The objective of this study is to assess the problems associated with how the people of Mozambique participate in the exercise of political power, through election of parliamentary representatives. This study also aims at suggesting alternatives to improve the system in order to make it more inclusive. Focus is placed on demonstrating how democratic principles may fall short as a result of inadequate electoral standards. To achieve these objectives the study makes a comparative study of the Ghanaian electoral system, for its specific significance in promoting effective and meaningful participation in the exercise of political power. Addresses the following research questions: (1) What features characterise parliamentary elections in Mozambique? (2) What weaknesses are there in the system of parliamentary elections in Mozambique? (3) What consequences arise from such a system? (4) How to improve the system for election of parliament in Mozambique? / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Dr Josiah Aryeh of the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana, Legon / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

The resort to coalition governments following the disputed presidential elections in Kenya and Zimbabwe pioneers a new trend in unlocking political gridlock in Africa. This dissertation analyses this trend with a view to establishing its viability in guaranteeing sustainable peace and democracy. It is argued that the resort establishes a precedent in which incumbent presidents, upon losing elections, may refuse to vacate office in the hope that a power sharing agreement will be negotiated with opposition leaders. Concludes that while the resort to coalition government in the aftermath of a disputed election and electoral violence may rescue a country from disintegration, it is not a guarantee to sustainable peace and democracy / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2008. / Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Prof. Nico Steytler, Faculty of Law, University of Western Cape, South Africa / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Most African states emerged from shadows and made a transition from mono-party, one-person and military rule towards political pluralism and multi-party democratic governance in 1990s. One of the key ingredients of this transformation is the holding of regular elections and electoral systems that undergird the electoral process itself. However still, most African states practice what is referred to as shallow democracy as opposed to deeper democracy that requires full participation of citizens and accountability. Shallow democracy is the democracy that has not made any positive impacts to the ordinary people despite the radical changes to the constitution and expansion of part activity. / Prepared under the supervision of Mr Paulo Comoane at the Faculty of Law, Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2011. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / nf2012 / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Memoria (licenciado en ciencias jurídicas y sociales) / Si bien se han suscitado en el último tiempo varias discusiones en torno al sistema electoral chileno -que incluso originaron determinadas reformas legales tales como la inscripción automática de los ciudadanos en el Registro Electoral, la voluntariedad del voto y la implementación de mecanismos para ejercer el derecho de sufragio desde el extranjero-, poco se ha discutido respecto de un grupo amplio de personas que se ven restringidas de ejercer su derecho constitucional de sufragio: las personas privadas de libertad en establecimientos penitenciarios. En este trabajo pretendemos abarcar la situación actual del derecho de sufragio de este grupo de individuos, distinguiendo la situación de aquellos ciudadanos que se ven impedidos de ejercer el derecho de sufragio que detentan, de quienes se ven impedidos porque la Constitución Política de la República de Chile les suspende tal derecho y de quienes pierden su calidad de ciudadano de conformidad con lo establecido en la Constitución Política y consecuencialmente, pierden su derecho de sufragio. Sostendremos que ambas situaciones deben ser urgentemente revisadas por el Estado de Chile para tomar las medidas pertinentes en orden a, por un lado, velar porque aquellas personas que detentan el derecho constitucional de sufragio efectivamente puedan ejercerlo, no obstante privados de libertad en establecimientos penitenciarios, y, por otro lado, acabar con la exclusión de la democracia y la ciudadanía que se ha plasmado en grupos vulnerables.

This Master's thesis looks into the phenomenon of party identification and explores various factors that play a role in the emergence, development and decline of partisanship. It follows and compares the changing levels of party identification in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands from the 1960s to the present day and strives to determine the causes and effects of this process. It is widely accepted that declining party identification is linked to increasing electoral volatility. This thesis draws upon a range of range of theoretical works in the field of electoral behaviour. It utilizes findings of an original small scale research among the British and Dutch voters as well as established election studies.

Orientador: Maria Teresa Miceli Kerbauy / Resumo: Situada na costa ocidental da África, a Guiné-Bissau entra na onda democrática a partir de 1994, com a realização da primeira eleição livre e transparente após mais de 20 anos sob a governança de um partido único. Com a democracia em curso, a Guiné-Bissau conheceu vários períodos de instabilidade política governativa que impossibilitou o término dos mandatos ou legislaturas. De outro lado, a instabilidade inviabilizou a realização de objetivos de desenvolvimento e redução de pobreza. Nesse contexto político e social marcado por disputas políticas, a participação, seja em canais de decisão ou do ponto de vista de comparecimento às votações tendem a ser prejudicadas. É, nesse sentido, que o objetivo deste estudo é analisar o comportamento da participação eleitoral no período de 1994, com a realização da primeira eleição geral, a de 2014. De modo que o foco principal da análise está centrado nas eleições para o cargo de Presidente da República e para o Legislativo. Esse objetivo justifica-se pela importância do fenômeno da participação eleitoral, dentro da jovem democracia guineense, para a consolidação de um sistema representativo multipartidário. Para consecução do objetivo foram adotadas referências teóricas sobre democracia representativa e neoinstitucionalismo, sistemas partidários e eleitorais. Por ser importante o período da transição política guineense, o estudo enfatiza o contexto político e econômico que marcou essa transição e apresenta as tipologias do sistema eleito... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Located on the West African coast, Guinea-Bissau has entered the democratic wave since 1994 (20th century) with the first free and transparent election after more than 20 years under single-party governance. With underway democracy, Guinea-Bissau experienced several periods of governmental political instability that made impossible the end of several mandates or legislatures. On the other hand, instability made it impossible the achievement of the development goals and poverty reduction. In this political and social context marked by political dispute, the participation, whether in decision-making channels or in terms of attendance tends to be harmed. It is in this sense that the main goal of this study is to analyze the electoral participation behavior in the 1994 period with the first election in 2014. The main focus of the analysis centers in the elections for the office for the Presidency of the Republic and for the Legislative positions. This goal is due to: the importance of the electoral partition phenomenon within the young Guinean democracy in the consolidation of the multiparty representative system. In order to achieve the objective of the study, theoretical references on representative democracy and neo-institutionalism, party and electoral systems were adopted. Due to the importance of the period of the Guinean political transition, the study emphasizes the political and economic contexts that marked the transition and presents the typologies of the electoral sys... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

This paper investigates how exposure to extreme weather affects public support for climate policies. I use temperature data from the extreme heatwaves during the summers of 2018 and 2019 and examine whether temperature anomalies affected the results of five German state elections held in the autumn of these years. Using the vote share change of the Green Party as a measure of public support for climate policies, I do not find a general baseline effect of extreme temperatures. When considering possible heterogeneities however, I find that there is a positive effect of temperatures in electoral districts with more employed in the agricultural sector and in electoral districts with more informed voters. The estimated interaction effects are large compared to the mean vote share of the Green Party and the estimates obtained for other parties.

EU’s international role as a normative power can be questioned as the current foreign policy of the Eastern Partnership implies a limit to the union’s ability to democratize. An alignment with EU norms is often seen through a dichotomy of compliance or non-compliance, overlooking other forms of resistance stemming from a nexus of international compliance pressure, and defiance pressure from hybrid regime structures. This applies to Georgia, a pro-EU country in the Eastern Partnership, committed to EU norms while maintaining a skewed playing field in favor of incumbents. Through the application of a theoretical framework developed in memory studies, a range of rhetorical adaptation strategies employed by the ruling party regarding electoral reforms delineates a norm navigation. A qualitative content analysis of statements and events relating to the long-contested electoral system during 2015-2019 shows a variation of strategies used, pointing in a direction of increased pressure to align with prescribed EU norms. Whether EU or domestic political forces can be credited is difficult to determine, yet the nuances of norm resistance are important to analytically separate from overarching labels, as states’ rhetorical commitments need a critical perspective to better understand the limits to EU’s normative power in the Eastern Partnership.

The institutional, electoral and ethnic factors contributing to electoral violence have well been documented through both quantitative and qualitative research, while the mobilization process for electoral violence has been examined qualitatively. This study aims to contribute to quantitative research on factors that explain why citizens turn into perpetrators of electoral violence by examining how education can contribute to a decrease in electoral violence through the question: How does the level of education influence the occurrence of electoral violence? Given the presence of disinformation about elections during the electoral cycle, this research asserts that education contributes to a decrease in electoral violence by decreasing the acceptance of disinformation about elections. The hypothesis is tested through a large-N study on sub-national data of elections organized between 2004 and 2012 worldwide. The study’s results identify no support for the hypothesized association between education and election violence.

This thesis explores the interplay between digital social movements and political parties on social media. The overarching aim of the thesis is to contribute to the understanding of how the digitalization of the electoral arena has transformed social movements, and how this affects the political parties' perceptions of them. The theoretical framework consists of three analytical lenses to conceptualize this interplay, these are George and Leidner’s (2019) categorization and classification of digital activism, Gunnar Sjöblom’s (1968) theory on partystrategies in a multiparty system, and Anne Kaun’s (2017) concept desynchronization. Acombination of methods is used, including network analysis and interviews, to explore this interplay. The results of the study indicate that there is a desynchronization in the practices of digital social movements and Swedish political parties.