Purpose of this thesis is to analyze impact of decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic on current legislation on elections. The thesis contains several chapters on history of evolution of the Czech election laws as well as comparison of basis on which the current legislation stands. In the rest of the thesis author analyses decisions of the Czech Constitutional Court which have been published under number 243/1999 and 64/2001. Last part of the thesis is devoted to possible development of legislation on elections in the near future.

The thesis deals with a form of modern marketing with respect to its application in a political environment. Thesis deals with the specifics of marketing in politics and issues are approached in the evolution of marketing campaigns around the last sixty years. The theoretical part also deals with the strategy of creating campaign. Political parties are classified by level of use of marketing instruments in their election campaigns, using a method of well-known political marketing expert - J. Lees-Marshment. The practical part is an analysis of selected marketing campaigns of Czech political parties according to the parameters described in the theoretical part. Based on the results of the analysis was drawn up a list of recommendations to create a campaign of a hypothetical political party.

The key underlying question of this dissertation is whether and how business actors are able to use their heightened mobility to affect electoral outcomes and constrain the policy choices of elected officials. Focusing on cases of interstate corporate headquarters (HQ) relocation and its effects on gubernatorial elections, this dissertation investigates the electoral effects of HQ relocation and its implications for policy. The first chapter examines electoral effects of interstate HQ relocation. My analysis shows that HQ relocation generates electoral responses but in an asymmetrical manner between HQ inflow and HQ outflow: when HQ relocate in, citizens tend to vote for the incumbent party in gubernatorial elections, expecting similar positive events to continue. When HQ relocate out, voters increase support for the Republican Party in an effort to lower the chances of recurrence. This is because of the pervasive belief that the Democratic Party tends to pursue the main policy drivers of HQ outflow---high corporate tax rates and less- friendly business environments. Building upon the findings in the first chapter, the second chapter investigates whether the asymmetric responses of voters to HQ relocation gives rise to different practices in offering lucrative tax incentives depending on the partisanship of the elected officials. The analysis provides evidence that mobile firms such as multinational corporations and firms operating in multiple states, pay lower effective corporate tax rates under Democratic governors than Republican governors. Lastly, the third chapter investigates microfoundtional support for partisan blame attributions in the wake of HQ relocation using a survey experiment. I find that the effects of party label only prevail in the aftermath of an HQ outflow since voters believe that Democrat politicians tend to support high corporate tax rates and less-friendly business environments, which, these voters believe, push corporate HQ out of their states. The findings of my dissertation have implications for the political economy of business-government relationships, broad debates on the effects of economic globalization on policy levers of governments, and our understanding of electoral accountability.

Le liban est un pays multicommunautaire, ce qui a conduit, depuis 1920, à de nombreux conflits intercommunautaires, non religieux, entre des groupes qui s'arrachent le pouvoir. ces conflits opposaient souvent les chrétiens qui ont, pour la plupart, une vision pro-occidentale d'une part aux musulmans qui sont plus orientés vers les pays arabes d'autre part.toutefois, il semblerait que plusieurs phénomènes de l'histoire contemporaine du liban aient modifié cette dualité chrétienne-musulmane. l'assassinat de rafik hariri, leader sunnite, en février 2005 en plein coeur de beyrouth et la guerre israélienne sur le hezbollah, parti chiite par excellence en juillet-août 2006 auraient changé le visage du conflit, pour en faire un conflit sunnite-chiite. un conflit qui règnerait non seulement sur le liban mais sur toute la région du moyen-orient.ayant pour objectif d'étudier ce conflit sous l'angle de 'la communication politique et le confessionnalisme au liban', plus particulièrement le cas des élections législatives de 2009 ; nous étudierons essentiellement les discours politiques des deux partis représentant les communautés sunnite et chiite afin de pouvoir en ressortir les éventuelles tensions intercommunautaires après avoir établit le cadre théorique et le contexte de notre projet de recherche. / In a Middle Eastern context where the Sunni-Shia conflict is becoming more and more obvious, we ask ourselves if the political communications and electoral speeches of the Future Movement and of Hezbollah do reflect the sectarian division and the Sunni-Shia conflict in Lebanon. This thesis on “political communication and confessionalism in Lebanon: the 2009 parliamentary elections” proposes theoretical concepts of political communication, an overview of the Lebanese context between the elections of 2005 and 2009 and a study of the Sunni-Shia conflict through the discourse analysis of the leaders of both parties each considered representing a community in its majority.The qualitative and quantitative discourse analysis, divided into four categories, namely: the campaigns‟ launching study, the crises study, the diachronic study and the elections closing study, based on several selection criteria such as the date, context, nature and the leader who is delivering the speech, aims to identify the communication elements that would reflect sectarian tensions and an eventual Sunni-Shia conflict that geopolitical analysis tend to confirm.

ABSTRACT Democracy can be a useful tool in Africa. It can open channels for foreign aid and ultimately development. Many African countries have struggled with the changes and expectations that democracy brings. They have opted for authoritarian regimes or one party state regime. Zimbabwe and Kenya represent some of these countries. Such countries have been unable to promote or perfectly place liberal democracy within their societies. The most salient issue in the democratization process of Africa has been the post colonial state. Transitions into democracy have not always gone well at all in fact many transitions remain stagnant. This research investigates the problems surrounding the attainment of democracy in Africa, using the cases of Kenya and Zimbabwe. It seeks to understand the obstacles and challenges to the democratization processes in the two countries by focusing on the 2007/2008 contested elections as well as previous elections, and the attempts by external actors to deal with the results of the elections. The citizens of Kenya and Zimbabwe have both been affected and impacted by the lack of democracy that has existed in each country. This research also investigates the role of citizen participation in the electoral process. For both countries to succeed in all regards there is a pressing need for regime change and institution building.

Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Media Studies, 2016 / Many African countries have been holding regular elections since the “Third Wave” of democratisation which reintroduced multi-party politics on the African continent, but few of these elections meet the democratic litmus test, due to, among other factors, the prevalence of election violence. The press has been justifiably or unjustifiably indicted for these imbroglios on account of alleged transgressions linked to its overt or covert incitement to violence. In the ensuing political contestations, citizens bear the burden of diminished prospects of credible information occasioned by a highly politicised press. In the Southern African region, there is no better case to illustrate the entanglement of the press in electoral contestations than Zimbabwe. This study is a qualitative exploration of press and citizen discourses on election violence during the presidential and parliamentary elections held in Zimbabwe between 2000 and 2013. A Foucauldian discursive analytic approach was used to analyse the representation of election violence in two-state-owned and four privately-owned newspapers during presidential and parliamentary elections held over the specified period spanning thirteen years. The study also examined how these press discourses interrelate with citizen discourses. Empirical data were drawn from a corpus of archival textual data comprising hard news and feature articles published in The Herald, The Sunday Mail, The Zimbabwe Independent, The Financial Gazette, Newsday and the Daily News. In-depth interviews were conducted with purposively targeted journalists and editors from the selected newspapers. In addition, in-depth-interviews were held with twenty-one (21) regular newspaper readers who were also politically engaged citizens. The main observation was that press representation of election violence was marked by antagonistic discursive practices reflective of the rivulets of political and ideological bifurcation. Consequently, competing and politically expedient journalistic philosophies emerged. The state-owned press used a model of ‘national interest’ journalism while the privately-owned press preferred the ‘human-rights’ model which crystallized into an over-arching ‘activist journalism’. This ‘activist’ journalistic approach found expression through an array of anti-democratic press discursive practices epitomised by selectivity, silence and salience, the consequence of which was that citizens were starved of credible and impartial information. This thesis argues that the anti-democratic discursive practices deployed by the press camps blunted the citizenry’s critical engagement with the exact motivations, causes and manifestations of election violence. These anti-democratic discursive practices have a potential to engender a culture of political intolerance with long-term consequences that predispose society to political conflict rather than consensus building. / MT2017

Thesis advisor: Kathleen Bailey / This paper seeks to address the inclusion of Kuwaiti women as political actors. Kuwait held elections on May 16, 2009, and Moussoma al-Mubarak, Rola Dashti, Aseel al-Awadhi, and Salwa al-Jassar became the first women elected to the National Assembly. This victory occurred on the fourth anniversary of female enfranchisement in Kuwait. In an attempt to account for variations among the number of women in parliament in Kuwait by drawing on research from the field of descriptive representation, I found that the year of female suffrage, the religion of Islam, Kuwait’s cultural implications of gender-equality, the peculiarities of Kuwait’s electoral system, and timing and framing to be particularly important in the case of Kuwait. A consideration of substantive representation is also relevant to Kuwait, as early signs of involvement of the women members of Parliament indicate that women’s interests are on the political agenda in Kuwait. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: International Studies Honors Program. / Discipline: Political Science.

Thesis advisor: Shep Melnick / While the Tea Party’s rise in 2009 prompted enormous media attention and subsequent academic inquiry, scholarship that investigates Tea Party ideology is scant. While not a social movement in the traditional sense, the Tea Party had an undeniable influence on the 2010 midterms, especially at the state level. This paper features New Hampshire, a perennial swing state and home to one of the largest legislative shifts to Republican control in recent memory. By exploring four broad issue areas, Constitutionalism, the economy, social issues, and race, the project seeks a clearer understanding of what Tea Partiers believe and what their sympathetic state legislators espouse. The first level of analysis uses opinion polling to demonstrate that while those respondents who back the Tea Party have conservative views on perceptual questions, a plurality agree with most Americans on specific policy positions. The second level of analysis compares opinion poll responses to interviews of New Hampshire state legislators, finding that the latter group is much more rigidly conservative on tangible policies, but lacks Tea Party voters’ distinctive fears of a changing America. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science Honors Program. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Political Science.

La thèse retrace les nombreuses positions des responsables politiques français vis à vis de la notion de cohabitation au cours des années 1958-2017 et met en évidence leurs contradictions institutionnelles qui se révèlent en fonction de situations et de circonstances politiques données. Elle souligne ainsi les nombreuses divergences institutionnelles de la droite sur le sujet : le refus cohabitationniste du régime Gaullien et Pompidolien, le consentement Giscardien de 1978, la division au sein-même de la droite au cours des années Mitterrand entre 1981 et 1995, l'union dans la dénonciation au cours du premier mandat de Jacques Chirac entre 1995 et 2002 et enfin une succession de contradictions au cours des années 2002-2017. La thèse relève aussi certaines divergences institutionnelles du côté de la gauche socialiste : une volonté cohabitationniste au cours des années 1958-1981, une sérieuse réserve au cours des années 1981-1986 puis 1988-1993, une satisfaction cohabitationniste au cours des années 1997-2002 et également une succession de contradictions au cours des années 2002-2017. La thèse montre donc la manière dont les responsables politiques ont fait évoluer leurs doctrines institutionnelles en fonction de situations et de circonstances politiques données et cherche aussi à expliquer leurs nombreuses stratégies personnelles et leurs réflexions institutionnelles vis à vis de la cohabitation. / The thesis recalls the many positions of the French political officials with respect to the concept of cohabitation during years 1958-2017 and highlights their institutional contradictions which appear according to situations and political circumstances given. It thus emphasizes the many institutional divergences of the right-hand side on the subject : the cohabitationnist refusal of the Gaullist and Pompidolian regims, the Giscardian assent of 1978, the division within the right during Mitterrand years between 1981 and 1995, the union in the denunciation during the first mandate of Jacques Chirac between 1995 and 2002 and finally a succession of contradictions during years 2002-2017. The thesis also records certain institutional divergences on the side of the socialist left : a cohabitationnist will during years 1958-1981, a serious reserve during years 1981-1986 then 1988-1993, a cohabitationnist satisfaction during years 1997-2002 and also a succession of contradictions during years 2002-2017. The thesis shows so the way in which the political leaders have evolved their institutional doctrines according to situations and political circumstances given and also tries to explain their numerous personal strategies and their institutional reflections with respect to the cohabitation.

Today Namibia is at the crossroads of its independence. The agony of death and destruction that the Namibians have endured for the past 105 years of colonial oppression is about to come to an end and freedom is in sight. The process of transition to independence has already started. On 1 November 1989, the Namibian people will exercise their long-denied right to self-determination by electing their own leaders who. by virtue of being elected by the masses will have the sovereign right to draft the constitution of independent Namibia. This will bring about a new political and socio-economic order. The task before the Namibian people is to seize this historic opportunity and ensure that they join hands to safeguard the revolutionary gains we have made in bringing our country to the threshold of independence. Seizing this opportunity means, first, to register as a voter, and second, to vote and send to the Constituent Assembly men. and women with a revolutionary will, honourable record, vision for a better future, integrity, experience and proven ability to fight for the interests of the broad masses of the Namibian people. Such men and women are to be found in SWAPO. SWAPO has stood tall in the face of formidable odds over the last twenty-nine years of its struggle to free Namibia. Because of this fact. SWAPO had participated in the formulation of Resolution 435 and fought bravely for the last 11 years for its implementation. The motivating force behind this struggle has always been to guarantee that power is given to the Namibian people to decide the future of our country' through free and fair elections. Now that Resolution 435 is being implemented, the Central Committee of SWAPO has the honour to place before the people of Namibia its concrete programme of action in the form of SWAPO’s policy positions on a broad spectrum of political, economic, social and cultural issues. Together, these policy'positions form SWAPO's Election Manifesto. / sponsored by the Centre for Development Studies, University of the Western Cape & the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, November 6-16, 1991