Contemporary liberal democracies highlight representation as a fundamental aspect of their functioning. However, the representation of different education levels in the Netherlands, as in other Western democracies, is lacking. This research focuses on the underrepresentation of citizens without higher education degrees in the Dutch Parliament and investigates the role of the candidate selection process of political parties in perpetuating this issue. By examining different candidate selection procedures, and the formal and informal norms that influence the assessment of candidates, this study sheds light on the factors contributing to the underrepresentation of this group. This is done through in-depth interviews with people involved in the creation of the candidate lists in Dutch political parties, complemented by an analysis of party documents. The results highlight the impact of the candidate selection process on the representation of citizens without higher education. Formal norms, such as requirements for party membership and the favourable treatment of incumbents, negatively influence the inclusion of individuals without higher education. Similarly, informal norms surrounding the emphasis on political experience and the absence of education level in diversity policies, disadvantage candidates lacking higher education. Nevertheless, there are aspects working in their favour, such as accessible training courses and the growing recognition of the value of lived experiences in certain parties. The study concludes that the candidate selection process influences the underrepresentation of citizens without higher education in Dutch politics overall negatively, however, other influences from the demand side or general trends in society pose a large influence on their underrepresentation as well.

Male parliamentary dominance, rather than the corresponding female parliamentary underrepresentation, is the object of study in this thesis. This shift in focus implies a gendered analysis centered on men and men’s practices. The thesis contributes to our understanding of how male dominance is maintained and reinvented by empirically studying male parliamentary dominance in clientelist settings. Worldwide trends of parliamentary representation are analyzed statistically and constitute the starting-point for a case study of male political networks in Thailand. Clientelism is a strategy used by political actors to increase predictability in politically unpredictable settings. The thesis shows that clientelism is an informal political practice that requires the building and maintenance of large and localized networks to help distribute services, goods and/or money in exchange for political support. Where political parties also use candidate selection procedures that are informal, exclusive and localized, there are ample openings for clientelist practices to translate into political power and ultimately parliamentary seats. This study also coins and develops a new concept: homosocial capital. It shows that clientelist networks are and continue to be male dominated because homosocial capital, a political capital accessible only to men, is needed for electoral success. Homosocial capital has two main components: a perceived pragmatic necessity to build linkages to those with access to important resources in society and a more psychological desire to cooperate with individuals whose behavior can be understood, predicted and trusted.

Managed Pressure Drilling now at the pinnacle of the 'Oil Well Drilling' evolution tree, has itself been coined in 2003. It is an umbrella term for a few new drilling techniques and some preexisting drilling techniques, all of them aiming to solve several drilling problems, including non-productive time and/or drilling flat time issues. These techniques, now sub-classifications of Managed Pressure Drilling, are referred to as 'Variations' and 'Methods' of Managed Pressure Drilling. Although using Managed Pressure Drilling for drilling wells has several benefits, not all wells that seem a potential candidate for Managed Pressure Drilling, need Managed Pressure Drilling. The drilling industry has numerous simulators and software models to perform drilling hydraulics calculations and simulations. Most of them are designed for conventional well hydraulics, while some can perform Underbalanced Drilling calculations, and a select few can perform Managed Pressure Drilling calculations. Most of the few available Managed Pressure Drilling models are modified Underbalanced Drilling versions that fit Managed Pressure Drilling needs. However, none of them focus on Managed Pressure Drilling and its candidate selection alone. An 'Managed Pressure Drilling Candidate Selection Model and software' that can act as a preliminary screen to determine the utility of Managed Pressure Drilling for potential candidate wells are developed as a part of this research dissertation. The model and a flow diagram identify the key steps in candidate selection. The software performs the basic hydraulic calculations and provides useful results in the form of tables, plots and graphs that would help in making better engineering decisions. An additional Managed Pressure Drilling worldwide wells database with basic information on a few Managed Pressure Drilling projects has also been compiled that can act as a basic guide on the Managed Pressure Drilling variation and project frequencies and aid in Managed Pressure Drilling candidate selection.

Many mobile robot applications require robots to act safely and intelligently in complex unfamiliarenvironments with little structure and limited or unavailable human supervision. As arobot is forced to operate in an environment that it was not engineered or trained for, various aspectsof its performance will inevitably degrade. Roboticists equip robots with powerful sensorsand data sources to deal with uncertainty, only to discover that the robots are able to make onlyminimal use of this data and still find themselves in trouble. Similarly, roboticists develop andtrain their robots in representative areas, only to discover that they encounter new situations thatare not in their experience base. Small problems resulting in mildly sub-optimal performance areoften tolerable, but major failures resulting in vehicle loss or compromised human safety are not.This thesis presents a series of online algorithms to enable a mobile robot to better deal withuncertainty in unfamiliar domains in order to improve its navigational abilities, better utilizeavailable data and resources and reduce risk to the vehicle. We validate these algorithms throughextensive testing onboard large mobile robot systems and argue how such approaches can increasethe reliability and robustness of mobile robots, bringing them closer to the capabilitiesrequired for many real-world applications.

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In the late 20th century, the proportions of women and men elected into European national parliaments became increasingly equal. Political parties shape these outcomes by selecting and fielding candidates in elections. Scholars recognise that parties' actions do not occur in isolation; yet there is little systematically comparative research about the configurations of conditions in which these actions occur. Previous research also often relies on studies of West European parties. This doctoral thesis investigates how conditions inside and outside parties combine to create gender-equal parliamentary presence. The thesis examines the extent to which Western European experiences apply to Central and East European parties, and explores the conditions that stand in the way of progress towards gender balance. It presents three empirical studies. The first is a qualitative comparative analysis of 57 West European parties during the late 1980s, a period in which the trend towards equality accelerated. The second study applies the knowledge produced in the first analysis to cases in Central and Eastern Europe. It uses an original dataset covering six parties in four EU member states in a structured focused comparison. Finally, the thesis presents an in-depth case study of an unexpectedly gender-balanced Latvian party. The analyses show that gender-equal parliamentary presence is achieved when conditions inside and outside parties combine, and that no condition is necessary or singularly sufficient. The absence of gender-equal parliaments is sustained by combinations other than the absence of those that lead to gender-balance. Operationalisations from Western Europe turn out to be largely applicable to cases in Central and Eastern Europe. These latter cases also demonstrate that organisational instability need not impede women’s presence in elected office. / Under sent 1900-tal har andelen kvinnor och män i nationella demokratiska parlament i Europa blivit alltmer jämstora. Politiska partier formar politisk representation genom att välja egna kandidater till val. Forskare har visat att partiers beteende på den punkten inte sker i isolering, men det finns ändå en brist på systematiskt jämförande studier om vilka kombinationer av villkor som leder till jämn könsrepresentation i nationella parlament. Dessutom vilar tidigare studier ofta på kunskap om situationen i Västeuropa. Den här doktorsavhandlingen undersöker hur villkor i och utanför politiska partier kombineras för att uppnå jämställd parlamentarisk representation. Den utforskar i vilken grad de västeuropeiska erfarenheterna är användbara i Öst- och Centraleuropa, och studerar villkoren som upprätthåller manlig dominans i parlamentariska partier. Den presenterar tre empiriska studier. Den första är en kvalitativt jämförande studie (fsQCA) av 57 Västeuropeiska partier under sent 1980-tal, en period då andelen kvinnor i nationella parlament ökade. Den andra studien tillämpar kunskapen från den första studien på fall i Öst- och Centraleuropa. Studien bygger på ett unikt dataset med sex partier från fyra EU-stater, i en strukturerad fokuserad jämförelse. Slutligen presenteras en fallstudie av ett ovanligt jämställt parti i Lettland. Analyserna visar att lika andelar kvinnor och män i nationella parlament åstadkoms när villkor i och utanför partier kombineras, och att inget villkor är nödvändigt eller ensamt tillräckligt. Frånvaro av jämn representation upprätthålls av andra kombinationer än de som leder till jämn representation. Operationaliseringarna som utvecklades för Västeuropa är applicerbara i Öst- och Centraleuropa. De senare fallen visar också att organisatorisk instabilitet inte behöver hindra en jämställd parlamentarisk närvaro.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:14:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5537.pdf: 1932064 bytes, checksum: 3125235f7283d6fb36e1dce9ab252c09 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-07-29 / Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos / The main purpose in this thesis is to analyse the candidate selection process for Federal Deputy in Brazil in the 2010 elections within four parties: DEM, PMDB, PSDB e PT. Heretofore, the study of candidate selection in our country have privileged the formal dimension of selection, like party´s statutes analysis or regional dinamics. In the other hand, except for some exceptions, the conclusions pointed out the impact of brazilian institutional design in candidate selection, undervaluing parties as autonomus units in the process. Therefore, from data about candidacy gathered at the Electoral Supreme Court and a survey applied to one hundred and twenty candidates, we tried to sketch the candidate selection process at the intra-party arena. The conclusions suggests that political parties are capable in divert from institucional incentives and choose candidates by different methods regarding the strenght and direction of the institutionalization. Hence, the different methods bring relevant consequences for the candidates profiles as well for the parties themselves. / O objetivo central desta tese é analisar o processo de seleção de candidatos a Deputado Federal no Brasil durante as eleições de 2010 em quatro partidos: DEM; PMDB; PSDB e PT. Até então, os estudos sobre seleção de candidatos em nosso país privilegiaram aspectos formais da seleção, como análise dos estatutos de partidos ou processos regionais. Por outro lado, salvo algumas exceções, o enfoque para as conclusões sobre a seleção de candidatos esteve sempre nos impactos do desenho institucional brasileiro, subvalorizando os partidos como unidades autônomas no processo. Assim, a partir de dados das candidaturas fornecidos pelo Tribunal Superior Eleitoral e de um survey aplicado a cento e vinte candidatos, buscamos traçar o processo de seleção privilegiando a arena intrapartidária. As conclusões sugerem que os partidos são capazes de contornar o sistema de incentivos institucionais e selecionar seus candidatos por processos diferenciados entre si tendo em vista sua força e direção de institucionalização e que produzem consequências importantes para os perfis dos candidatos, bem como para os partidos em si.

This dissertation examines how parties respond and adapt their behavior to political violence. Building a theoretical argument about strategic party behavior and party capture, I address the following questions: How do parties select and recruit their candidates in regions with high levels of violence and the pervasive presence of VNAs? Do parties respond to violence by selecting certain types of candidates who are more capable of fighting these organizations? Do parties react differently at different levels of government? And finally, how do VNSAs capture political selection across at different levels of government? I argue that in regions where there is high "uncertainty," candidate selection becomes highly important for both party leaders and DTOs. Second, I argue that as violence increases and the number of DTOs also, criminal organizations, as risk-averse actors, will capture candidate selection. I posit that as violence increases, there is a greater likelihood that candidates will have criminal connections. To test my theory, I use the case of Mexico. Violence in Mexico and the presence of criminal organizations across the country has experienced a great deal of variation since the 1990s. In Chapter 2, I find that violence affects the gubernatorial candidate selection of the PRI, PAN and PRD. In high violence states, parties select gubernatorial candidates with long experience in subnational politics compared to other types of experiences. In chapter 3, however, I find that at the municipal level not all the parties respond equally to violence. As a municipality becomes more violent, the PRI and PAN party leaders are more likely to select mayoral candidates who were either state or federal deputies or candidates who were both. In contrast, the PRD is likely to recruit state deputies as a function of violence, but not national deputies or candidates who were deputies at both the state and federal level. Interestingly, I find that as the municipality becomes more violent, party leaders are less likely to recruit inexperienced candidates. This result suggests that parties do indeed respond to levels of violence. Finally, in Chapter 5, I show that criminal organizations capture candidate selection to reduce uncertainty. As utility-maximizing actors, DTOs seek to influence the selection of candidates as a function of violence. At the state level, criminal organizations are more likely to capture candidate selection in states with the presence of multiple DTOs. Party capture is more likely to happen in states where more than one DTO are fighting to control the turf. I show that criminal organizations at the state level equally capture all parties. This finding reveals that DTOs are diversifying their political connections. While under the dominant party regime, they colluded with PRI officials, under the new political Mexican democratic configuration, DTOs are establishing other political relationships with different political parties.

This study aims to explore women’s perceived barriers to enter politics investigated through a Colombian case study. The Colombian case highlights a paradox common in Latin America where representation levels of women in legislatures are low, but representation in other professions is high. Research on gender and candidate selection has so far mainly focused on applying a macro, top-down perspective and describing objectively defined barriers to women’s political representation. This study changes the perspective and focuses on applying a bottom-up approach, focusing on individual women and their subjective views on barriers to enter politics. The material was collected during an 8-week field study in various locations in Colombia between July and August 2016. The findings suggest that the intersection between socioeconomic factors and gender play a large role in defining barriers to enter politics. Personal as well as systemic factors interoperate to lower both the “supply” and “demand” of candidates. The results also suggest that some professional groups are more likely to reject institutional participation, focusing political efforts on activism, and that families and political parties both serve as “gatekeepers” enabling or disabling political representation.   Key words: Gendered barriers to enter politics, political participation and representation, candidate selection, Colombia, clientelism, formal and informal institutions.