Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / This study focused on municipal service delivery campaigns before the advent of the integrated development planning framework. In particular, the focus was on the role played by the Masakhane campaign in improving service delivery and contributing to a better life for the community of the greater Middelburg in Mpumalanga Province. The municipality of the greater Middelburg won several awards in recognition of its achievements in the Masakhane campaign and serves as a model example for other municipalities. / South Africa

The explosion of new political speech in digital formats in the 2008 elections, especially those involving social networking, offered new opportunities and challenges for political journalists, campaign participants and voters alike. This review of new political media in 2008 examines how these new methods of political organizing and communications work and provides insights to further understand how media can best cover and participate in them. The thesis details how 2008 was the first fully Web 2.0 election, exhibiting its characteristics of interactivity, use of databases and the "long tail" of microniche Internet websites. Three new media uses - online, database-driven political speech fact checking as exemplified by PolitiFact; the social networking site Facebook; and interactive, no-cost video streaming on YouTube - illustrate where the changes from traditional political communications to new media are most dramatic. A heightened awareness of emerging political communications forms and a new model for political journalists' interaction with news consumers and vastly different skills sets for reporters will be needed for news media to cover and participate in the new digital electorate.

In recent years, negativity has become a dominant theme in the political campaign. However, there are no comprehensive studies to measure the amount of negativity and to examine how parties and candidates adopt these negative strategies, particularly in the Canadian context. Although some studies have focused on a particular aspect of negative campaigning in a Canadian election, the question remains of how and to what extent parties adopt negative strategies in an election. In this thesis, I have collected and analyzed parties’ press releases in the 2015 federal election to examine and explain negativity in parties’ political campaigns. I have tested my results according to five primary theories of negative campaigning, including competitive positioning, ideological proximity, party organization, coalition or minority effect, and negative personalization, to see if these theories apply in the Canadian context. My results indicate that the 2015 federal campaign was a highly negative one, and most of the negative attacks have been directed towards the leader of the Conservative Party, Stephen Harper, while the Conservative Party published the least amount of negative attacks during the campaign. I also found that the Liberal Party has published the most negative statements during the campaign. My results also show that one of the influential factors in shaping parties’ negative campaign strategies is the other parties’ status in public opinion polls, particularly the federal voting intention factor. Although the results show that most of the attacks in the 2015 campaign targeted leaders of parties, I did not find enough support in my models to verify the negative personalization theory. The overall findings of this thesis show that Canadian elections are moving toward a presidential-style campaign, similar to the United States, by becoming more negative and more personalized, which can have significant implications for Canadian democracy.

Denna studie har haft som avsikt att undersöka begreppet räckvidds roll i en reklamkampanjprocess, samt i vilken utsträckning relationen till begreppen effekt och påverkan är relevanta för att nå denna förståelse. Det har tillämpats en begreppshistorisk analys för att kartlägga räckvidds historiska betydelser parallellt med effekt och påverkan. Därefter har kvalitativ empiri från intervjuer med aktörer från branschen studerats i ett sammanhang med syfte att nå en djupare förståelse för hur deras olika tolkningar av räckvidd har resulterat i dagens olika betydelser. Resultatet visar på begreppet räckvidds skilda innebörder som är beroende på situation och att det som aktör finns en viktig poäng i att vara medveten om dess skilda innebörder i olika sammanhang. / The purpose of the following study is to investigate and analyze the significance of the concept of reach in advertising. Furthermore whether its relationship with effect and influence can contribute to further understanding of the concept. Firstly the concept of reach has been analyzed in a historical context. Together with the concepts of effect and influence, its historical meaning has been investigated and presented. Secondly, several interviews with actors in advertising have been conducted. The main purpose of the interviews has been to hear from those in the trade to understand what their views are of reach, and how they interpret its importance. The information gathered in the interviews shed light on how the advertising community has shaped the discourse of the subject. Additionally, the interviews have enabled an analysis of the evolution of today’s different meanings of the concept of reach. The results indicate that the different meanings of the concept of reach are dependent on the surrounding circumstances of advertisement. Furthermore, as a result it becomes evident that as an actor in the world of advertisement one can benefit from understanding its different interpretations.

Uppsatsen utgår ifrån en våldtäktsdiskurs där fokus läggs på offret och förövaren osynliggörs i den mediala representationen av sexuellt våld. Genom en visuell diskursanalys undersöks representationen av män i The Bystander Campaign i förhållande till maskulina strukturer i den rådande våldtäktsdiskursen. Bildmaterialet analyseras och tolkas utifrån representations-, diskurs- samt genusteoretiska utgångspunkter. Analysen visar att bilderna utmanar vissa aspekter av den rådande våldtäktsdiskursen genom en mer verklighetstrogen bild av det sexuella våldet, men misslyckas i sin representation av männen som tydligt speglar en hegemonisk maskulinitet genom blickar och kroppsspråk. Uppsatsen argumenterar för den mansdominerande kulturen som bakomliggande faktor till det sexuella våldet som inte problematiseras tillräckligt i bildmaterialet från The Bystander Campaign.

Thesis advisor: Oliver P. Rafferty / Thesis advisor: Robert J. Savage / Irish Republicans found themselves at a crisis moment in 1949. Legislation enacted by each state on the island affirmed the political reality of Ireland’s partition. The Southern state declared an Irish Republic while the Northern state affirmed Northern Ireland’s continuing integration with the United Kingdom. The partition of island between these two governments was reinforced by the Irish border in the 1950s as it had been for the previous three decades. The Irish Republican Army remained committed to ending the separation through force while the Northern Ireland security apparatus steadfastly safeguarded the realm against any foreign incursion or domestic insurrection. Irish Republicanism reorganized and the IRA launched a disastrously planned and under-resourced Border Campaign between 1956 and 1962. The IRA was fully repelled by the Northern security forces: the Royal Ulster Constabulary supported by the Special Constabulary with security assistance from the governments in Belfast, London and, eventually, Dublin. The militant aspect was accompanied by political measures that reaped electoral gains and signs of public support peaking in the mid-1950s before a clear repudiation of the movement by the end of the decade. By the start of the 1960s, the IRA had been defeated and Irish Republicanism was reeling, unsure of its future political vitality and social relevance. Northern Ireland and the Irish border was more secure than at any point in its previous 40 years of existing, ruled by a strong, confident British Unionist hegemony. For Irish Republicans living on the frontier of the Northern Ireland state, new modes of political thinking and confrontational actions with the state had been attempted and ultimately abandoned. This project examines the main dynamics at play along the Irish border between 1949 and 1961. Focus will be on the Sinn Féin, the IRA and Liam Kelly’s Republican splinter group Saor Uladh, the RUC, B-Specials and militant-political Unionism, and the role of governments in Belfast, Dublin and London during the costly decade of the 1950s. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

This Diploma thesis deals with the campaign of the two political parties SPD and Trikolóra on social media networks before regional elections in 2020. It strives to show the form and the differences of the pre election campaign of these two political parties two weeks before the elections on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. The theoretical part shows the way we can classify the political parties with the cleavages, describes the chosen social media platforms and answers why these four specific platforms had been chosen. It narrates the characteristics of the regional elections with the second-order elections theory and defines negative campaign. The practical part of the thesis draws attention to the political situation in the Czech Republic in autumn 2020, because the regional elections were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. This part describes SPD and Trikolóra, their history, electoral achievements, defines the election program of these two parties and their similarities. The next chapter includes the quantitative analysis of the social media platforms of SPD and Trikolóra which is supplemented by the qualitative analysis describing the content of the posts. The conclusion of the thesis compares the data of the two parties and provides the campaign differences.

The influence of corporate money in politics is one of the most studied topics in political science in the U.S., although not so much so in recent democracies. Using new and public data from Brazilian elections, this dissertation investigates the process of institutional change that culminated in a 2015 decision by the Brazilian Supreme Court to ban corporate donations as a legal source of financing to politicians and parties. The episode exemplifies the worldwide tendency of judicialization of politics and fits the pattern of change identified by the literature as a critical juncture, understood as a relatively short period of time in which there is a heightened probability that agents' choices will affect the outcome of interest. Under exceptional circumstances of political and economic crisis, actors not institutionally in charge of law making set in motion a process of legislative change whose final outcome was not a faithful reflection of their preferences, but was deeply influenced by contingent elements. Public support in a context of severe revelations of corruption schemes explain how the Supreme Court was able to rule against the immediate interest of politicians and how the latter, having adjusted to find additional sources of money, were unwilling to reinstate corporate donation as a legal means of campaign financing. Having confirmed in Chapter two that incumbency is associated in Brazil with a negative effect on the electoral performance of office holders while the use of corporate money by candidates is legal, the dissertation examines the effects of the Supreme Court decision on municipal elections held after it came into effect. We investigate whether removing this important source of funding for both incumbents and challengers swings the balance in favor of office holders in both majority and proportional elections held in 2016. We find evidence that the ban on corporate donations favored incumbent mayors, suggesting that the historic decision, instead of levelling the playing field between incumbents and challengers, in reality helped office holders to win an additional term. It was not immediately visible due to the particular conditions in which the 2016 elections took place, when voters were particularly angry at incumbents due to the widespread news of corruption involving party officials. These findings indicate that, despite its intention to make Brazilian elections more competitive and open, the historic Supreme Court decision might have had the exact opposite effect, helping perpetuate in power politicians already in office.

Diploma thesis Italy in the 90's - political earthquake and it's impact on the European Parliament elections focuses on political and social changes that Italy experienced during the early 90's and their impact on election campaigns and European Parliament election results in 1994 and 1999. The paper recaps evolution of powers of the European Parliament, legal base for EP elections in Italy and it summarizes both internal and external factors that led to radical changes in political and partisan system and eventually to the end of the First Italian Republic. It depicts collapse of party system and rise of new political parties and leaders on the background of international context, judical investigation into political corruption Mani Pulite and offensive of organized crime as a reaction to it. The key part of the thesis is dedicated to the European elections in Italy in 1994 and 1994, it analizes election campaigns led by the Italian political parties and the electoral results. The main objective of the thesis is to confirm or disprove initial hypthesis that Italian political parties perceived the European elections as a tool to reach their domestic aims, as research revealing distribution of powers in the national arena.

The diploma thesis deals with regression testing of the Campaign Manager web application of the Xtend product. The work interprets the software development methodologies and subsequently it describes the types of testing that are closely related to development. Furthermore, the work focuses on tools used for the graphical user interface testing and their mutual comparison. The next part of the work is dedicated to the creation of the development environment and it analyzes the structure of test cases that were developed in the created environment. The last section describes how the Campaign Manager was tested and how test results were generated and obtained.