This research report examined the implementation of villager self-governance in China, of which the election of village leader is the most distinct feature. Unlike previous studies of village self-governance, which focused on policy intentions of the Chinese leadership or the speculation of scholars about what may happen, this study attempted to examine whether or not the elections are competitive and what the consequences of self-governance are.

Este trabalho se volta à evolução do Partido dos Trabalhadores no estado de São Paulo. No contexto mais amplo do debate sobre partidos políticos, o PT sempre se apresentou como um contraponto nas abordagens sobre o sistema político brasileiro que, partindo de diferentes paradigmas teóricos, chegou sempre ao diagnóstico de que estas instituições estariam fadadas a serem organizações frágeis. Daí a análise do partido sob o ponto de vista da organização ser particularmente interessante. Serão observados os movimentos de expansão e retração da estrutura do partido para além do seu núcleo de origem a partir da base de filiados, do comportamento nas disputas no nível local e do desempenho nas eleições proporcionais. Todos esses aspectos se mostram relacionados no desenvolvimento da organização no estado onde nasceu. / This dissertation seeks to understand the evolution of the Workers Party (PT) in the state of São Paulo. In the broader context of the debate on political parties, the PT was always presented as a counterpoint in the approaches of the Brazilian political system that, starting from different theoretical paradigms, the researchers always concluded that these institutions were bound to be fragile organizations. Therefore, the analysis of the party from the point of view of its organization becomes particularly interesting. The movements of expansion and contraction of the partys structure will be observed considering not only the core founder who leads the party, but also based on its membership roster, its behavior in disputes at the local level and its performance in proportional elections. All these aspects are related to the development of the organization in the state that the party was born.

Cette thèse met en évidence la relation complexe entre l'AK Parti et l'UE, acteur important dans le cadre de la politique extérieure turque mais aussi dans l'existence même de l'AK Parti. Ce parti est arrivé au pouvoir en 2002 juste après sa création en 2001. Depuis lors, l'AK Parti a consolidé sa place et il est ainsi devenu sans conteste l'un des partis les plus importants et les plus forts de l'histoire de la vie politique turque. D'ailleurs, la politique européenne de la Turquie est un sujet qui attire toujours autant l'attention, et cela même à l'heure actuelle où elle n'est plus considérée comme l'axe central privilégié dans la politique extérieure turque et n'existe plus comme auparavant dans l'agenda de l'AK Parti. En effet, comme les négociations avec l'UE ont été entamées avec l'AK Parti, ce sujet retient beaucoup plus l'attention et est devenu un sujet intéressant à analyser car les dirigeants de l'AK Parti viennent de la tradition de la Vision Nationale. En faisant une lecture du parti et, plus précisément, du positionnement de ce dernier envers l'UE, nous avons cherché à comprendre la signification de l'UE et le rôle qu'elle a joué et qu'elle joue encore dans la vie du parti. En conduisant tout d'abord une comparaison entre les politiques européennes de l'AK Parti et celles des partis politiques de la Vision Nationale, notre objectif est de comprendre le positionnement de l'AK Parti dans le système politique turc. Puis, en analysant la vision de l'AK Parti vis-à-vis de l'UE durant les processus électoraux et les référendums, nous avons pu voir l'évolution des politiques européennes de l'AK Parti lors de chaque période électorale et également le niveau d'évolution de l'interaction entre les deux parties. Parallèlement, nous avons essayé de comprendre quelle place détient l'UE parmi les politiques étrangères de ce parti. Même si les politiques européennes ont été, comme pour toute l'histoire politique turque, un élément stable pour l'AK Parti, leur importance ou leur intensité a évolué avec le temps. Par conséquent, pour notre étude, nous avons considéré l'UE comme un acteur invariable, les élections et le temps comme des éléments variables. Cette recherche doctorale vise donc à démontrer le positionnement de l'AK Parti par rapport à l'UE et l'évolution de l'importance de l'UE pour ce dernier depuis sa création en 2001 et à analyser l'AK Parti via ses politiques européennes. / This thesis highlights the complex relationship between the AK Party and the EU, a major player which shapes Turkey's foreign policy and also ensures existence of the AK Party. The party came to power in 2002 just after its establishment in 2001. Since then, the AK Party has consolidated its position and of no doubt has become one of the biggest and the strongest parties in the history of Turkish politics. On the other hand the European policy of Turkey is a subject that still attracts considerable attention, even at the moment when it is no longer considered as privileged central axis of Turkish foreign policy and do not exists as before in the agenda of the AK Party. Indeed, since the negotiations with the EU have been initiated with the AK Party, this subject attracts much more attention and has become an interesting topic to analyze because the leaders of the AK Party came from the tradition of the `National Vision`. By reading of the party and more specifically by analyzing its EU policy, we sought to understand the meaning of the EU and the role it has played and still plays in the existence of the party. By conducting first a comparison between European policies of the political parties of the National Vision and the AK Party, our goal is to understand the positioning of the AK Party in the Turkish political system. Then, by analyzing the EU vision of the party during elections and referendums, we have noted the evolution of European policies of the party during each of those election periods and also the evolution of the level of interaction between two parties. Meanwhile, we tried to understand role of the EU within the scope of the foreign policies of the party. Even though the European policies were considered to be stable elements for the AK Party and Turkish political history, their importance and or intensity has evolved over time. For our study, we decided the EU as an invariable actor, and elections as well as time as variable elements. Therefore, this doctoral dissertation aims to show the position of the AK Party vis à vis the EU, the evolution of the importance of the EU for the latter since its creation in 2001 and lastly to analyze the European policies of the AK Party.

This research report examined the implementation of villager self-governance in China, of which the election of village leader is the most distinct feature. Unlike previous studies of village self-governance, which focused on policy intentions of the Chinese leadership or the speculation of scholars about what may happen, this study attempted to examine whether or not the elections are competitive and what the consequences of self-governance are.

Pourquoi semble-t-il impossible de se départir du département ? Comment fonctionne ce sparadrap institutionnel ? Partant du double constat de la longévité du Département et de sa résistance aux tentatives de réforme successives, ce travail de thèse s'intéresse aux (f)acteurs clés de l'apparente immuabilité départementale. Il considère successivement trois dimensions majeures de l'institutionnalisation et de la légitimation du Département (englobant non seulement le Conseil général mais aussi ses ramifications cantonales et nationales par le biais du cumul de mandats et de l'activité de lobbying accompli par l'Assemblée des Départements de France). Afin de saisir les modalités de la naturalisation de cette institution, il revient sur sa plasticité et son multipositionnement en abordant les apports complémentaires d'une (re)légitimation par l'élection (que celle-ci soit politisée ou non), d'une (re)légitimation par l'action publique (bien que celle-ci soit contrainte par les obligations émanant des compétences transférées et des attentes locales) et d'une (re)légitimation via le cumul des mandats et fonctions (qui trouve concrètement à s'exprimer lors des débats parlementaires consacrés à l'organisation territoriale française). Véritable carrefour des carrières politiques, le Département est et demeure ainsi un acteur majeur du paysage politique français, même si, paradoxalement, cela coïncide parfois avec une instrumentation de l'institution. / French departments are both long-lasting and reform-resistant institutions. This PhD thesis focuses on the key (f)actors involved in such an immutability. We successively consider three dimensions of the departmental legitimization and institutionalization. Such an institutional naturalization relies on electoral legitimization (with or without any kind of politicization), policy-based legitimization (even when most of departments competencies are compulsory) and multi-mandating ensuing legitimization (which is particularly obvious when decentralization bills are debated). Even though it is sometimes instrumented, the Département remains the cornerstone of political careers and still lies in the very core of the French political scene.

This paper aims to demystify, empirically, a statement widely shared in the political imaginary of the citizens of Santiago de Cali: candidates, who predominate in the popular sectors of the population, are the ones who win the elections for mayor («Aguablanca elects the mayor»). From an analysis with Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in their mode of fuzzy sets, it is shown that there are more complex scenarios of the electoral behavior in the elections for the municipal mayor in 2003, 2007 and 2011. Starting from this premise, from a«sociological perspective» it is proposed a classification of the strata of the city according to the pooled weighted average and candidate as elite/non elite, to analyze the electoral trends in terms of political preferences of each stratum. It also seeks to identify causal combinations that consents the election of a mayor, taking into account variables such as the profil elite/non elite of the candidates, levels of fragmentation in both segments of candidatures and finally, the dominance that each achieved in the different communes of the city. / El presente trabajo se propone desmitificar, empíricamente, un enunciado ampliamente compartido en el imaginario político de los ciudadanos de Santiago de Cali: los candidatos predominantes en los sectores populares son quienes ganarán las elecciones a la alcaldía («Aguablanca elige al alcalde»). A partir de un análisis realizado con Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), en su modalidad de conjuntos difusos, se muestra que existen escenarios sensiblemente más complejos del comportamiento electoral en los comicios para la alcaldía municipal en 2003, 2007 y 2011. Partiendo de esta premisa, desde una «perspectiva sociológica» del análisis electoral, se propone una clasificación de los estratos de la ciudad acorde a la media ponderada agrupada y de los candidatos como élite/no élite, para analizar las tendencias electorales en términos de expresión de preferencias políticas por parte de cada estrato. Asimismo, se busca identificar cuáles son las combinaciones causales que consienten la elección de un alcalde, teniendo en cuenta variables como: el perfil élite/no élite de los candidatos, los niveles de fragmentación existentes en ambos segmentos de candidaturas y, finalmente, el predominio que cada uno de ellos logran en las diferentes comunas de la ciudad.

La parité s’est enrichie d’une consolidation en 2013, avec l’abaissement du seuil pour son application aux communes de plus de 1000 habitants. L’étude de la sélection et des carrières des élu-e-s ruraux-ales des années 1970 à 2015, à partir du cas girondin, permet de saisir la manière dont l’espace des activités politiques est investi par les hommes et par les femmes et le rôle qu’y joue la nouvelle contrainte paritaire. À l’aide d’une méthodologie reposant à la fois sur des techniques qualitatives et quantitatives, cette thèse s’efforce de relier les transformations constatées dans la sélection du personnel politique des « petites » communes aux mutations des mondes ruraux contemporains. Elle se veut tout autant une contribution à la sociologie politique des espaces ruraux qu’à la sociologie du genre en politique. / The reform for equal representation of men and women started in 2000s has been consolidated in 2013 by lowering the threshold for an implementation in towns of more than 1’000 inhabitants. The study of political recruitment and political careers of local elected politicians in rural area from 1970 to 2015 in Gironde allows us to understand the political activities of men and women in a context of gender parity which became binding. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, this dissertation aims to connect the transformation of political recruitment in small towns with the changes of contemporary rural societies. It will thus contribute to the literature in both political sociology of rural societies and gender in politics.

Este trabalho se volta à evolução do Partido dos Trabalhadores no estado de São Paulo. No contexto mais amplo do debate sobre partidos políticos, o PT sempre se apresentou como um contraponto nas abordagens sobre o sistema político brasileiro que, partindo de diferentes paradigmas teóricos, chegou sempre ao diagnóstico de que estas instituições estariam fadadas a serem organizações frágeis. Daí a análise do partido sob o ponto de vista da organização ser particularmente interessante. Serão observados os movimentos de expansão e retração da estrutura do partido para além do seu núcleo de origem a partir da base de filiados, do comportamento nas disputas no nível local e do desempenho nas eleições proporcionais. Todos esses aspectos se mostram relacionados no desenvolvimento da organização no estado onde nasceu. / This dissertation seeks to understand the evolution of the Workers Party (PT) in the state of São Paulo. In the broader context of the debate on political parties, the PT was always presented as a counterpoint in the approaches of the Brazilian political system that, starting from different theoretical paradigms, the researchers always concluded that these institutions were bound to be fragile organizations. Therefore, the analysis of the party from the point of view of its organization becomes particularly interesting. The movements of expansion and contraction of the partys structure will be observed considering not only the core founder who leads the party, but also based on its membership roster, its behavior in disputes at the local level and its performance in proportional elections. All these aspects are related to the development of the organization in the state that the party was born.

States merge local governments to achieve economies of scale. Little is known to which extent mergers of county-sized local governments reduce expenditures, and influence political outcomes. I use the synthetic control method to identify the effect of mergers of large local governments in Germany (districts) on public expenditures. In 2008, the German state of Saxony reduced the number of districts from 22 to 10. Average district population increased substantially from 113,000 to 290,000 inhabitants. I construct a synthetic counterfactual from states that did not merge districts for years. The results do neither show reductions in total expenditures, nor in expenditures for administration, education, and social care. There seems to be no scale effects in jurisdictions of more than 100,000 inhabitants. By contrast, I find evidence that mergers decreased the number of candidates and voter turnout in district elections while vote shares for populist right-wing parties increased.

This thesis examines the meanings that residents of the township of Hooggenoeg (in Grahamstown, in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa) made of the election coverage in the Grocott’s Mail newspaper during 2011 municipal elections in South Africa. In addition, this study also sought to understand the particular set of ‘normative roles’ played by the paper, both with reference to the well-established body of theory about the normative roles of journalism in a democracy, and in terms of the paper’s own conceptualisation of its role in the functioning of local democracy. Grocott’s Mail, the oldest independent newspaper in South Africa, provided extensive pre-election coverage, which included producing and distributing an unprecedented free edition of the paper. The paper also facilitated a town hall debate in order to encourage residents to vote, and empower them to make a more informed choice about their vote. Three qualitative research methods, namely qualitative content analysis, focus group interviews, and individual interviews were used to examine the relationship between the content provided by the paper and the audience’s process of ‘making sense’ and deriving meaning from the content provided. The study concludes that Grocott’s attempt to encourage democratic culture in Grahamstown, in keeping with the more ‘facilitative’ normative roles that the local media can play, was only partially successful. Much of the election reporting subordinated the voices of the ordinary people, and privileged reporting that focussed narrowly on the voting process, and which foregrounded the views of political parties. Overall this coverage largely failed to resonate with the Grocott’s readers who live in Hooggenoeg (a largely ‘coloured’ area of Grahamstown), whose key concerns in terms of their daily life – such as poverty, unemployment, crime, lack of services – seemed, to them, unaddressed by this election coverage and, consequently, was not as engaging or convincing as the publishers/editors had hoped it would be. It can be also argued that Grocott’s narrow conceptualisation of democracy as entailing only public participation in electoral processes failed to cater for how audiences can be made aware of how they can participate in governance beyond the election period.