Over the last four decades, many developing countries transitioned to democracy with populations aspiring to break from authoritarian tradition for more representative government. While this wave of democratization was encouraging initially, observers came to realize that the break from tradition was anything but complete. The traditional clientelistic relations that pervaded political systems during authoritarian periods have been eroded by democratization in some countries, while in other countries, clientelism is thriving and continuing to impact political participation, primarily through vote-buying between patrons and clients. Therefore, the extent to which democratization erodes clientelism as widely expected, could not be assumed. The questions of what are the causal effects of clientelism on political participation, how does the vote-buying process unfold, how effective are the efforts to combat vote-buying, and what is the debate over the ethics of vote-buying motivate this dissertation; I draw on the experiences of Thai provinces to answer them. The objective of this dissertation is to examine the impact of clientelism, measured by vote-buying, on political participation using a multi-method approach. Using new primary and secondary data sources, I make several important original contributions with this study. First, I answer the question regarding the causal effects of clientelism on political participation by testing the resource theory and the theory of clientelism. I find that the poor, who are most likely to be enmeshed in clientelistic networks, voted just as often as the rich in two of the three general elections and both the national and local level elections. People in the countryside, the poor, vote more than their urban counterparts in both the national and local level elections. The poor also participate in the other forms of politics just as much as the rich. I find those with less education vote just as much as those with more education in all three general elections and the national level election, however, those with higher education voted more in the local level election. Those with higher education also boycott, demonstrate, and sign petitions more than those with lower education. I find that clientelism is the reason lower socioeconomic status rural individuals participate in politics as without clientelism, they would not be expected to participate as much as their richer and more educated urban counterparts. Second, I answer the question regarding how the vote-buying process unfolds by exploring original primary interview data collected by the author of elite and mass views of vote-buyers, sellers, intermediaries, and the vote-buying process. I find that all the actors involved have their own reasons and motivations for participating in the vote-buying process: vote-sellers are predominantly poor and poverty drives their need for the compensation provided through vote-buying, while vote-buyers and their intermediaries are very much aware of the needs of potential vote-sellers and they intentionally exploit these needs. Even though the poor are driven to become vote-sellers, we cannot readily assume that vote-buying is successful for vote-buyers, or in other words, we cannot assume that vote-buying results in votes for the vote-buyer. Prior to my study, scholars have made such an assumption, whether directly stated or inferred, which may lead to erroneous conclusions about the effectiveness of vote-buying resulting in votes for the vote-buyer. To overcome this, I developed a model of the vote-buying process where vote-buying is divided into specific steps: the offer to buy votes, the acceptance of the offer, the compensation, the showing up at the polls, and the casting of a vote for the vote-buyer. By employing my model of the vote-buying process, we see that sometimes voters act in a manner that is consistent with the vote-buyer's demands and others times they do not at virtually all the steps of the vote-buying process for very specific reasons, including poverty. Third, I answer the question regarding the effectiveness of efforts to combat vote-buying by exploring elite and mass views of the effectiveness of institutional constraints and civic education in combating vote-buying. My findings suggest that institutional constraints, namely the Election Commission, have some impact on reducing vote-buying, though the Election Commission is plagued with far-reaching limitations. I find attempts at civic education, however, are not really measurable. Even if these attempts at civic education were measurable, I do not believe there is any reason to suspect they would be effective considering they do not address the poverty issue. Finally, I answer the question regarding the debate over the ethics of vote-buying by exploring elite and mass views of the justifications for vote-buying. I then analyze the impact of vote-buying on the legitimacy of the Thai political system. I find that some Thais perceive vote-buying as unethical because it is illegal and dishonest, while others do not necessarily perceive vote-buying as unethical because of poverty and vote-buying norms Thais use to justify selling their votes. Moreover, I find that poverty and vote-buying norms impact the legitimacy of the Thai political system, especially for the rural poor, to the point where I argue that vote-buying does not necessarily negatively impact legitimacy of the Thai political system. Overall, this dissertation has answered the important questions about clientelism and the vote-buying measure. This study is important because clientelism is one of the most important informal institutional obstacles to free and fair elections and the findings in this study offer clarity of the impact of clientelism, and the vote-buying measure, on political participation in the Thai context.

NOGUEIRA, Carlos Antônio Ferreira. Política e Sindicalismo Rural: considerações sobre ajudas, liberação de voto, tempo e trocas de apoio na Terra Onde os Pássaros Cantam. 2016. 131f. – Dissertação (Mestrado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-graduação em Sociologia, Fortaleza (CE), 2016. / Submitted by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-04-25T13:08:49Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2016_dis_cafnogueira.pdf: 1449785 bytes, checksum: 530b069748235a920a1c9bec7ad365f4 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-04-26T14:50:43Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2016_dis_cafnogueira.pdf: 1449785 bytes, checksum: 530b069748235a920a1c9bec7ad365f4 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T14:50:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2016_dis_cafnogueira.pdf: 1449785 bytes, checksum: 530b069748235a920a1c9bec7ad365f4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016 / This paper tried to analyze the representations, perceptions and definitions about the political and rural union practices in a small town in the state of Ceará, Aracoiaba. I developed the research from taking some native categories used to classify the relationship between politicians, voters, union members and associates. I performed this work under the native researcher condition, looking also discuss this, since I find myself, somehow implicated in the midst of local relations. In the survey, I could see a place permeated times, both in politics and in the union, which are often associated with activities marking certain practices. Also I tried to map the places moral and analyze reputations as a way to introduce the municipality, but also to show the interrelationship between rural and urban. Finally, I tried to make analyzes of the notions of "help" and "free to vote." I realized that they help to understand the politics and trade unionism beyond the classical conception of patronage, which also brings with it a normative dimension, does not capture the meanings present around certain practices, relationships and exchanges of political and union support that happen in different "times", showing the complexity that permeates the adhesions and the possibility of unification of the vote in political groups. / Neste trabalho procurei analisar as representações, as percepções e as definições acerca das práticas de políticos e de sindicalistas rurais em um pequeno município do interior do Estado do Ceará, Aracoiaba. Desenvolvi a pesquisa a partir do exame de algumas categorias nativas utilizadas para classificar as relações entre políticos, eleitores, sindicalistas e associados. Realizei este trabalho sob a condição de pesquisador nativo, procurando também discutir essa situação, uma vez que me encontro, de algum modo, implicado em meio às relações locais. Na pesquisa, pude perceber um lugar permeado de tempos, tanto na política como no sindicato, que são frequentemente associados a atividades, marcando certas práticas. Também procurei mapear os lugares morais e analisar reputações como forma de apresentar o município, mas também para mostrar a inter-relação entre o rural e o urbano. Por fim, busquei realizar análises sobre as noções de “ajuda” e “liberado para votar”. Pude perceber que elas ajudam a compreender a política e o sindicalismo para além da concepção clássica do clientelismo, que além de trazer consigo uma dimensão normativa, não capta os significados presentes em torno de certas práticas, relações e trocas de apoio político-sindicais que acontecem em diferentes “tempos”, mostrando a complexidade que permeia as adesões e a possibilidade de unificação do voto nos grupos políticos.

This paper examines variables that may have contributed to Republican Assembly members’ 2017 support for the extension of California's cap-and-trade program. It focuses on district party demographics and voting history, the suspension of the Fire Protection Fee and the level of GHG emissions per district.

The popularity of sport, in particular football has transformed it into a strong means that is widely utilized by politics nowadays. Hence, the influence of football club's identities and values on the political vote of their supporters should never be neglected. The aim of the current paper is to study the influence of four major clubs in self-determination processes in Scotland and Catalonia in the times of the referenda for independence in 2014 and 2017. The study takes a qualitative approach to the matter and analyzes the way clubs' identities and values affect the political vote of their supporters. The paper takes an unobserved field of research, by merging the factors of football clubs' support and fan culture with its possible significance on the political arena, as well as on the fate of submerged nations' independence movements. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Cette thèse traite de l’impact du contenu des médias sur le vote pour les partis de la droite radicale populiste en Europe, à travers l’analyse du cas du Front national français. Adoptant une approche contextuelle, elle affirme qu’il convient de distinguer, entre, d’une part, la visibilité médiatique dont l’effet est circonscrit à la phase d’émergence électorale de ces partis; et, d’autre part, l’effet de priming des thèmes FN (l’immigration, l’insécurité, le populisme anti-élite, l’Europe et l’islam) qui lui seul est en mesure de rendre compte de la manière dont le contenu des médias impacterait le vote pour ces partis une fois qu’ils deviennent bien établis dans le système partisan d’un pays donné. Mobilisant les théories sur les effets des médias comme cadre théorique, le département comme unité d’analyse, les deux mois qui précèdent les élections présidentielles françaises de 2012 et 2017 comme cadre temporel et collectant le contenu de la presse régionale française à partir de plus de 11 000 unes, cette thèse démontre que : primo, ni la visibilité médiatique du Front national ni celle de sa présidente Marine Le Pen ne permettent d’expliquer les variations du vote frontiste. Secundo, l’immigration, la thématique la plus fortement associée à ce parti ne fait pas l’objet de priming de la part des médias. Tertio, de l’ensemble des thèmes FN, le priming de l’insécurité est celui qui favorise le plus fortement le vote pour ce parti, même après avoir contrôlé avec des facteurs du monde réel comme le taux de criminalité, le niveau du chômage et la densité de la population dans le département. Quarto, l’absence d’un effet propre pour le priming de l’islam vu que ce thème est devenu indissociable de la thématique de l’insécurité dans la foulée des attentats qui ont touché la France à partir de 2012. Quinto, l’impact positif du priming des scandales politiques, utilisés comme proxy pour le populisme anti-élite, est conditionnel à la faiblesse électorale de la gauche radicale populiste. Sexto, le priming de l’Europe est le seul à avoir un impact négatif sur le vote FN reflétant ainsi l’incapacité de ce parti à tirer profit de la médiatisation de la question européenne, même s’il a fait du rejet de l’Europe un élément central de son offre politique.

There has been much speculation recently as to the political effect that "moral values" have on Americans and much research has shown inconclusive results as far as the effect of class. This paper aims to study how class and values, including moral values and postmaterialist values, interact with politics in the United States. The analyses performed to determine these effects include crosstabulation and logistical regressions and will include data from the National Election Studies (NES). It is found that postmaterialist values have little effect on political behavior but in separate analyses, class and moral values have increasing influences on vote choice and partisan identification. It is also determined that moral values currently has more influence on presidential votes, but there is no clear indication that values are consistent indicators of House vote choice or partisan identification.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

What explains differences in the margin of victory in Florida legislative races? Data is collected for all 160 legislative races from 2016 (120 house contests and 40 senate elections) and two sets of analyses are conducted: all races and just competitive races. When looking at all races, five variables are statistically significant in the multivariate model. District party registration difference has a positive effect on margin of victory and the greatest relative impact. Races involving two major party candidates have a much smaller margin of victory, a contest with a major party versus a minor party (or No Party Affiliation candidate) has a somewhat smaller margin of victory, and a race involving only a write-in candidate as an opponent has a wider margin of victory. House races had somewhat smaller margins of victory compared to senate races. When examining just competitive races (contests that had at least two candidate names listed for an office) only two variables were statistically significant in the multivariate model. District party registration difference had a positive relationship with margin of victory and races involving a minor party candidate as the main challenger had higher margins than contests between two major party candidates.

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