and will primarily highlight the secondary audience. This thesis concludes that although the primary target audience is the French Muslim community, visual indicators point towards the secondary audience being the non-Muslims of France, who have criticized the government for not implementing harsher counter-radicalization measures.Show less
