Thesis (M. A.), Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1999. / Bibliography: p. 177-195.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006.

Thesis (doctoral)--Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in München, 1990. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. [4-31] (2nd group)).

This thesis uncovers political culture in Northampton borough from 1768-1868 through the study of parliamentary elections. The thesis provides a comprehensive method of studying political culture at a local level. Northampton is an example of an 'open' pre-reform borough in which a large proportion of men were able to vote in parliamentary elections; pollbooks, political ephemera, newspapers and correspondence have been used to provide both a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the borough's elections. By analysing gender and space history alongside more traditional approaches to political history such as examining party politics, politicians and pollbook analysis, this thesis shows the importance of linking various methodologies to provide a complete picture of political culture. This study argues that the home was used as a political space during pre-reform elections due to election customs and the exchange of property. It shows the involvement of non-elite women in pre-reform elections through their role as homeowners and witnessses. By testing 'new political history' this study argues that the constituency was not solely constructed by politicians, and nor did it mirror national agenda: local political rhetoric was actually of a pragmatic nature, and shifted to suit the electorate and encompass common social terminology. This thesis argues that practical changes made by reforms of parliament facilitated ideological shifts and had unintended consequences. Finally, this thesis suggests that political culture must focus on the practicalities of politics at the local level.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

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...

This dissertation seeks to understand the distributive strategies of local politicians in India, a context in which a robust secret ballot is in place and villagers have information on the allocation of selective state benefits due to the high information context of village politics. Specifically, it seeks answers to three questions. Can local politicians in India identity voters' partisan preferences, which is a critical assumption of theory on clientelism in comparative politics? Does a context in which citizens have a great deal of information on the beneficiaries of programs implemented by local governments and villagers and politicians are personally tied to one another pose constraints on targeting strategies relative to work on clientelism, elite capture, and citizen candidate models that predict co ethnic targeting preferences? And do voters perceive that co partisanship vis a vis sarpanch affects their access to selective state benefits and services? To address these questions, I draw on a unique original survey of village council presidents (sarpanch) and citizens across 96 village council areas (gram panchayats) in Rajasthan, India. First, I argue that under a secret ballot, which voters overwhelmingly believe to protect the anonymity of their votes, the clientelistic logic that supports quid pro quo distributive politics does not hold. This has powerful implications for the role we should understand local leaders (who perform brokerage functions) to serve and whom we should expect sarpanch to target with antipoverty benefits implemented through the gram panchayat. I argue that if local politicians cannot identify the partisan preferences of uncertain voters, we should expect local politicians to target benefits in order to maintain their political constituencies, rather than pursuing a vote buying strategy to attract new supporters through a quid pro quo strategy. Second, I argue that the social and political context of the gram panchayat severely constrains sarpanch targeting behavior. In a context in which sarpanch and voters know each other and the latter can directly (or by rumor) observe who received visible and coveted selective benefits, and in which sarpanch and their kin are very likely to live in their village permanently, there is a powerful social cost to providing benefits to the non poor. At the same time, citizens accept that local elections have consequences, which means that some favoritism toward supporters, but not kinship or ethnic lines, is tolerated as long as the pro poor targeting norm is heeded. Finally, I check the validity of my argument on sarpanch distributive strategies by testing for the effect of co partisanship on voters' expectations of receiving selective benefits using a vignette experiment. I randomize partisan cues (Congress or BJP) based on prominent politicians identified by respondents themselves and find support for the claim that partisanship broadly affects access to state benefits. Empirically, I draw on a unique survey of sarpanch and voters across rural Rajasthan. The survey includes two behavioral measures that cross-reference voters within sarpanch surveys. I ask sarpanch to guess sampled voters' partisan preferences and ask them to allocate tokens across these individuals to affect a lottery with a cash prize. I also embed a survey experiment within the voter survey.

The race between Republican Cory Gardner and Democratic incumbent Betsy Markey for Colorado's 4th Congressional District was a partisan fight for political momentum. In the 2010 campaign cycle, Republicans looked to retake the historically Republican 4th District as part of a national strategy to win back the U.S. House, while Democrats tried desperately to hold on to both. Cory Gardner was only one of fifty-four Republican challengers to defeat a Democratic incumbent in 2010, but the Gardner-Markey race is particularly interesting as a case study of voter motivation and the mediating forces, both regional and national, that influence electoral success. Political commentators and staffers from both campaigns describe Markey's defeat as inevitable, but the same sources explain the election results from three different theoretical perspectives: (1) Betsy Markey was a poor fit for the district and never represented constituent interests, (2) Cory Gardner was the perfect candidate, and (3) Markey’s defeat was a result of the national political mood and a referendum on Democrats in Washington. This thesis analyzes and evaluates each of these theories, and concludes that a combination of the arguments and their evidence provides the most complete answer. While no single theory is the definitive reason that voters in the 4th District elected Cory Gardner, each contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the inevitability of Rep. Betsy Markey's defeat in 2010.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Riverside, 2009. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 160-169). Issued in print and online. Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Louisville, 2009. / Department of Urban and Public Affairs Vita. "May 2009." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-121).