"Election management bodies (EMBs) have thus been established throughout the world with the responsibility of administering elctions. However, merely creating a body to administer elections does not create public conficence and integrity in the electoral process. The establishment and operation of such a body must meet the key requirements of credible election administration. One such requirement is the need for the EMB to be independent of any party. The independence of the EMB is said, by and large, to attract the confidence of all the stakeholders in the electoral process and create integrity in the process. ... However, as one scholar has observed, the lack of autonomy of EMBs from the government in some African countries is one of the major challenges to the credibility of the electoral process on the continent. It is important to note at this point that the independence of EMBs, though not in itself a guarantee of free and fair elections, determines to a large extent the overall legitimacy and acceptability of an elected government by the electorate. Flowing from this discourse is the need for the independence of EMBs in Africa, both in theory and practice, in order to enhance democracy on the continent. ... Kenya and South Africa have established EMBs to manage elections in accordance with the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Organisation for African Unity/African Union (OAU/AU) Declaration of 2002. The Kenyan EMB has been in existence since 1991. Recently, the issue of its indpendence has become a central focus in a raging national debate on minimum constitutional reforms in Kenya. Similarly, the independence of the South African EMB, though believed to be sufficiently safeguarded, has also come to be questioned. These institutions play a crucial role in the democratisation processes in both countries, and one of the ways of achieving this goal, is by ensuring their independence from the political process. This study proposes to examine the independenct of the two EMBs and proposes ways of strengthening them with a view to enhancing the work of democracy in both countries. ... Chapter one introduces the study and the problem statement that has prompted the study. Chapter two analyses the concept of independence of EMBs. It also discusses the justification for their independence. A comparative analysis of the independence of EMBs of Kenya and South Africa is the subject of chapter three. Chapter four proposes to discuss the ways of further strengthening the indpendence of EMBs of Kenya and South Africa. The fifth and final chapter proffers conclusions and recommendations." -- Introduction. / Prepared under the supervision of Mr. Kingsley Kofi Kuntunkrunku Ampofo at the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2006. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

This thesis deals with the possibilities of changing the electoral system to Czech municipal councils. It is an analytical case study with elements of a policy paper, i.e., a set of recommendations intended especially for legislators. The thesis has two main goals: (1) to identify and summarize aspects of the electoral system that experts call controversial and (2) to suggest possible solutions that would mitigate or eliminate these controversial variables. The work comes with three alternative solutions for changing the electoral system: (A) minor modifications to the existing system, which will facilitate the possibility of election because of preferential votes, and at the same time prevent local governments from performing electoral engineering by purposeful modifications of constituencies; (B) a variably mixed fusion system identical for all municipalities and (C) combination of two systems: unlimited vote for municipalities with less than 2,000 inhabitants and an open PR system for larger municipalities.

The objective of the thesis is a detailed analysis of overhang seats, the peculiarity of the German electoral system. The theoretical part of this thesis focuses on research of the electoral systems and their political consequences. The second chapter devoted to the German electoral system explains his mechanical functioning and discuses his influence on the degree of proportionality and the party system. The analytical part tries to clear the phenomenon of overhang seats, his origins by means of testing presented variables using the electoral results data from 1990 - 2009. The current electoral reform is also discussed.

The voting system a government chooses has influence upon the way people vote, as it has some bearing on the average person’s utility received from voting. In the United States the Electoral College system is used to determine who becomes president-elect, but theoretical arguments have been made to support a change in voting structure to Proportional Representation. I developed my model to understand more about how a change in the voting structure would affect voter utility. My contribution to the research question focuses upon relative benefits of one voter in a specific party to another voter in another party. I used an empirical approach, using data pulled from past elections and survey data. My model suggests that Republican voters would receive a higher utility from a change in the voting system from the Electoral College to Proportional Representation. It is unclear whether Democrats would receive a higher benefit, but at least would receive a lesser utility change than that of the Republican voters.

Voter frustration in the US is driven largely by partisanship and gridlock in Congress. This paper seeks to understand the root causes of gridlock and look at alternative methods for eliminating it. I find that while the media focuses on polarization as the root cause of gridlock, the checks and balances system plays an equally significant role, and that the interaction between the party system and the governmental structure of the US government creates incentives that cause gridlock to form. Recent reforms have failed to successfully address gridlock because they do not change the polarized party system or the barriers to policy-making in government. After acknowledging the failure of recent reforms, I consider a new set of reforms: electoral system reform. The field of electoral systems provides many policy alternatives with profound tradeoffs, many of which make gridlock obsolete. Majoritarian systems create single-party majorities and reduce checks on majority power, allowing the majority party to implement their platform tempered through voter approval rather than checks on their power. Proportional systems retain checks and balances through the creation of governing coalitions, but the parties in power have stronger incentives to cooperate and compromise than under the current polarized US system. I propose a system for evaluating electoral systems and compare them in terms of accountability, legitimacy, effectiveness, representativeness, and complexity. Finally, I propose two electoral reforms, informed by the study of electoral systems, that are both feasible and increase the ability for third parties to gain seats in the legislature. The first, proportional representation for House members, creates small to medium-sized proportional Congressional districts at the state level to reduce the threshold for party entry. The second, Alternative Vote (ranked-choice) for Senate, proposes switching to a preference ranking system for Senate elections further remove barriers to third parties. These reforms should undermine the polarized two-party system and create new incentives for cooperation in Congress.

En el presente artículo se argumenta que las diferencias en los niveles de desarrollo alcanzados por Chile y el Perú en los últimos 40 años se explican no solo por las reformas económicas emprendidas en uno y otro país sino también por la reforma política realizada en Chile en 1988, mediante la cual se sustituyó el sistema de representación proporcional por un sistema binominal para la elección del Congreso.Esto habría brindado incentivos para la consolidación del sistema de partidos y la estabilización del proceso democrático en Chile. Por el contrario, el Perú, al haber persistido y aún profundizado la proporcionalidad de su sistema electoral, no ha logrado todavía conseguir un entorno político propicio para el desarrollo.

The main aim of this thesis is an introduction into the basic principles of electoral law and instruments of their protection, especially through the judicial power, in the local elections. The right to participate on public affairs is one of the fundamental attributes of the citizens of a democratic state. Its protection through independent and impartial courts is very important. The first chapter sets out rights relating to elections into municipal councils. The second chapter explains the stages of the electoral process, including examples of selected court decisions related to some institutes. The third chapter deals with the protection of public subjective rights in the election judiciary. The protection is provided to political rights of voters, political parties, candidates and elected members of representative bodies. There is a brief mention about the protection that has been previously provided by civilian courts. In accordance with the system of the Judicial Administrative Procedure Code I discuss four particular types of proceedings - proceedings in matters of electoral rolls, proceedings in matters of registration of candidates, proceedings in matters of invalidibity of elections and voting and proceedings concerning termination of the mandate. The third type of procedure, judicial...

The present study aimed to examine how support and trust in democracy was viewed among young citizens in Sweden. The study used a quantitative approach, in which a web survey was developed based on two well validated measurement instruments. The web survey was distributed via an internet site with 241 respondents age 18-29 years (M = 23.5 SD = 2.61). Four indexes were created (trust, support for democracy, autocracy and ideals of democracy) and the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and regression models. The results showed that the participants had a fairly large support for democracy and did also have a fairly high trust in democracy. The support for other governance than democracy was fairly low. These young citizens in Sweden preferred participatory democracy over electoral democracy. A bivariate regression model showed an indication that lower trust in democracy leads to more active participation among young citizens. A multiple regression model however showed that females with a lower trust in democracy preferred participatory democracy and that males with a higher trust preferred electoral democracy. The authors argue that these important findings should be prioritized within the democratic discourse in order to be able to address young citizens regarding their concern and confidence in democracy. This in turn could give rise to more adequate efforts and decision making processes for both politicians and civil servants.

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.

Esta dissertação estuda a corrupção política e o Caixa 2 de campanhas eleitorais no Brasil, avaliando o seu impacto na qualidade da democracia, em especial na responsividade dos governos às preferências da maioria dos cidadãos. Com base em observações descritivas a partir de depoimentos, notícias de jornal e dados de pesquisa, busca-se investigar como os fenômenos estudados afetam o funcionamento do accountability vertical e distorcem a competição eleitoral. / This dissertation studies political corruption and slush funds in electoral campaigns in Brazil, assessing their impact in the quality of democracy, specially on the responsiveness of governments to the preferences of the majority of the citizens. Based on descriptive observations from public statements, newspaper articles and existing research data, an attempt is made to investigate how these phenomena affect the proper functioning of vertical accountability and distort electoral competition.