Opvallend bij de jongste stembusgang in de Verenigde Staten, voor tussentijdse verkiezingen, was de opkomst van hashtag #iVoted. Bekend en onbekend Amerika zette zichzelf op de foto met de sticker die je krijgt als je hebt gestemd. The Late Show riep kijkers op om hun stemfies in te sturen en maakte …

2007, the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning took the initiative to issue the social building blocks: real estate for facilities. This has been the first attempt to deal with social real estate professionally as an asset. In 2008 the professorship of public real estate started with its first Barometer …

The Dutch ‘NO’ during the Dutch referendum regarding the treaty establishing the European Constitution in 2005 was considered a political earthquake for the integration process of the European Union. A high percentage of ‘NO’-voters (>80%) lived in the five Dutch municipalities of Urk, Reiderland, Staphorst, …

Populist parties have received a great amount of attention in the last decade. Scholars agree on the fact that populism addresses issues that are relevant for the majority. However, the established political elites do not discuss and address these issues clearly. Therefore, populist parties stir up …

Since the 1960s, the structure of the German population has significantly changed as a result of a number of migration waves. This structural change, and the fact that is was rather ignored by German governments, created a democratic deficit. Large parts of the permanent population were structurally …

Since Sweden joined the European Union in 1995, the nature of its political decisionmaking processes have changed. Instead of creating laws purely based on the mandate of Swedish citizens, a portion of Sweden’s national legislation is now created taking the input of the 27 other EU Member States into …

Silvio Berlusconi was Italy's longest serving Prime Minister since the Second World War. As Prime Minister, he exercised control over the three public television channels in Italy. The combination of a strong political figure that controls large parts of public media and has considerable business interests …

The dissertation at hand is embedded in the context of the 2014 European elections that have brought to light a strong Eurosceptic sentiment throughout Europe. It picks up on the intention to create a new Eurosceptic group in the European Parliament as brought forward by right-wing populists Geert Wilders …

The nation-state had a long history of success, but today it is failing its citizens on a global scale. Over the last hundred years, nation-states focussed on maximizing internal unity and jurisdictional sovereignty. Benjamin R. Barber’s ‘If Mayors Ruled The World’ is the central source of this thesis …

During the elections of 2002, Pim Fortuyn managed to win 26 seats in Parliament with his party LPF (Lijst Pim Fortuyn), even after his tragic death, and established a new record in the political history of The Netherlands. His extensive use of the mass media had a significant role in contributing to …