Politics has often been conceptualized as a conflict between political parties that represent the economic interests of different groups in society. This conception of politics has, however, been considerably weakened by the economic and social transformations of the last decades and by the rise of post-materialist values among newer generations of electors. Indeed, the vote of manual workers for left-wing parties has declined significantly in recent decades as did the impact of left-wing parties on social spending. At the same time, the issue of low-wage work has become prominent in the partisan debates of several countries such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom following the mobilization of low-paid workers, unions and community associations. Low-wage workers who mainly work in the service sector have often precarious work and living conditions following decades of labor markets deregulation and are highly dependent on governmental policies to insure decent living and work conditions. One of these policies, the minimum wage, has been at the center of the electoral campaigns of many left-wing parties in recent years. However, the issue of low-wage work has rarely been studied in political science. This thesis seeks to explain the partisan dynamics surrounding the issue of low-wage work. My main argument is that low-wage workers tend to vote for left-wing parties in accordance with their economic interests, especially in countries with a weak degree of corporatism such as the United States and the United Kingdom. In those countries, left-wing parties have strong incentives to make pledges related to low-wage work like increasing the minimum wage in their electoral manifesto, because unions are unable to negotiate decent working conditions for the majority of workers. Indeed, in countries with weak corporatism, low-wage workers are very dependent on governmental interventions to ensure minimum working standards and improve their living conditions. In countries with strong corporatism, however, unions negotiate collective agreements that ensure minimum working conditions for the majority of workers, workers with weaker bargaining power are thus less dependent on government policies to insure decent working conditions. Therefore, left-wing parties should be able to consolidate their vote among low-wage workers in countries with a weak degree of corporatism. Once in power, left-wing parties should also increase the minimum wage and the direct cash transfers to low-income families more than governments led by right-wing parties, especially when corporatism is weak. The emphasis on policies targeted to low-wage workers by left-wing parties in countries with a weak degree of corporatism could also limit the capacity of radical parties to attract the vote of low-wage workers. This thesis is composed of 4 articles, one on electoral pledges related to low-wage work, one on the vote of low-wage workers, one on the impact of left-wing parties on minimum wages and one on the impact of left-wing parties on direct cash transfers received by low-income families. These four articles demonstrate the relevance of a materialist conception of politics and the role of institutions regulating the labor market on partisan dynamics.

This diploma thesis deals with a development of the socioeconomic cleavage in the party systems of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland in 2006 - 2012. At the beginning the theory of cleavages by S. Rokkan and S. M. Lipset and the enlargement to post-communist countries of Klaus von Beyme, are presented. There are also mentioned concepts of other authors. The thesis tries to answer a few questions. Firstly, what form did this line have in the monitored period (transformation line vs. classical socioeconomic line). Secondly, how big was an impact on the political right-left orientation of the political parties, and thirdly, how significant was this line for the party-political system of selected countries in this period. There is also a brief development of the party system after 1989 as well as the ideological profiles of parliamentary parties given in each chapter focused on particular country. One part of it deals also with the economic and social climate in the monitored period. Then the work is based mainly on the analysis of party's agenda, with an emphasis on the socioeconomic line.

Depuis l'indépendance du Mexique (1821), deux groupes politiques se disputent le contrôle du pays. Pendant tout le XXe siècle, le système de parti hégémonique a rendu impossible l'observation de clivages dans le pays et, bien au contraire, a stimulé l'idée d'un État-Parti « au-dessus de la mêlée ». Nous exploitons le concept de clivage en tant qu'outil qui permet de voir où se trouvent aujourd'hui les lignes qui divisent les sociétés. Nous étudions le cas des principaux partis politiques au Mexique : le Parti Action Nationale (PAN), le Parti de la Révolution Démocratique (PRD) et le Parti Révolutionnaire Institutionnel (PRI). Les amendements constitutionnels survenus pendant le gouvernement Salinas ont placé à nouveau le conflit entre l'État et l'Église Catholique au centre du débat national. Nous remarquons que le conflit s'est institutionnalisé et s'est poursuivi jusqu'à aujourd'hui, laissant apparaître un important clivage historique déjà perçu à l'époque de l'indépendance. Pour parvenir à notre but, nous présentons une série d'entretiens réalisés avec les jeunes leaders des partis politiques. Nous analysons leurs réponses à partir du clivage État/Église catholique. Des questions croisées à propos des sujets dits « sensibles » (l'avortement et le mariage gay) nous permettent d'observer la reproduction du clivage. Nous élaborons et proposons une typologie (Weber) pour guider et conduire la recherche / Since the independence of Mexico (1821), two political groups have been competing for the control of the country. Throughout the twentieth century, the hegemonic party used the entire state apparatus system to make it impossible to observe the cleavages in the country and on the contrary it stimulated the idea of a party-state above all social conflict. We have studied and exploited the concept of cleavage as a tool. This concept allows us to examine where the lines that divide the society lie. The case of mayor political parties has been studied: the National Action Party (PAN) the Party of Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The constitutional amendments that occurred during Salinas's administration have put the State and the Catholic Church in confrontation again. Indeed, this conflict has become the center of a national debate. We can see that the conflict has been institutionalized and has continued until today. To reach our goal we present a series of interviews with the young leaders from political parties. We analyze their answers from the State - Catholic Church cleavage. Crossed questions about the “sensitive” subjects (abortion and gay marriage) let us detect the reproduction of cleavage. We develop and propose a typology (Weber) to guide and lead this research

This thesis examines why party systems of some developing countries become deeper and more quickly stabilised than others. Drawing on the scholarship of party system institutionalisation in third wave democracies, the thesis argues that the field can be strengthened by looking to three factors that the current literature has taken for granted: the role of cleavages, the function of personalistic politics, and the requirement of legitimacy to assess party systems. This thesis addresses these issues and in so doing provides a novel view of how, when and why party systems in newer democracies from Latin America, Europe and Asia consolidate over time. The research considers three case studies from three regions of the world, following the most similar approach method of comparison. One country per world region has been chosen for study in detail: Chile (Latin America), Estonia (Central and Eastern Europe) and South Korea (East and Southeast Asia). They all have party systems which have become more stable over time, but they exhibit different trajectories and speeds of consolidation. The thesis uses a variety of methods. In order to infer the causes of different processes of institutionalisation from party systems’ own participants, more than 120 elite interviews were conducted in the three countries over 13 months. To evaluate the overall legitimacy of the stabilisation process, this works presents the results of almost 500 face-to-face interviews with randomly selected individuals from the population. Quantitative analyses based on secondary public opinion surveys are used to test implications and observations, and offer potential generalisations. The findings suggests: 1) Where the ideological cleavage (left-right) is a strong determinant of party support the party system is more stable, and the stronger the ideological cleavage becomes over time, the more consolidated the party system is. Here, an ideological trauma can be at the core of the limitations of the left-right scope development. 2) Party systems with personalistic leaders can consolidate, contrary to the received wisdom, if charismatic figures build their parties around programmatic lines. And 3) legitimacy should not be regarded as a dimension for the Theory of Party System Institutionalisation, because it does not contribute in any way, positive or negative, to the stability of party systems. The thesis concludes that theories of party system institutionalisation should be reconsidered with respect to cleavages, personalism and legitimacy. In so doing, the growing literature on party system institutionalisation can benefit from a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities of party systems in new democracies from different regions of the world.

The master thesis "Comparison of the development of party systems in the Czech Republic and in the Slovak Republic in 2010-2020" is focused on the analysis of the development of the Czech and Slovak party system in the years 2010-2020 and their mutual comparison. So the milestone for the analysis was the years 2010-2020. During this period there were fundamental changes in the Czech and Slovak party systems, which was the main reason for choosing this topic. The individual periods of development of both party systems will be defined by parliamentary elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic and to the National Council of the Slovak Republic. The analysis is based on the methods mentioned in the theoretical part of the work and on the classical typologies of party systems of M. Duverger, J. Blondel and G. Sartori. In the analysis itself, electoral statistics, surveys of electoral preferences and media sources are largely used. Among the main criteria for the analysis, the number and size of political parties and their relevance were determined. The relevance means the determination of coalition or blackmail potential. Furthermore, the degree of fragmentation of the party system and the main cleavages will be determined. The comparison will be based on an analysis...

The master's thesis "Electoral Geography of Poland After 1989" explores the spatial distribution of patterns of electoral behavior in Poland on the basis of analysis of the results of all presidential elections and elections to the Sejm that took place in the country between the years 1990-2010. The main hypothesis tested by this master thesis is that former boundaries between Russia, Prussia (Germany) and Austria (Austria-Hungary), between which the territory of modern-day Poland was divided in the 19th century, still have an impact on Poland's electoral geography. On the basis of this hypothesis, political parties and presidential candidates are divided into two pre-defined categories: traditionalist and modernist The validity of the hypothesis is then proven by visual analysis of political parties' and presidential candidates' electoral maps, and also by the application of Pearson's correlation coefficient on political parties' electoral results from constituencies and presidential candidates' electoral results from voivodships. In contemporary Poland, a clear rift exists between the parts of the country formerly dominated by Prussia (Germany) and major Polish cities on the one hand (also known as "Poland A"), and Russia and Austria (Austria-Hungary) on the other hand (which is sometimes...

The diploma thesis Šumava National Park and Interests of its Municipalities: The Case of Postmaterial Cleavages? analyses, if the postmaterial cleavage is present in the case of Šumava National Park and how is it projected on the national level. Since the very beginning, there have been argues about the notion of the national park, where two different set of ideas collide. On the one hand, there are local municipalities which depend on incomes from tourism, on the other hand, the environmentalists seek for growing extent of areas without any human intervention. The theoretical background is based on concept of cleavages by S. Rokkan and S.M. Lipset. Special attention is paid to the postmaterial dimension of the cleavage, which was evolved by R. Inglehart. The analytical part consists of case study, which examines the attitudes of the stakeholders. The examination is based on semi-structured interviews with mayors, official documents and media coverage of the topic. According to the findings, there is a cleavage, which is visible on all levels of political system, including political parties and presidents.

A large part of the study of politics is dedicated to identifying the circumstances under which democracy will flourish. Putnam made a major contribution to this field through his concept of social capital as developed in Making Democracy Work. Putnam found that communities with a high number of civic associations –i.e. social capital- had a better chance of developing an effective style of democratic government. This definition of social capital sparked much subsequent research and policy activity. It is argued here, however, that this work ignored the immediate needs of societies which do not have the required stock of social capital. There is still little guidance available on how effective government can be achieved even if the right societal circumstances are absent. This thesis hopes to find inspiration from government agencies that were successful despite their challenging social capital conditions. It specifically looks at sixteen public utilities on the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curacao and St. Kitts between 2005 and 2009. The thesis then systematically investigates the relationship between the performance of the agencies and the behaviour of their senior officials. It emerges that in the absence of social capital, governance is in these cases mainly hampered by a deluge of irrelevant data. Successful utilities overcame this flood by constantly upgrading the quality of information, implementing a strict yet inclusive style of governance, and allowing strong leaders the space to translate words into actions. These outcomes suggest that social capital forms an important tool for ordering information, and that, in its absence, there are still alternative strategies available to secure success nonetheless.

This thesis looks at the role of discrimination and ethnic group identity as explanations of political behaviour of ethnic minorities in Britain. Chapter 2 examines vote choice and partisanship, arguing that a group utility heuristic explains the high level of support for the Labour party among ethnic minorities. I provide individual-level evidence of this heuristic by showing that ethnic minority voters support the Labour party to the extent that they are (i) conscious of the experiences of their ethnic group members with regards to discrimination, and (ii) believe that the Labour party is the best political party to represent their interests. These two attitudes mediate the effects of group-level inequalities. Chapter 3 asks whether Muslims are alienated from mainstream politics by Islamophobia and British military intervention in Muslim countries. I find that perceptions of Islamophobia are linked with greater political alienation, to a greater likelihood of non-electoral participation, but also to a lesser likelihood of voting. Likewise, disapproval of the war in Afghanistan is associated with greater political alienation and a greater likelihood of some types of non-electoral participation. I also provide strong evidence that Muslims in Britain experience more religious discrimination than adherents of other minority religions. Chapter 4 considers the interaction between the extreme right and ethnic minority political attitudes and behaviour. I find evidence that the extreme right British National Party (BNP) increases voting for the Labour party, at the expense of minor parties and abstention. Surprisingly, the BNP effect also benefits the other main parties. Although they do not benefit in increased vote share, Liberal Democrat and Conservative party and leader evaluations are more positive where the BNP stood and performed better in 2010, which I suggest is due to the electoral contrast provided by the BNP. Chapter 5 looks at the mobilisation effect of ethnic minority candidates on ethnic minority voters. I find a positive mobilisation effect of Pakistani and Muslim Labour candidates on Pakistani and Muslim voters, conditional on someone trying to convince the respondent how to vote. I also find a demobilisation effect of Labour Muslim candidates on Sikh voters.

Intergenerational solidarity and reciprocity are fundamental building blocks of any society. At the same time, socio-generational groups constantly struggle for influence and authority. In Sub-Saharan Africa, disproportionately male, gerontocratic and patrimonial systems governing economic, social and political life lend a special explosiveness to the social cleavage of generation. This dissertation draws on the concept of the generational contract to explore whether Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war (1991-2001) – labelled a ‘revolt of youth’ – catalysed changes in the power-asymmetries between age groups. Based on fieldwork conducted between 2007 and 2010, I argue that youth in post-war Sierra Leone question fundamental norms of intergenerational relations and challenge local governance structures demanding changes to the generational contract. Amidst a strong continuity of gerontocratic dominance and counter-strategies from elders, youth draw on organisational forms and a local rights discourse to create spaces for contestation and negotiation. These openings hold potential for long-term rearrangements of societal relations in the medium to long-term future.