<p>Something is happening in the world today. The participation in the Swedish elections used to be over 90 %, but has drastically decreased, primarily among first time voters. The memberships are declining among both political parties, as well as within non-governmental organizations. But why?</p><p>The purpose of this paper is to test if the sociological theory of neo-tribalisation can explain the decreasing commitment, in the form of internet communities. The research is based upon the hypothesis: youths will seek themselves to Maffeolis tribes, witch will lead to fewer youths in political organizations. The hypothesis was tested using statistical analysis of members in political organizations and compared with posts on the community Lunarstorm.</p><p>The result of the analysis was that the hypotheis can not be said to be true, but therefore not dismissed. Something new is awakening, that we do not fully understand or comprehend yet. So the final analysis is that more studies needs to be carried out to get the final awnser to the question: are the youth of today being tribalized?</p>

This thesis is a study of Parties as an outflow of societal changes where the aim has been to find out how parties are affected by societal changes and how they justify to new party formation. This is done by using a theory called Parties as an outflow of societal changes which is a theory developed by Swedish researchers in Political Science. To confirm the theory it is necessary to do an argumentation analysis of one external developed party’s electoral program. In this case the party selected is Feminist Initiative which brings a different view on how the society of Sweden should look like. Selected parts of the argumentative analysis will be examined with the purpose to give a perspective on how Feminist Initiative values the changes in society and how they describe their role as a new party. The main question of this study is; Are new parties an outflow of societal changes? The basic arguments includes that along with societal changes in Western Europe also changes the view of a representative democracy in which political parties play a central role. It is clear that societies have changed in different ways with the rampage of the globalization. Media’s role in the political realm has also increased and influences more in society. In the case of Sweden political parties have raised with different ideals, goals and visions of how Swedish society should look like. The result should confirm the thesis that changes in society contributes to party formation.

<p>The purpose of this study is to investigate if reconciliation between former war-enemies and ethnic groups (Muslims, Croats and Serbs) in Bosnia and Hercegovina is possible today. Reconciliation between these groups is necessary for the development of the state and sustainable peace. In order to fulfil the aim I have applied qualitative conversation interviews together with qualitative literature study.</p><p>In this research I have studied the three largest parties (SDA, HDZ and SDS) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Conversation interviews were made with two representatives of each party. The reconciliation theory and the recommendations that the theory advocates were used in the study. The recommendations were also used to create interview questions that gave me relevant empirical data from the interviews. The interview data with the high representatives of these political parties led to a valid result.</p><p>The conclusions show that reconciliation between these three ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina is not possible today. Huge political, economical and social changes and improvements are necessary. All three classes, top-level, middle-range and grassroots, must get involved in the process if reconciliation is to be possible.</p><p>Keywords: Bosnia and Herzegovina, reconciliation, ethnic groups, political parties.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 147-152).

Inaugural-Dissertation--Greifswald, 1932. / Lebenslauf. "Schrifttum," p. 54-56.

Thesis (M.A.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2002. / Bibliography: leaves 113-123.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Universität Stuttgart, 2002. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Mar. 17, 2003).

While clientelism has been intensively studied in comparative politics from very different theoretical perspectives and angles, scholars typically emphasize the importance of organized networks and long-term relations for sustaining electoral clientelism. However, electoral clientelism continues to be widespread in many countries despite the absence of organized parties or electoral machines. In order to account for this puzzle, I propose an informational approach that stresses the indirect effects that investments in electoral clientelism have on vote intentions. By distributing minor consumer goods, politicians buy the participation of poor voters at rallies and different sorts of campaign events. I argue that this particular subtype of electoral clientelism -- "campaign clientelism" -- helps politicians improvise political organizations, influence indifferent clients, and signal their electoral viability to strategic actors. Thus, by influencing competition and the dynamics of the race, campaign clientelism shapes vote choices and electoral outcomes. Campaign clientelism affects vote choices through two causal mechanisms. First, this subtype of electoral clientelism can help establish candidates' electoral viability, especially where alternative signals provided by well-organized parties are weak. By turning out large numbers of people at rallies, candidates establish and demonstrate their electoral prospects to the media, donors, rent-seeking activists, and voters. In this way, politicians induce more and more voters to support them strategically. Second, campaign clientelism can convince unattached rally participants of the candidates' electoral desirability. While providing different sorts of information at campaign events, politicians help campaign clients make choices. Other things being equal, viable and desirable candidates have better chances of actually achieving office. Qualitative, quantitative, and experimental evidence from Peru, a democracy without parties, supports the informational theory's expectations. / text

While I do not dispute the pivotal role played by party leaders in setting and shifting a party position, I argue that the impetus for party shifts sometimes comes from the "bottom-up"--that is, from party members themselves. At times, the party position held by the leadership conflicts with some members' constituency interests. Faced with this conflict, backbench members use the legislative process to signal their intention to defect from the party on policy unless the leadership modifies the party's existing position. Party members' party-splitting votes under constituency pressures, however, do not always lead the party into a new brand. If one party, particularly a majority party, is divided but the other party is united over a policy issue, this issue drives a wedge within the majority party. If this wedge issue continues to split the majority party and unite the minority party, the majority party is likely to shift its policy position to solve its dilemma of party division. To test my theory of party position shifts, I explore three historical cases in which there was position change by one or both parties over immigration, national security, and trade. More specifically, these include: the switch of congressional Republicans from anti- to pro-exclusion on Chinese immigration in the post-Reconstruction period; the shift of congressional Democrats from a party of "guns" and "butter" to a party of only "butter" in the post-Vietnam War era; and Republican and Democratic flip-flopping on China and MFN in the post-Cold War period. My findings suggest that policy change in these cases is driven by the shifting preferences of members as they try to resolve tension between the party and the constituency. Sometimes party rank-and-file members are in the driver's seat in defining the parties' positions. This is as true for foreign policy as it is for domestic policy. My dissertation shows that in a representative democracy, the transition from voters' preferences to lawmakers' votes occurs through the politics of procedural voting strategies in Congress. / text

This dissertation examines the determinants of the effect of partisanship on support for a parliamentary government. In doing so, I address a set of related questions, using Japan as an example. I begin with a descriptive question: Is the effect of partisanship on the job approval of the administration changing over time? To answer this question, using 1960-2001 time series data, I demonstrate the changing impact of the job approval rate of the cabinets over this period. Then I turn to explanation for the change and ask: Why does the effect change over time? I hypothesize that supporters of newly established parties in the government are less likely to be influenced by their partisanship when evaluating the cabinet' performance. Partisanship, defined here as a predisposition to support a particular political party, grows with the cumulative effect of political experience and learning. There is, however, less opportunity for newly established and political parties to have such loyal supporters. My second hypothesis holds that supporters of ruling parties to which the prime minister does not belong are less likely to make partisan judgments in appraising the cabinet's performance. Party identification extends to the government in which the party participates, the partisan effect on the appraisal of the government's performance emerges. The party affiliation of the prime minister influences to what extent people associate the government with the party. / text