Several recent studies on information shortcuts and electoral vote choice show that challenges to classic democratic theory are largely exaggerated. Namely, there is now convincing evidence towards Americans having the ability to cast votes that are representative of their own political preferences. Research on such heuristics largely depend on presidential election data however, and it remains uncertain how voters respond to less salient elections where candidate information may not be as apparent and electoral communication efforts are more dismal. This study utilizes a voting correctly measure previously developed to analyze the ability of voters during Senate elections. Special attention in this study is given towards individual characteristics and campaign characteristics. First, individual characteristics, such as social and demographic variables, are expected to have an effect on voting correctly based on previous political behavior studies noting group disparities among political interest, knowledge, engagement, and turnout. Second, campaign characteristics are hypothesized to have an effect on quality voting based on literature explaining how campaigns matter in an informational sense. The findings reported in this study provide lackluster evidence towards the ability of voters to make preferred decisions based on limited information and minimal campaign effects on correct voting.

In a democracy it is the citizens who choose their leaders. Through elections, the people constitute government to preside over public affairs. However, in several African countries the quality of the elections has been vitiated by fraud, incompetence, unequal playing field and violence. Part of the problem is historical. Within the first decade of attaining independence in the 1950s and 1960s, many African regimes rapidly descended into autocracy and many countries formally recognised one-party regimes. Despite many one-party regimes having been abolished after the democratisation wave of the late 1980s and early 1990s, challenges of holding free and fair elections persist. Several elections held since this democratic wave were generally not considered by independent observers as free and fair. Indeed Africa has become well known for flawed elections, such as was the case in the 2007 elections in Kenya, the 2008 elections in Zimbabwe and the 2010 elections in Ivory Coast. Due to the stifled democratic climate, where even elections had a predetermined outcome, coups became a common and regular method of showing discontent or removing government. While the phenomenon of problematic elections is going on, at the continental level, Africa seems to be making renewed commitment towards democratic governance. With the transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union (AU) through the adoption of the Constitutive Act of the African Union in 2000, the AU, inter alia, committed to promoting “democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance” and seems determined to depart from the legacy of poor governance. It is in view of the foregoing background that this research sought to investigate the challenges the judiciary in Africa has faced in adjudicating presidential election disputes. And, in light of the growing trend towards establishing common African democratic standards and seeking collective solutions, the research also sought to explore the viability of establishing a continental supranational mechanism for resolving disputed presidential elections through adjudication. / Public, Constitutional and International Law / LL. D.

A presente dissertação apresenta dois ensaios sobre decisão, incerteza e escolha social no contexto eleitoral. O primeiro ensaio aborda de modo teórico o tema da ambiguidade nos discursos de campanha dos políticos, relacionando-o com a teoria da decisão sob incerteza, e trazendo os seus efeitos para a tomada de decisão individual e coletiva. O segundo ensaio trata de uma análise teórica acerca da liberdade de escolha dos indivíduos durante o processo eleitoral quando há incerteza a respeito das características dos candidatos, utilizando como base duas abordagens axiomáticas de liberdade de escolha presentes na literatura. / This dissertation presents two essays on decision, uncertainty and social choice in the electoral context. The first essay theoretically approaches the topic of ambiguous campaign discourses, relating it to the decision theory under uncertainty, and showing what effects it can have on individual and social decision-making processes. The second essay analyzes the freedom of choice aspects of the electoral process when there is uncertainty about the characteristics of candidates, using two axiomatic approaches of freedom that are present in the literature.

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / A partir de um enfoque antropológico, baseado na ideia de que a política não é um dado a priori e que precisa ser compreendida a partir das práticas e das formulações dos atores em contextos específicos, discutirei como a política é vivenciada pelos moradores do loteamento Boa Terra, situado em Guaratiba na Zona Oeste carioca, através de pesquisa qualitativa realizada entre os anos de 2008 e 2010. Além de acompanhar festas, atividades ordinárias e extraordinárias do centro comunitário local e campanhas eleitorais, visitei o loteamento em diferentes dias da semana com o objetivo de observar o cotidiano desses moradores. Embora tenha conversado e acompanhado as atividades dos moradores comuns, analisei com mais atenção as práticas desenvolvidas por aqueles que disputam o direito de falar em nome que, em geral, fazem (ou fizeram) parte de alguma associação local. Qual é o papel dessas associações? A que noções de bem público recorrem? Como se dá a relação entre os representantes locais e os moradores do loteamento? Que tipo de distinção existe entre eles? Como tais representantes se articulam no sentido de garantir as demandas de sua base? De que forma costuram relações no interior das agências estatais e com políticos em geral? / From an anthropological approach, this thesis discusses how politics is experienced by Boa Terra dwellers, an allotment located in the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro. The research is based on the idea that "politics" should not be taken as a priori data and have to be understood through the analysis of actors? practices and formulations in specific contexts. A qualitative research was conducted between 2008 and 2010 in Boa Terra allotment. Over this period I have followed and participated in parties, ordinary and extraordinary activities of community center and election campaigns. I have visited the neighborhood in differents days of the week in order to observe the dwellers everyday life. In the course of my investigation, although I have observed the activities of "ordinary people" who live in Boa Terra allotment, the main focus of my analysis were the practices developed by those who do (or did) part of local association and dispute the right to represent the dwellers. Following are some of the main questions that I have tried to answer through this investigation: What is the role of local associations? With which concept of public resort do they work? How is the relationship between "local politicians" and the ordinary residents of the allotment? What kinds of distinctions are there between them? How do local representatives articulate themselves in order to answer what local people demand? How is the relation between local representatives, the government and the politicians of Rio de Janeiro?

Este trabalho analisa a informação política disponibilizada nos blogs diante de um cenário competitivo a eleição para a Prefeitura de São Paulo em 2008. Como se pretendia avaliar a capacidade das páginas para atrair leitores e interferir na agenda da imprensa, foram escolhidos os blogs de dois jornalistas (Ricardo Noblat e Reinaldo Azevedo), dois políticos (José Dirceu e Paulo Renato) e dois candidatos (Gilberto Kassab e Marta Suplicy), além do blog Campanha no Ar, criado pela Folha de S. Paulo estes são atores com alta capacidade de interferir no cenário político devido ao capital simbólico que possuem neste campo. A Folha foi escolhida para fazer a comparação com a imprensa tradicional. Com esta seleção, o trabalho realizou uma análise de conteúdo das páginas e uma avaliação com critérios específicos da Internet. Com isso, os resultados confirmam a tese de que há uma espécie de elite dos blogs, cujos atores apresentam maior capacidade de atrair leitores e jornalistas; que a imprensa é a principal fonte de informação dos blogs, mas também sofre influência deles; que o formato jornalístico ainda é um modelo usado para gerar credibilidade, apesar de estar sofrendo transformações na Internet; e que a interação com os leitores ainda é, basicamente, reativa e seu uso é mais intenso para o marketing político, embora haja um potencial de vigilância dos cidadãos e de pluralização nos debates / This paper analyzes the political information available in blogs on a competitive scenario - the election for mayor of Sao Paulo in 2008. As it was intended to evaluate the capacity of pages to attract readers and influence the agenda of the press, the blogs chosen were from two journalists (Ricardo Noblat and Reinaldo Azevedo), two politicians (José Dirceu and Paulo Renato), two candidates (Gilberto Kassab and Marta Suplicy), and the blog Campanha no Ar, created by Folha de S. Paulo - these are players with high capacity to influence the political arena because of the symbolic capital that they have in this field. Folha was chosen for comparison with the traditional press. With this selection, the work performed a content analysis of pages and an assessment with specific criteria for the Internet. Thus, the results confirm the thesis that there is a kind of "elite blogs", whose actors have greater ability to attract readers and journalists; the press is the main source of information for blogs, but is also influenced by them; that the journalistic format is still a model used to generate credibility, although it is going through changes on the Internet; and that interaction with readers is still basically reactive and its use is stronger for political marketing, although there is potential for surveillance by the citizens and pluralization in the debates

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abstract: Do fact-checks influence individuals' attitudes and evaluations of political candidates and campaign messages? This dissertation examines the influence of fact-checks on citizens' evaluations of political candidates. Using an original content analysis, I determine who conducts fact-checks of candidates for political office, who is being fact-checked, and how fact-checkers rate political candidates' level of truthfulness. Additionally, I employ three experiments to evaluate the impact of fact-checks source and message cues on voters' evaluations of candidates for political office. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Political Science 2015

abstract: I examine how gender stereotypes influence the campaign advertisements utilized by candidates for state supreme court and how these gender stereotypes influence how voters react to these advertisements. Gender stereotypes have been found to have a profound impact in races for other offices (e.g., legislative, executive), but there is a lack of research on the role of gender stereotypes in state court elections. In my present research, I first conduct a content analysis of state supreme court advertisements over the course of four election years, looking specifically at how the candidates describe themselves in their advertisements. Based on these findings, I create advertisement scripts where I vary the gender of the candidate and the type of message employed by the candidate in order to test how the gender of the candidate and the content of the messages influences voter impressions of judicial candidates. In a second experiment, I create video advertisements based on these scripts and test how the video advertisements, as well as the candidate’s gender, affect impressions of these candidates. My analyses indicate that not only gender stereotypes play a role in the way judicial candidates create their advertisements, but they also impact the way voters form opinions about candidates running in judicial races. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Political Science 2017

abstract: One clause added to the Mexican constitution on February 10, 2014, set off a sea change in the way Mexican elections are conducted. By requiring states to hold at least one local election concurrent with federal contests, the timing of entire races changed, most notably with regard to a number of gubernatorial races, and Mexico embarked on an adventure of creating concurrence. The result is a wave of governors serving terms of two, four or five years instead of the customary six, creating so-called gubernaturas cortas (short governorships). This phenomenon has potential implications for the relationship of state and federal elections and voter turnout in state races. This work analyzes the potential impacts of concurrence by looking at four previous cases of states that have moved to concurrent elections: Yucatán, which moved its gubernatorial elections forward a year to coincide with the presidential elections beginning in 2012; Guerrero and Baja California Sur, which brought their gubernatorial elections two years forward beginning in 2015 to coincide with midterm elections for the Chamber of Deputies; and Michoacán, which pushed its elections two years back and split the elongated term in two, in order to line up with the federal calendar in 2015. It argues that concurrent elections reduce the disparity between gubernatorial and proportional representation deputy performance, particularly when the election is concurrent with the federal midterm, but that variation continues to exist due to strategic voting effects and the attractiveness of individual candidates. / Dissertation/Thesis / Metrics for 183 candidates in 36 state gubernatorial elections in Mexico, 2007-17 / Metrics for 36 state gubernatorial elections in Mexico, 2007-17 / Masters Thesis Political Science 2018

Este trabalho analisa a informação política disponibilizada nos blogs diante de um cenário competitivo a eleição para a Prefeitura de São Paulo em 2008. Como se pretendia avaliar a capacidade das páginas para atrair leitores e interferir na agenda da imprensa, foram escolhidos os blogs de dois jornalistas (Ricardo Noblat e Reinaldo Azevedo), dois políticos (José Dirceu e Paulo Renato) e dois candidatos (Gilberto Kassab e Marta Suplicy), além do blog Campanha no Ar, criado pela Folha de S. Paulo estes são atores com alta capacidade de interferir no cenário político devido ao capital simbólico que possuem neste campo. A Folha foi escolhida para fazer a comparação com a imprensa tradicional. Com esta seleção, o trabalho realizou uma análise de conteúdo das páginas e uma avaliação com critérios específicos da Internet. Com isso, os resultados confirmam a tese de que há uma espécie de elite dos blogs, cujos atores apresentam maior capacidade de atrair leitores e jornalistas; que a imprensa é a principal fonte de informação dos blogs, mas também sofre influência deles; que o formato jornalístico ainda é um modelo usado para gerar credibilidade, apesar de estar sofrendo transformações na Internet; e que a interação com os leitores ainda é, basicamente, reativa e seu uso é mais intenso para o marketing político, embora haja um potencial de vigilância dos cidadãos e de pluralização nos debates / This paper analyzes the political information available in blogs on a competitive scenario - the election for mayor of Sao Paulo in 2008. As it was intended to evaluate the capacity of pages to attract readers and influence the agenda of the press, the blogs chosen were from two journalists (Ricardo Noblat and Reinaldo Azevedo), two politicians (José Dirceu and Paulo Renato), two candidates (Gilberto Kassab and Marta Suplicy), and the blog Campanha no Ar, created by Folha de S. Paulo - these are players with high capacity to influence the political arena because of the symbolic capital that they have in this field. Folha was chosen for comparison with the traditional press. With this selection, the work performed a content analysis of pages and an assessment with specific criteria for the Internet. Thus, the results confirm the thesis that there is a kind of "elite blogs", whose actors have greater ability to attract readers and journalists; the press is the main source of information for blogs, but is also influenced by them; that the journalistic format is still a model used to generate credibility, although it is going through changes on the Internet; and that interaction with readers is still basically reactive and its use is stronger for political marketing, although there is potential for surveillance by the citizens and pluralization in the debates