Den 25 maj 2014 valde Sverige, likt resterande medlemsländer inom EU, parlamentariker till Europaparlamentet för perioden 2014-2019. Detta val tenderar att engagera långt färre väljare än nationella parlamentsval trots att det är ett av få reella verktyg en väljare har att påverka EU:s arbete och inriktning. Fenomenet kan exemplifieras med Sverige som i riksdagsvalet 2010 uppnådde ett valdeltagande på 84,63% av den röstberättigade befolkningen, men i valet till Europaparlamentet 2009 röstade endast 45.3%. Generellt i EU röstar 20 procentenheter färre i valet till Europaparlamentet. I och med valet 2004 föll det sammanlagda valdeltagandet till under 50 % för första gången. I boken ”What’s wrong with the European union & how to fix it” påvisar Simon Hix denna problematik och kallar Europaparlaments-valet ett ”second-order election”. Han menar att valet är underordnat de nationella valen. Hix problematiserar EU:s bristande legitimitet till Europas befolkning och påvisar ett demokratiskt underskott. Han skriver även att det existerar en allmän uppfattning att EU lider av ett stort underskott gällande demokratiska värden. Frågetecken kring EU:s demokratiska underskott väcktes ursprungligen av länder med en stark historia av demokratiska institutioner, exempelvis Sverige och Storbritannien. Frågan har dock på senare tid fått alltmer fokus även från andra länder. Ytterligare ett betydande problem är EU:s svårigheter att skapa kontakter och konkreta relationer till Europas befolkning. Stödet för EU har stadigt minskat, främst efter 90-talet. Som motåtgärder till detta har parlamentet getts mer makt och generellt fattas beslut numera med en större transparens än tidigare. Tanken är att öka medborgarnas förtroende, och känsla att kunna påverka ett EU som tidigare känts distanserat för vanliga människor. Hix presenterar en mängd olika faktorer för det lägre valdeltagandet i EU- valet. En av flera förklaringar kan vara bristen på socialt kapital. Skiftande kultur och en ansträngd gemensam historia kan antas göra det svårt att skapa ett starkt socialt kapital mellan EU:s medborgare och därmed forma en gemensam och stark europeisk identitet. Detta kan i sin tur påverka valdeltagandet till Europaparlamentet vilket undergräver EU:s demokratiska legitimitet. Robert Putnam har i sin forskning uppmärksammat ett minskande socialt kapital i USA. Kan en liknande utveckling skönjas inom EU med ett minskande valdeltagande till EU-valet som följd? Med bakgrund i EU:s bristande legitimitet, demokratiska underskott och de åtgärder om tagits för att åtgärda detta kan antas att EU:s medborgare tillvarar tar möjligheten att påverka vid valen till EU. Trots att parlamentet fått en mer framskjuten roll inom EU visar verkligheten att valdeltagandet fortsatt är lågt runt om i Europa. Medborgarnas rösträtt är den centrala symbolen för den västerländska demokratin. Alla människor ska ha samma makt, en röst, oberoende status och rikedom. Med bakgrund i tankar kring ett demokratiskt underskott inom EU behandlar uppsatsen vad som kan tänkas ligga bakom skillnaden mellan nationella val och valet till Europaparlamentet.

This article aims to analyse the theory of second order elections and its application in elections at the local level, both generally and specifically in the Czech Republic. At first it presents the theory of second order elections and the possibilities of its application. It also talks about the progress of the electoral system at local level, the impact of its revisions on outcomes of election and the position of political parties in elections at local level. Then it focuses on the testing of the theory of second order elections for local elections in the Czech Republic in 2002 and 2006. Generally it evaluates the results of these local elections and compares the theoretical preconditions with the outcomes. It also discuses the observed factors which have influence over theory-testing at the local level in the Czech Republic. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Diploma thesis "Aplication of Second order election theory on European election in Visegrad states" examines a theory of second-order election and aplicates it on European elections in the Visegrad states. Since this theory was build on election results in founding states of the EU and this theory was many times proved in western Europe, the main goal is to find out whether the election results of the Visegrad states concur with the theory of second- order election or not. In that case goal of this thesis will be to find out where and why there is differences. The thesis is divided into three parts. First theoretical part deals with all theories which were tried to explain different outcomes from different types of elections. Second part introduces our hypotheses and methodology by which we examine these hypotheses. Third part analyses the results of elections from selected countries. First four chapters of the third part deal with selected countries separately. Fifth chapter compares our results from the Visegrad states among them and then it compares these results with results from the countries of EU-15.

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka hur den politiska gestaltningen i de svenska dagstidningarna Dagens Nyheter och Svenska Dagbladet skiljer sig åt under olika tidsperioder och därmed vid de olika valen; Europaparlamentsvalet samt Svenskt Riksdagsval. Uppsatsen utgår från teorier om andrahandsval och vad det innebär samt teorier om mediegestaltning av politik och vilken roll det kan ha. Uppsatsen jämför Europaparlamentsvalet 2014 med Svenska Riksdagsvalet 2014 för att belysa skillnaderna mellan de två valen samt hur de gestaltas i nämnda dagstidningar. Vidare belyses läsaren om hur Europaparlamentsvalet har förändrats över tid genom en undersökning av perioden år 2003-2004 i syftet att uppmärksamma hur Europaparlamentsvalet som ägde rum år 2004 gestaltades och tolkades av samma svenska dagstidningar då som vid senare tidsperiod. Uppsatsen avslutar i att diskutera resultatet och gör försök att förklara Europaparlamentsvalet position idag samt i framtiden utifrån den empiri och de teorier om andrahandsval som uppsatsen utgick från.

Analysis of the TOP 09 Election Strategy in the Regional Elections 2012 - Region of Pardubice Diploma thesis "Analysis of the TOP 09 Election Strategy in the Regional Elections 2012 - Region of Pardubice" deals with the election campaign TOP 09 in the elections to the Assembly of the Pardubice Region in 2012. TOP 09 is a political party in the Czech political scene first appeared in 2009. Regional elections in 2012 for the political party represented the first major challenge since its entry into the Chamber of Deputies in 2010 and the opportunity to establish themselves at the regional level. The thesis examines the elections in the Pardubice region in terms of the theory of second-order elections. The research of this theory was made in terms of the first direct elections to the European Parliament in 1979. The aim of this thesis is to introduce the theory of second order elections and to analyze the election strategy of TOP 09 before the elections to the regional council in 2012 in Region of Pardubice. Based on this theory will be find out if it is possible to apply this theory on the election strategy of TOP 09 and if the election managers of TOP 09 reflect this theory or the election strategy is created independently on this phenomenon. Keywords The election to the Assembly of the Pardubice...

The aim of the thesis Applications of The Theory of Second-Order Elections to Elections in the Czech Republic is to answer the research question, whether is the theory fulfilled in the Czech Republic, through various hypotheses. The introduction introduces the intention of my research. The theoretical part deals with the original Theory of Second-order elections, which was introduced already in 1980 by authors Karlheinz Reif and Hermann Schmitt. During the next electoral cycles, the Theory of Second-order elections was more refined and reflected by other theoreticians, whose contribution is a source of inspiration for my theoretical part. Another major chapter presents the methodology and research design. This chapter defines hypotheses. The Thesis is trying to prove, or disprove the following hypotheses. Electoral participation in the case of Second-order elections is lower than in the case of the First-order elections. The Second-order elections tend to punish ruling parties. Political parties that currently govern, gets in case of Second-order elections less votes. Governmental parties lose the most electoral support in the middle of their term and it turns out the influence of the electoral cycle. Small political subjects have a greater chance of success during the Second-order elections than...

This study aims to investigate the policy focus of Swedish parties in the two most recent European Parliament elections through a quantitative content analysis of the parties' election manifestos. The method for this analysis has been inspired by the well-known Comparative Manifesto Project. The information made available through the method has been analyzed within the framework of relevant theories in the field, namely Second-order Election theory and Issue Ownership theory, to examine whether this policy focus aligns with expected outcomes. Descriptive statistics show significant changes between the elections; for example, the length of the election manifestos has more than doubled on average. Theoretically, the statistical results can be said to align with expected outcomes. Each party places a significant emphasis on the issues in which they already have established credibility, which is the expected outcome according to Issue Ownership research. However, one party stands out in this regard: the Liberals. This is likely due to a combination of the fact that education issues are largely not decided within the European Parliament, while the Liberals have ambitious goals to be the most pro-EU party. This combination potentially affects the Liberals' results in the European Parliament elections negatively, given Second-order Election theories that argue the connection to the national arena is crucial for achieving good election results. The issue of the environment and climate stands out in that all parties, except the Sweden Democrats, place a significant emphasis on it, despite many parties not having high credibility in this area. This contradicts both Issue Ownership theory and Second-order Election theory. Potentially, the cross-border nature of the environment and climate issue is starting to change what we think we know about the connection between national and the European election.

This thesis is dedicated to political campaigns in Central Bohemian Region and Liberec Region during regional elections what took place 7th and 8th of October 2016. Both of these regions were chosen as a sample which represents both nationwide parties but also local parties. The author processed vast amount of data, what was lately analyzed and compared. For the research was used content analysis, which enables to code clearly the entering data. Among the examined data were the election formations' election programs, candidate lists (respectively, the amount of local candidates within those candidate lists), election formations' propagation on the social medium Facebook, and a usage of a printed media during the campaign (respectively, how successful was the campaign communication and how different election formations used advertising). This diploma thesis is primarily based on second-order elections. Based on relevant literature were identified several contact points within the campaigns characteristic for this kind of elections. Thanks to a number of research questions, this diploma thesis answers the main aim, which is, if those election formations approached those elections as the second-order elections.

Annotation1 This diploma thesis aims on the migration as a topic of regional election in 2016. This topic became resonating in Czech environment and appeared at several political subjects across the political spectrum. The author focuses on four regions in this thesis: South-Moravian, Moravian-Silesian, Plzeň region and Ústecký region. In respect of these territorial units the author aims on topic of migration, considering election 2016 as well as 2012, in order to clarify if the topic of migration is entirely new or it has already shown up in the czech political environment in previous election. The author aims on the first and second order election problematics in the the2 sis and also studies the role of the party's center and periphery in the regional election 2016 and 2012 in the territorial units mentioned above respectively.The author supports the research with a survey. The thesis consists of two levels. First is teoretical part, where the author defines the concept of migration, its kinds, etc. The author also explaines the theory of first and second order election. Following practical part operates with individual political programs, articles and election results. Main goal of the thesis is to answer the question if the migration was one of the main topics of regional election 2016. Another goal...

This diploma thesis aims on the migration as one of topics relevant in the regional election in 2016. This topic became resonating in Czech environment and appeared to be a theme for several political subjects across whole political spectrum. The author of this thesis focuses on four regions: South-Moravian and Moravian-Silesian regions, Plzeň region and Ústí region. In respect of these territorial units the author aims on topic of migration as itself, considering not only election 2016 but also the 2012 poll, in order to clarify if the migration topic is entirely new or if it has already shown up in the Czech political environment in previous elections. The author aims on the first and second order election problematics in the thesis and also analysis the role of parties' centers and periphery in the regional election of the years 2016 and 2012 in the territorial units mentioned above respectively. The author supports the research with a survey. The thesis consists of two parts. First part is theoretical one, where the author defines the concept of migration, kinds of migration, etc. The author also explains the theory of first and second order election. After the theoretical part, it is followed by a practical part operating with individual political programs, articles and election results. Main...