On November 3, 1998, Florida's voters approved by wide margin a revision to the Florida State Constitution. Among other things, Revision 11 made ballot access more equitable for independent and third-party candidates for elected office. This was an important step towards giving voters legitimate electoral options outside of the two major political parties. This study seeks to determine whether or not voters have been emboldened by the ballot access change to support candidates from outside of the two major parties in more significant numbers. This research makes an empirical comparison between the four elections for Florida's United States House of Representatives members prior to Revision 11 reforms and the four elections after. The analysis considers what effect the new, equitable ballot access rules have on minor party electoral success while controlling for certain variables that are hypothesized to have impacted the dependent variable. In all, it is expected that the removal of ballot access barriers will spell success for Florida's minor political parties holding all of these other considerations constant. However, the results of the statistical analysis show that ballot access is simply not enough to ensure third-party electoral success.

La Constitution de la Roumanie de 1991, élaborée au début d’une période detransition d’un système totalitaire à un système démocratique, a inévitablement dû êtrerévisée. Si elle a défini un cadre juridique démocratique contribuant à la réinstauration et à lastructuration de la démocratie, la révision constitutionnelle intervient dans un cadre deconsolidation démocratique, avec un objectif principal : l’intégration de la Roumanie dans lesstructures euro-Atlantiques.Toutes les modifications apportées par la loi de révision pourraient être interprétées etjustifiées par cet objectif principal, compte tenu du lien entre la dynamique démocratisante etl’intégration dans les structures euro-Atlantiques.Trois finalités du processus de révision se dégagent dans ce contexte : l’institution desfondements constitutionnels de l’intégration euro-Atlantique et de ses effets, l’élargissementdes garanties constitutionnelles et institutionnelles des droits et des libertés fondamentaux etl’optimisation du processus décisionnel. Si les modifications présentées dans la premièrepartie sont directement liées à l’adhésion à l’Union Européenne et à l’OTAN, indispensables,les modifications répondant aux deux autres finalités sont d’influence ou d’inspirationeuropéenne, contribuant à la consolidation de la démocratie. / The Romanian Constitution of 1991, elaborated at the beginning of a period oftransition from a totalitarian system to a democratic one, needs undoubtedly to be revised. Ifthe Constitution defined a juridical democratic frame that contributed to the democraticrevival and settlement the revision of the Constitution responds to a period of democraticconsolidation related to a main objective: the integration in the European and North Atlanticstructures.All the modifications to the law brought on by the revision could be interpreted anddefended in relation to this main objective taking into account the relation between thedynamic of the democratization process and the integration in the European and NorthAtlantic structures.This revision process of the Romanian Constitution has three motivations related directlyto this context: the introduction of constitutional fundaments for the integration into theEuropean and North Atlantic structures and consequences of that integration, broadening theconstitutional and institutional warranties for fundamental rights and liberties and finally, theoptimization of the decision making process. If the revisions introduced in the first part weredirectly connected to the accession into the European Union and NATO, and thus essential,the revisions responding to the two other ends were influenced or based on a European modeland contributed directly to the strengthening of the young Romanian democracy.

The thesis Revision of french constitution in 2008 analyses french case of the constitutional revision initiated by Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007. This case study focuses on the complex way of modifying constitution in France. It was the biggest constitutional revision in the history of The Fifth Republic. The aim of this revision was to modernise institutions and their better equilibrium. The thesis is divided into two main parts. First chapter mainly analyses the propositions of Committee of reflexion about modernisation and equilibrium of institutions of The Fifth Republic, called Committee of Balladur. This Committee proposed 77 suggestions. Three main goals of this revision were declared: a better control of executive power, reinforcement of Parliament and new right for the citizens. Second chapter focuses concretely on the constitutional law nř2008-724 from 23 July 2008. This paper analyses how the three initially declared goal were accomplished. Concerning the executive power, the powers of the president was limited mainly symbolically in several constitutional articles. His mandate is limited to two succeeding mandats, some of his nomination are newly controlled by Parliament, he has no more power to grant a general pardon. But we can not consider these symbolical changes as a real limitation of executive...