Förvånansvärt lite forskning har ägnats åt ungdomars deltagande i partipolitiska ungdomsförbund trots en långvarig nedåtgående trend i medlemsantal. Studier visar att ungdomsförbunden har svårt att rekrytera samt behålla sina medlemmar vilket är oroande då vi behöver ungdomars röster i partipolitiken för vår representativa demokrati och för att ungdomförbunden är den främsta rektryteringskällan till våra moderpartier. Denna studie syftar till att få en djupare förståelse kring varför ett urval av ungdomar väljer att gå med i partipolitiska ungdomsförbund samt vad de har för motiv till att stanna kvar. Studien består av semistrukturerade intervjuer med åtta ungdomar som är eller har varit aktiva inom ungdomsförbunden Ung Vänster och Moderateras ungdomsförbund MUF. För att undersöka detta har studien fokuserat på individuella resurser och faktorer och moraliska, sociala och materiella motiv till partipolitiskt deltagande. Resultatet visade på att individuella resurser och faktorer som politiskt intresse, motivation och sociala nätverk var viktiga kopplat till varför ungdomarna väljer att gå med i ett partipolitiskt ungdomsförbund. Sociala och moraliska motiv var högst förekommande bland ungdomarna för både varför de väljer att gå med men också vad som gör att de stannar kvar inom förbundet. / Surprisingly little research has been devoted to young peoples participation in party-affiliated youth organizations, despite a prolonged downward trend in membership numbers. Studies indicate that these youth organizations struggle to recruit and retain their members, which is concerning since young peoples voices in party politics are crucial for our reprecentative democracie and because these organizations serve as the primary recruitment source for their motherparties. This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of why a selection of young individuals choose to join party-affiliated youth organizations and what motivates them to remain. The study consists of semi-structured interviews with eight youths who are or have been active within the youth organizations Ung Vänster and Moderaternas ungdomsförbund MUF. To investigate this, the study focuses on individual resources and factors and also moral, social, and material motives for political participation. The results indicate that individual resources and factors such as political interest, motivation, and social networks are significant in why young people choose to join a party-affiliated youth organization. Social and moral motives are most common motives among the youth for why they choose to join and what keeps them engaged within the organization.

The central issue in this study is political socialisation and its implications within a rural setting in South Africa with a particular focus on Calais village in Limpopo Province. The aim of the study is to determine how adult residents of Calais village, are politically socialised; and furthermore to assess the impact of the socialisation process on the residents’ political behaviour within a democratic South Africa. In order to achieve the research purpose, face-to-face interviews were conducted with forty (40) adult residents in Calais village. The study revealed that the respondents were politically socialised by the media, immediate family, peers, extended family, political parties, local municipality, school, traditional leadership, ward committee and religious institutions. The media were the most important agent, while the religious institutions were the least. Furthermore, NGOs and trade unions were not socialisation agents in Calais village. The socialisation process had an impact on the respondents’ political behaviour in terms of political interest, party identification, political beliefs, efficacy, knowledge, awareness and participation. / Political Sciences / M.A. (Politics)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This thesis is a critical literature review on the studies of social movements and contentious politics in the U.S. and China. Thanks to theories of contentious politics, we can analyze the studies of America’s social movements and China’s collective actions in the same “frame.” By making a comparison, this thesis tries to construct a theoretical dialogue between the studies across both countries. At the same time, it criticizes over-generalizing the mode “democratic-nondemocratic” in analysis of repertories of contentious politics and downplaying capitalism’s role in the social movements. From the various empirical studies in both countries, this thesis argues that a generalization should be based on the diversity of this realm, not just from the western perspective.

This study examines the role of Ward Committees in facilitating “authentic” public participation, with particular reference to Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality. The key question of the study is whether Ward Committees serve as effective mechanisms to promote public participation in the local sphere of government in South Africa. To answer this question, this research project focuses on the composition, functioning and responsibilities of Ward Committees, and how these contribute to effective public participation. This is important because one of the mandates of local government in the post-apartheid era in South Africa is to promote local democracy through the participation of communities. The empirical findings of this research project reveal that Ward Committees are confronted with a multitude of challenges where their functioning tends to be compromised. This has led this research to recommend the improvement of capacity among Ward Committees as a way of enhancing public participation. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

This diploma thesis focuses on the process of civic and political socialization of adolescents in the context of the reflexion of current political topics in the lessons of civic educational basis on secondary technical schools in the Czech Republic. The theoretical part of the thesis contains the explanation of basic terms regarding the chosen topic. It is then followed by an analysis of curricular documents of secondary technical education in the Czech Republic on the national level, from the point of view of the possibilities of the inclusion of current political topics into the teaching lessons. After the theoretical consolidation of the topic, a practical part of the thesis follows, which consists of a case study. This study aims to describe (with the help of the methods of mixed research) the reflexion of current political topics in the Civics lessons on a chosen secondary technical school, for example regarding the teaching methods, also the frequency and intensity of including the topics into the lessons, or expression of personal opinions of the teachers on current political topics. Through the realisation and evaluation of a questionnaire survey is at first found out the perception of teaching about current political topics, as the pupils of the chosen secondary technical school perceive it. Then is through the realisation of half-structured interviews with the teachers and the following analysis in the whole context found out also their position towards teaching about these topics. The ending part of the thesis then includes the conclusion of all important and interesting findings the study brought, evaluation of reaching the goals which were set for the research, recommendation for the pedagogical praxis and also a reflexion on the use of the findings on an own future praxis.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:17:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luis Augusto Vieira.pdf: 705758 bytes, checksum: df96cd0b5bd96cd02ca908a2e83b4eba (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-10-07 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / The object of this dissertation is the political participation process of the residents from Catuçaba distric, wich belongs to São Luiz do Pariaitinga municipality in the state of São Paulo, in 2007 and 2008. It aims to recognize and analyses the expressions of this political participation focusing on the moments of political stably and change which happened in this process. The hypothesis is that the Catuçaba residents' political participation is predominantly electoral, and so, presents as its main aspect of stability the maintenance of power centralization in mayor candidates and as its main aspect of change the reduction of the family's roll in the decision making process. The concepts adopted as reference, in a interdisciplinary approach of a historic-politic-cultural perspective, were: rural space, urban space, political participation, caipira culture. The research is qualitative and adopts as methodological procedures a bibliographic research, a documental research, researcher's participative observation and field research. A interview semi-structured in orientating topics was used as collecting instrument. Five persons, chosen among the former residents (which has been living in the are for more then 5 years), associated with local political groups. The gathered information was analyzed by its content. The survey results showed that the design of political participation of the residents of Catuçaba remains predominantly character of elections, also remained significant relationships of friendship and compadrio in political decisions, and of gender relations remain macho, with limited political participation of women. The results also showed, as relevant changes in the local political structure, the loss of the centrality of political power by traditional families, which has as a result of the recognition ability of the administration candidate, rather than his personal prestige and family, in addition, relations of Catuçaba of voters, with his political opponents are more flexible and less violence / O objeto da presente dissertação é o processo de participação política dos moradores do distrito de Catuçaba do município de São Luiz do Paraitinga, no Estado de São Paulo, no período de 2007/ 2008. O objetivo é conhecer e analisar as expressões dessa participação política enfocando permanências e mudanças políticas que ocorreram nesse processo. A hipótese levantada é de que a participação política dos catuçabenses é predominantemente eleitoral, e, nesse sentido, apresenta como aspecto principal de permanência a centralidade do poder na figura do candidato a prefeito, e como aspecto principal de mudança a diminuição do poder decisório da família na vida política municipal. Os conceitos adotados de referência foram o espaço rural, o espaço urbano, a participação política, e a cultura caipira, em uma abordagem interdisciplinar, numa perspectiva crítica de análise histórico-político-cultural. A pesquisa é de natureza qualitativa, tendo como procedimentos metodológicos, o levantamento bibliográfico, a pesquisa documental, a observação participante do pesquisador e a pesquisa de campo. Como instrumento de coleta de dados na pesquisa de campo foi utilizada a entrevista semi-estruturada com tópicos orientadores. Foram entrevistados cinco sujeitos, escolhidos entre moradores antigos da referida localidade (residentes há mais de cincos anos), vinculados aos grupos políticos locais. As informações conseguidas foram analisadas por meio de análise de conteúdo. Os resultados da pesquisa apontaram que a concepção de participação política dos moradores de Catuçaba permanece predominantemente de caráter eleitoral, permanecendo também relações significativas de amizade e compadrio nas decisões políticas, bem como permanecendo relações de gênero machistas, com limitada participação política da mulher. Os resultados apontaram ainda, como mudanças relevantes, na estrutura política local, a perda da centralidade do poder político pelas famílias tradicionais, o que tem como conseqüência o reconhecimento da capacidade de administração do candidato, e não tanto seu prestígio pessoal e familiar, além disso, as relações dos eleitores de Catuçaba, com seus adversários políticos são mais flexíveis e de menos violência

The Bonton and Ideal neighborhoods in Dallas Texas, developed in the early 1900s, experienced physical and social decay throughout the 1980s. Neighborhood organizations and resident activism were vital to the rebirth of the community in the 1990s. Current revitalization efforts taking place there have been a source of contention as the neighborhood continues to overcome inequalities created by decades of racialized city planning initiatives. This thesis focuses on how the structuring structure of whiteness has historically affected, and continues to affect, the neighborhoods of Ideal and Bonton, as well as acts to identify how black residents have navigated their landscape and increased their collective capital through neighborhood activism.

Aquesta tesi vol respondre a dos preguntes fonamentals en l'àrea de recerca de la migració transnacional: s'impliquen els immigrants en el transnacionalisme polític? I, quins són els factors determinants del seu activisme polític transnacional ? Per respondre a la primera qüestió, comparo el nivell d'activisme polític transnacional d'una mostra d'associacions de diferents orígens immigrants a Barcelona. Per contestar a la segona, centro l'atenció en possibles factors determinants a dos nivells, meso i macro. La tesis demostra que l'activisme polític transnacional no està generalitzat entre totes les associacions a Barcelona, que presenta un nivell relativament baix de regularitat, i que generalment es desenvolupa al nivell nacional. També demostra que la necessitat d'examinar l'efecte del context de sortida i, més en concret, l'estructura d'oportunitats polítiques del país d'origen sobre el transnacionalisme polític de les associacions d'immigrants. Altres determinants a nivell meso, com les xarxes socials o les fonts de finançament semblen explicar la variació en l'activisme polític transnacional de les associacions d'immigrants. / This thesis addresses two fundamental questions in the transnational migration research field: whether or not all immigrants engage in political transnationalism? And which are the main determinants of their transnational political activism? To answer the first research question, I specifically compare different degrees of transnational political engagement of various national/ethnic origin immigrant associations in Barcelona. To answer the second research question, I focus on meso- and macro- levels determinants. The thesis demonstrates that transnational political engagement is not generalised among all immigrant associations in Barcelona, presents a relatively low level of regularity, and is generally nationally based. It also demonstrates the importance of studying the effect of the exit context and, in particular, of the political opportunity structure in home country on the political transnationalism of immigrant associations. Meso- level determinants like social networks and sources of funds also seem to explain the variance in immigrant associations' transnational political engagement.

This dissertation addresses voters' information heterogeneity and its effect on spatial voting. While most spatial voting models simply assume that voter uncertainty about candidate preferences is homogeneous across voters despite Downs' early use of uncertainty scale to classify the electorate, information studies have discovered that well and poorly informed citizens have sizeable and consistent differences in issue conceptualization, perception, political opinion and behavior. Built upon the spatial theory's early insights on uncertainty and the findings of information literature, this dissertation claims that information effects should be incorporated into the spatial voting model. By this incorporation, I seek to unify the different scholarly traditions of the spatial theory of voting and the study of political information. I hypothesize that uncertainty is not homogeneous, but varies with the level of information, which are approximated by political activism as well as information on candidate policy positions. To test this hypothesis, I employ heteroskedastic probit models that specify heterogeneity of voter uncertainty in probabilistic models of spatial voting. The models are applied to the U.S. presidential elections in 1992-2004. The empirical results of the analysis strongly support the expectation. They reveal that voter uncertainty is heterogeneous as a result of uneven distributions of information and political activism even when various voting cues are available. This dissertation also discovers that this heterogeneity in voter uncertainty has a significant effect on electoral outcomes. It finds that the more uncertain a voter is about the candidates, the more likely he or she is to vote for the incumbent or a better-known candidate. This clearly reflects voters' risk-averse attitudes that reward the candidate with greater certainty, all other things held constant. Heterogeneity in voter uncertainty and its electoral consequences, therefore, have important implications for candidates' strategies. The findings suggest that the voter heterogeneity leads candidates' equilibrium strategies and campaign tactics to be inconsistent with those that spatial analysts have normally proposed. / text

台灣民主轉型的成功除執政菁英的主動變革外，公民參與政治和支持改革亦有其重要性。有鑑於逐年下滑的投票率和工具性社團參與率，本研究主要從制度變遷與社會資本論點來進行探討，以縣市層次制度變項為自變項，三類型社會資本為中介變項，投票與競選活動參與為依變項，目的在了解於民主鞏固時期前後，社會資本的分佈狀況和影響社會資本、政治參與的因素，以提升民眾的社會和政治參與。中介變項與依變項資料來自1993年與2005年台灣社會變遷調查資料(TSCS)，自變項資料整合自臺灣地區社會意向調查、各縣市社福資訊與政大選研中心資料庫，主要採用多層次迴歸與邏輯迴歸分析模型來分析資料。 在社會資本分布變化上，結合式社會資本與工具性社參未有顯著改變，情感性社參則顯著增加。相較於情感性社團參與，工具性社團參與的比例較高，在兩個年代中，民眾參與工具性社團比例約在22%左右。在社團內異質性資源分佈上，不同社團的年齡異質性與性別異質性隨不同時期而有所變化。相對地，各類社團在成員的教育、收入與族群組成上反而較為穩定。由於在2005年，民眾教育與收入顯著較1993年為高，意謂著在民主鞏固時期，團體參與者可接觸的社團內異質性資源較多。 並非所有社會資本皆受外在制度所影響，研究結果顯示出國家制度較難影響立基於儒家文化的結合式社會資本。在民主鞏固時期前，縣市執政評價氛圍與生活扶助資源如理論所預期，可影響民眾的情感性社會參與，但其影響力似乎亦有減弱情形。一致性社福資源雖對工具性社團參與有跨期影響力，但卻產生資源排擠效果，而非是資源溢注效果。 政治態度論與社會資本論皆能部份說明為何民眾要參與兩類傳統政治活動，但相較於投票，參與競選活動屬於較耗費成本的參與行為，因此個體資源論較能解釋競選活動的參與。以多層次中介分析步驟檢視縣市制度變項對政治參與的作用後，證實了制度論的作用。在制度變項可能透過社會資本影響政治參與的三條中介路徑，僅一條路徑得到實證上支持。在2005年，縣市急難救助資源可透過工具性社團參與進而影響競選活動參與。 制度變遷的觀點能說明不同時期情感性社團參與和投票的變化。傳統文化價值觀的現代化改變了縣市執政評價氛圍對情感性社團參與的作用。隨著非正式制度環境的改變，情感性社團參與對競選活動參與的作用亦可能隨之改變。而隨著社會福利政策綱領的施行，人均生活扶助資源量的提升，則促進個人的投票行為。總言之，中央政府應注意自身的施政效能，並透過社福資源的適度分配，來促進民眾的社會參與與政治參與行為。 / The success of the transition to democracy in Taiwan should attribute not only to the active reform of the ruling party' cadre, but also to citizens’ participation and political support for the political reformer. In view of the gradual declining turnout rate and instrumental group participation rate, the study tends to describe the distribution of social capital, and explore the potential factors influencing social capital and political participation before and after democratic consolidation period. The paper’s framework from the perspective of institutional change and social capital treats institutional change as the independent variable, three kinds of social capital as the mediated variable, and voting and electoral campaign participation as dependent variables. The study mainly applies the multilevel linear regression and logistic regression model to analyze the mediated and dependent variables from the Taiwan Social Change Survey in 1993 and 2005, separately. As for independent variables, the data is integrated from the Social Image Survey, the social welfare report across counties, and online database of election study center in national Chengchi University. As far as the distribution of social capital is concerned, the results show that the distribution of bonding social capital and instrumental group participation do not have significant change between 1993 and 2005. Compared with participation in 1993, in 2005, the increase of this emotional group participation is apparent. In both year, the instrumental group participation rate is about 22% and is higher than the emotional group participation. In the distribution of diverse resources within groups, age diversity and sex diversity change a lot as the time went by. In contrast, education diversity, income diversity and ethnicity diversity stay stable between groups. In comparison with 1993, people in 2005 have higher education and income level, resulting in the increase of group members’ education and income level. It means that in the democratic consolidation period, it is probable for group participators to approach more diverse resources existing within groups . The effect of institutional variables on the three kinds of social capital is not as same as previous literatures report. Bonding social capital based on confucianism is difficult to be enhanced by the national institutions. Before the democratic consolidation, the effect of living assistance resources, and the atmosphere where people are satisfied with the central government performance which is consistent with theoretical prediction affects people’s participation in the emotional group. However, the effect seems to weaken gradually at the later period. Universal social welfare resources influence the instrumental group participation across different periods, but the negative effect belongs to the crowing out effect rather than the crawling back effect. Political attitudes theory and social capital theory both can partly account for why people participate in these two kinds of traditional political activities. Individual resources theory is suitable for explaining the participation of electoral campaign in that it takes people much more time and cost to engage in the electoral campaign participation than in voting. After examing the effect of institutional variables at the county-level on the political participation through the procedure of multilevel mediation analysis, the findings proven the argument of institution theory. Among the three potential mediation paths in which the institutional variables impact on the political participation through social capital, just one path is supported by the data. In 2005, emergent assistant resources can affect the electoral campaign through the instrumental group participation. The perspective of institutional change can explain the change of the emotional group participation and voting between 1993 and 2005. With the modernization of individual’s traditional attitudes, the county-level effect of evaluation of the central government on the participation in the emotional group is abated. It is probable that the effect of the emotional group participation on the electoral campaign participation differs according to the different environment of the informal institution The increase of living assistant resources per capita, because of the execution of the guiding principle of the social welfare policy, promote people’s voting significantly. In sum up, the attention should be paid by the central authority to strengthen the efficiency of the administration and distribute the social welfare resources appropriately based on the contemporary social condition, in order to improve people’s social participation and political participation.