Ursprüngl.: Heidelberg, University, Diss., 2004. / Includes bibliographical references and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of South Carolina, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 297-318).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 271-284).

Thesis (M.A.)--Dept. of Political Science. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2004. / "A thesis in political science." Typescript. Advisor: Max J. Skidmore. Vita. Title from "catalog record" of the print edition Description based on contents viewed Feb. 28, 2006. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-126). Online version of the print edition.

Dentre as instituições democráticas, os partidos políticos são as que gozam de menor confiança e prestígio perante a sociedade. Ainda assim, levando em consideração o papel essencial que desempenham no processo político democrático, o objetivo deste trabalho é analisar como o Direito pode contribuir para o fortalecimento dos partidos políticos brasileiros e para a reversão do atual quadro de descrença. Com esse escopo, o primeiro capítulo tratará da evolução histórica das agremiações que atuaram no cenário político nacional e da legislação partidária elaborada em cada período, a fim de identificar as origens dos problemas enfrentados atualmente e em que medida as leis já elaboradas foram suficientes para conter os desvios. Em seguida, o segundo capítulo, discorrerá sobre as principais funções exercidas pelos partidos nas arenas eleitoral e legislativa, bem como sobre a estrutura e funcionamento interno dos três maiores partidos nacionais, por meio da leitura dos seus Estatutos, com o intuito de apreender as falhas e êxitos resultantes de sua atuação. No terceiro capítulo, serão abordados o fenômeno da desconfiança e seus efeitos sobre a democracia, bem como o papel das leis na correção dos desvios, tomando como exemplo seu desempenho em outras áreas do Direito. Após, passaremos à análise dos entraves impostos à legislação partidária no Brasil, em especial a tutela excessiva da autonomia partidária. Por fim, tendo a legislação estrangeira como referência, faremos algumas sugestões com o intuito de aprimorar a atuação dos partidos políticos pátrios. Consciente de que o Direito não tem condições de resolver isoladamente as mazelas que assolam o sistema partidário brasileiro, cujas raízes estão profundamente fincadas na sociedade, esse trabalho procurará demonstrar que a Ciência Jurídica pode, ao menos, dar início às mudanças necessárias, seja incentivando os comportamentos corretos, seja proibindo e punindo os comportamentos desviados / Even though the political parties are the less prestigious and credible amongst democratic institutions, due to its unique role in the democratic political process this thesis aims to analyze how Law can contribute to the strengthening of the Brazilian political parties and to the regain of its credibility. Having this into account, the first chapter will examine the parties historical evolution on the Brazilian political scenario along with the related legislation of each period, focusing on identifying the origins of the currently problems and the role of the legislation on solving them. Afterwards, the second chapter will discuss the main functions of the political parties on the legislative and electoral arenas and the internal structure of the three main Brazilian political parties, trying to focus on the flaws and achievements of their performance. The third chapter will study the trust issues between political parties and their voters along with its effects on democracy and the role of the legislation on political parties, in comparison to its performance on the other legal areas. After this, it will be analyzed the barriers imposed to the Brazilian legislation on political parties, especially the excessive supervision of party autonomy. Finally, taking the foreign legislation as a reference, some suggestions will be made in order to improve the Brazilian political parties performance. Considering that Law, on its own, is unable to solve the Brazilian political parties issues, this paper aims to demonstrate that the importance of Legal Science is to initiate the necessary chances, stimulating proper behavior or punishing improper demeanor.

This dissertation presents the results of a series of large-N, demographically representative survey experiments conducted at different stages of the 2020 presidential election cycle, designed to test the effects of highlighting intraparty policy conflict on subjects’ political beliefs. I find politicians of both major political parties are able to persuade followers to take on counter-party policy positions with limited electoral risk, and that these persuasive effects are enduring, still detectable nine months after treatment. While subjects updated their own policy positions in response to treatment, they did not update the policy positions they prefer when selecting among hypothetical candidates, in contrast to issue voting theorists predictions. While politicians appear to be far more effective opinion leaders than parties, therefore, their persuasive abilities may not significantly alter the shape of the partisan electorate as faced by other candidates. These findings refine our scholarly understanding of individual politicians as opinion leaders in the contemporary United States, and demonstrates the challenges political parties face in checking their popular politicians.

No description available.

No description available.

In this thesis, I outline the normative relevance of religious political parties as carriers of values in the context of contemporary political theory. The central argument of my thesis is that religious political parties are, in ideal terms, vital institutional tools for channelling religious claims into the public political realm of liberal democratic polities, in a way that favours democracy. The reason for my claim is that there is a set of normative criteria that all political parties ought to comply with. These include loyal opposition (i.e. the endorsement of the constitutional and institutional framework in which parties operate), acknowledgement and respect of political pluralism and commitment to pursuing power only through legal means. These normative criteria are grounded in the idea that political parties are “bilingual”, i.e. they occupy a unique position between civil society and public political realm. By complying with these criteria political parties can contribute in channelling and moderating religious and other perfectionist claims in a way that renders them suitable for democratic politics. Furthermore I argue that religious political parties are best incorporated, in ideal terms, by a regime of nonconstitutional pluralism, where no religious faith is officially recognized in the constitution but the political guarantees exist for the expression of religious views in the public political realm through religious political parties. Finally, I examine two specific religious parties, the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi - AKP) in Turkey and the former Christian Democratic Party (Democrazia Cristiana - DC) in Italy, in order to assess to which extent they have complied with the normative criteria of party politics and, therefore, contributed in enhancing democracy in their respective polities.

Peruvian civilian and military authorities were trapped on a dead-end road in the counterinsurgency struggle against the terrorist movement Shining Path until the capture of the organization's top leader on September 12, 1992. The episode led to the eventual demise of the terrorist organization. This thesis argues that the successful operation was a consequence of the particular organization and working processes of the intelligence unit assigned to this sensitive case, and describes the extent to which the capture contributed to the defeat of the insurgency. Given the characteristics of the Shining Path terrorist organization, it was necessary to design a Special Intelligence Group with specific characteristics that made the group strong enough to overcome the obstacles of the reality it faced in Peru. Several other units with the same mission were unsuccessful in the twelve years of open struggle against the Shining Path. During its 22 years of activity, the Shining Path had built a solidly impenetrable organization, which allowed the police and military to hit the organizations' military apparatus, but not the political one. In Maoist organizations like the Shining Path, the political apparatus controls the organization. A study of the tactics, techniques and procedures developed by the Special Intelligence Group and the exchange between the intelligence and the operations components, as well as the decision making process within the group itself, demonstrates the organizational necessity of secrecy, isolation, motivation and delegation of authority for this type of mission.