This dissertation is a qualitative case study of women&rsquo / s political participation in local government in District Hyderabad, Pakistan from a feminist perspective. There is a longstanding patriarchal trend of elite women&rsquo / s selective political participation in Pakistan. But recently introduced local government system with increased quota (33%) for women brought a large mass of non-elite women in local politics. This research explores the social dynamics behind this changing pattern through semi-structured interviews with 53 elected women local councilors in the district. It argues that there is a dialectical relationship between patriarchy and women&rsquo / s political participation. It shows how patriarchal structures have reconfigured to enhance their interest by bringing non-elite women into politics for their power interest. The women, who entered politics, do not challenge the patriarchal structures / rather they use them as resources to facilitate their entry and survival in politics. This process has rendered somewhat of a compatible co-existence between these two antagonistic forces. Patriarchy has gained more modernized outlook while still retaining male domination. The non-elite women, although still controlled by and submissive to male domination, have gained ever broader legitimate space for their autonomous action. The research contributes to the debates concerning patriarchal transformation, arguing that certain features of patriarchy, when responding to accommodate new socio-political developments, gives rise to its own contradictions, thus potentially creating the conditions for overall societal change.

The purpose of this study was to examine participants&rsquo / civic engagement behavior of a non-formal training on democracy and human rights through the case of Toplum G&ouml / n&uuml / ll&uuml / leri Vakfi (TOG) Democracy and Human Rights Project. In order to achieve this, a survey was conducted to the participants who attended the trainer&rsquo / s training of TOG&rsquo / s Democracy and Human Rights Project. The entire population who completed the trainer&rsquo / s training at that time consisted of 154 TOG volunteers, and all population were aimed to be reached for data collection. The study initiated with a needs analysis study to explore what elements were needed to be evaluated in the survey with regard to TOG&rsquo / s administrative group. Next, based on those findings, literature review on civic engagement and the indicators adapted by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) a questionnaire containing both open-ended and close-ended items was developed to measure participants&rsquo / civic behaviors. The data were collected through an online survey tool, Survey Monkey, an accessable number of population (N=56) was reached and a return rate of 43.4 percent was enhanced. The results revealed that participants of trainer&rsquo / s training of TOG&rsquo / s Democracy and Human Rights Project could be regarded as active citizens who engage in civil society, participate in political actions, pay attention to current events and follow the news regularly. In addition, findings showed that there was a decrease in the frequencies in terms of participation in the civil society in time. Lastly, implications for further research on participants&rsquo / civic participation from non-formal education perspectives are highlighted.

Public opinion polls sometimes overestimate the majority and underestimate the minority, such as Taipei and Kaohsiung Mayoral Election of 2006. On one hand the study is based on spiral of silence theory to analyze the phenomenon, and on the other it tries to explore the other factors that may affect the voters¡¦ willingness to express opinion in Taipei and Kaohsiung city. According to findings, social integration effect isn¡¦t a main factor to affect people¡¦s willingness to express opinion in Taipei and Kaohsiung city. On the contrary, people¡¦s level of interpersonal communication, political efficacy and education in Taipei and interpersonal communication, political participation, political confidence and political efficacy in Kaohsiung city are important factors to increase people¡¦s willingness to express opinion. In addition, the study uses interactive variables to go a step further to explore social integration effect. The results show that the spiral of silence effect supports voters¡¦ behavior in Kaohsiung city, but doesn¡¦t in Taipei city.

Tez (Yüksek Lisans) - Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Kamu Yönetimi Anabilim Dalı, 2008. / Kaynakça var.

Bachelor thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Dissertation. / Database: Nordic Web Publications. Format: PDF. Bibl.

In the 1990s Palestinian refugees sought to secure a seat in negotiations alongside the PLO and Israel in talks to resolve their situation. Their efforts raise a number of basic questions concerning the right to political participation and the negotiation of durable solutions to refugee situations. First and foremost is the question of whether peace negotiations comprise a conduct of public affairs under international law entailing a concomitant right to take part. Second and related is the question of whether citizens, refugees in particular, have a right to take part in the conduct of public affairs when they are outside their country of citizenship voluntarily or otherwise. This study examines these questions through legal analysis of the right to political participation under international treaty law, jurisprudence and soft law and through empirical analysis of all negotiated settlements to armed conflict between 1990 and 2000. The study concludes that while refugees did not have a "right" to take part in the negotiation of durable solutions during the period under consideration, the PLO and Israel may have nevertheless had an obligation to facilitate the participation of refugees in a manner that would have allowed for substantial influence on decisions affecting their lives with the objective of shared ownership of agreements reached. The study also finds that between 1990 and 2000 few refugees appeared to take part directly in the direct negotiations to their situation. The implementation of durable solutions and agreements reached along with unofficial or indirect peacemaking mechanisms appeared to comprise the primary or most common domains for political participation. The study concludes that the negotiation of durable solutions for refugees is nevertheless a developing area of law and practice which has arguably strengthened in the decade since Israel and PLO sought to achieve a negotiated solution to the Palestinian refugee issue.

The purpose of this study is: 1) to explore the ways in which the Internet may affect individuals’ political diversity in different strengths of social relationships; 2) to identify which of strong-tie diversity and weak-tie diversity contributes more to political tolerance; and 3) to investigate the extent to which tolerant people are different from the less tolerant in their participation decisions when exposed to political diversity. In order to examine the contribution of Internet news use to political heterogeneity, the current study examines the moderation of the negative influence of politically selective exposure on the Internet on political diversity in social networks by Internet news use. To identify the better contributor to tolerance, the two diversities are compared. To assess the consequence of exposure to political difference for political participation for tolerant and less tolerant people, the present study examines any moderating effect of tolerance between political network heterogeneity and participation. It also observes the moderating effect in different tie strengths. This study utilizes data obtained from the U.S. Citizenship, Involvement, Democracy (CID) survey conducted by a collaboration of Center for Democracy and Civil Society at Georgetown University and the European Social Survey. The sample is 1,001 adults aged 18 and over and representative of the contiguous United States. The dataset contains items concerning Internet use, informal social networks, the composition and diversity of ties and associations, democratic values and tolerance under the primary themes of democracy, social capital and civic engagement. The data are analyzed by hierarchical and OLS regression. According to the findings, Internet news use contributes to individuals’ overall political diversity by reducing the negative influence of the selective exposure occurring from online interaction with homogeneous people. When examined in different strengths of interpersonal relationships, selective exposure discourages strong-tie diversity while encouraging weak-tie diversity. Internet news use positively affects strong-tie diversity but had no influence on weak-tie diversity. Weak-tie diversity is found to be a better contributor to political tolerance. Politically tolerant individuals tend to be discouraged for political participation when exposed to difference in their social relationships. Therefore, while political tolerance may increase overall political diversity, it may as well threaten the balance between deliberation and participation. Closer interpersonal associations are not found to reduce the demobilizing effect of exposure to difference for tolerant individuals. / text

Since its ruling in Buckley v. Valeo, the U.S. Supreme Court has expressed concern regarding corruption or the appearance of corruption stemming from political quid pro quo arrangements and the deleterious consequences it may have on citizens’ democratic behavior. However, no standard has been set as to what constitutes “the appearance of corruption,” as the Court was and continues to be vague in its definition. As a result, campaign finance cases after Buckley have relied on public opinion polls as evidence of perceptions of corruption, and these polls indicate that the public generally perceives high levels of corruption in government. The present study investigates the actual impact that perceptions of corruption have on individuals’ levels of political participation. Adapting the standard socioeconomic status model developed most fully by Verba and Nie (1972), an extended beta-binomial regression estimated using maximum likelihood is performed, utilizing unique data from the 2009 University of Texas’ Money and Politics survey. The results of this study indicate that individuals who perceive higher levels of quid pro quo corruption participate more in politics, on average, than those who perceive lower levels of corruption. This suggests that at least part of the Supreme Court’s rationale for upholding the FECA contribution limits in Buckley v. Valeo was unfounded. A similar test was performed using questions from the 2008 American National Election Study that have been used as proxies for corruption in previous studies, with inconclusive results. The more precise measure in the Money and Politics survey relates directly to the role of money in politics and provides better information than the ANES proxies have in the past, as those have been found to be related to factors other than money in politics. / text

This dissertation seeks to improve our understanding of the process by which citizens' selective exposure contributes to attitudinal polarization and engagement in political activities. In this dissertation, I test two models that explicate the relationship between selective exposure and political polarization and participation. The knowledge model suggests that the effects of selective exposure on individuals' attitudinal polarization and political engagement are mediated by knowledge of candidate issue stances. The stereotype model proposes that selective exposure indirectly influences polarized attitudes and political participation via stereotypical perceptions of candidates (i.e., McCain's age and the prospect of a Black presidency). By posing issue knowledge and stereotypical perceptions as potential mediators, this study extends current literature to analyze why and how selective exposure leads to polarization and political participation. The results provide evidence that selective exposure influences individuals' stereotypical perceptions of the candidates' age and race, and these stereotypic perceptions influence attitudinal polarization and participation in campaign activities. There was no support for the knowledge model; selective exposure did not have a significant relationship with citizens' issue knowledge nor did it play a mediating role in the relationship between selective exposure and political polarization and participation. This dissertation thus challenges the argument that selective exposure is normatively desirable due to its contribution to citizens' greater levels of political participation. The findings of this study call into question such a contention because the results show that individuals who engage in selective exposure are motivated to participate in political activities by forming stereotypic perceptions of candidates rather than by gaining factual issue knowledge, which is in contrast to democratic theories' assumptions of informed citizenship. Turning to the role of exposure to dissonant media outlets, two contrasting roles were found. On one hand, results offer some evidence that dissonant media use contributes to gaining issue knowledge and inspiring citizen participation. On the other hand, some findings suggest that it reinforces, rather than attenuates, citizens' attitudinal polarization and stereotypical perceptions of candidates. Thus the findings from this study offer mixed support for encouraging citizen exposure to dissimilar viewpoints. / text