This book explains how and why conspiracy theories have become such a powerful political weapon. From stolen-election claims to vaccine scepticism and global “elite” plots, conspiracy theories have moved from the political margins to the centre of public life. In an era of polarised politics, digital campaigning, and democratic backsliding, they increasingly shape elections, mobilise voters, and undermine trust in institutions.Organised around four core themes, the volume analyses ...

Moving from a social movement perspective, this timely volume examines narratives on Euroscepticism and frames on Europe from below, at the party and social movement levels. Revealing perspectives from both the Right and the Left, it unpacks the emergence, re-emergence and increase in critical ‘voices’ and opposition towards Europe.Based on extensive fieldwork in two candidate countries for accession to the EU and three member states, it offers insight from analysis of focus groups...

This book launches a proposal: to fill some empirical and theoretical gaps that presently exists in populism studies by looking at the potential nexus between populist phenomena and popular culture. It provides a detailed account of the multiple mechanisms linking the production of pop music (as a form of popular culture) to the rise and reproduction of populism. The authors use a case study of Italy to interrogate these mechanisms because of its long-lasting populist phenomena and the con...

Populism is booming across all the nuances of the political spectrum. It occupies relevant positions in national parliaments, in governmental coalitions with mainstream parties or as successful challengers of the political status quo. This volume sheds new light on the topic from different methodological and theoretical angles and offers evidence from a variety of cases on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions on populism’s emergence and consolidation in Europe over the past 30 years.The v...

This volume focuses on the relationship between the media and European democracy, as important factors of EU legitimacy. The contributors show how the media play a crucial role in making European governance accountable, and how it can act as an intermediate link between citizens and their elected and unelected representatives.The book focuses on widespread levels of Euroscepticism and the contemporary European crisis. The authors present empirical studies which problematize the rol...

How do right-wing extremist organizations throughout the world use the Internet as a tool for communication and recruitment? What is its role in identity-building within radical right-wing groups and how do they use the Internet to set their agenda, build contacts, spread their ideology and encourage mobilization? This important contribution to the field of Internet politics adopts a social movement perspective to address and examine these important questions. Conducting a comparative cont...

This book provides state of the art research by leading experts on the movement parties of the radical right. It examines the theoretical implications and empirical relevance of these organizations, comparing movement parties in time and space in Europe and beyond.The editors provide a theoretical introduction to radical right movement parties, discussing analytical frameworks for interpreting their causes, forms, and effects. In the subsequent sections of the book, chapter authors...

Are social movement organizations euro-sceptical, euro-pragmatic, or euro-opportunist? Or do they accept the EU as a new level of governance to place pressure on? Do they provide a critical capital, necessary for the political structuring of the EU, or do they disrupt the process of EU integration? This book includes surveys of activists at international protest events targeting the European Union (for a total of about 5000 interviews); a discourse analysis of documents and transcripts of ...

Contemporary China appears both deceptively familiar and inexplicably different. China is a cauldron of forms of entrepreneurship, social organization, ways of life and governance that are at once new and unique, recognizably Chinese and generically modern. In analyzing and interpreting these developments, Frank N. Pieke adopts a China-centric perspective to move beyond western preoccupations, desires, or fears. Each chapter starts with a key question about China, showing that such questio...

"The revolution will be Twittered!" declared journalist Andrew Sullivan after protests erupted in Iran in June 2009. Yet for all the talk about the democratizing power of the Internet, regimes in Iran and China are as stable and repressive as ever. In fact, authoritarian governments are effectively using the Internet to suppress free speech, hone their surveillance techniques, disseminate cutting-edge propaganda, and pacify their populations with digital entertainment. Could the recent Wes...

Using new research and considering a multidisciplinary set of factors, Contemporary China offers a comprehensive exploration of the making of contemporary China.Provides a unique perspective on China, incorporating newly published materials from within and outside China, in English and Chinese. Discusses both the societal and economic aspects of China’s development, and how these factors have affected Chinese elite politicsIncludes coverage of recent politi...

Canada is known for its inclusive citizenship and multiculturalism policies that have been largely successful in integrating an increased diversity of Canadians. In contrast to the previous approach, in 2007, the Conservative government initiated a fundamental change to make citizenship more meaningful and emphasize integration in multiculturalism. Policy Arrogance or Innocent Bias: Resetting Citizenship and Multiculturalism provides insight into the relationship between the politi...