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After 2008, European governments undertook austerity measures to come out of the global financial crisis. The policies were imposed to reduce the states' debts and deficits, increase their economic competitiveness, and restore business confidence. Inevitably, the results of their implementation were socially noticeable and triggered the occurrence of new social movements which became a powerful player on a political scene. In some states, the stakeholders of anti-austerity movements used physical political violence while in the other they settled for mental. The article introduces findings of the comparative study on the relationships between patterns of culture of political violence and intrastate, regional, and colonial explaining factors. By applying statistical analysis, it tests empirically Negussay Ayele's explanatory model of militant culture of political violence for a theory-verification purpose. As a result, it makes a contribution to the structure of explanation encompassing the particular configurations of indicators.

Celem niniejszego artykułu jest zaproponowanie zestawu kategorii teoretycznych do analizowania struktur myślenia politycznego dystrybuowanych przez talibów po wojnie w Afganistanie. Obejmuje on trzy grupy typów idealnych umożliwiających identyfikację i klasyfikację odmiennych aspektów tych struktur wykorzystywanych do formułowania roszczeń legitymizacyjnych. Są to po pierwsze: myślenie religijne i polityczne; po drugie: trybalne i posttrybalne; i po trzecie: natywizm, kontrakulturacja, witalizm oraz autonegatywizm. Choć zakres ich zastosowania znacznie wykracza poza eksplorację wskazanego pola badawczego, są one szczególnie użyteczne, aby zrozumieć zmiany zachodzące na współczesnej scenie politycznej w Azji i móc ostrożnie prognozować kierunek przemian w afgańskim systemie politycznym. Struktury te są bowiem stosowane przez talibów do generowania legitymizacji społecznej ich rządów oraz kształtowanego systemu politycznego, czyli pozyskiwania poparcia dla aktualnego rządu ze strony rządzonej populacji, modelowania akceptacji jego polityki, instytucji i wartości. Stanowią swoiste roszczenia legitymizacyjne będące obok stosowania represji i spójności elit rządzących jednym z filarów stabilności reżimu politycznego. Można je traktować jako struktury legitymizacyjne leżące u podstaw konstruowanego porządku politycznego.

Embedded in the theories of epistemic fairness and militant democracy and based on the qualitative document analysis, the case study deals with the research question: What is the epistemic fairness of threats' definitions included in the restrictions on the freedom of speech on the Internet in the Inner Six states? The article delivers initial evidence to support the theorygrounded assumption that epistemic fairness in legally defining threats to liberal democracy is a component of militant democracies that makes democracy last and not erode. Slight deviations from the principle of epistemic fairness in defining threats to democracy in France and Italy coincided with an incidental reduction in the quality of democracy. This is the first case study on militant democracies using the theoretical category of epistemic fairness. Preliminary conclusions incentivize more extensive comparative research, including other restrictions to democratic freedoms.

To what extent do current models apply to analyze soft repression? Research on soft repression is still under development, and due to technological advancement, it is necessary to analyze different types of soft repression in a way to modify and refine existing typologies. Drawing on lessons learnt from Asian and regional studies, this article aims to discuss critically selected theoretical tools used to study soft repression. It scrutinizes four models that apply to delve analytically into different types of soft repression. The focus is on the most influential approaches in recent years that gained the highest impact on the development of studies on contentious politics. The first typology applies to differentiate between soft repression forms used mainly by non-state actors. The second approach treats soft repression as an explaining variable, as the text focuses on the consequences of soft repression. The third model applies to studying hard and soft repression during protests. Its analysis exposes how the combination of effectively selected forms of repression leads to the demobilization of individual movements and discourages participation in the protest. The last model involves a specific form of soft repression that uses relationships and interpersonal ties to demobilize protesters.