Terrorism has been a highly salient issue in Europe for the past decades and is treated as an immediate threat to the states and citizens. This study focuses on the 2015-2019 terrorism wave and...Show moreTerrorism has been a highly salient issue in Europe for the past decades and is treated as an immediate threat to the states and citizens. This study focuses on the 2015-2019 terrorism wave and seeks to identify why states with similar characteristics respond differently to a common threat; through a comparative analysis of the cases of France and the United Kingdom. A securitization framework is applied to examine what ultimately leads to the variation of the actions in the two cases. The expectation is that intense securitization leads to a militaristic response, while low securitization levels lead to a criminal justice approach. The empirical analysis lends support to this argument; however, this study finds it possible that other explanatory factors might be interrelated to the proposed mechanism, influencing the result. This thesis, uses a framework of analysis that links the aspects of security and terrorism and endeavors to further contribute to the study of these topics.Show less
This thesis aims to contribute to understanding how a competitive authoritarian leader manages to increase popular support in a situation where an electoral democracy experiences democratic...Show moreThis thesis aims to contribute to understanding how a competitive authoritarian leader manages to increase popular support in a situation where an electoral democracy experiences democratic backsliding. After the failed coup attempt on 15 July 2016 in Turkey, Erdogan put the constitution aside and launched a new model for governing the state with decree laws under the state of emergency. However, Erdogan won the elections held in the following years by increasing his vote share, although he had explicitly turned into a repressive, authoritarian leader. In this study, I investigated how Erdogan strengthened his popular support in the elections held after 2016, despite his authoritarian turn and the deterioration of the socio-economic structure of the state. I focused on the manipulations carried out by the incumbents in the elections held after 2016 and tested whether these manipulations affected the election results in favour of Erdogan. I conducted a content analysis using the qualitative research method to explore this. Ultimately, I argue that the analysis of the data collected for this study provides strong evidence that election manipulations may have significant effects on the election results in favour of Erdogan.Show less
The study explores the shift in anti-immigrant discourse of the French far-right party leadership with regard to the Ukrainian refugee crisis. A discourse analysis of the tweets and their...Show moreThe study explores the shift in anti-immigrant discourse of the French far-right party leadership with regard to the Ukrainian refugee crisis. A discourse analysis of the tweets and their accompanying media for Marine Le Pen (RN) and Éric Zemmour (R!) was conducted for the presidential campaign and election period of February to April 2022. The material selected was coded through ATLAS.ti into themes informed by the literature review and the theoretical framework. The findings indeed confirm a shift in emerging discourse, whereby solidarity towards and welcoming of Ukrainian refugees is grounded on the pretense of the traditional Christian spirit of providing asylum as well as their cultural and geographic proximity. Simultaneously, the limits of the Christian spirit towards non-European asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants was justified through discourse relying on neo-racist rhetoric based on ‘cultural differentialism’. These arguments often encompass non-European refugees fleeing from Ukraine.Show less
