Demokraatia ja valitsemise õppekava magistritööd – Master´s theses

Selle kollektsiooni püsiv URIhttps://hdl.handle.net/10062/56887

Sirvi

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A "new institutional" perspective on energy policy network formation: a case study of the Central and Eastern European Sustainable Energy Network
(Tartu Ülikool, 2018) Davidovi, Giorgi; Muhhina, Kristina, juhendaja; Pagan, Hector C., juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
The research looked at the successful policy network formation process in new EU energy governance perspective and studied the CEESEN Central and Eastern European Sustainable Energy Network case. Thesis used “New Institutionalism” analytical framework to approach the successful network formation process. Thesis addressed the question of how meanings and purposes of EU new energy governance constrain and contribute to the successful emergence of policy networks in the case of the Central and Eastern European Sustainable Energy Network CEESEN. The study made tentative suggestion that the successful policy network formation happens by institutionalizing the structures of meanings via standardization, homogenization, and authorization of meanings in the case of CEESEN network. Qualitative Content Analysis was used to approach the date. Analysis consisted of 8 interviews with core and secondary network members, network materials and documentation, EU energy policy documents. Thesis brought a theoretical contribution to the institutionalization and network formation theory, provided a practical recommendation to the policy field and suggested further research avenues.
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Analysis of two models of secondary education delivery and their impact on Roma integration in Slovakia
(Tartu Ülikool, 2020) Lencsésová, Klaudia; Muhhina, Kristina, juhendaja; Petsinis, Vassilis, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
The submitted research project is focused on the analysis of two models of secondary education delivery and their impact on socio-cultural integration of Roma students in Slovakia. To improve the educational situation of Roma minority in Slovakia, several measures and strategies have been implemented by public authorities. The most current national strategy is based on the establishment of so-called elocated branches of public secondary schools that are detached schools situated near marginalized Roma communities. Their aim is to make an easier access to secondary education for Roma students as they are located in the place of Roma residence. However, along with a publicly-led model of secondary education delivery, several private providers have also decided to improve the educational situation of Roma minority. These private providers have set up private secondary schools, which call for the creation of a more inclusive curriculum and learning process compared to mainstream secondary schools. The main aim of this research is to compare and contrast how these two models of secondary education delivery impact on Roma socio-cultural integration as this aspect has not been analysed yet. The study contributes to fill the research gap in understanding of how two different secondary education delivery models, which have been established with the aim to educate Roma, influence their social and cultural integration within the learning process and a broader social community as well. Additionally, the research findings may have useful applications in other countries facing the similar educational issues related to Roma minority.
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Assessing the web-portal type of eGovernment structures and measuring their socio-economic impact on the French Metropolitan Park
(Tartu Ülikool, 2018) Chavanne, Kevin; Solvak, Mihkel, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
The use of eGovernment structures is becoming increasingly popular among public agencies due to the democratization of the Internet Communication Technologies (ICTs). Its application and impact at the public metropolitan level are however not widely studied, especially in France where the concept of the metropolis is relatively new. This research aims at assessing the degree of eGovernment development in the French Metropolitan Park, by developing an eGovernment Development Score (eGDS) focused on web-portal analysis while contributing to the comprehension of the relation between the quality of eGovernment structures and the economic development based upon a set of pre-selected economic indicators. The development of the eGDS illustrated disparities in term of eGovernment development between the metropolises studied, some group of cases performed better than others, indicating room for improvement. To better understand the impact of eGovernment on the economic indicators selected, a statistical analysis has been conducted. While the application of the statistical analysis pointed at several degrees of correlation and some causal relationships between the variables and eGDS, it weakly supports the claims of the existing literature, indicating that further investigations shall be conducted. The embryonic stage of the eGovernment structure of French metropolises, explains the mild causality between the development of the eGovernment structure and the economic variables selected. Preliminary relationships have however been observed between the eGDS and the youth unemployment rate, the dynamism for employment and the entrepreneurship satisfaction. This work provides a theoretical and empirical basis for future research willing to understand the evolution of the electronic government structure of the French Metropolitan Park.
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Between homeland and fatherland: Russian identity in Estonia and Latvia
(Tartu Ülikool, 2017) Ulasevich, Semen; Kallas, Kristina, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
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COVID 19… 84? The stringency of responses to COVID-19 across the world
(Tartu Ülikool, 2021) Romanov, Bogdan; Solvak, Mihkel, juhendaja; Kabanov, Yury, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
In December 2019, the world heard about the COVID-19 virus for the first time. It has been almost two years since the date, yet political science and public policy disciplines cannot predict or explain the stringency level of introduced anti-coronavirus measurements. This MA thesis strives to fill in the lacuna from both theoretical and empirical viewpoints. For the former aspect, the paper deconstructs the process of COVID-19 policymaking on the basis of “policy diffusion” theory by Berry and Berry (2006) and other complementary theories (i.e., “external shock”, “state capacity”, “diffusion of innovations” theories). Such a complex framework allowed the paper to unpack every element of “policy diffusion” theory and, thus, produce a more detailed description of principles within the decision-making procedure. The theory computed thirteen hypotheses, extrapolated on 185 countries in the sample, which were tested in a large-N quantitative empirical analysis via the visualisations, correlations, the OLS regressions, and Bayesian Network methods. The analysis results are the following: the salience of the coronavirus crisis (number of cases/deaths; Cases Per Capita; Case Fatality Rate) is the primary explanatory variable for the high level of stringency embedded in the policy response. At the same time, as specified in the literature, the autocracies do apply more stringent policies; the malfunctioning accountability mechanism might explain this. What is more vital in terms of policy recommendations is that sufficient healthcare capacities (i.e., the number of hospital beds and healthcare expenditures) might mitigate the side-effects of the coronavirus, thus states introduce more lenient anti-COVID-19 policies. Additionally, the population density, institutional trust, and state’s economic support have a positive association with the stringency. Apart from testing the connections between the variables, the paper has also left some clues for the following research, for instance, there is a regional pattern in terms of COVID-19 responses: some regional units might be more stringent than others.
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Critical review of the electoral reform of 2006 in Peru: the case of the electoral fines as a perverse incentive
(Tartu Ülikool, 2019) Barrientos, Felipe; Pettai, Vello, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
The main purpose of this work is to question the utility of public policies and norms adopted by the state to promote participation in elections, in this case fines as an incentive to increase voter turnout. Considering the fine as a norm that affects the economy of people, this thesis seeks to lay out if fines affect the population in different ways according to their social class. To this end, the case of Perú -- a country with mandatory voting and an electoral fine -- is analyzed. In 2006, the government carried out an electoral reform, which ultimately divided counties in the country into three categories: nonpoor, poor, and extremely poor. This public reform established that with a higher level of poverty, lower fines are imposed. In this regard, a critical analysis of this reform is made, hypothesizing that reducing the fine would affect the participation of the poorest areas more significantly than the non-poor areas. On the other hand, certain authors point out that compulsory voting systems encourage people to make an uninformed vote. In this context, Perú is among the countries with the highest invalid voting rate in the world. Thus, within a trend of low levels of participation, the electoral behavior of those who previously voted to avoid the fine evolves. By decreasing the incentives to vote, will those really interested who show up at the polls? The second axis of this thesis will be tested through the hypothesis that reducing the amount of the fine will decrease the percentage of people that mark an invalid vote, in a country with compulsory vote such as Perú.
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Democracy, economy and happiness in post-Soviet States (1995-2014)
(Tartu Ülikool, 2017) Dimitrova, Lyubomira; Ehin, Piret, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
Defining and measuring happiness has been a major topic for many generations of scholars. The contemporary discussion tackles upon the main predictors of happiness and their influence on the subject. This paper focuses on the influence of democracy and economy towards happiness, using the fifteen post- Soviet countries as cases. The data for the research has been collected from 1995 to 2014 and has been analyzed both on aggregate and individual level. The results show that on individual level both the economic status and the satisfaction with democracy have significant influence towards happiness. However, on aggregate level the income inequality appears to be the only predictor of happiness in both cases where the democracy factor is controlled for or not.
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Do parties and voters reward parliamentary behavior? Evidence from Estonia
(Tartu Ülikool, 2020) Lupacheva, Tatiana; Mölder, Martin, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
While a wide range of literature has discussed how institutional incentives account for variation in parliamentary behavior of members of parliament (MPs), what is less clear is to what extent the behavioral strategies are eventually effective for goal-seeking purposes. The thesis addresses this puzzle by examining electoral consequences of parliamentary behavior of legislators. Specifically, it looks at whether the level of parliamentary activism of MPs affects their consequent performance at candidate nomination process, defined as running for the same party and as ranking on party lists, and at electoral stage, defined as personal vote and as gaining legislative seat. Statistical analysis is applied to the data from the 2015 and 2019 legislative elections and preceding parliamentary terms in the Republic of Estonia. The empirical results show that parties and voters reward more active behavior, although the extent varies across the types of parliamentary activities and the two examined elections. These signs of parties’ and voters’ retrospective evaluation of parliamentary work have implications for understanding the mechanisms of delegation and accountability in representative democracies.
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Does presidentialism breed dictatorship - the case of Turkey and the Erdogan regime
(Tartu Ülikool, 2018) Mehdizade, Saleh; Mölder, Martin, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
This thesis inquires into presidentialism and its compatibility with democracy. Despite its poor record of achieving sustainable democracy, it is still considered a democratic form of government. Presidentialism is criticized in various ways. Problems arise due to its intrinsic institutional design or due to the political environment where presidentialism is applied. This thesis discusses presidentialism in both ways. Presidentialism and its intrinsic problems and the political environment, the case of Turkey where it is going to be applied. The aim of the thesis is to examine the presidential system and its possible effect on governmental system in Turkey. Whether Turkey will manage to protect its fragile democratic institutions or fall into dictatorship is the main question of this thesis. The thesis also includes the measurement of presidential power to give a comprehensive view on the nature of the presidential system in Turkey. The examination of the constitutional amendment and the Turkish party system reveals that the new system seems likely does not have the necessary institutional tools to provide sustainable democracy.
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Economic voting in the European Union: the impact of the EU economic integration index
(Tartu Ülikool, 2017) Nikolov, Adrian; Solvak, Mihkel, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
Economic voting has long been a popular theory, explaining voting behavior; its application to multilevel governance structures however is not widely studied. This research takes the EU as an example of multi-layered governance structure with varying democratic practices, and applies macro-level economic voting models to a sample of 141 elections in the 28 EU member states for the 1990-2016 period. In order to assess the impact of the EU on the economic voting phenomenon, a synthetic index of European economic integration was created, based on an existing methodology. The application of regression analysis on key macroeconomic factors on the support for the incumbent prime-ministerial party found that the macro-level economic voting hypothesis holds true for a number of predictors, including the growth of gross domestic product, income inequality and the effective number of parties. In the same time, the interactions with the integration index did not lead, as hypothesized, to the complete disappearance of economic effects on the vote, so it could not be claimed with certainty that European integration disqualifies the economic considerations of voters in the EU member-states.
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Effects of semi-presidentialism on party system institutionalization: does the shift to premier-presidentialism increase party system institutionalization?
(Tartu Ülikool, 2018) Pakatsoshvili, Julieta; Pettai, Vello, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
Party system institutionalization has been extensively studied in the political science scholarship, however semi-presidentialism which saw the resurgence of interest among transitional countries, and as a result also in academia at the end of the 1990s, remains loosely treated in the relevant literature. Even the studies which include semipresidentialism as a regime type, tend to overlook the significant institutional differences within semi-presidentialism. The aim of the current paper is to contribute to the understanding of party systems institutionalization in semi-presidential countries by discriminating between two sub-types within the regime which create distinct institutional arrangements, systems of accountability, and incentives for the parties involved in this system. Underlying assumption behind this research is that the shift from president-parliamentary to the premier-presidential system produces increased institutionalization in party systems, based on the more individual-centric design of the first sub-type and the more partyoriented premier-presidential system in the second. By mapping out the differences within the semi-presidential regime the paper also tries to refine the existing measurement of the party system institutionalization, in order to better account for the systematic character of interactions between parties in this regime. In order to test the hypothesis five countries which underwent the shift from presidentparliamentarism to premier-presidneitalism are examined in this study. In terms of research design, the case selection employed here will permit a study of the effects of regime type on party system institutionalization, since all five cases had underdeveloped party systems at a time of constitutional amendment that brought semi-presidentialism. The results largely support the hypothesis, four of five cases showed increased levels of PSI after the shift to premier-presidentialism, while one case deviated. Based on the empirical results, conclusion is drawn that under-institutionalized party systems under president-parliamentarism, will improve their performance if they switch to the more parti-centric system.
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Elite mythmaking on the run: the case of World War Two narrative in modern Ukraine
(Tartu Ülikool, 2017) Nekoliak, Andrii; Pääbo, Heiko, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
The thesis inquires into governmental memory politics in Ukraine in the aftermath of Euromaidan protests focusing on the representation of the Second World War. At the theoretical level, the thesis has scrutinized concepts pertaining to studies in memory politics: political memory, memory agents, elite-mythmaking, and narratives. It also conceptualized the European discourses on the Second World War in order to evaluate newly forged Ukrainian narrative on WW2 in their light. At the analysis level, the thesis both scrutinized official legislative and administrative measures pertaining to WW2 remembrance as well as applied narrative analysis to the case of newly introduced narrative about the Ukrainians in WW2 by developing a set of narrative analysis categories. As the thesis argues, elite-mythmaking selectively ‘Europeanizes’ Ukrainian representation of WW2 while the narrative follows the essential characteristics of the Eastern Central European (ECE) historical narrative about the Second World War.
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Forecasting the party support in Estonia: comparison of machine learning regression algorithms
(Tartu Ülikool, 2018) Kaasla, Kaarel; Solvak, Mihkel, juhendaja; Märtens, Kaspar, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
Forecasting political behavior using economic indicators is not a very new phenomenon with the earliest literature going back as far as the 1930s. In the present day, there exists a lot of research on the topic, but the majority of these studies have been conducted in the context of a very limited number of countries such as the United States or the Western European ones. By comparison, the research on forecasting the political behavior using economic voting in Estonia is almost non-existent. This thesis will be the first in-depth study conducted at that level and forecasts the party support of the Estonian Reform Party and the Estonian Center Party using economic indicators as the predictor variables. Based on the previous economic voting theory, it has been argued that the theoretically correct model to forecast using these variables is the linear regression due to the expected associations between the economic variables and party support. However, this thesis contests this claim and argues that when analyzing the phenomena of forecasting party support using economic indicators, certain modern machine learning algorithms could be considered as legitimate alternatives to the linear regression, as each of them addresses the different shortcomings of the model. For this reason, this thesis compares the methods of linear regression, regularized linear models, autoregressive integrated moving average, and the decision-tree models to see whether the more modern approaches are able to improve upon the default linear regression model.
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From votes to nicheness or from nicheness to votes? - the relationship between electoral fortunes and political strategies in Scandinavian countries
(Tartu Ülikool, 2018) Baghdasaryan, Naira; Mölder, Martin, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
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How can E-Government facilitate the process of immigrants’ integration? The case of new labor immigrants in Estonia
(Tartu Ülikool, 2019) Popova, Anastasiia; Solvak, Mihkel, juhendaja; Muhhina, Kristina, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
Immigrant integration is an integral part of contemporary policy. Yet, while various studies have discussed different factors that might affect integration, relatively few existing studies have devoted their attention to the impact of E-Government on migrant integration. This study intends to measure E-Government impact on immigrants’ integration. The research presents the conceptual framework for examining the linkage between E-government and integration, namely on the first stage of integration – acculturation. This is a crucial stage of integration, as identified by Favell, 2003. This paper demonstrates the experience of new Estonian labor migrants. The findings illustrate Estonian new labor migrants’ experience of the adaptation process, indicating the positive and negative impacts of E-Government. The study contributes a valuable illustration of new migrants’ experience in Estonia, and recommends a series of solutions, such as improved access to alternate languages, and access to e-Governance awareness training, as part of the welcome programme for new migrants to Estonia.
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Implementation of patient-centered care in primary medical care reform in Ukraine 2018-2020: an exploratory study of stakeholder perceptions in Kiev and Ivano-Frankivsk
(Tartu Ülikool, 2021) Riznychuk, Olga; Muhhina, Kristina, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
The Master’s Thesis is focused on the perceptions of patient-centered care by different stakeholders on the primary health care level in Ukrainian two cities, Kiev and Ivano-Frankivsk. To improve the quality of primary health care services in Ukraine, population health in general and make sure that the citizens are provided with equal access to health care services at all levels, the new health care reforms were implemented by the Ministry of Health in late 2017. An essential role in these reforms is the focus on the patient, the so called, patient-centered care (PCC), which should improve the quality of care, make the primary care level more reliable and leave satisfied patients and doctors. This is a comparatively new approach for Ukraine, as before there was a doctor-centered model where the patient’s point of view was not required, as the healthcare sector worked just as a system and for the system. There is evidence that doctors are not ready for this new approach as they were always considered as the center of the system and were in charge of the patient’s health. Therefore, the aim of the research is first of all to find out the main objectives of the PCC approach and understand the perception of PCC from different stakeholders' viewpoints, because the literature review demonstrated that there should be the same understanding of the certain element of the reform by all stakeholders in order to have a successful reform implementation. Last but not least, it is also important to find out how PCC contributes to the quality of care. It is also important to compare and contrast the findings from both cities and to see how the reform is implemented and whether there are different understandings of the PCC approach. The research contributes to the understanding of the PCC approach in health care not only in Ukraine but to the literature regarding PCC. The researcher also identified policy implications that can be introduced for improving the reform implementation process in Ukraine. Additionally, the research findings may have useful applications in other countries who still suffer from the doctor-centered or system-centered healthcare system and wish to implement another approach in health care. The framework may be also useful for conducting similar research.
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Improving public service delivery of transportation in Tbilisi through fiscal decentralisation: lessons from the Dutch case
(Tartu Ülikool, 2019) Kakhadze, Tatia; Muhhina, Kristina, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
During the last couple of decades, after establishing a sovereign state, Georgia has been experiencing challenges with the performance of its public service delivery systems. Recently the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia has proposed an innovative decentralisation strategy, which provides a perfect opportunity for exploring the policy options that could be used to improve the overall performance of the public service provision in Georgia. One of the challenges mentioned above is the public transportation system of the capital. Tbilisi strives to have a well-functioning public transportation system; however, current policies cannot keep up with the rapid development and the growth of the city. The Dutch case of decentralisation of the transportation policy is explored in this thesis to seek opportunities for lesson-drawing that could assist Tbilisi in tackling its public transportation problems, and in re-designing its public transportation system. More particularly, the goal of the thesis is to examine how Tbilisi can improve its public service delivery of transportation through fiscal decentralisation while applying Dutch experience in this particular field. This thesis outlines three policy issues in Tbilisi, which includes a lack of performance of the public transportation companies, missing public transport planning and operating systems, and a modest share of the public transport usage, and proposes solutions to these issues by analysing the Dutch case of fiscal decentralisation. The results of this thesis demonstrate that there are multiple lesson-drawing/policy transfer opportunities that could be helpful in addressing the policy challenges in Tbilisi including fiscal decentralisation in terms of expenditure assignment and intergovernmental transfers, as well as, privatisation with the means of competitive tendering. Nevertheless, the research also acknowledges the limitations of policy transfer and the potential constraints of lesson-drawing in policy design.
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Invented traditionalism vs. entrenched informal institutions: viability of hybrid governance in Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland
(Tartu Ülikool, 2017) Lagurashvili, Tamari; Pettai, Vello, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
Hybrid Governance as a coexistence of state and traditional institutions challenges conventional understanding of state fragility/failure and offers a new perspective for developing states. Being capable of overcoming a modern-traditional dichotomy, hybrid governance represents fluidity of formal-informal institutional setup where the informal actors including Bigmen, chiefs or other traditional leaders complement the state capacity. Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland as three Southern African states being subject to the British colonial rule are notable examples of different forms of hybrid governance, where the pre-colonial state formation blended with the “imported” colonial state resulted in the institutional dualism. However, the divergent political transition witnessed across the countries questions the viability of hybrid governance and requires a closer analysis of how conducive such institutional mixture can be to democratic transition. This study builds on the premise that higher importance of traditional institutions vis à vis the state can be less conducive to democratization due to inherent incompatibility of the indigenous traditional tenets with democracy and reflects on the role of pre-colonial state and colonial legacy in molding hybrid governance.
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Limits and opportunities of the EU conditionality policy in the area of anti-corruption: the case of visa liberalization in Ukraine
(Tartu Ülikool, 2020) Cherchatyi, Pavlo; Muhhina, Kristina, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
The thesis explores the limits as well as the opportunities the EU conditionality policy has beyond the legal borders of the Union. To attain the research objective, the research zeroes in on Visa Liberalization Action Plan in Ukraine and sets out to apply three theoretical assumptions identified in the scholarship on conditionality critique: (1) rule adoption versus rule application, (2) domestic costs as well as (3) EU’s own strategy. By constructing the conceptual framework around these three dimensions the thesis aims at eliciting the limits in the case of Ukraine, but not limited to identifying other limits. The ways how to improve the conditionality policy constitutes the second objective of the research. In terms of data collection, the research has conducted five interviews with experts in the field of EU conditionality and anti-corruption. In order to ensure the validity, the thesis used the “triangulation method”. Therefore, document-analysis was used to complement the main finding of the research. With regard to results, the research has identified that low rule application within the first dimension has multiple reasons: insufficient operationalization of conditions, non-holistic approach, and the EU’s own tolerance to unfulfilled conditions as well as only formal compliance by elites that does not presuppose effective application of the rule. With regard to the second theoretical expectation, the research has revealed that local resilience is a serious factor that limits the conditionality policy. “Vested interests” was found as a pivotal factor in this respect. Lastly, EU’s strategy is not sustainable and since there is no clear vision on how the EU should proceed after the conditionality is completed, the EU loses leverage over structural anti-corruption reforms, which raises the questions of effectiveness and sustainability of such policy more generally. With regard to opportunities, the EU should follow the improvements of both operational as well as strategic levels. Therefore, better precision of condition is needed, better decision-making, concrete and realistic benefits from the EU, more complementarity within conditions as well as more bottom-up approach should be enacted.
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Making America Great, Again through memes: a qualitative content analysis of a Trump-based populism in user-generated memes
(Tartu Ülikool, 2020) Haynes, Amanda; Muhhina, Kristina, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Sotsiaalteaduste valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Johan Skytte poliitikauuringute instituut
Although populism is much-discussed, global trend, attempts to define it have been contentious, unsatisfactory, and often accomplished without the input of the populists themselves. The latest emergence of this political phenomenon has often been linked to “online opportunities” (Engesser et. al, 2017) which help to facilitate and spread such populist ideologies. One strand, a Trump based populism, has even been blamed on the supporters’ use of internet memes leading up to the election, and cited in Trump’s ultimate victory. This research examines the use of such memes to define the content of this ideology from the populi, themselves. Using Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA), it will attempt to discover how the people who make and use memes in support of Donald Trump, define their own ideology by looking at indicators of the “others,” the “general will,” “the people,” and the “elites.” Memes were taken and analyzed from The_Donald subreddit, from which a definition is composed and several insights pertaining to memes are highlighted. This ideological construction is useful when trying to understand elements of populism in the digital age, and works as a record of an emerging and misunderstood political phenomenon.

Sirvi

Sirvi Demokraatia ja valitsemise õppekava magistritööd – Master´s theses Pealkiri järgi