This dissertation addresses the question of women's descriptive underrepresentation in Canadian politics at the federal level. Previous studies of women's underrepresentation in Canada and elsewhere have largely focused on analysing the results of elections, and studies that do account for earlier factors such as recruitment and candidate selection are limited in their scopes. In this dissertation I analyse women's representation in a holistic manner, accounting for factors from the pre-nomination stage up through election. Conceptually, I approach the path to political office as a three-stage "representation pipeline," comprising candidate emergence, candidate selection, and election. I base my analysis on Elections Canada's records of nomination contests held by federal political parties for the 2004 through 2019 general elections, paired with relevant district-level demographic factors from the Canadian census. I complement this analysis with an original survey of nomination contestants in the 2019 election. I find that women's underrepresentation in Canada is determined chiefly by issues in candidate emergence, rather than by issues in candidate selection or electoral discrimination. Instead, nominations in Canada are in the strong majority of cases acclamations, making candidate emergence and election the only meaningful barriers to women's representation in most cases. Furthermore, women face a small but significant degree of electoral discrimination, with women having slightly lower odds then men of winning election even when controlling for their party's past performance in the district. Finally, I find that urban districts are more conducive to women's representation at all three stages of the representation pipeline.

The Social Democrats’ have had an incomparable influence over Swedish politics during the 20th century. This study looks at how this working-class party descriptively represents the working-class on its ballot lists for the Swedish parliament, Riksdagen. Using a mixed methods approach this study builds on an original data set including all of the Social Democratic ballot lists for Riksdagen from 1970 to 2014. The data is combined with qualitative interviews with party representatives in two constituencies. The combined results of the studies show that the Social Democrats are not descriptively representing the Swedish working-class. The party representatives seem to want to represent the working-class and they think that they are descriptively representing this social class. The results indicate that it might be more important for the party to find candidates that are loyal, than candidates who want to represent working-class interests. Furthermore, there are indications that the party might define the working-class in outdated terms; rather than focusing on the level of education, the party defines the working-class largely in terms of those employed in manual labor and heavy industry.

Opportunistic Routing (OR) is an effective and enhanced routing scheme for wireless multihop environment. OR is an approach that selects a certain number of best forwarders (candidates) at each hop by taking the advantage of the broadcast nature of the wireless medium to reach the destination. When a set of candidates receive the packet, they coordinate with each other to figure out which one has to forward the packet toward the destination. Most of the research in this area has been done in mesh networks where nodes do not have mobility. In this survey, we propose a new OR protocol for mobile ad hoc scenarios called as Enhanced Mobility-based Opportunistic Routing (EMOR) protocol. To deal with the node mobility, we have proposed a new metric which considers the following: geographical position of the candidates; the link delivery probability to reach them; the number of neighboring nodes of candidates; and the predicted position of nodes using the motion vector of the nodes. We have compared EMOR with five other well-known routing protocols in terms of delivery ratio, end-to-end delay, and expected number of transmissions from source to the destination. Our simulation results show that proposed protocol improves delivery ratio and number of expected transmission in terms of different type of mobility models.

This PhD dissertation analyses the processes used by political parties to select candidates for the European elections, making the unique institutional setting and electoral dynamics of the European Parliament a “litmus test” for party organisations. By applying an institutional design theory to the ways parties nominate their candidates for the EP, I can test a wide range of pre-existing postulates about parties’ behaviours, and can do so across many different countries (thus considering various electoral settings and socio-political arenas) while also accounting for the multi-level setting in which they operate. To this end, I thoroughly explore the intra-party “machinery” at work in the drafting of nominees. More specifically, this dissertation first provides a descriptive account of the main intra-party formal rules that govern the EP selection procedures from a comparative perspective. Concretely, this descriptive analysis serves to measure the relative power of individuals, party organs, and party levels, and to establish what imperatives (membership fees, endorsements, incompatibilities, quotas) are prescribed by the various parties. On that basis, I identify the patterns of selection rules put in place by the parties. I then explore the factors that condition the parties' choices of procedures by relating the aforementioned observations to a number of national- and EU-level characteristics. Later, I confront these rules with the parties’ informal practices during the actual process, and further trace an entire process from the rules' enactment to the choice of candidates. In doing so, I hope to contribute a small but important building block to the understanding of current political parties, while also speaking directly to those who are more generally interested in comparative politics and EU politics. / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Purpose: Academic programs are faced with the important task of selecting health professional students who not only possess necessary cognitive abilities to perform their future job, but also have valuable personal/professional characteristics to draw upon in the provision of quality patient care. There is therefore "widespread agreement that it is desirable to broaden the scope of assessment beyond academic achievement" (Eva, Reiter, Trinh, Wasi, Rosenfeld, Norman, 2009, p.768) in candidate selection. The Child Life Studies Program at McMaster University used a 4-station multiple mini-interview (MMI) as part of the admission selection process. This study sought to determine the feasibility, degree of acceptability and reliability of this 4-station MMI design, and if there were any predictors of candidate's performance on the MMI. Methods: A group of 35 applicants in 2014, and 40 applicants in 2015 screened through admission procedures participated in a 4-station MMI. Each station was 15 minutes in length with 5 minutes for scoring each candidate. Anonymous stakeholder surveys were used in 2015 to assess participant and interviewer's perceptions and acceptability of the MMI in applicant selection. Generalizability coefficients were calculated to determine reliability. In addition, candidate's experience in healthcare, professional work experience, experience with children with disabilities, and previous child life course work (or lack thereof) were analyzed through independent t-tests to report any relationship with candidate's performance on the MMI. A one-way ANOVA was also completed to report any relationship between candidate's undergraduate degree type and his/her MMI performance. Results: The 4-station MMI was found to be feasible for a small program with a marked increase found in the number of candidates interviewed in a shorter period of time. It was also found to be highly acceptable among candidates and faculty. However, this studies' findings did not show statistically significant differences in MMI performance based on identified predictors, or undergraduate degree type. The reliability of the 4-station design in 2014 was G=0.718, however, was only G=0.089 in 2015, far lower than expected based on the prior year’s G Coefficient. The potential pitfalls in running a small program MMI are discussed with specific suggestions and modifications provided to enhance reliability of candidate selections across professions. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

The driving question of this compilation thesis is whether quotas for political assemblies represent an effective tool for breaking down gender inequality in the political sphere. To put it differently, focus is on the possibilities for policy-makers to engineer equality. As a response to persistent patterns of male dominance in political decision-making, approximately 100 countries, both democratic and authoritarian, have adopted these affirmative action measures. The introductory section presents an argument as to why we should focus on certain impacts in order to be able to answer the question about the effectiveness of quotas. It suggests that the point of departure for empirical assessments of quota policies should be the normative arguments for supporting the reform, and the effects that normative theorists and quota advocates expect from these measures. The three studies that make up the core of the thesis build on previous empirical research on quotas, and examine some of their possible effects at both the elite level and mass level. Study I theoretically scrutinizes how the procedures for selecting women to political office shape these women's legislative autonomy, and thereby their possibilities to substantively represent women. The study identifies mainly two factors as important: a large body selecting the candidates and a rule-bound and thus bureaucratized selection procedure. Study II empirically tests the claim that women elected through quotas are more likely to suffer from institutional constraints in the legislature, and thereby have a harder time working for the benefit of women, than other female representatives. By conducting a comparative case-study of two Mexican state legislatures, no support is found for this hypothesis. Quotas have also been justified because of their likely impacts on female citizens' perceptions about politics. Study III addresses this issue by performing a statistical analysis on the impacts of quotas on Latin American women's political attitudes and behavior. In contrast to previous research on the topic, the study finds little proof of positive impacts of quotas on women's political engagement. Taken together, the thesis does not provide a clear-cut answer to the question as to whether it is possible to engineer equality within politics. However, it sheds new light on the complexities of quota impacts, and it qualifies and nuances the picture for those who expect quotas to be an overall solution for problems of gender inequality.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in Mexico lost power in 2000 after controlling the governing structure for 71 years. With the old rules gone forever, the PRI needed to regroup in order to survive as a viable party. This thesis explores how the PRI went about transforming its candidate selection procedures from 2000 to 2006 in order to remain a viable political party. Since the president of Mexico made most candidate selection decisions previously, the party had no choice but to reform its procedures. What emerged was a battle for power and influence between and among the party leaders at the national level and party affiliated state governors. Those state governors sought to dominate party structures within their states as the President of the Republic once dominated the party nationally. To restore the legitimacy many in the party thought it lost, the PRI first experimented with open primaries. It eventually concluded that open primaries caused divisions, thus often hurting the party electorally. As time passed, the PRI moved away from selecting candidates through open primaries and sought to nominate unity candidates. / text

This thesis studies women politicians’ journey along the path from candidates to elected representatives in party list proportional representation (PR list) systems. While past literature provides sufficient evidence that more women are elected in proportional electoral systems than in majority / plurality systems, there is limited research explaining the differences in women’s representation across varying types of PR list systems. This thesis aims to fill that gap, by focusing primarily on the election of women across preferential (open and ordered list systems) and non-preferential (closed list systems) PR list voting systems. Moreover, unlike the vast majority of previous research, which has relied on aggregate level data only, this research investigates the election of women at the individual candidate level. Such an approach allows the present thesis to consider, next to traditional aggregate level predictors, how party gatekeepers and the news media may either support or hinder women in progressing from candidates to elected representatives. Since the focus is set on the 2009 European Parliament elections, this thesis investigates the process of electing women cross-nationally. The results show that female candidates have a higher likelihood of being elected in non-preferential closed list voting systems than in preferential ordered list voting systems. The results suggest that this is the case because, first, party gatekeepers in ordered list systems place women in less viable electoral list positions than party gatekeepers in closed list systems; second, media cover female candidates less in ordered list systems compared to closed list systems; and finally, female candidates in ordered list systems fail to make up their less competitive starting position with preference votes because preference votes in ordered list systems do not significantly alter the initial party list rankings.

Policy responsiveness to the demands of the whole is important because it is a determinant of growth and development: Institutions that make governments more inclusive favor economic progress and factors that make governments more exclusive inhibit prosperity. Growth-enhancing policies likely to please the citizenry include policies that ensure the prevalence of the rule of law, policies that protect property and intellectual rights, and policies that foster competition, access and the perfection of markets. In contrast, growth-retarding policies likely to initiate from the representation efforts of politicians advancing narrow concerns include infringement on property rights, diffuse patent legislation, regulation to rise some price or wage, regulation blocking the entry into specific markets, official protection to monopolistic markets and adoption of legal barriers against international competition. If policy responsiveness to the interests of the whole favors economic affluence, what political institutions matter for the advancement of wide-encompassing interests through the policy making process? This dissertation examines the idea that the incentives provided by the intra-party candidate selection methods are crucial in order to understand the politicians' representation efforts. Expressly, increasing participation and democratization of the intra-party nomination process increase the incumbent's propensity to represent wide-encompassing interests and adopt policies that favor economic affluence. In contrast, elite-centered nomination methods decrease the incumbent's incentive to be politically responsive to the interests of the whole in favor of the representation of narrow concerns that often demand policies that benefit the group at the expense of overall economic growth. Empirically, the idea that aspirants to party tickets must first respond to the demands of those with the power to add their names to the electoral ballot finds robust support. In the developed world, candidate nomination appears largely informed by inclusive and democratic practices. Quite the opposite, in the less-developed world events of intraparty participatory politics are for the most part absent, with nomination decisions often monopolized by national party leaders and local party bosses.

Searches for pulsars during the past fifty years, have been characterised by two problems making their discovery difficult: i) an increasing volume of data to be searched, and ii) an increasing number of `candidate' pulsar detections arising from that data, requiring analysis. Whilst almost all are caused by noise or interference, these are often indistinguishable from real pulsar detections. Deciding which candidates should be studied is therefore difficult. Indeed it has become known as the `candidate selection problem'. This thesis presents an interdisciplinary study of the selection problem, with the aim of developing a new method able to mitigate it. Specifically for future pulsar surveys undertaken with the Square kilometre Array (SKA). Through a combination of critical literature evaluations, theoretical modelling exercises, and empirical investigations, the selection problem is described in-depth here for the first time. It is shown to be characterised by the dominance of Gaussian distributed noise signals, a factor that no existing selection method accounts for. It also reveals the presence of a significant trend in survey data rates, which suggest that candidate selection is transitioning from an off-line processing procedure, to an on-line, and real-time, decision making process. In response, a new real-time machine learning based method, the GH-VFDT, is introduced in this thesis. The results presented here show that a significant improvement in selection performance can be achieved using the GH-VFDT, which utilises a learning procedure optimised for data characterised by skewed class distributions. Whilst the principled development of new numerical features that maximise the separation between pulsars and Gaussian noise, have also greatly improved GH-VFDT pulsar recall. It is therefore concluded that the sub-optimal performance of existing selection systems, is due to a combination of poor feature design, insensitivity to noise, and an inability to deal with skewed class distributions.