This diploma thesis focuses on political-business cycle which is a theme frequently omitted in discussions about economic situation in the Czech Republic. Theoretical part of the work will provide readers with the topic of political-business cycle and its basic models which will serve as a support to the statistical research in the analytical part. Is fiscal policy in hands of Czech politicians an efficient tool to manipulate voters? The aim of the work is to answer this question and thus give a detailed look of political-business cycle on example of four regular electoral periods of Czech Parliament. To reach the goal of diploma thesis, we used regressive analysis to examine hypothesis if the date of elections influences certain folders of income and expenses of government budget. This hypothesis was not accepted on the significance level of 5 per cent. The reasons are mainly short time series of tested indicators.

Because of contemporary unsatisfactory political situation in the Czech Republic, caused by presence of widespread corruption networks, many civic initiatives have been established to improve the status quo. This diploma thesis describes two NGO's, which focus on electoral system change of the lower chamber of the parliament of the Czech Republic. These organizations are Přímá volba poslanců 2014 (Direct election of Members of Parliament 2014) and electoral reform of Karel Janeček which is promoted by NGO Pozitivní evoluce (Positive evolution). The thesis is a comparative case study of these two organizations. The main goal is to do complex analysis of these two organizations, and identify interests, which lead them to pursue the electoral system change. Furthermore, basic effects of electoral systems and their changes are described. One of the chapters describes the development of the debate over the electoral system change in the past 20 years and mentions the attitude of contemporary political parties and their representatives to electoral system reform.

A pesquisa teve como proposta uma etnografia das eleições municipais de 2008 em região central do estado do Maranhão, exposta através da campanha política de uma candidata a vereadora, que teve como foco a obtenção do voto dos eleitores indígenas, da população Tenetehara, residentes na TI Cana Brava. Certas divisões internas a esta população tiveram influência direta sobre as definições de candidatos, estratégias de alianças junto a essa população indígena e, consequentemente, no resultado final das urnas. A narrativa da dissertação de mestrado pretende explicitar as divisões da população Tenetehara desse local; apresentar os atores envolvidos no período eleitoral (políticos, lideranças Tenetehara, cabos eleitorais) e seus respectivos papéis no cenário político-eleitoral local; detalhar os eventos, estratégias e negociações da campanha política. / The research took as purpose a ethnography of the municipality election of 2008 in the central region of Maranhao State, reported though the political campaign of a council-woman, which focused obtaining votes from indigenous electors, from the Tenetehara population, residing in the Cana Brava indigenous land. Certain internal segments of that population had direct influence on candidates definitions, alliance strategies among that indigenous population, and, thus, on the very elections results. The narrative of this masters degree essay aims specifying the segments of the local Tenetehara population; to present the actors involved in the electoral period (politicians, Tenetehara community leaders, canvassers) and their respective roles on the political-electoral local scenario; and, to detail the events, strategies, and negotiations of the electoral campaign.

Esta pesquisa consiste em um Estudo de Caso realizado nas eleições municipais de 2012 em São Paulo, no qual explorei a dinâmica eleitoral por dentro de uma igreja evangélica pentecostal que pertence à denominação Assembleia de Deus, em um de seus principais segmentos o ministério Belém. A investigação se deu tanto no plano da instituição religiosa em questão, quanto no plano dos seus fiéis. Na dimensão institucional, procurei observar os discursos, estratégias e práticas da igreja em questão no momento eleitoral. Na dimensão dos fiéis, procurei entender como essas pessoas estruturam suas visões de mundo e as traduzem no momento do voto, levando em consideração os estímulos da Igreja, mas também as dimensões socioeconômicas em jogo no pleito eleitoral de 2012 em São Paulo. A observação aqui realizada abrangeu tanto o plano eleitoral proporcional quanto o majoritário. Tal abordagem teve como objetivo a investigação ampla da dinâmica eleitoral nesse espaço e nesse pleito específico. A investigação encontrou diferentes tipos e intensidades de engajamento da instituição religiosa entre o plano proporcional e majoritário. Entre os fiéis, encontrei forte apoio, oriundo dos sentimentos de pertencimento e comunidade característicos da sociabilidade religiosa, à candidata promovida pela instituição no plano proporcional. No plano majoritário, o debate de pautas socioeconômicas se fez mais presente, fazendo com que um grupo de fiéis renegassem a indicação da igreja. / This research analyses the electoral dynamic within a pentecostal church of the denomination Assembly of God, in one of its main ministries, the ministry of Belém. The investigation approached both institutional and membership levels. In the institutional dimension, I analyzed the speeches, strategies and practices of the church in the electoral period. In memberships dimension, I analyzed the shaping of the points of views and them effects in the electoral level, considering the influence of the church and also socioeconomics issues. The observation conducted covered both proportional and majoritarian levels, aiming the broad investigation of the electoral dynamic in this specific place and electoral process. This investigation founds different kinds and intensities of the institution in the proportional and majoritarian levels. In membership dimension, I found a strong support to the candidate promoted by the church in the proportional level, deriving of the communitarians ties of the religious sociability. In the majoritarian level, the discussion of the socioeconomic issues was more present, and a part of the members disagreed with the indication of the church.

Esta pesquisa traz 3 estudos independentes, sobre temas ligados às questões do que é nacionalização partidária e como nacionalização, regionalização e localismo são afetados por e afetam os sistemas eleitorais e partidários. Mais especificamente, no capítulo 1 proponho uma nova definição teórica de nacionalização dos partidos e sistemas partidários. Argumento que tal conceito pode ser dividido em 4 dimensões, que são a nacionalização da organização partidária, da oferta eleitoral, da demanda eleitoral e dos resultados eleitorais. Em seguida, aplico esse quadro teórico ao caso brasileiro para mostrar como, de fato, maior precisão conceitual altera a leitura empírica que se faz de um sistema. No capítulo 2, exploro uma das consequências da nacionalização partidária, que vem sendo teorizada pela literatura mas nunca testada de modo direto. Trata-se da ideia de que nacionalização seria o que conecta as circunscrições eleitorais e faz as proposições de Duverger passarem do nível local ao nacional. Para testar isso, incluirei nacionalização dos sistemas partidários pela primeira vez num modelo de número de partidos - aptos lidar com problemas de endogeneidade que vêm impedindo autores de fazerem isso. Assim, será possível provar e demonstrar que a não inclusão de nacionalização vem causando viés de variável omitida nos modelos da literatura. Quando esse é corrigo, através da inclusão de nacionalização por um sistema de equações simultâneas, altera-se algumas das interpretações canônicas sobre a fragmentação partidária. Por fim, no capítulo 3 reavalio a ideia comum de que sistemas eleitorais com voto pessoal levariam candidatos a ter apoio eleitoral geograficamente concentrado, portanto localista. Ofereço uma discussão teórica e evidências de que tal padrão territorial não é a regra do que vem ocorrendo, por exemplo, em sistemas de lista aberta. Além disso, tanto concentrar votos como espalhá-los vem dando dividendos eleitorais e poucos candidatos conseguem atingir patamares altos de concentração, a um nível que prediga real aumento nas chances de eleição. / This research oers 3 independent studies on the questions of what is party nationalization, how nationalization, regionalization or localism are aected by and aect the electoral systems and the party systems. More specically, in the 1st chapter a new theoretical denition of party and party system nationalization is presented, dividing such concept into four dimensions - the nationalization of party organization, of the electoral supply, of the electoral demand and of the electoral outcome. After that, such a theoretical framework is applied to the Brazilian case to demonstrate how, in fact, more conceptual precision can alter empirical readings about a given party system. The 2nd chapter explores one of the consequences of party system nationalization, which literature has theorized but never tested directly. Namely, the idea that party nationalization would be what puts the electoral circumscriptions together and what makes Duvergerian propositions move from the local to the national level. To test that, party system nationalization is included for the rst time in a model of eective number of parties, after handling endogeneity problems that have prevented scholars from doing the same. With such inclusion, it will be proven and demonstrated that omitting party nationalization from models of number of parties, which is a common practice, incurs in omitted variable bias. In fact, such correct inclusion of party nationalization trough a system of simultaneous equations corrects that bias, altering some of the canonical interpretations about party system fragmentation. Lastly, in the 3rd chapter I reevaluate the common idea that electoral systems with personal voting would lead to geographical concentration (i.e. localization) of candidates\' electoral support. I oer a theoretical discussion and then empirical evidence that such territorial pattern is not the rule of what happens for instance in open-list PR. Besides, both concentrating and spreading votes are electorally protable results and very few candidates achieve levels of concentration that predicts eective increases in the odds of being elected.

This thesis briefly reviews the content of Article II, section 1 of the Constitution which established the Electoral College (modified by Amendment XII), and the principel reform plans that have developed over the years. The reform efforts are examined, together with their possible effects on the entire political system.

There were two great ambitions in the life of Alonso S. Perales: the first was to help his people, the Mexican-Americans; the second was to help all of mankind. To pursue this first ambition, Perales became very active as a major political leader who supported civil rights and the abolishment of racial discrimination. Many viewed him as a defender of la raza (the Mexican-American race) and one of the most influential Mexican-Americans of his time. As such, Perales devoted most of his work to defending Mexican-Americans and battling charges that Mexicans were an inferior people and a social problem. He participated in various Civil Rights organizations and was one of the founders of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). This author argues that without Perales’ involvement, LULAC would have never existed. This work solely focuses on Perales’ life from the late 1920s to the early 1930s. It begins by examining Perales’ roots and his first involvement with Mexican-American civil rights. It then covers his role in the origin of LULAC, specifically its predecessor organization, the League of Latin American Citizens. Furthermore, this work explores Perales’ involvement in the defeat of the 1930 Box Bill and his role in the American electoral missions in Nicaragua between 1928 and 1932. Lastly, this work examines why LULAC has forgotten Perales. The main goal is to shed light on this often neglected aspect of Mexican-American history and hopefully to bring forth the importance and impact that Perales’ work had on la raza not only in Texas but nationwide.

This master's thesis is dedicated to the issue of populism in politics. It has been designed as an exploration of the discourse of this phenomenon during the 2020 United States presidential elections. The goal of the thesis was to identify, describe and compare usage of populist elements by both main presidential candidates. Theory of Cas Mudde was chosen as the foundation. Theoretical part is split into two chapters which are devoted to the topics of populism and context of the American society. These segments introduce and define core concepts that will be subsequently used. Practical part is divided into two chapters as well. Initially, we present various aspects of the methodology of our qualitative research. It is based on the analysis of two presidential debates conducted through discursive-historical approach of critical discursive analysis. Henceforth, the following section is focused on the analysis and interpretation of acquired data. The output of this process is the exploration of the discourse as well as description and contrasting of populist tendencies of Joe Biden and Donald Trump. The analysis has shown presence of populist elements in both campaigns. Specifically, Biden's conception of the people is predominantly populist, whereas his approach towards elites and the will of the...

The thesis "The Developement of the Electoral System in Estonia and it's Influence on the Party System between the Years 1990 and 2007" deals, after the first chapter about the theoretical attitudes to the influence of the electoral systems on the party systems, with the, firstly historical background of this interwar, independent, and democratic baltic state. The following chapters drala with the changes on the electoral rules in Estonia since 1990 and first of all about the influence of these changes on the stability of a party system and government.

This master´s thesis deals with application of guerrilla marketing at the election campaign. The first part contains the theoretical basis, which explain the marketing communication, current trends in marketing communications and define the concept of guerilla marketing, including establishment of this marketing trend. The practical part at first analyse a real election campaign, at the development and application I have participated. The campaign took place before the municipal elections in Humpolec in the autumn 2014. Then the work continues by a questionnaire survey, where I want to examine the knowledge of the term guerilla marketing to the general public, including opinion on a particular campaign, which took place in the city. In conclusion, I included proposals to improve the campaign for its next use.