Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Political violence – Europe'

Protests represent an extremely delicate issue for governments and authorities in terms of security and democracy. Most recently in the last decade, demonstrations have acquired a global and international characterisation, rendering these trans-national phenomena. This research is a case study which aims to contribute to the political development of Italy by analysing the policies in relation to the management of protests by using theoretical frameworks drawn from fields of social and political sciences such as Public Policy and Peace and Conflict studies. The goal of this research is to analyse events in a broader picture, investigating democratic values and state response to social movements such as protests. In other words, it seeks to answer the following questions: How was the government response conceived and what impact did this have on state values of security, democracy and justice? Considering comparable cases, what was the impact in terms of policy and practice of these strategies? How can public policy theories of social construction help to explain the government response and thus contribute to prevention of such violence in future?

In its investigation of social and political violence during the Irish Civil War, this thesis tackles the diverse range of deliberate, frightening and harmful actions—largely neglected by military and political histories of the conflict—that surfaced in local communities in Ireland during 1922–23. Through a three-county study of Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford, in the province of Munster, this thesis examines and explains violence perpetrated alongside and away from armed encounters between the anti-Treaty republican army and Free State forces. It identifies three main categories of violence: arson (the burning of houses, crops and infrastructure), intimidation (including boycott, damage to property, verbal and written threats, animal maiming, cattle driving and land seizure) and violence against the person (bodily damage or death through physical contact or the use of weapons). The thesis charts, where possible, the frequency of the violent act and, in exploring the symbolism and strategies involved in arson, intimidation and violence against the person, identifies two key functions of social and political violence. For one, targeted violence was used, during the Irish Civil War, to regulate community relations: state-sanctioned ethnic cleansing did not take place, but the religious and political minority (Protestants, ex-Servicemen and other British Loyalists) were deliberately persecuted, resulting in their flight from Munster. Land is another powerful motif in the thesis; the second key function of violence was to challenge attitudes towards rural issues and force redistribution outside the official channels. The thesis also places the Irish Civil War in perspective: the prolific bloodshed, sexual violence and gruesome torture witnessed in Central Europe, after World War I, did not become the norm in Ireland. Animals and private property bore the brunt of the severest actions in the three Munster counties. By bringing to light victims’ experiences of violence recorded in largely unexplored compensation claims, this thesis captures the complex questions of loyalty and identity—facing armed actors and officials, as well as civilians—that beset the violent and chaotic establishment of independent Ireland.

Cette thèse porte sur les initiatives et les stratégies de recherches de solutions politiques au conflit nord-irlandais, engagées par les gouvernements britanniques et irlandais depuis les années 1970. L’enjeu est d’expliquer les possibilités de solutions en privilégiant l’angle d’approche de sortie du conflit, adopté par Londres, Belfast et Dublin. L’espoir de paix en Irlande du Nord s’amorce avec le cessez-le-feu de l’IRA de 1994 qui marque un tournant dans l’histoire du conflit. Dès lors, la recherche d’une issue est engagée dans la voie du compromis [partage des pouvoirs entre la minorité catholique et la majorité protestante et lutte contre les systèmes de discrimination et d’inégalités]. Avec l’engagement de ce processus de paix et l’implication de l’Union européenne, à travers des programmes de paix et de réconciliation va émerger un désir de réconciliation intercommunautaire [entre catholiques et protestants]. L’examen de l’Accord de paix du Vendredi Saint de 1998 a révélé que l’expérience nord-irlandaise fournit un mode opératoire de négociation de sortie du conflit par un compromis suis generis. Cette configuration de la paix multidimensionnelle est devenue une métaphore européenne sur les principes de prévention et de règlement des conflits. L’émergence d’un « paradigme » nord-irlandais constitue l’objet de cette étude sur les formes de mobilisation pour la paix et la prévention des conflits dans l’Union européenne
This thesis deals with political initiatives and efforts to achieve solutions to the Northern Irish conflict, by examining policies instituted by the British and Irish Governments since the 1970s. The purpose is to explain how possible solutions to the conflict were envisioned by focusing on differing approaches to conflict resolution as adopted by London, Belfast and Dublin. The hope for peace in Northern Ireland is interconnected with the ceasefire of the IRA in 1994 that marks a turning point in the history of the conflict. Therefore, the quest for a peaceful outcome involved engagement in the path of the compromise and power sharing between the Catholic minority and the Protestant majority as well as the fight against discrimination and inequality. With the commitment of this peace process, the involvement of the European Union through peace and reconciliation programmes helped to foster a desire for inter-community reconciliation. The examination of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 reveals that the Northern Ireland experience provides a procedure to negotiate the end of the conflict by sui generis compromise. This multidimensional approach and configuration of peace process has become a European metaphor for conflict prevention and resolution principles. The object of this study is consequently to show the emergence of a Northern Irish « paradigm » that can provide the basis for forms of mobilization for peace and conflict prevention in the European Union

La violenza contro le donne è un fenomeno onnipresente in tutto il mondo ed è caratterizzata da una serie di atti psicologici, fisici, sessuali, persecutori ed economici che provocano danni e sofferenze di natura psicologica, fisica ed economica nei confronti della vittima. Alla luce dell’allarmante rilevanza di casi di violenza, durante lo scorso periodo di quarantena in Europa, il presente lavoro si propone di rispondere ad una domanda precisa ossia se si stanno facendo progressi nella lotta alla violenza contro le donne. Il fenomeno perciò è tuttora diffuso ma difficile da percepire, trattare e misurare, e per questa ragione rimane ancora ampiamente inosservato. Per rispondere alla domanda, viene analizzato con un approccio multidisciplinare il fenomeno della violenza contro le donne in tutti i suoi aspetti, con particolare riferimento alla violenza domestica e alla violenza del partner intimo. Lo studio prende in considerazione: la natura e le cause del fenomeno; le conseguenze sul benessere delle donne; le risposte date al fenomeno a livello internazionale da un punto di vista giuridico-normativo e quelle date dagli operatori che entrano in contatto con la vittima. L'obiettivo di questa tesi è quello di dimostrare come sia possibile in realtà ottenere un quadro preciso di tutti gli aspetti del fenomeno e con ciò ottenere quindi dei miglioramenti risolutivi che possono essere attuati per prevenire, affrontare ed anche diminuire tale problema.

Les médias audiovisuels exposent les adolescents à la vision de contenus sexuels sur la Toile. Dans le débat public, la disponibilité en ligne de matériel « susceptible de nuire » ou « nuisant gravement » aux enfants suscite des formes de panique morale. Une préoccupation majeure dérive des risques de nature sexuelle, comme la pornographie, la texto-pornographie et la pornographie enfantine. Au niveau politico-institutionnel européen, les mesures mises en œuvre reposent sur des solutions d'autorégulation, de co-régulation et de régulation. Parmi ces initiatives, les plus importantes ont été le programme Safer Internet et deux directives respectivement axées sur la protection des mineurs par rapport aux Services de médias audiovisuels (2010/13/UE) et sur la lutte contre les abus sexuels et l'exploitation sexuelle des enfants, ainsi que la pédopornographie (2011/92/UE). Sur le plan méthodologique, la thèse est basée sur l'analyse de 45 débats au sein du Parlement européen qui ont traité de ces questions entre 2001 et 2016. Ce corpus a été examiné au moyen d'un protocole quali-quantitatif original, avec une analyse de contenu et la méthode Alceste appliquées à l'aide des logiciels ATLAS.ti et IRaMuTeQ. La thèse souhaite contribuer à la recherche sur les médias audiovisuels et les contenus sexuels en ligne face aux adolescents et aux enfants, en proposant un point de vue original sur les enjeux politiques européens. L'hypothèse principale était que les débats parlementaires européens sont limités en termes de représentativité des cultures nationales. À partir de ce présupposé, nous avons enquêté sur les différents niveaux impliqués : juridique, scientifique, éthique et politique. Les principaux résultats renvoient aux éléments suivants : 1. la variété des interprétations politico-juridiques de certains concepts et des définitions de quelques termes, outre l'étude des principes juridiques impliqués (quatrième chapitre) ; 2. les descriptions des contenus sexuels nuisibles pour les enfants en ligne et les difficultés de la politique européenne relevées dans les débats parlementaires (cinquième chapitre) ; 3. les limites du savoir scientifique européen en termes de représentativité des cultures nationales, par l'analyse des données statistiques et des études citées (sixième chapitre) ; 4. la multiplicité des considérations éthiques, notamment sur la base des différentes cultures nationales (septième chapitre) ; 5. le choix de privilégier des mesures auto-réglementaires (huitième chapitre)
Audiovisual media expose adolescents to the vision of sexual contents on the Internet. Within public debate, online availability of material « likely to harm » or « seriously harming » children generates forms of moral panic. A major concern derives from sexual risks, such as pornography, sexting and child-pornography. At the European political-institutional level, the measures implemented are based on auto-regulatory, co-regulatory and regulatory solutions. Among these initiatives, the most important ones have been the Safer Internet programme and two directives respectively focused on children protection with regards to Audiovisual Media Services (2010/13/UE) and on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography (2011/92/UE). Methodologically, the thesis analyzes 45 debates of the European Parliament which dealt with these issues between 2001 and 2016. This corpus has been examined through an original quali-quantitative protocol, with a content analysis and the Alceste method applied via the softwares ATLAS.ti and IRaMuTeQ. This work wishes to contribute to research on audiovisual media, online sexual contents, adolescents and children, by proposing an original point of view on European policy. The main hypothesis has been that European parliamentary debates are limited in terms of representativeness of national cultures; starting from this premise, several aspects have been surveyed, either juridical, scientific, ethical and political issues. The main results respectively refer to different elements: 1. the variety of political-juridical interpretations of some concepts and the definitions of a few terms, besides the study of some juridical principles involved (fourth chapter); 2. the descriptions of online audiovisual sexual risks and the difficulties of European policy retrieved within parliamentary debates (fifth chapter); 3. the limits of European scientific knowledge in terms of representativeness of national culture, through the analysis of mentioned statistical data and studies (sixth chapter); 4. the multiplicity of ethical considerations, even based on different national cultures (seventh chapter); 5. the choice to favor self-regulatory measures (eight chapter)
I media audiovisivi espongono gli adolescenti alla visione di contenuti sessuali sulla Rete. Nel dibattito pubblico, la disponibilità online di materiale « potenzialmente » o « gravemente nocivo » per i bambini suscita delle forme di panico morale. Una preoccupazione maggiore deriva dai rischi di natura sessuale, quali la pornografia, il sexting e la pedo-pornografia. Sul piano politico-istituzionale europeo, le misure implementate si basano su soluzioni di autoregolamentazione, co-regolamentazione e regolamentazione. Tra queste iniziative, le più importanti sono state il programma Safer Internet e le due direttive rispettivamente dedicate alla protezione dei minori rispetto ai Servizi dei media audiovisivi (2010/13/UE) e la lotta contro l'abuso e lo sfruttamento sessuale dei bambini, così come la pornografia minorile (2011/92/UE). Sul piano metodologico, la tesi è basata sull'analisi di 45 dibattiti del Parlamento europeo che hanno trattato queste questioni tra il 2001 e il 2016. Il corpus è stato esaminato mediante un protocollo quali-quantitativo originale, con un'analisi del contenuto e il metodo Alceste, applicati mediante i programmi ATLAS.ti e IRaMuTeQ. La tesi desidera contribuire alla ricerca sui media audiovisivi, i contenuti sessuali online, gli adolescenti e i bambini, proponendo un punto di vista originale sulle questioni politiche europee. L'ipotesi principale è stata che i dibattiti parlamentari europei siano limitati in termini di rappresentatività delle culture nazionali ; a partire da questo presupposto, abbiamo indagato diversi livelli implicati : giuridico, scientifico, etico e politico. I principali risultati si riferiscono rispettivamente a questi diversi elementi : 1. la varietà delle interpretazioni politico-giuridiche di alcuni concetti e delle definizioni di alcuni termini, oltre che lo studio dei principi giuridici implicati (quarto capitolo) ; 2. le descrizioni dei rischi audiovisivi sessuali online e le difficoltà della politica europea rilevati nei dibattiti parlamentari (quinto capitolo) ; 3. i limiti del sapere scientifico europeo in termini di rappresentatività delle culture nazionali, attraverso l'analisi dei dati statistici e degli studi citati (sesto capitolo) ; 4. la molteplicità delle considerazioni etiche, anche sulla base delle diverse culture nazionali degli oratori (settimo capitolo) ; 5. la scelta di privilegiare delle misure auto-regolamentarie (ottavo capitolo)

In 1807, Parliament passed an Act to abolish the slave trade, leading to the Royal Navy’s campaign of policing international waters and seizing ships suspected of illegal trading. As the Royal Navy captured slave ships as prizes of war and condemned enslaved Africans to Vice-Admiralty courts, formerly enslaved Africans became “captured negroes” or “liberated Africans,” making the subjects in the British colonies. This work, which takes a microhistorical approach to investigate the everyday experiences of liberated Africans in Tortola during the early nineteenth century, focuses on the violent conditions of liberated African women, demonstrating that abolition consisted of violent contradictions that mirrored slavery.

Treaties and international organizations work together to create a global environment that protects the rights of a person and actively promotes the well-being of society. However, they do not necessarily guarantee the rights of everyone. Since women are not explicitly named in human rights documents, they are often not granted equal human rights. Therefore, it takes more than just international legal instruments to guarantee women's rights as human rights. A combination of civil society (NGOs), International organizations (IOs), and domestic government creates a perfect coalition to beat the barriers that must be overcome to fully protect women from violence.

Gender Mainstreaming ist eine gleichstellungspolitische Strategie, die daraufhin ausgerichtet ist, sämtliche Entscheidungen in einer Organisation kritisch auf ihre Auswirkungen auf die von geschlechterbezogenen Ungleichheiten unterschiedlich geprägte Lebensrealität von Frauen und Männern zu überprüfen und diesbezüglich bestehende Differenzen abzubauen. Kritik wird u. a. aufgrund der voraussetzungsreichen Umsetzung und der Gefahr, stereotype Geschlechterbilder zu verfestigen, geübt.

Gender Mainstreaming ist eine gleichstellungspolitische Strategie, die daraufhin ausgerichtet ist, sämtliche Entscheidungen in einer Organisation kritisch auf ihre Auswirkungen auf die von geschlechterbezogenen Ungleichheiten unterschiedlich geprägte Lebensrealität von Frauen und Männern zu überprüfen und diesbezüglich bestehende Differenzen abzubauen. Kritik wird u. a. aufgrund der voraussetzungsreichen Umsetzung und der Gefahr, stereotype Geschlechterbilder zu verfestigen, geübt.

Awarded the Juan J. Linz prize for 2009-2010 by the Political and Constitutional Studies Centre in Spain.
Defence Date: 3 December 2009
Examining Board: Prof. Michael Keating, Supervisor, EUI; Prof. Stathis Kalyvas, External Supervisor, Yale University; Prof. Donatella Della Porta, EUI; Prof. Juan Díez Medrano, Universidad de Barcelona
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
This thesis seeks to explain the determinants of resilient nationalist violence in Western Europe since World War II. Despite being one of the most affluent regions in the world, several episodes of nationalist violence arose from the late 1960s all over the continent. Faced with very strong states, these armed movements recurred to terrorist techniques of warfare to mobilize supporters and extract concessions from the goverment. However, some of the nationalist armed organizations succedded in building support and becoming resilient whereas many others failed and disappeared very quickly. In order to explain this variation, I contend that classical 'grievances' arguments must be complemented with 'mobilization' accounts of nationalist violence. Thus, the success of a terrorist nationalist organization in surviving does not only depend on the sources of grievance it can trigger in its fight against the state, but also on its capacity to create a large constituency of support that guarantees the steady flow of recruits, funds and legitimacy. In addition to grievances and 'mobilizational' incentives, this thesis also looks at the specific link between the political elites at the centre of the state and those holding offices at the regional level. If the dominant state-wide political forces also command the largest plurality of votes at the regional level, then state actors will have strong incentives to deal quickly with any nationalist challenge from the region under dispute. Regional politicians whose electoral fortunes depend on state-wide parties prefer reacting with some level of concessions if they expect the increase of nationalist mobilization in the absence of a positive state reaction. On the other hand, if regional politicians have autonomous sources of power - i.e., they do not run on state-wide party lists- state political actors will have more trouble in dealing with nationalist violence, since they must rely on the regional actors to assess the real demand for concessions. Whenever regional politicians are averse to change -because they anticipate that potential concessions will be paid by them-, they will advise state makers to repress nationalists. And if armed nationalists have potential to build their own constituency, state repression will contribute to that end. This combination of institutional 'unresponsiveness' and 'mobilizational' incentives can account for the existence of resilient armed nationalist organizations in Western Europe. I test this argument in two steps. First, I analyze a dataset with 30 observations of nationalist-prone European regions. The aim is to check whether the main argument fares empirically well in comparison to more standard explanations of nationalist violence. Second, I run three paired-wise comparisons to track in-depth the process of consolidation of nationalist violence. I compare the Basque Country, Corsica and Northern Ireland with Catalonia, Sardinia and Wales respectively. The main argument of the thesis works reasonably well to account for the observed variation, and it has also some implications for the potential emergence of armed nationalist movements in developing countries.

abstract: This dissertation critically examines whether and how the practices involved in the crafting of the European Union may be said to go beyond modern statecraft. European integration should in part be seen as an attempt to transcend the modern state. Among many of the early proponents of European integration, the nation state had become associated with militarism, jingoism and ultimately, at least partly, to the blamed for the many devastating wars on the European continent, and even a normative order that made the Holocaust possible. Most other studies that have dealt with the EU's alleged difference from the modern state have employed an understanding of the state which confers a certain ontological standing and status onto its purported object of study. This dissertation argues that a critical approach to European integration needs to go beyond such a representationalist, ontologizing understanding of a political entity. Instead, in order to start addressing the question of state violence that European integration emerged as a response to, the crafting of the Europe Union needs to be problematized in relation to practices of statecraft. The dissertation also contends that previous engagements of European integration in relation to the modern state have neglected engaging the broader normative horizon in which the modern Westphalian state is inscribed. The first chapter puts forward a way of understanding modern statecraft. The subsequent chapters examine four different legitimation discourses of European integration against such an understanding: EU's failed Constitutional Treaty, EU's foreign policy discourse, European integration theory, and an instance of European migration policy. The dissertation concludes that the crafting of Europe in many ways resembles the crafting of the modern state. In fact, the crafting of the European Union is plagued by similar ethical dilemmas as the modern state, and ultimately animated by a similar desire to either expel or interiorize difference.
Dissertation/Thesis
Ph.D. Political Science 2012