Bulletin of Perm University. Political Science

WAVES OF RIGHT-WING RADICALISM IN MODERN EUROPE: CHALLENGES, HISTORICAL OVERVIEW, AND TRANSFORMATION FEATURES

Rostislav Tishchenko — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The article analyzes the evolution of right-wing radicalism in Europe, focusing on its ideological evolution and reasons for its popularization in recent decades. The author views this political phenomenon as cyclical, suggesting it is not random but a natural response to global and domestic socio-political changes. Using a structural-functional approach along with retrospective and comparative methods, the author traces the key stages in the development of right-wing radical movements from their 19th-century origins to the present. The factors influencing the popularization of the contemporary wave of right-wing radicalism in Europe, such as the migration crisis, economic inequality, and globalization, are assessed. The study describes the transformation of right-wing radical movements that have adapted to contemporary political norms and acquired new forms that have incorporated postmodern populism and anti-globalization into the framework of their discourse. The author concludes that right-wing radicalism in Europe has undergone four stages of discursive transformation and experienced two major waves throughout its history. Now we are experiencing its second iteration, the contemporary cycle of far-right ideology will continue to strengthen its position in the foreseeable future, given the challenges facing European societies in the context of economic and cultural crises.

GEOGRAPHY OR IDEOLOGY? A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF LEFT- AND RIGHT-WING POPULIST POSITIONS ON DEVELOPMENT POLICY IN ITALY AND GERMANY

Andrei Tarasov, Artem Turenko — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The article examines left- and right-wing populist rhetoric on development policy. It also explores how the migration context, especially the refugee crisis, fueled the electoral rise of populist parties in Europe. Using a comparative approach, the study analyzes the rhetoric of right-wing populist parties (Alternative for Germany, Lega) and left-wing populist parties (Five Star Movement, The Left) at the national level in the front-line country (Italy) and the destination country (Germany) to identify similarities and differences in their positions. A content analysis of electoral programs for national parliamentary elections shows that left-wing populist parties focus more on development policy than their right-wing counterparts. The rhetoric of the German and Italian left-wing parties shares more commonalities than that of right-wing populists. Populist parties frame the development policy in connection with the migration policy. Both left- and right-wing populists emphasize the importance of addressing migration issues. However, right-wing parties view development policy as a tool to curb migration, while left-wing parties see it as a means to reduce socio-economic inequality and achieve social justice. A significant difference is noted in their trade policy approach. The study finds rhetorical differences stem from core ideology, not geography. Migration context isn't decisive in shaping development policy.

THE DICHOTOMY OF POLITICAL PORTRAITS OF THE LEADERS OF THE FRENCH OPPOSITION: A DISCURSIVE PERSPECTIVE

Artem Myasnikov — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This paper analyzes the discursive aspects of the political representation of French opposition leaders based on the case of Manuel Bompard and Jordan Bardella. The study is based on Laclau-Mouffe's discourse analysis methodology and Ibarra-Kitsuz's methodology for identifying rhetorical strategies. The empirical basis of this article is the pre-election speeches of opposition leaders during the 2024 early parliamentary elections in France. The results of this article complement theoretical studies on discursive strategies within populist ideologies. The study develops the horseshoe theory, showing that both radical left and radical right parties share similar rhetorical idioms: speeches by leaders of La France Insoumise and National Rally reveal common communicative strategies in criticizing the French government for unjust policies and limited accountability. At the same time, ideological differences between "left" and "right" political values play a significant role in the discursive strategies of the French opposition leaders, which is also reflected in party ideas. The results of the study indicate an ongoing confrontation between left and right opposition parties for the support of voters from similar socio-political groups, which may lead to a further split of the French political space into three main blocs.

POLITICAL MOBILIZATION ON TikTok: RUSSIAN-SPEAKING USERS BEFORE AND DURING THE SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION

Nadezhda Radina, Anna Khomenko — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This research examines changes in TikTok content following the start of the Russian Federation's special military operation and the platform's blockade in Russia, suggesting that these events created "mobilization conditions" that led to increased politicization of Russian-speaking content. The study analyzed videos and their metadata, including hashtags, using two datasets: one from the period before the special military operation (244 hashtags, 19 thematic groups, 2,520 videos) and one from after (187 hashtags, 17 groups, 851 videos). The Russian-language segment of TikTok contained political content even before the special military operation, including videos on democracy issues, elections, actions by opposition forces, etc. After the start of the special military operation, most highly viewed and liked videos in the Russian-language TikTok segment analyzed focused on political issues, primarily military. The researchers associate the obtained results with changes in the everyday life of Russian TikTok users: the videos reflect relevant issues. Another explanation for the politicization of video content may be connected with the change in users structure in blocked TikTok: tools for bypassing the blocking were used specifically by those TikTokers who were ready to promote their civic position on the Internet.

STEREOTYPES IN POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND STUDENT BEHAVIOR IN THE SMOLENSK REGION, RUSSIA’S WESTERN BORDERLAND

Vasily Dvoinev, Oleg Kazhanov, Elena Sukhova — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The article presents findings from a sociological study on the political consciousness and behavior of student youth in the Smolensk region, focusing on their values, attitudes, and motives for civic engagement. The region's unique location on Russia's western border, viewed as a 'frontier' in modern political science, shapes youth attitudes toward power, life strategies, and political engagement. The sample implemented within the research framework is representative. The sociological data obtained were compared with the results of previous studies conducted in the region, as well as with data from a series of nationwide surveys. According to the data, the political values and attitudes of students in the Smolensk region, situated at the western border, generally align with all-Russian trends in youth political consciousness and behavior. At the same time, specific features that distinguish the attitudes and motives of Smolensk students' behaviour from the all-Russian indicators have been identified and described. The analysis of political stereotypes allowed us to characterize the political and cultural identity of Smolensk students typologically.

THE EFFECTS OF MASS REDISTRICTING ON INCUMBENT VOTE SHARE IN REGIONAL LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS

Vadim Devyatnikov — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Redistricting, as the process of revising electoral district boundaries, can have a significant impact on electoral processes, including in autocratic regimes with electoral institutions. This article examines the political consequences of electoral reform carried out in several regions of Russia over the past few years. Using the author's developed web-scraping algorithm for the GAS Vybory websites, data on voting results in regional legislative elections from sixteen regions were collected. Between 2019 and 2023, the number of seats allocated under the majority voting system increased in these regions, requiring massive redistricting to create new constituencies. This created favorable conditions for studying the political consequences of large-scale redistricting. Using data on the results of elections to regional parliaments, the degree of influence that mass redistricting has on the electoral results of incumbents was statistically significant. Still, the scale of the effect is not enough to alter the outcomes of elections, so we conclude that redistricting did not have a noticeable effect on the electoral stability of incumbent parliamentarians.

REGIONAL POLITICAL REGIMES AND THE IMAGE-BUILDING STRATEGIES OF RUSSIAN GOVERNORS (2017–2022)

Alexey Skvortsov — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article analyzes the relationship between regional political regimes and the image-building strategies employed by Russian governors to legitimize their power from 2017 to 2022. The central hypothesis is that the regional political context shapes the tools governors use for public positioning. The methodological framework combines Y.Gaivoronsky’s three-axis model for classifying regional regimes with critical discourse analysis of content from the social network VKontakte. The findings confirm that the regional political system determines not only the choice of communication tools but also the extent to which these tools are adapted to the centralized vertical structure of power. Furthermore, a governor's territorial origin influences communication styles. Outsiders tend to use confrontational tactics, while local leaders are more inclined toward rationalization. The study highlights the role of the regional context as a framing institution that determines the ground rules for image strategies. It contributes to the understanding of political legitimation mechanisms in a federal system and expands the methodological toolkit for analyzing subnational political processes.

COOPTATION, CONCESSIONS, AND THE RISK TO TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY: WHY DO REFORMS INTENSIFY ETHNOPOLITICAL CONFLICTS?

Nadezhda Borisova — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article examines the institutional and agent-related factors behind the failure of concession reforms aimed at meeting the demands of ethnic self-determination movements (SDMs). Using a binary comparative analysis of four cases (Montenegro vs. Serbia, Friuli Venezia Giulia vs. Italy, the Albanian minority vs. North Macedonia, and the Hungarian minority vs. Slovakia), the study examines the politico-historical context, institutional conditions, structure and fragmentation of SDMs, elite dynamics, and cooptation strategies employed by ruling groups. The main focus is placed on the dynamics of interaction between the state and ethnic movements, the electoral and administrative strategies of elites, and the influence of institutional design on either the stability or recurrence of territorial conflict. The author demonstrates that even fully implemented reforms may fail to reduce conflict or threats to territorial integrity when SDMs are highly fragmented, external influence persists, or cooptation is used instrumentally. The study concludes that the complex role of political actors and the institutional context are decisive in the (in)effectiveness of concessionary reforms amidst ethnopolitical tensions.

TERRITORIAL ISSUES IN ITALY AND SPAIN: CONSISTENCY IN INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT?

Konstantin Sulimov — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Until the late 2000s, Italy and Spain addressed their respective territorial issues through comparable, though not identical, approaches. Both states established regional frameworks that afforded significant autonomy to their regions. However, the 2010s marked a divergence: Spain encountered a conflict regarding Catalonia's potential secession, whereas Italy experienced a gradual depoliticization of its territorial question. These circumstances resulted in a temporary suspension in the devolution of authorities from central governments to regional entities in both countries, slowing the smooth evolution of the status quo. Recent developments in 2024 and 2025, however, indicate a renewed trajectory toward decentralization, with ongoing transfers of competencies to individual regions. This trend simultaneously reinforces regional asymmetries and prompts efforts to reduce them. A comparative analysis of these cases, grounded in the theory of institutional isomorphism, seeks to elucidate the mechanisms underpinning the persistence of this institutional logic, which has demonstrated considerable resilience, even in the face of significant political crisis. Ultimately, the enduring stability of these institutional trajectories can largely be attributed to the continuity of fundamental elements in center-periphery relations and the persistent incentive structures influencing key stakeholders.

REFORMS-CONCESSIONS AS A RESPONSE OF STATES TO DEMANDS FOR SELF-DETERMINATION: FACTORS OF EFFECTIVENESS

Petr Panov — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When a politically significant self-determination movement (SDM) appears in a country, the territorial integrity of the state is threatened. Governments respond to this threat in different ways. Along with the policy of suppressing SDM, a typical strategy of states is to implement reforms aimed at making concessions to self-determination movements. Even suppressing SDM, the authorities often demonstrate a willingness to compromise. However, reforms-concessions do not always provide the desired results. The study of factors that influence on the effectiveness of reforms-concessions have been carried out using the logistic regression on empirical data from more than 100 reforms-concessions. The main assumptions developed on the ground of institutional approach have been confirmed: the “proportionality” of reforms-concessions to SDM claims, as well as the stability of the ratio of resources between the state and SDM actors, sustainability of their references after the reform have significant importance for the success of reforms-concessions. All this makes it possible to achieve a kind of institutional equilibrium as a result of the reform, under which the intensity of the conflict between the state and SDM decreases. At the same time, the analysis finds that the factors arising from the institutional approach to studying the effectiveness of reforms-concessions have greater explanatory power than “traditional” structural explanations.

FROM THE LANGUAGE OF A NATION TO THE LANGUAGE OF A CIVILIZATION: THE FORMATION OF RUSSIA’S STATE LANGUAGE POLICY

Konstantin Zamyatin — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Recently, it has become possible to observe the development of new official documents not only on nationalities policy, but also on language policy. This process witnesses that language policy is being formed as an independent direction of state policy. What are the reasons and possible consequences of this process? This article analyzes the official discourse on language policy issues presented in strategic documents and legislative acts adopted and developed in recent years, as well as the institutional context. The aim is to understand the role of ideas and the limitations imposed by structural factors on the formation of language policy within the neoinstitutionalist approach. The results of the study show that the ideological desire to change the content of language policy is associated with the processes of nation-building and a broader search for civilizational identity, in which, primarily due to the foreign policy agenda, language has acquired the role of a key marker. However, an attempt to change the form of language policy encounters significant structural limitations and may lead to unexpected outcomes for domestic policy. In particular, as a result of replacing the collocation of the concepts "language" and "people" with the collocation of "language" and "culture".

THE SYNTHESIS OF CIVIC AND CULTURAL NATIONALISM IN THE CONCEPT OF THE SWISS NATION

Yaroslav Kuznetsov — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The article delves into the evolution of the concept of the Swiss nation through an analysis of the Swiss policy of nation-building. Within the framework of the ethno-symbolic approach, the author examines the value and symbolic resources used to construct the Swiss national identity. The peculiarities of the political structure of Switzerland and the division of society along religious and linguistic lines led to the formation of a "voluntary nation" (Willensnation), united by its political values and institutions. However, in the 1930s, the Swiss national discourse was transformed by the threat from the nationalist policies of Germany and Italy. The Swiss policy of nation-building was reoriented from civic nationalism to cultural nationalism to identify the real characteristics demonstrating the identity and unity of the national community. To achieve this goal, Switzerland's political and intellectual elite began to actively promote national history, culture, and geography among the population. As a result of the study, the main elements of Swiss cultural nationalism are identified: Alpine determinism and cultural diversity. The author concludes that cultural nationalism complements the concept of a "voluntary nation" and justifies the national unity of Swiss society, despite its religious and linguistic heterogeneity.