<p>The aim of this bachelor thesis is to examine the current situation as regarding the political equality in Iran. The method of this reaserch is based on a single-case studie wich grounds in secondary sources. The analysis of this paper is based on fields that concern political equality which in this study will focus on the right to vote, candidacies in the parliament election 2004 and the presidential election 2005. A democracy theory by Jack Lively is used to analyze the political equality in Iran´s political system.</p><p>The Iranian regim is strongly criticized by the goverments in the Western world and NGO´s for the situation of the democracy and the human rights in the country. Despite the criticism, Iran still continues in the same political direction, although the democracy has gained a stronger role in the political sphere. Therefore in this paper I have examined if Iran´s political system is based on political equality. As the evidences show, the conclusion in this bachelor thesis is that the Iranian political system cannot meet all the criterions that are stated by Lively in the theory used and therefore political equality cannot exist in Iran´s political system.</p>

For many years, election results from the countryside have been a big impact for the whole nation in Thailand. In the country or sub-urban side, Chao Pho (Godfather) manipulates the elections, leaving political parties meaningless. In order to take advantages from the election, political parties have to depend on Chao Pho because they are very close to ordinary citizens. Even though Chao Pho can operate local politics and can make country area for further development, they in the meantime have made degeneration and corruption in Thailand¡¦s politics. In addition, this thesis carefully studies Chao Pho¡¦s impact from both economic and political perspectives. In theory, economic development and political reform should generate impact on Chao Pho. But in Thailand¡¦s economic development, Chao Pho has gained enormous benefits, which in return help Chao Pho to gain political power, this means that Thailand¡¦s economic development is good for the Chao Pho. From point view of political reforms, the 1997 Constitution is designated to eliminate Chao Pho¡¦s influence. In fact, from the two elections after the 1997 Constitution, money politics is still popular in Thailand and Chao Pho is still influential. The Thai Rak Thai Party had successfully echoed the needs of the lower level people, but it still needs supports from Chao Pho during the elections, due to their abundant resources. Finally, this thesis argue that Chao Pho¡¦s political influence has not been weakened by the economic development and political reform, rather, Chao Pho continually becomes the most important political force in Thailand.

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in instances of Republican-dominated state legislatures proposing changes to election law that some see as protecting electoral integrity and others understand as intended to suppress votes of traditionally Democratic constituencies. This thesis is a detailed collection of the rationales used to justify these changes, as examined through a case study of North Carolina’s enactment of the omnibus Voter Information Verification Act of 2013 (VIVA). By also including the arguments proffered during the legislative process by opponents of the law, and after evaluating the merits of the arguments on both sides, I find the rationales used to justify the law’s provisions to be unconvincing and misleading. This study confirms the speculation that new election law restrictions are first and foremost a Republican attempt to gain partisan advantage. Given this conclusion, I offer suggestions as to what factors might eventually shift the current era of election law legislation from one of restrictions, to one focused on creating efficient, accessible, modernized electoral systems that inspire citizen confidence regardless of partisanship.

Zusammenfassung Die Diplomarbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Problematik der Nomination und Registration der Kandidaten für die tschechische Präsidentenwahl. Im Jahre 2012 genehmigte das Parlament eine Änderung der Verfassung, die die Wahl des tschechischen Präsidenten auf die direkte Wahl änderte. Im Zusammenhang damit kamen viele Fragen über die Nomination und Registration der Kandidaten für die Funktion des Präsidenten. Diese Fragen musste man nicht lösen, weil das Recht auf die Nomination des Kandidaten neu die Bürger bekamen, die eine Petition mit den Unterschriften mindestens 50.000 Bürger mit dem Wahlrecht vorlegen. Die Diplomarbeit bemüht sich diese Probleme zu analysieren und ihre Lösung vorzuschlagen. Nach dem Einführungsteil über die Geschichte der Anträge auf die direkte Wahl im tschechischen Verfassungssystem und nach der Rekapitulation der anderen Rechtsvorschriften, laut den man in einigen Fällen (Kandidatur der unabhängigen Kandidaten in den Komunal- oder Senatwahlen, bzw. Gründung einer neuen politischen Partei) eine Petition mit einer bestimmten Anzahl der Unterschriften vorlegen muss, folgt gerade dieser analytischer Anteil. In dieser Diplomarbeit beschäftigt sich der Autor z.B. damit, auf welche Art und Weise bei der ersten tschechischen Präsidentenwahl das Innenministerium die...

The aim of my thesis is to analyze the process of the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election and identify the factors that had the biggest influence on the election results. The paper is divided into three chapters. The first chapter describes the rules for electing the U.S. president, the second chapter focuses on issues and the third on other factors that decided the election. My thesis is thus a study of how the U.S. president was elected in 2008 and of the issues currently most discussed in the American society.

The European Parliament elections have for decades been described as 'second-order national elections', meaning that parties tend to have a national focus rather than a European one. Furthermore, the parties are often described as a weak link between the European Union and its citizens. Studies on the parties' election promises have mainly been done on national elections and show that election promises become increasingly important over time. However, no previous studies have looked at election promises in European elections. The purpose of this comparative case study is to compare the election promises that Swedish parliamentary parties present in their election manifestos for the European Parliament elections of 2014 and 2019, in order to contribute to both the discourse on European Parliament elections and the discourse on election promises. Two established fields of research that have not previously met in this way. Based on previous research, this study tests eight hypotheses on the material. By mapping and analyzing 1374 election promises from 16 election manifestos, the result shows a predominant share of election promises with a European focus, rather than national. The election promises are surprisingly specific rather than vague and mainly critical of EU-policy rather than the European Union as a political system. The conclusion of this result is that the European Parliament elections as 'second-order national elections' do not emerge when election promises are studied. The results of this study has shown that there is reason to revise the prevailing picture of European Parliament elections in this field of research.

The presented Thesis "Political Communication and Politainment in the Presidential Election in the Czech Republic in 2013" analyses political communication in the historically first presidential election campaign in the Czech Republic. I saw the presidential election as an opportunity to research a new platform of political communication that politainment is. The primary aim of the Thesis is to introduce this concept in the context of the current nature of political communication and at the same time to identify variables defining this phenomenon in the Czech environment. Analysis of the elements of politainment is performed on campaigns of the two most successful candidates aspiring for the office of the President of the Czech Republic - Miloš Zeman and Karel Schwarzenberg. I focused primarily on the television appearance of both candidates in TV debates broadcasted by Czech Television, which were the climax of the entire presidential campaign. I was interested in the content of communication of both candidates and the overall character of the debates. The Thesis answers the following questions: What is political communication and its role in politics? How does its form change over time? Does personalisation of election campaigns result in the emergence of politainment as a phenomenon of political...

The European Parliament elections have since the 1980's been described as 'second-order national elections', which, among other things, means that they are less important to both political parties and to voters. Scholars have often described political parties as a weak link between the European Union and its citizens. Previous studies of the fulfillment of election promises have mainly focused on national governments, and not national political parties in the European Parliament. The purpose of this descriptive study is to investigate the level of fulfillment of election promises that Swedish parliamentary parties present in their election manifestos for the European Parliament election 2014. Based on previous research, this study tests five hypotheses on the material. By mapping and analyzing 183 election promises from 8 election manifestos, the results show a lower fulfillment level than Swedish governments usually achieve on the national arena. The result showed one possible covariation between which party groups the political parties belonged to and fulfillment, but no clear patterns between the characteristics of the election promise and fulfillment. The results of this study has shown that there is reason to further investigate and try to better understand election promises that are given ahead of European Parliament elections.

Populism har de senaste åren blivit ett ökande fenomen i västvärlden, där partier och politiska aktörer som benämns som populistiska vinner alltmer mark. Även årets riksdagsval i Sverige följde denna trend, där Sverigedemokraterna (ett parti som har beskrivits som populistiskt) blev det näst största partiet och samarbetsparti till den nya regeringen. Trots kommunikationens viktiga roll inom populism har denna aspekt av populism i det stora hela oftast blivit förbisedd inom forskningen. Det gäller också tidigare forskning om populism i Sverige, som oftast har fokuserat på populistiska aktörers innehåll och deras ideologiska positioner. Tidigare forskning om populism i Sverige har också oftast fokuserat på partiet Sverigedemokraterna och inte studerat andra partiers användning av populism. Mot bakgrund av denna lucka i forskningen samt Sverigedemokraternas framgångar och konventionella partiers beslut att samarbeta med partiet, har denna studie valt att undersöka om och i sådana fall hur tre svenska politiska aktörer (Ulf Kristersson, Magdalena Andersson, Jimmie Åkesson) använder sig av populism i sin politiska kommunikation. Syftet har varit att undersöka hur populism som politisk kommunikation används och tar sig uttryck. Konkret har uppsatsen, genom en tematisk analys, analyserat de tre partiledarnas Almedalstal valåret 2022 och med hjälp av det teoretiska ramverket undersökt vilka populistiska element som kan urskiljas i talen och hur de används i den politiska kommunikationen. Studien identifierade att alla dessa tre politiska aktörer använde sig av populism för att mobilisera väljarstöd, men att de gjorde det med hjälp av populism på olika sätt, genom tre olika identifierade teman. Ulf Kristersson använde sig av det identifierade temat den rättfärdiga vinnaren genom att använda sig av populism för att framhålla sig själv och sin sida som den rättfärdiga och kompetenta vinnaren av valet. Jimmie Åkesson använde sig av populism i de identifierade temat landets räddare för att framställa Sverige som ett land i djup kris och han och hans parti som de enda om kan rädda landet. Till sist använde sig Magdalena Andersson av det identifierande temat mobiliseringen av en nationell gemenskap, där hon till skillnad från Kristersson och Åkesson använde sig av populism för att framhålla en enande svensk identitet och kultur som väljare kan identifiera sig med. Studiens resultat mynnar ut i en diskussion om användningen av begreppet populism och om man mer ska se populism som en komponent av politiska aktörers kommunikation och inte som ett definierande drag av politiska aktörers politiska identitet. Detta med tanke på att resultatet av studien visade att alla de politiska aktörerna använde sig av populism trots deras politiska och ideologiska skillnader. / In recent years, populism has become an increased phenomenon in the Western world, where parties and political actors that are called populist are increasingly gaining ground. This year's parliamentary elections in Sweden also followed this trend, where the Sweden Democrats (a party that has been described as populist) became the second largest party and a collaborating party to the new government. Despite the important role of communication in populism, this aspect of populism as a whole has often been overlooked in research. This applies to previous research on populism in Sweden, which usually focuses on the content of populist actors and their ideological positions. Previous research on populism in Sweden has also focused on the Sweden Democrats and not studied other parties' use of populism. Against this gap in the research and the Sweden Democrats successes and conventional parties' decisions to cooperate with the party, this study set out to analyze whether, and in such cases, how three Swedish political actors in the form of party leaders Magdalena Andersson, Ulf Kristersson and Jimmie Åkesson used populism in their political communication. The aim has been to examine how populism as political communication is used and expressed. Concretely, the essay has, through a thematic analysis, analyzed the Almedal speeches of the three party leaders in the election year 2022 and, with the help of the theoretical framework, examined which populist elements can be distinguished in the speeches and how they are used in political communication. The study identified that all these three political actors used populism to mobilize voter support, but that they did so using populism in different ways, through three different identified themes. Ulf Kristersson used the identified theme of the righteous winner by using populism to promote himself and his side as the righteous and competent winner of the election. Jimmie Åkesson used populism in the identified theme of the country's savior to portray Sweden as a country in deep crisis and he and his party as the only ones who can save the country. Finally, Magdalena Andersson used the identified theme of the mobilization of a national community, where, unlike Kristersson and Åkesson, she used populism to emphasize a unifying Swedish identity and culture that voters can identify with. The results of the study prompted a discussion about the use of the term populism and whether, given that the results of the study showed that all the political actors used populism despite their political and ideological differences, populism should be seen as a component of political actor’s communication and not as an identifying feature of a political actor's political identity.

This item contains the agenda, minutes, and attachments for the Faculty Senate meeting on this date. There may be additional materials from the meeting available at the Faculty Center.