This thesis explores the interplay between digital social movements and political parties on social media. The overarching aim of the thesis is to contribute to the understanding of how the digitalization of the electoral arena has transformed social movements, and how this affects the political parties' perceptions of them. The theoretical framework consists of three analytical lenses to conceptualize this interplay, these are George and Leidner’s (2019) categorization and classification of digital activism, Gunnar Sjöblom’s (1968) theory on partystrategies in a multiparty system, and Anne Kaun’s (2017) concept desynchronization. Acombination of methods is used, including network analysis and interviews, to explore this interplay. The results of the study indicate that there is a desynchronization in the practices of digital social movements and Swedish political parties.

This thesis focuses on the less studied electoral systems, which are called ordinal. These methods allow the voters to order the candidates according to their preferences. The work provides a historical insight into this issue with regard to economics and political science theories, based on the concept of the Condorcet winner. Condorcet winner is the person who defeats all other candidates in pairwise elections and by theorists of the electoral system is the ability to choose the Condorcet winner essential. The work examines three electoral methods - alternative and suplementary vote and Borda rule. These electoral systems are analyzed in terms of effects to system of political parties, political actors and the electorate, with the emphasis on the utilization rate of preferential votes. These aspects are examined on the basis of the actual election results obtained from the website of the electoral commissions and independent institutions. Based on these data, a mathematical model that compares the effects of electoral systems is then created. The conclusion summarizes the results of the analysis and the author expresses further recommendations to address these electoral methods, not only professionally and scientifically, but also as real alternatives for real election.

The aim of my thesis is to assess a relevant facts for better explanation of the shift which happened in electoral cooperation between National party (Old Czechs) and National liberal party (Young Czechs) during 1891-1907. It observes the cooperative policy of the leaders of Old Czechs, who were obliged to react to the structural changes of Czech party system, which took place in Bohemia at the turn of the century. This explanation is being done with regard to organizational and ideological patterns of National party.

This thesis is devoted to the election and political marketing topics. I analysed different types of political marketing tools and guerilla marketing tools. Guerilla marketing is a special marketing form suitable for some campaign situations. Moreover we can use it for campaign optimization. This optimization is the core of this topic. It is important to find the best tools, with the lowest expenses for our preferred voters. In addition to that, I introduced several kinds of campaign tactics useable in the Czech politics. There are also election campaign proposed budgets for different types of the Czech elections.

This diploma thesis opens a new deep insight into the issue of electoral systems in Czech and Central European political science. The mid-point of this research is the electoral bias in the electoral system to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. The electoral bias is researched on all general elections from 1996 until 2013. To find out the electoral bias I apply mathematical method created and used by professor Galina Borisyuk from University of Plymouth. This method is based on several mathematical methods used by the American and the British political scientists for decades. However, the new method created by Galina Borisyuk is the most convenient for many reasons. Mainly this method isn't necessarily connected with plurality majority system, which was essential variable so far. Second key attribute of this method is the possibility to apply it on the three party systems, which is important variable for our political system in the Czech Republic as well. In analytical part of this research I apply the new mathematical method in all elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. Ascertained results are analysed in the conclusion together that I have set the feasible ways to develop a new path the research of bias in the future.

En época electoral, las campañas políticas son el escenario principal del proceso democrático. Sin embargo, durante su desarrollo se dan a conocer diversas irregularidades debido al poco control que se ejerce respecto a los aportes que financian dichas campañas. Por lo tanto, nuestra realidad actual refleja la poca credibilidad de los peruanos en el sistema electoral, pues debido a las investigaciones diarias y las preguntas que se plantean, por razones políticas, no tienen un cierto grado de aceptación, el Perú ha estado plagado de una corrupción razonable. Es así que nos hemos propuesto desarrollar un análisis del Sistema Electoral Peruano, advirtiendo la escasa participación ciudadana durante el desarrollo de los últimos procesos electorales. No hay duda de que el componente más importante es determinar si los mecanismos de transparencia y rendición de cuentas son suficientes para recuperar la confianza pública. Así, nuestra investigación busca mejorar las condiciones que hoy en día presenta la política peruana respecto a los actos de corrupción que se dan en razón a los aportes de las campañas y, que a fin de controlarlo se propone un Organismo que se encargue sólo de su fiscalización, para evitar posteriores beneficios por parte del Estado.

Pourquoi l'électeur, s'il sait que son vote ne sera pas pris en compte, s'attache-t-il quand même à voter blanc et nul ? Plus globalement, comment le vote blanc et nul a-t-il pu persister et même augmenter, en dépit de son absence de prise en compte dans les suffrages exprimés ? C'est à ce double questionnement qu'est consacrée cette thèse.En prenant appui sur l'analyse de 52 entretiens semi-directifs avec des électeurs ayant déjà votés blancs et nuls ainsi que sur des archives de bulletins annulés issus des scrutins présidentielles et législatifs de 2007 et 2012 (près de 16 000) et des réponses à un questionnaire diffusé en ligne (1632), notre démarche est donc d'allier le comment au pourquoi (et au « pour quoi ? ») et d'étudier le vote en acte davantage que le vote comme choix ou orientation. Le tout, en interrogeant le vote blanc et nul, non pas seulement comme un refus conjoncturel de choisir – lié essentiellement à un défaut conjoncturel de l'offre politique –, mais en mettant en évidence une autre lecture du phénomène. Plus précisément, nous abordons le vote blanc et nul comme un ensemble d'usages et significations socialement différenciés.Ainsi, dans une Partie n°1, nous étudions l'apparition de la catégorie « blanc et nul », la variation historique de ses normes (explicites et implicites) et les luttes dont sa définition a été l'objet. Le tout, pour comprendre comment une certaine définition du vote blanc et nul s'est imposée au point de faire sens commun (notamment la binarité manichéenne « blanc » versus « nul »). Dans une Partie n°2, il s'agit alors d'analyser la façon dont ce sens commun peut être l'objet de réceptions (voire de réappropriations) individuelles ou collectives – légitimes et illégitimes – par les agents sociaux. Et ce, au point de faire du vote blanc et nul une pratique aux usages pluriels, car socialement différenciés. Enfin, loin d'être réduits aux rôles de « récepteurs », des électeurs peuvent apparaître aussi comme des contributeurs dans la construction – toujours mouvante – de la définition de ce vote, au point d'en faire, par exemple, un outil d'action collective. / In France, elections since 1990's revealed a phenomenon considered for a long time as marginal by the electoral sociology : « blank and null » votes. The object of this thesis is to deconstruct some prenotions about this gesture and to propose a new approach. So, the author analyse it not only as an answer to a determined political offer but, especially, as a practice with plural uses and investments. Finally, he shows how these votes are the translation of relationships socially differentiated to politics and even to representative democracy.

Migration is not a new phenomenon, although last decades of migration and the reasons behind why people migrate might differ from previous years. This has brought a problem to light, a problem which might put the whole legitimacy aspect of representative democracy out of play. Studies have shown that immigrants in different places around have less activity in electoral participation compared to native citizens. Recently researchers and theorists with Ann Phillips being the front figure of politics of presence, have argued for descriptive representation to increase the electoral participation among immigrants. Thus, this study aims to examine the relation of electoral participation among immigrants and the descriptive representation of immigrants in municipal level by implementing a comparative case study. Furthermore, this study examines what existing literature presents as evidence which can explain the results found in the comparative case study. This study finds that although there is a correlation between descriptive representation and voter turnout among immigrants, it cannot alone explain the difference in the variation found. The results of the case study show a variety of answers that explains the variation of electoral participation. Ranging from politics, citizenship, and native country as an answer, to descriptive representation. In conclusion the results of the scoping study finds that substantial representation as an answer is rarely found in research papers, and that further studies need to take that factor in the calculation when examining which reasons might lie behind promoting immigrants’ electoral participation.

This study investigates the accountability of agencies responsible for countering Malign Information Influence (MII) during the 2018 general election in Sweden and the 2017 snap election in the United Kingdom. Using a comparative methodology, the study emphasizes the importance of timely, accurate, transparent, and sufficiently disseminated information as prerequisites for accountability. Qualitative data analysis of annual reports and media coverage was conducted, revealing that both Sweden and the UK were highly aware of the MII risks and implemented various measures to protect electoral integrity. While the conditions of timeliness were fulfilled,  limitations were identified in terms of transparency as well as dissemination. The study highlights common challenges and areas for improvement in the accountability mechanisms of government agencies, providing valuable lessons for countries facing similar issues. Ultimately, the thesis underscores the ongoing challenge for agencies to protect the electoral process from new sharp power threats, while also maintaining citizen trust. Suggestions for future research include incorporating mixed-methods approaches, broadening the research question to explore additional factors, conducting in-depth data analyses, and exploring additional cases to further enhance the generalizability of findings.

The aim of this thesis is to answer the research question as to whether post-election antigovernment actions lead to increased probability of incumbent being replaced. The theoretical argument is that the anti-government groups can choose to use violence or non-violence to force the government to give concessions, the ultimate one being replacement of the incumbent. Both violence and non-violence are argued to have a positive effect on the probability of this to happen, but the latter should be stronger. Two hypotheses capture this: H1: Anti-government violence increases the incumbent’s probability of being replaced. H2: Anti-government non-violence increase the incumbent’s probability of being replaced more than anti-government violence does. Using a logistic regression on 550 elections compiled from the NELDA and ECAV datasets, the first hypothesis is not supported due to lack of statistical significance across the models. The second hypothesis is supported as the non-violent independent variable receives statistically significant results, but these do not hold in the robustness test. Taking into account the suggestions from previous literature, the results do hint towards non-violence being the more successful option of action, but it cannot be concluded with certainty.