A presente pesquisa tem por objetivo preencher algumas lacunas nos estudos sobre a arena eleitoral brasileira. A literatura corrente, ao negligenciar o estudo da organização partidária, acaba por negligenciar questões fundamentais para que se entenda como funciona o processo eleitoral. Neste estudo iremos responder a três questões: Como os partidos brasileiros funcionam? O que explica o número de partidos em nosso sistema partidário? Qual o impacto da organização partidária na decisão de um partido de lançar ou não um candidato em determinada eleição? Pretendemos mostrar que os partidos têm mais vida do que julga grande parte dos estudos sobre nosso sistema político. Essa vida partidária ajuda a entender melhor a coordenação eleitoral que, por sua vez, determina o número de partidos que participam de determinada eleição. / The present research aims to bridge a gap in the studies of the Brazilian electoral arena. The current literature has neglected the study of party organizations and, for that reason, has neglected fundamental questions to understand how the electoral process works. In the present study we will try to answer to three questions: How do Brazilian parties work? What explains the number of parties in our party system? How does party organization impact on the decision of parties to enter or not the electoral contests? We will show that parties have more life than is supposed by much of the studies about our political system. This party life helps us to better understand the electoral coordination, responsible for the actual number of parties in a given election.

Este trabalho procura analisar o fenômeno das trocas de legenda no Brasil, com um enfoque diferente do que tradicionalmente se aplica. Ao invés de buscar as ambições do migrante, procurei entender as trocas de legenda no agregado, buscando apreender como os atores coletivos, no caso os partidos políticos, utilizam as trocas de legenda para aumentar seu poder na arena parlamentar e na arena eleitoral. Não pretendo com isto afirmar que os parlamentares não busquem aumentar suas chances de sucesso quando trocam de partido, ao contrário, o que pretendo é mostrar que, se ocorre migração partidária, é porque os deputados percebem a importância dos partidos para seus objetivos. Mais do que isso, o que se pretende é mostrar que os partidos políticos não são vítimas de parlamentares ultra-individualistas, estes atuam no processo e estimulam a migração partidária na busca por aumentar seus recursos. E que aliciam parlamentares para aumentar seu acesso a cargos no legislativo e para aumentar seus votos em regiões onde não eram bem votados. / In this work we present an analysis of the party switching phenomenon in Brazil. We try to understand how political parties use the switching party strategy to increase their resources in both parliamentary and electoral arenas. The focus of this work is to explain the role played by the switching parties strategy in the aggregated level without, however, losing sight of the costs and benefits of each switch for individual representatives. It is not my intention to affirm that the parliamentarians do not look to increase his chances of success when they move from one party to another; what I intend to show is that, if party migration occurs, it is because deputies realize the importance of the parties to his own objectives. More than that, which is claimed, is to show that the political parties are not victims of ultra-individualist parliamentarian, they act in the process and stimulate the switching party to increasing his resources.

This dissertation investigates the relationship between elections and authoritarian rule with a focus on the case of China's adoption of elections at the grassroots level. In this dissertation, I look at the incentives facing Chinese local governments in choosing between holding competitive elections or state-controlled elections, and how the selection of electoral rules shapes the public's preferences over political institutions and influences the citizens' political behaviors, especially voting in elections and participation in contentious activities. The overarching theme in this dissertation proposes that the sources and consequences of Chinese local elections are conditioned on the state-owned resources and the governing costs. When the amount of state-owned resources to rule the local society is limited, the paucity of resources will incentivize authoritarian governments to liberalize grassroots elections to offset the governance costs. The various levels of election liberalization will lead to different consequences in the public's political behavior. An abundance of state-owned resources not only discourages rulers from sharing power with the local society, but also supplies the rulers with strong capacity to obtain loyalty from voters when elections are adopted. As a result, elections under authoritarian governments with an abundance of state-owned resources will see more loyalist voters than elections with authoritarian governments with fewer state-owned resources. In addition, the varieties of election practices will exert impacts on public opinion toward the authoritarian government: awareness of elections will enhance public trust in the government and decrease the public's intention to challenge the incumbents' authority while at the same time increasing the public's faith in the institutions, thereby encouraging the public to adopt official channels to air their grievances. The analysis of the village-level as well as individual-level survey data and cases lends empirical supports to the argument. First, I find that the governing costs—measured by the size of labor force—are significantly and positively associated with the likelihood that local officials allow the villagers to freely nominate candidates. Second, I find that party members are more likely to vote in rural elections than urban elections while urban elections attract citizens with higher levels of democratic consciousness. The rural-urban divide in voter type indicates that the possession of economic resources by rural grassroots governments helps mobilize rural loyalist voters to participate in village committee elections, whereas the lack of such resources by urban governments discourages regime loyalist but encourage democratic voters to turn out to vote in urban elections. Third, I find significant evidence that citizens who are aware of grassroots elections are less likely to engage in contentious activities such as protest, strikes or demonstrations. Yet, the awareness of elections also encourages citizens to more frequently adopt, shangfang (petition), a government-sponsored conflict resolution mechanism, than those who are not aware of such elections. The implications of these findings suggest that the capability of state in controlling resources is vital to the success or failure of elections in stabilizing authoritarian regimes. The findings also provide an assessment on the substantial influence of the rural and urban grassroots elections in China's subnational democratization.

Le premier chapitre de cette thèse, intitulé « Optimal Vote Buying » (co-écrit avec Leon Musolff, Princeton University) s’intéresse à la corruption de comités. Il s’agit d’une contribution théorique dans laquelle nous montrons qu’il est généralement peu onéreux de corrompre une large majorité de membres du comité. En effet, lorsque le comité est largement corrompu, les membres considèrent que l’option soutenue par celui qui corrompt le comité sera probablement plébiscitée. Aucun vote ne peut alors faire basculer l’élection et les membres du comité sont prêts à accepter un pot-de-vin modeste en échange de leur vote. Dans le deuxième chapitre (co-écrit avec Emeric Henry, Sciences Po) nous étudions les interactions entre le vote et les normes sociales. Nous analysons un modèle dans lequel un groupe choisit sa propre règle. Dans une première étape, chaque membre vote pour ou contre une règle. Une fois le règlement établi, les membres du groupes choisissent une action dont les conséquences dépendent de la règle choisie. Nous étudions comment le vote et le comportement ultérieur interagissent. Enfin, le dernier chapitre (co-écrit avec Etienne Fize) traite de l’impact du service militaire obligatoire en France sur les comportements politiques. Nous trouvons d’une part que les individus ayant fait leur service militaire sont plus enclins à voter. Pour les élections de 2012, nous estimons que l’effet est de l’ordre de 4 points de pourcentage pour les élections présidentielles et atteint les 9 points pour le second tour des élections législatives. Nous étudions également les conséquences sur les préférences politiques. Nous trouvons que les anciens conscrits sont plus à droite. / In the first chapter (« Optimal Vote Buying » coauthored with Leon Musolff, Princeton University), we analyze a vote buying problem. We show that bribing a supermajority can be cheaper due to pivotal considerations. When a large number of committee members receive a bribe, they do not expect to be pivotal in the election. As a result, it is sufficient to offer them a small amount of money in exchange for their vote. Due to this mechanism, it turns out that the vote buyer generally prefers to bribe a supermajority. In the second chapter (« Voting and contributing when the group is watching » coauthored with Emeric Henry, Sciences Po) we study the interaction between the way members vote on rules and their subsequent behaviors. This analysis applies to groups who choose their own rules and who care about their image. We study how players’ considerations depend on the visibility of the process. We show that multiple norms can emerge. We discuss the problem of a social planner and the implications for welfare. The last chapter (« Military service and political participation » coauthored with Etienne Fize) investigates the impact of the French military service on political behaviors. Exploiting the suspension of mandatory conscription for French men, we find a significant and positive impact of military service on turnout. This effect ranges from 3.6 percentage points for the first round of the presidential election of 2012 to 8.9 percentage points for the second round of the legislative elections. We also investigate the impact of conscription on political preferences and we find that former conscripts are significantly more nationalist and conservative.

L'économie politique est l'une des sous-disciplines de la littérature économique. Les économistes politiques étudient les effets des facteurs politiques sur les résultats économiques. Les institutions et l'influence de différentes structures institutionnelles sur les marchés sont parmi les principaux domaines de recherche de l'économie politique. Dans la littérature existante, le nombre d'analyses empiriques portant sur les déterminants des institutions est faible par rapport aux études qui se concentrent sur les effets des institutions sur les performances économiques. De plus, les analyses qui examinent l’impact de la culture, en particulier de la religion, sur les institutions sont rares. Sans aucun doute, la religion peut avoir des effets dramatiques sur les variables sociales et économiques. L’objectif de ce travail est donc d’examiner les effets de la religion et de la religiosité sur la corruption, le bonheur des individus et le comportement électoral. Nous contribuons à la littérature existante en fournissant de nouvelles preuves et en nous concentrant sur les pays non analysés dans les études précédentes. [...] / Political economy is one of the sub-diciplines of economics literature. Political economists investigate the effects of political factors on economic outcomes. Institutions and the influence of different institutional structures on markets are among the main research areas of political economy. In the existing literature, the number of empirical analyses which investigate the determinants of institutions is low in comparison to the studies that focus on the effects of institutions on economic performance. Moreover, the analyses which examine the impact of culture, specifically religion, on institutions are scarce. Without doubt, religion can have dramatic effects on social and economic variables. Hence, the aim of this work is to investigate the effects of religion and religiosity on corruption, individuals’ happiness and voting behaviour. We contribute to the existing literature by providing new evidence and by focusing on the countries which are not analysed in the previous studies. [...]

This study set out to answer how and to what extent the gendered effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are addressed in parliamentary debates in the Southern African regional context. As both the proportion of women in parliament and the level of democracy have been established by previous research as important conditions for women to be able to act for women as a group, four countries with varying combinations of these factors are examined. By conducting both a quantitative and a qualitative text analysis on Hansards from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, the study analyses the extent to which the gendered effects of the pandemic are addressed and how they are addressed respectively. The results reveal that a combination of a high proportion of women in parliament and a high degree of democracy is the most favourable condition for enabling the substantive representation of women. A democracy with a low proportion of women in parliament is shown to be more allowing for the substantive representation of women than an electoral autocracy with a high proportion of women in parliament. Moreover, the qualitative frame analysis sheds light on the different issues which are in focus on the framing of the gendered effects of the pandemic in different parliaments depending on their level of democracy. Particularly, the issue of gender-based violence in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic is found to have reached the political agenda in the democratic cases, whereas MPs in the less democratic parliaments are more likely to feminize their cause by focusing more on traditionally feminine policy issues such as the health effects of women within the context of the pandemic.

La CEDEAO est une organisation économique communautaire sous-régionale de l’Afrique de l’Ouest qui a été créée en 1975 dans un but purement économique. Lors de sa création, elle a observé le principe de la non-ingérence dans les affaires intérieures des Etats. Cependant, en 1993, lors de la révision de son traité, elle observe un changement radical de doctrine. En effet, indifférente des régimes politiques de ses Etats membres, elle s’ingère et cela de façon significative dans les affaires intérieures des Etats notamment dans la désignation des gouvernants, le fonctionnement des institutions internes et la protection des droits de l’homme. Ce qui a conduit l’organisation à se doter de moyens contre le changement anticonstitutionnel. L'organisation s’implique contre ce fléau dans le cadre de la sécurité collective sous-régionale. En effet, depuis la révision de son traité en 1993, elle observe avec une attention particulière, le fonctionnement des institutions internes de ses Etats, la dévolution du pouvoir et la protection des droits de l’homme. Cette thèse traite les moyens mis en place par l’organisation contre les changements anticonstitutionnels de pouvoir. Elle relève les avancées et les écueils, elle fait aussi des propositions d’amélioration. / The Economic Community of West-African States is a sub-regional organization that was created in 1975, initially with a purely economic purpose. Since its inception, the organization has observed a clear principle of non-interference in its member-states” internal affairs. But since then, the recrudescence of coups that affected political stability in various member-states and economic development for the sub-region, have led the organization to operate a change in its doctrine and missions. Indifferent to the political regimes of its member-states, and their effect on Human rights protection, ECOWAS has been increasingly involved in conflict prevention and anti- constitutional changes in power. For ECOWAS, coups fall under its mission to promote and preserve sub-regional collective security. Since the 1993 revision of the Lagos Treaty that saw its creation, ECOWAS pays close attention to the inner working of its member-states” institutions, the legality and constitutionality of power transfers as well as the protection of Human rights. This dissertation deals with the instruments developed by the sub-regional organization to prevent and counter anti- constitutional power transfers. It pays attention to the progresses made as well the tools missing from ECOWAS’ legal arsenal. At last, this dissertation offers a set of proposals designed to improve the organization’s capacity to prevent and respond to coups threatening its member- states political stability and the region’s security.

"Elections form a key component of democratic governance. Democracy denotes a political system that, among other things, allows citizens to freely choose their government over time through credible, legitimate and acceptable elections; a system which accords them adequate participation in national affairs and a system in which the national affairs are run in a transparent and accountable manner. Democracy as a concept rests upon the consideration that a political leadership in a country must be chosen through an electon governed by fair rules under which social groups and political forces may compete on equal terms. Research has shown that HIV and AIDS may have adverse effects on democracy in Southern Africa. Electoral systems, voter participation, electoral management and administration and political institutions are among the areas of democratisation most affected by HIV/AIDS. ... Chapter one introduces the topic, the research questions to be answered by the research and the research methodology. It also contains a brief literature survey of the research on this topic so far. Chapter two sets out the legal framweork, it gives an analysis of states obligations to ensure political participation based on international and regional standards. The rights of HIV/AIDS infected and affected persons to participate in government and the meaning of [the] right to vote is discussed. The application of the international law obligations to promote and fulfill [uman rights] are discussed and the question 'Do governments have a duty to set up special mechanisms to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic within the electoral context?' is answered. Chapter three is an examination of the relationship between HIV/AIDS and political participation. A brief overview of current electoral statistics and statistics of the trend of the HIV/AIDS pandemic are given. The chapter examines the possible reasons for lack of participation by HIV/AIDS infected and affected persons. Chapter four is a critical analysis of some responses that can be adopted to address the situation. It focuses on mechanical and structural reforms to the electoral process: amending electoral laws and policies to include postal, proxy and other special voting mechanisms; providing for specific legal obligations, for example to have mobile registration and polling stations, to ensure that there is a polling station within a specific distance so that people do not have to walk far and stand in long queues in order to vote. The failure to meet such obligations must have specific legal consequences. Chapter five suggests a more controversial reform of lowering the voting age to address the impact of HIV/AIDS on democracy and children. Chapter six [includes the] conclusion and recommendations." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2005. / Prepared under the supervision of Dr. Naz K. Modirzadeh at the Department of Law, American University in Cairo, Egypt / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

This diploma thesis aims to identify the possible causes of the success of pirate parties in Iceland and the Czech Republic. The success is defined as entering the national parliaments. This was failed by pirate parties in Sweden and Germany despite their popularity. Thus, the work examines four political parties and four countries in which these parties are located. The purpose of the analysis is to find out what makes the successful parties different from the unsuccessful ones or what the successful parties have in common. The analysis is based on testing and measuring the factors contributing to the initial success of the new political parties and to the ability of maintaining their popularity. The theoretical framework for the electoral success of pirate parties is measured by factors that are derived primarily from the theory of the rise of new challenger parties by Airo Hino and from the concept of the organizational strength of political parties by Margit Tavits. The framework is expanded with additional indicators proposed by the author. The basis of the tested groups of factors is composed of quantitative variables, that includes the institutional conditions, socio-economic conditions and political conditions of the systems in which the parties are located, as well as the strength of the...

This thesis explores the regional differentiation of electoral behaviour and other topics in electoral geography in the Czech Republic. Electoral geography, which studies the geographic aspects of the organisation, process, and results of elections, for a long time developed mainly in Western societies given the absence of free elections in other countries. It began to develop in the Czech Republic in the 1990s and its goal was to explore the process of the transformation of society and the stabilisation of democracy, to compare electoral patterns observed in conditions of stable liberal democracies with the patterns found in transforming states, and to adapt them to the specific conditions of transition countries. Electoral geography focuses mainly on the spatial variations of electoral behaviour. It seeks to determine whether different patterns of electoral behaviour are based on the social structure of the population in the region, whether they are influenced by contextual factors, or whether it is a combination of both. Another important subject studied by electoral geography is the spatial patterns of representation, which however are usually studied in majoritarian electoral systems. The thesis is composed of two basic sections. The first section offers a broader theoretical and...