Master of Arts / Department of Communications Studies / Soo-Hye Han / The rise of partisan political news over the past two decades has influenced how political candidates discursively construct their image. While there is an extensive literature devote to presidential discourse, little is known about what gubernatorial discourse looks like and how they construct their image. This study examines how gubernatorial candidates discursively construct their image in a hyperpolarized electoral environment. An extensive content analysis of gubernatorial political interviews (n = 94), and specifically the utterances arising from those interviews (n = 1,524), was conducted. Findings show that gubernatorial candidates discursively construct their own image as a savior to the state, while creating their opponent’s and the DC elite’s image as a villain. Additionally, gubernatorial candidates do not adhere to the image bound by their party, and construct an image that is unique to their environment. Consequently, the environment that a gubernatorial candidate is situated influences how they communicate and construct their image and their opponent’s image. By examining gubernatorial discourse through political interviews, this study offers theoretical implications into understanding the influence of polarization, issue ownership, and tone in gubernatorial discourse. Practical implications examine the role of media outlets in gubernatorial discourse. This study contributes to scholarly understanding of gubernatorial discourse in a changing and polarizing political environment.

This study examines the impact of racial politics on the New Orleans mayoral election of 1982. Ernest "Dutch" Morial, the city's first black mayor, sought re-election against a popular white candidate, Ron Faucheux, and a well-liked black candidate, William Jefferson. Race played an integral role throughout the campaign as Morial continually battled attacks from both the conservative white community and the traditional black politicians, all of whom resented the oftentimes brash mayor and his push for change. Controversy also surrounded his handling of the police strike of 1979 and the Fischer Housing Project shootings of 1980. This study argues that despite these obstacles, Ernest "Dutch" Morial was able to win a second term in 1982 by appealing to a broad racial coalition of voters who approved of his vigorous efforts to apply the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement to municipal reform in New Orleans.

La vie politique de Madagascar, durant 54 ans d’indépendance, est jalonnée de crises post-électorales et de mouvements de contestation socio-politiques multiples. De ce constat, le peuple malgache se sent en droit de disposer de ses richesses et de vivre un développement soutenu à partir d’une considération des valeurs traditionnelles. Madagascar exige une vraie mutation de la classe politique qui s’avère être inéluctable, mais le principal doute est de savoir si elle ira dans le sens escompté… Des résistances à cet élan se font sentir cardivers enjeux politiques et économiques, aussi bien internes qu'internationaux, exigent la mise aux pas du pays vers le modèle stéréotypé du développement à l’occidentale. Par conséquent, les termes « démocratie, bonne gouvernance, mondialisation » apparaissent galvaudés au point parfois de perdre la précision et la pertinence nécessaires à la compréhension des systèmes de valeurs et d'échanges politiques qu'ils sont supposés fonder et véhiculer. D’autres corollaires à ces superficiels changements imposés se font jour : prolifération d’acteurs politiques avec la multitude de groupements que cela suppose. Sachons que l’île compte actuellement 150 partis et associations politiques enregistrés auprès du ministère de l’Intérieur alors que, face à l’évolution politique,aucune « opposition » digne de ce nom ne se manifeste positivement. En fin de compte, Madagascar se trouve confrontée à des problèmes d'ordre culturel, historique, institutionnel, économique et social, face à cette inévitable mutation de sa classe politique. Après un essai de définition de la notion de pouvoir à Madagascar etun survol descriptif des acteurs politiques malgaches durant la colonisation, une étude sur le fondement de la classe politique actuelle a été menée afin de déceler les motifs réels de cette résistance à la mutation. Des difficultés socio-économiques internes viennent s'ajouter aux intérêts internationaux géopolitiques et économiques. Une observation particulière a été entreprise sur le comportement des investisseurs et décideurs français. Il s'agit, en fait, d'une illustration réelle et précise des comportements pater familias que la France adopte auprès de ses partenaires africains. / The political life of Madagascar is marked by post-election crises and sociopolitical protests, during its 54 years of independence. From this observation, Malagasy people feel entitled to enjoy their riches and live a sustained development based on consideration of traditional values. Madagascar demands a real transformation of its political class. This change seems inevitable, but the main question is whether it will go to the expected direction... Opposition to this impulse is felt, since domestic and international political and economic issues require that Madagascar conforms to the stereotypical pattern of western development. Therefore, the words “democracy, good governance, globalization” seem so overused. By this way, sometimes, they lose the necessary precision and relevance for an understanding of system of values and political exchanges they are supposed to express and establish. Other corollaries of these superficial changes that were imposed are emerging, namely the proliferation of political stakeholders that involve a multiplication of related groups. Infact, there is currently about 150 political parties and associations that are registered at the Ministry of DomesticAffairs. However, with these political developments, no real “opposition” manifest positively. Ultimately, faced with this famous and inevitable change of its political class, Madagascar is encountering cultural, historical, institutional, economic and social problems. To uncover the real motives of this resistance to change, first, atentative definition of the concept of power in Madagascar and a descriptive overview of the Malagasy politicians during the colonial period is conducted. Afterwards, a study on the basis of the current Malagasy political class is performed. In addition to domestic social and economic difficulties, there are international geopolitical and economic interests. A particular observation is undertaken on the behavior of French investors and policymakers. This is actually a real and accurate illustration of pater familias behaviors that France adopts vis-à-vis its African partners

Thesis advisor: Kenji Hayao / This thesis explores the motives behind, changes made by, and the consequences of the Japan's 1993 electoral reform that completely overhauled the electoral system. It begins with some background information that leads to the earthshattering event in 1993 that ousted the ruling Liberal Democratic Party from power for the first time since 1955. Then it explains and analyzes the old and new electoral systems. Finally, it concludes with the analysis of the 2003 elections, which was the third and latest election to be held under the new system. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2004. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Den 25 maj 2014 valde Sverige, likt resterande medlemsländer inom EU, parlamentariker till Europaparlamentet för perioden 2014-2019. Detta val tenderar att engagera långt färre väljare än nationella parlamentsval trots att det är ett av få reella verktyg en väljare har att påverka EU:s arbete och inriktning. Fenomenet kan exemplifieras med Sverige som i riksdagsvalet 2010 uppnådde ett valdeltagande på 84,63% av den röstberättigade befolkningen, men i valet till Europaparlamentet 2009 röstade endast 45.3%. Generellt i EU röstar 20 procentenheter färre i valet till Europaparlamentet. I och med valet 2004 föll det sammanlagda valdeltagandet till under 50 % för första gången. I boken ”What’s wrong with the European union & how to fix it” påvisar Simon Hix denna problematik och kallar Europaparlaments-valet ett ”second-order election”. Han menar att valet är underordnat de nationella valen. Hix problematiserar EU:s bristande legitimitet till Europas befolkning och påvisar ett demokratiskt underskott. Han skriver även att det existerar en allmän uppfattning att EU lider av ett stort underskott gällande demokratiska värden. Frågetecken kring EU:s demokratiska underskott väcktes ursprungligen av länder med en stark historia av demokratiska institutioner, exempelvis Sverige och Storbritannien. Frågan har dock på senare tid fått alltmer fokus även från andra länder. Ytterligare ett betydande problem är EU:s svårigheter att skapa kontakter och konkreta relationer till Europas befolkning. Stödet för EU har stadigt minskat, främst efter 90-talet. Som motåtgärder till detta har parlamentet getts mer makt och generellt fattas beslut numera med en större transparens än tidigare. Tanken är att öka medborgarnas förtroende, och känsla att kunna påverka ett EU som tidigare känts distanserat för vanliga människor. Hix presenterar en mängd olika faktorer för det lägre valdeltagandet i EU- valet. En av flera förklaringar kan vara bristen på socialt kapital. Skiftande kultur och en ansträngd gemensam historia kan antas göra det svårt att skapa ett starkt socialt kapital mellan EU:s medborgare och därmed forma en gemensam och stark europeisk identitet. Detta kan i sin tur påverka valdeltagandet till Europaparlamentet vilket undergräver EU:s demokratiska legitimitet. Robert Putnam har i sin forskning uppmärksammat ett minskande socialt kapital i USA. Kan en liknande utveckling skönjas inom EU med ett minskande valdeltagande till EU-valet som följd? Med bakgrund i EU:s bristande legitimitet, demokratiska underskott och de åtgärder om tagits för att åtgärda detta kan antas att EU:s medborgare tillvarar tar möjligheten att påverka vid valen till EU. Trots att parlamentet fått en mer framskjuten roll inom EU visar verkligheten att valdeltagandet fortsatt är lågt runt om i Europa. Medborgarnas rösträtt är den centrala symbolen för den västerländska demokratin. Alla människor ska ha samma makt, en röst, oberoende status och rikedom. Med bakgrund i tankar kring ett demokratiskt underskott inom EU behandlar uppsatsen vad som kan tänkas ligga bakom skillnaden mellan nationella val och valet till Europaparlamentet.

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

The goal of this thesis is to assess and characterize the representativeness of sampled data that is voluntarily submitted through social media. The case study vehicle used is Twitter data associated with the 2012 Presidential election, which were in turn compared to similarly collected 2008 Presidential election Twitter data in order to ascertain the representative statewide changes in the pro-Democrat bias of sentiment-derived Twitter data mentioning either of the Republican or Democrat Presidential candidates. The results of the comparative analysis show that the MAE lessened by nearly half - from 13.1% in 2008 to 7.23% in 2012 - which would initially suggest a less biased sample. However, the increase in the strength of the positive correlation between tweets per county and population density actually suggests a much more geographically biased sample.

This dissertation asks three fundamental questions about representation in American cities. Who serves as mayor? How do voters select mayors? And, do mayors shape policy? Responsible for funding and providing essential services, municipal governments have a huge impact on the public's safety and quality of life. As chief elected officials, mayors are unquestionably important but also understudied political actors. A number of rich and detailed case studies provide valuable insights on individual mayors and their influence, but quantitative cross-city studies have yielded mixed findings on mayors' abilities to affect outcomes. To date, efforts to comprehensively and systematically study mayors have been hampered by a lack of data. To overcome these data limitations, I amassed an original dataset that includes detailed background information on more than 3,200 mayoral candidates, covering nearly 300 U.S. cities over the last 60 years. My data reveal that mayors, like politicians at higher levels of government, are not very representative of their constituents---they are much more likely to be white and male, with prior political experience and white-collar careers. Business owners and executives are especially well represented in American city halls, accounting for about 32% candidates and mayors. This study provides compelling new evidence that mayors can and do influence policy outcomes. Using a regression discontinuity design, I find that business executive mayors shape spending priorities, leading to significantly lower levels of spending on redistributive programs and greater investment in infrastructure. Perhaps counterintuitively, electing a business executive mayor appears to have little effect on the overall size of government. However, suggestive evidence indicates that they may increase local revenue, but in the form of fees and charges rather than taxes. My findings suggest that business executives preside over policy changes with implications for the distribution of both costs and benefits of local government. In another component of the dissertation, I employ a conjoint survey experiment to investigate why voters so often elect business executives. The experimental results suggest that a candidate's experience as a business owner or executive is likely to influence voters preferences and evaluations. These findings are consistent with longstanding claims that voters rely on candidate characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or incumbency, as information shortcuts in the absence of party cues. Notably, the cues they use may vary with party identification. In nonpartisan contests, political experience has an even stronger influence on the preferences of Democratic respondents, while Republicans give more weight to occupation. Overall, my experimental results suggest that electoral institutions may interact with voters' preferences to shape descriptive representation. At the same time, my analyses of new observational data on mayoral candidates document striking deficits of descriptive representation in America's cities and suggest that who serves in office has meaningful policy consequences.

Contribuições de campanha afetam decisões públicas ou a atuação pós-eleitoral de atores políticos? Cientistas Políticos debruçam-se sobre esta questão há bastante tempo. No entanto, as respostas obtidas foram sempre ambíguas. Argumenta-se aqui que esta ambigüidade é em parte resultado de dificuldades metodológicas, muitas vezes malendereçadas, enfrentadas pelos analistas, como os problemas relativos a simultaneidade, a variáveis omitidas, geralmente não-observáveis, e ao estabelecimento do contrafatual adequado. Neste trabalho procuraremos contornar estes problemas através da utilização do método quase-experimental de regressão descontínua. Especificamente, iremos examinar a relação entre contribuições de campanha e a alocação de contratos públicos no Brasil. A pergunta a ser respondida é: existiu efeito de se exercer o mandato de deputado federal sobre os contratos públicos futuros recebidos por doadores dos candidatos na eleição de 2006? A conclusão a que se chegou foi de que a análise realizada nos permite afirmar que ter exercido ao menos um ano do mandato de deputado federal parece ter influenciado a quantidade de contratos públicos recebidos pelos doadores de candidatos eleitos por pequena margem na eleição de 2006, no Brasil, se consideramos apenas empresas que doaram para eleitos e apenas empresas que doaram para não-eleitos. / Do campaign contributions affect public decisions or the post-election actions of political actors? Political Scientists have battled this issue for a long time. However, the responses achieved have always been somewhat ambiguous. In this work it is argued that this ambiguity is partly the result of methodological difficulties, poorly addressed at many occasions, faced by the analysts, such as the problems of simultaneity, omitted variables, generally unobservable, and the establishment of the appropriate counterfactual. In this work we will try to circumvent these problems by using the quasi-experimental method of regression discontinuity. Specifically, we will examine the relationship between campaign contributions and the allocation of public contracts in Brazil. The question to be answered is whether there was an effect of exercising the mandate of federal deputy on future contracts received by donors to federal deputy candidates in the 2006 election? The conclusion reached was that the analysis allows us to affirm that having exercised at least one year of office for a federal deputy seems to have influenced the amount of contracts received by the donors of candidates elected by small margins in the 2006 election, in Brazil, if we consider companies who donated only to elected candidates and only to non-elected candidates.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of International Relations in the Faculty of Humanities, Department of International Relations / The electoral process in African conflict ridden societies has largely been synonymous with violence since the inauguration of democratic experiments in the cold war aftermath. The transition to democracy including the role of elections in the process of building democracy has been confronted with challenges and the fate of these nations remained vulnerable. As a remedy to these challenges, external and internal forces have continually encouraged the leaders of the newly multiparty states to test their political legitimacy through inviting the Internatitonal election monitors. As a consequence, international election observation has become widely accepted around the world and is assumed to play an important role in the electoral processes. The presence of these agencies is believed to instil confidence in the domestic people and deter electoral fraud. The Kenyan case shall assess the election trends in 2007-2013 and the performance of election monitors within the international efforts to promote democracy in Africa. The issues they put across, their reports, criticisms and what they prescribed, will be useful in assessing their performance and measuring their impact on democratic governance in Kenya. / XL2018