in English The aim of this thesis is to explain the institutional setting of the political system of Greater Prague (polity) - especially the electoral system and institutional structures - and then in this located space realize real encounters and cooperation of political parties (politics). Working in its first chapter deals with the identification, evaluation or sources from which it is based. The second chapter briefly depicts the development of public administration in Prague and the creation of Greater Prague in 1922. In the third chapter, there are defined authorities, where the Prague municipal affairs usually took place, and their competence. The fourth chapter explains the functioning of the electoral system, which was an important determinant of the form of the party system. The electoral system with highly proportional effects allowed representation of number of parties (mainly arising from the cleavages in the society). The most powerful political parties, operating in the central council, are briefly introduced, including their prominent protagonists of the Prague City Hall. In the extensive sixth chapter, the results of municipal elections from the years 1923- 1938 are compared in time and space of the city. The observed territorial differences of electoral support are cartographic...

The master's thesis "Direct election of mayors in the European experience" is dealing with the direct election of mayors, which is being used in more than a half of the European countries. The focus of the thesis is the trend and the impacts of the direct election of mayors. The purpose is to find out, if the direct election of mayors causes an increase in the voter's turnout, if there are cases of divided majorities under the direct election of mayors and if those are causing issues with the system functioning. Lastly, if the direct election of mayors is a trend which is going to spread into further countries. The first theoretical part deals with the phenomenon of the direct election of mayors, the leadership theories at the local level, typologies of local systems and brings a theoretical basis for the analysis of the voter turnout and divided majorities. The second part contains an overview of the European countries according to the direct or indirect method of voting for their mayors and also case studies of chosen countries. In the cases of England, Norway, Croatia, Poland, Italy, Austria and Germany the voter turnout, the frequency of divided majorities and the functioning of a system under divided majorities is analyzed. The analysis is based on the primary primary data, existing research and the...

京都大学 / 新制・論文博士 / 博士(地域研究) / 乙第13549号 / 論地博第32号 / 新制||地||123(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院法学研究科 / (主査)教授 玉田 芳史, 教授 岡本 正明, 准教授 中西 嘉宏 / 学位規則第4条第2項該当 / Doctor of Area Studies / Kyoto University / DGAM

No description available.

To what extent do unexpected, apolitical events affect governors’ popularity? Individuals’ attitudes towards government are often random, and executives at both the state-level and national-level are held accountable for events that they have little control over. In this study, I seek to understand how these unplanned events affect support for elected officials. Specifically, I examine the effect of the declaration of a State of Emergency on gubernatorial approval. I use an ordinary least squares (OLS) model and data from FEMA as well as the United States Officials Job Approval Ratings dataset to answer such questions. The results indicate that not only do natural and manmade disasters NOT have a negative effect on governors’ popularity, there is actually no correlation between the two variables at all. Instead, I find that relative to one another, major disaster declarations have a stronger negative effect on a governor’s approval ratings than emergency declarations. Though surprising, I suggest that these disasters simply do not affect enough individuals for a long enough time to have an impact on gubernatorial popularity.

This thesis is the first systematic history of the Geelong Regional Commission (GRC), and only the second history of a regional development organisation formed as a result of the growth centres policy of the Commonwealth Labor Government in the first half of the 1970s. In particular, the thesis examines the historical performance of the GRC from the time of its establishment in August 1977 to its abolition in May 1993. The GRC Commissioners were subject to ongoing criticism by some elements of the region's political, business, rural and local government sectors. This criticism focused on the Commissioners' policies on land-use planning, their interventionist stance on industrial land development, major projects and industry protection and their activities in revitalising the Geelong central business district. This thesis examines these criticisms in the light of the Commission's overall performance. This thesis found that, as a statutory authority of the Victorian Government, the GRC was successful over its lifetime, when measured against the requirements of the Geelong Regional Commission Act, the Commission's corporate planning objectives and performance indicators, the corporate performance standards of private enterprise in the late 1990s, and the performance indicator standards of today's regional economic development organisations in the United States of America, parts of the United Kingdom and Australia. With the change of Government in Victoria in October 1992 came a new approach to regional development. The new Government enacted legislation to amalgamate six of the nine local government councils of the Geelong region and returned regional planning responsibilities to the newly formed City of Greater Geelong Council. The new Government also made economic development a major objective of local government. As a result, the raison d'etre for the GRC came to an end and the organisation was abolished.

The residents of Union City, NJ— a 1.2 square mile metropolis across the Hudson from Manhattan—are fond of taking to the task of adorning their city streets on their own. In the business sector of the city (that is to say, most of it) the business owners garnish their windows with red, white, and blue, and more often than not their decoration is accompanied by the uncomfortably warm smile of a middle-aged bespectacled Irish man. The man, so comically out of place in the majority Spanish-speaking, 82.3% Latino city, is referred to interchangeably as Mayor and State Senator Brian P. Stack. On the city’s border is official proof of his status on the “Welcome to Union City” sign, mirrored by its North Bergen, NJ counterpart and the name Nicholas Sacco: mayor, state senator, assistant superintendent of North Bergen schools, and principal of Horace Mann Elementary. For decades, New Jersey politicians have viewed multiple office holding as an integral part of the urban power structure. To rise up in the totem pole, one must collect public office jobs until rising to one high enough to stand on its own. While not particularly common in the less populated areas of the state, urban centers like the aforementioned Hudson County, Newark, and Camden have a tradition of sending their leaders off to Trenton without making them relinquish their jobs at home. And yet it was these very state legislators that passed a ban on the practice into law in February 2008. Supported by senator-turned-governor Jon Corzine, the ban passed with the support of political leaders like Stack and Sacco. On paper and in the pages of the New York Times it read like a rare and barely believable victory for political morality in what longtime NJ political journalists Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure call “The Soprano State”. If it sounded barely believable, it is probably because in practice it was not. A grandfather clause in the law keeps those currently in two positions of power safe from the wrath of the law. And since elections were held in between the passing of the law and the enacting of it, there are actually more dual office holders in the Legislature today than there were when the law was passed according to state newspaper the Star Ledger. This study intends answer several questions regarding the phenomenon of multiple office holding and its sudden “extinction” in New Jersey. I hypothesize that the introduction of such a law was merely cashing in on a long-standing bit of political credit that, due to the highly salient role of the practice in building machines, could not be touched. As the number of political bosses engaging in this practice diminished, and as the need to hold various offices lessened because of an increase in income and power from other sources, dual office holding became an obsolete relic of the 1990s political machine structures. Thus it became feasible to ban the practice with a grandfather clause for those that had established themselves through this old system, with much credit in the field of ethics to be gained by all involved—every dual office holder, legislator, and the governor himself. On a micro level, it aspires to investigate why early 2008 was an opportune time for such a law and where this grandfather clause arouse from and why. Although the tradition has existed previously in less populated areas of New Jersey, especially in the 1940s, at some point (peaking in the 1990s) dual office holding became an essential component in the structure of an urban political machine. On a macro level, this study seeks to explain the place of such a practice in the creation and maintenance of the traditional urban political machine, a structure with a lush history in New Jersey that is still alive and kicking today. It attempts to begin a dialogue with existing literature on urban politics centered around the practice of dual office holding. To do this, the study needs to paint as vivid a portrait as possible of the modern urban political machine, its bosses, and every gear that moves its structure. For this it will heavily rely on literature describing the initial development of political machines of Tammany Hall and similar structures around the country, paying especial attention to the impact of immigration, given that preliminary research is showing a pronounced impact on the system from the wave of Latino immigrants beginning with the rise of the Cuban Revolution in 1958. This new wave of immigrants appears to have jump-started the machines and replenished them with an entire new wave of fodder ready to be introduced to the patronage system post-naturalization (a matter of five years’ time). Of particular note in this body of urban political research is Steven Erie’s Rainbow’s End, which I have discovered to be the definitive work in the field of immigration and its impact on urban political machines. Working with this broad field of urban politics in mind, I also intend on illustrating in detail the specific political machine structures of the three largest urban communities in New Jersey: Newark, Camden, and the general Hudson County area (as the cities of Hudson County tend to be about 1-2 square miles in area excepting Jersey City, there is little that distinguishes one from another culturally and politically). In order to do this, I must work with data specific to the state, beginning with a database of multiple office holders over time. I have constructed this database over the course of several decades and am currently developing it in the 1930s using biographical sketches in the New Jersey Legislative Manuals published yearly in the New Jersey State Archives of Trenton. Unfortunately, this means that my research is limited to multiple office holders who have one job in the state legislature, but as all signs point to most dual office holders preferring to have a state and local job rather than two of either, I do not believe this will seriously hinder my research. Supplementary research will also come from personal stories, which I plan on gathering from interviews with those deeply involved in urban politics. The study will include interviews with multiple office holders from these regions themselves, as well as those close to them—journalists, chiefs of staff, and those receiving patronage and practicing loyalty to the leaders. The goal of this study is to shed some light on the dark, backroom world of urban politics through the lens of this one common practice among the machine leaders. This one practice, currently a topic of much controversy due to this recent law, could very well be the key to understanding the development of machines, their power over citizens and their ability to maintain themselves over such extended periods of time.

This study focused on how local politicians in Kalmar perceive journalists and their intertwined relationship. We based our study on the theoretical understanding of today’s media-centric democratic society. The ‘adversary model’ offered an understanding of the intricate relations between politicians and journalists. The relationship builds on constant trade where both parties are dependent on each other. Politicians exchange information to gain attention in the media. Journalists needs politicians as important sources of information and have the power to control the exposure that politicians get in the public eye. This study was researched and conducted through qualitative interviews with local politicians. We found that experienced politicians have developed an understanding for journalistic work and that it is important to have a good relationship to reach out to their constituency. This professional relationship has to be kept at arm’s length as it otherwise risks to become too muddled. We learned that politicians are well aware of the need to adapt to media conditions – there were, however, examples of breakdowns in this precarious relationship. The politicians in our study delivered several examples of how media adaptation is managed, e g how press conferences are scheduled according to media deadlines and are held at suitable locations so that photographers can get good pictures. Trust appeared to be the crucial condition for a rewarding relationship. Every politician in our study agreed that it is all a question of trust.

No description available.

<p>This study focused on how local politicians in Kalmar perceive journalists and their intertwined relationship. We based our study on the theoretical understanding of today’s media-centric democratic society. The ‘adversary model’ offered an understanding of the intricate relations between politicians and journalists. The relationship builds on constant trade where both parties are dependent on each other. Politicians exchange information to gain attention in the media. Journalists needs politicians as important sources of information and have the power to control the exposure that politicians get in the public eye. This study was researched and conducted through qualitative interviews with local politicians.</p><p>We found that experienced politicians have developed an understanding for journalistic work and that it is important to have a good relationship to reach out to their constituency. This professional relationship has to be kept at arm’s length as it otherwise risks to become too muddled. We learned that politicians are well aware of the need to adapt to media conditions – there were, however, examples of breakdowns in this precarious relationship.</p><p>The politicians in our study delivered several examples of how media adaptation is managed, e g how press conferences are scheduled according to media deadlines and are held at suitable locations so that photographers can get good pictures. Trust appeared to be the crucial condition for a rewarding relationship. Every politician in our study agreed that it is all a question of trust.</p>