Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: in Information Technology in the Faculty of Informatics and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology Supervisor: Dr Ephias Ruhode Cape Town campus December 2013 / The use of ICTs such as computers, electronic databases and other technologies have been in use for a number of years within the public sector to organise, manage and disseminate information to the public as well as to facilitate day-to-day communication in government offices. In this context, the value of the use of ICTs has been to assist and streamline government operations. The technological development in South Africa has opened up the possibilities of the use of ICTs in the democratic and governance process. E-democracy has been defined as a tool for abandoning the representative system for one with more direct citizen engagement. This study sets out to explore the challenges of the current electoral process, and also determine the factors that could influence the adoption and diffusion of e-voting technologies within the South African context. Literature has shown that countries such as Brazil and India have successfully implemented electronic voting systems and other countries are at various piloting stages to address many challenges and problems associated with manual paper based system such as costs of physical ballot paper and other overheads, electoral delays, distribution of electoral materials, and general lack of confidence in the electoral process. It is in this context that the study also seeks to determine whether the South African electoral management body can leverage on the opportunities that e-voting presents. However, with all the benefits that e-voting presents, there are countries such Germany, the Netherlands etc. that have tried and tested e-voting systems and decided to abandon these system to go back to the manual paper ballot voting systems because of various reasons ranging from cost, security and verifiability. This research is exploratory in nature and adopts qualitative research approach and it is within the interpretivism paradigm. Survey and interview strategies were used to collect data. A purposive sampling method was used to select the participants for the survey. To gain an understanding of the views of voters and electoral management body (IEC) about the current electoral process and e-voting technologies, literature was explored, a questionnaire was distributed online to voters and an in-depth semi-structured interview was conducted with the IEC. The study targeted voters who had access to the internet since the survey questionnaire was distributed online. The analysis is based on thematic analysis and diffusion of innovation (DoI) theory was also used to provide an analytical framework for the study. Through this framework the aims and objectives of the study were conceptualized around three constructs from the theory (relative advantage, compatibility and complexity). The findings of the study revealed that the three constructs from the DoI framework are important factors that may influence the adoption process of e-voting technologies. The findings also revealed other factors such as availability of ICT enable infrastructure and resources, digital divide, trust in technology, awareness of the technology and environment could that also influence the adoption process. The contributions of this research are anticipated to be a better understanding of the adoption of e-voting technologies in South Africa. For the electoral management bodies, the contribution of this research is that the research to some extent portrays factors that could influence the adoption of e-voting technologies in South Africa. Therefore, findings such as availability of ICT infrastructure and accessibility of these infrastructures should be taken into consideration before introducing e-voting technologies. Keywords: DoI (diffusion of Innovation), e-voting (electronic voting) technologies, E-governance, e-participation.

The attribution of abstract and concrete meanings by hermeneutics to democratic institutions is in favor of the sovereignty of the people, so that political participation in matters of local interest can reveal the degree of citizenship of a society. Freedom of expression, as a fundamental right of the human person, is one of the pillars of the Democratic State of Law itself and includes freedom of thought, opinion and communication. It will be examined the capture of votes for the purpose of forming the popular will, in order to substantiate a critical analysis on the establishment of rules for the mass media, on the grounds that such information vehicles could compromise the maximum equality of the electoral contest. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the collision of fundamental rights intrinsically related to the electoral period, as well as to demonstrate attempts to give rationality to the means of control of eventual judicial decision in this matter. The methodology will be limited to the normative analysis of the matter, besides the foundations and conclusions expounded in specific judgments, like the Representation n. 165.865/TSE. Finally, the following hypotheses will be presented: the possibility of restricting the norms related to electoral propaganda in favor of the equality between the candidates and the smoothness of the lawsuit; the adequacy of electoral propaganda to its primary function, namely, to bring concrete proposals and government programs to the attention of the electorate, without entering the field of personal offenses against the competing candidate; the appreciation of the public interest to resolve the conflict between the right to the image of the candidate and the right to information of the voter. / A atribuição de sentidos abstratos e concretos pela hermenêutica às instituições democráticas caminha a favor da soberania do povo, de modo que a participação política em assuntos de interesse local pode revelar o grau de cidadania de uma sociedade. A liberdade de expressão, como direito fundamental da pessoa humana, é um dos sustentáculos do próprio Estado Democrático de Direito e abrange a liberdade de pensamento, de opinião e de comunicação. Proceder-se-á ao exame da captação de votos para efeito de formação da vontade popular, de modo a consubstanciar análise crítica sobre o estabelecimento de regras para os meios de comunicação de massa, sob o fundamento de que os referidos veículos de informação poderiam comprometer a máxima igualdade da disputa eleitoral. O objetivo da presente dissertação consiste em perquirir a colisão de direitos fundamentais intrinsecamente relacionados ao período eleitoral, bem assim demonstrar tentativas de se conferir racionalidade aos meios de controle de eventual decisão judicial nessa matéria. A metodologia cingir-se-á à análise normativa da matéria, além dos fundamentos e conclusões expendidos em julgados específicos, a exemplo da Representação n. 165.865/TSE. Por fim, serão apresentadas como hipóteses: a possibilidade de restrição das normas referentes à propaganda eleitoral em benefício da isonomia entre os candidatos e da própria lisura do pleito; a adequação da propaganda eleitoral à sua função primária, qual seja, a de levar ao conhecimento do eleitor as propostas concretas e os programas de governo, sem adentrar ao campo das ofensas pessoais ao candidato concorrente; a valorização do interesse público para resolver o conflito entre o direito à imagem do candidato e o direito à informação do eleitor.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T18:20:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ane Barbara Voidelo.pdf: 1119713 bytes, checksum: ad69cffc23482d42aa30eec8566eda87 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-09-18 / The municipality of Toledo, in Paraná, developed, from 2010 to 2012, the People s Budget proposal to provide participation for the same reasons originally presented in the Participatory Budgeting (PB) from Caxias do Sul. The survey was conducted through bibliographic research, with documentary analysis and participant observation in the People s Budget meetings, and it is centered on two main axis of analysis; the first permeates the relationship of the People s Budget and the interests of the Progressive Party and their associates; the second shows the spread of the PB in Brazil and its relation to the development project supported by international organizations, such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The study demonstrated that the manager of Toledo possessed interest in implementing this form of participatory budgeting, giving it the name of People s Budget and making changes in its institutional design to target electoral interests. The IDB also approved a funding project for Toledo, tying a set of propositions in city management in which the central figure is the efficient manager, who should strive to promote social participation of users through channels and instances of citizen participation, proposing the supervision of assets rather than a determination about them. The People s Budget turned out to be a proposal used as a demonstration of transparency and democratic image of the manager, within and outside the municipality, which in its operationalization responded to electoral interests and was compatible with the neoliberal model of democracy. / O município de Toledo no Paraná desenvolveu, do ano de 2010 até 2012, o Orçamento do Povo com a proposta de proporcionar a participação, pelos mesmos motivos apresentados originalmente pelo Orçamento Participativo de Caixas do Sul. A pesquisa foi realizada de forma bibliográfica, com análise documental e observação participante das assembleias do Orçamento do Povo e está centrada em dois eixos de análise: o primeiro perpassa a relação do Orçamento do Povo e os interesses do partido progressista e seus coligados; o segundo apresenta a disseminação dos OPs no Brasil e a relação destes com o projeto de desenvolvimento apoiado pelas organizações internacionais, como no caso do Banco Mundial e do Banco Interamericano de Desenvolvimento (BID). O trabalho demonstrou que o gestor de Toledo possuiu interesse em implantar essa forma de orçamento participativo, dando-lhe o nome de Orçamento do Povo e realizando mudanças no desenho institucional, visando interesses eleitorais. O BID aprovou, ainda, um projeto de financiamento para Toledo que amarra um conjunto de proposições na gestão da cidade, em que a centralidade está na figura do gestor eficiente que deve empenhar-se em fomentar a participação social dos usuários, por meio de canais e instâncias de participação cidadã, propondo a fiscalização de recursos e não a deliberação sobre os mesmos. O Orçamento do Povo revelou-se uma proposta utilizada como demonstração de transparência e imagem democrática do gestor, dentro do município e fora dele, que na sua operacionalização respondeu aos interesses eleitorais e foi compatível com o modelo neoliberal de democracia.

This thesis starts by arguing that the civil conflicts that erupted in the African Great Lakes are rooted in a continuous pursuit of power, in which ethnic, regional and political identifiers are used by the contenders for power to rally community support. In an introductory chapter, I go back to the colonial era, drawing attention to Burundi and Rwanda, and then describe in more details Burundi's refugee crisis, ex-combatants' demobilization and the 2010 elections, all of which will be addressed in the subsequent chapters. <p><p>In the second chapter, entitled "On the Instrumental Power of Refugees: Household Composition and Civil War in Burundi", I study changes in household composition following household's exposure to civil war in Burundi. The analyses rely on a panel dataset collected in rural Burundi in 2005 and 2010. To address concerns over the endogenous distribution violence, I use an instrumental variables strategy using the distance to refugee camps, in which the Hutu rebellion was organized from the mid-1990s onwards. The analysis focuses on the impact of violence on demographic changes within households.<p><p>The third chapter, entitled "Who Benefited from Burundi's Demobilization Program?" and co-authored with Olivier Sterck (University of Oxford) and Philip Verwimp (ULB), assesses the impact of the demobilization cash transfers program, which took place from 2004 onwards in post-war Burundi. In the short run, we find that the cash payments had a positive impact on beneficiaries' consumption, non-food spending and investments. Importantly, it also generated positive spillovers on civilians in their home villages. However, both the direct impact and the spillovers seem to vanish in the long run. Ex-combatants' investments in assets were not productive enough to sustain their consumption pattern in the long run, as they ultimately ran out of demobilization money. <p><p>In the fourth chapter, entitled "From Rebellion to Electoral Violence. Evidence from Burundi" and co-authored with Andrea Colombo (ULB) and Olivier Sterck (University of Oxford), we aim at understanding the triggers of electoral violence in 2010, only a few months after the end of the war. We find that an acute polarization between ex-rebel groups -capturing the presence of groups with equal support - and political competition are both highly conducive to electoral violence. Disaggregating electoral violence by type, we show that these drivers explain different types of violence. Perhaps surprisingly, we find that ethnic diversity is not associated with electoral violence in post-conflict Burundi. <p><p>In the last chapter, entitled "Who Benefits from Customary Justice? Rent-seeking, Bribery and Criminality in sub-Saharan Africa" and co-authored with Olivier Sterck (University of Oxford), we have a closer look at the judicial system of Uganda, an important institution in a post-conflict economy. In many African countries, customary and statutory judicial systems co-exist. Customary justice is exercised by local courts and based on restorative principles, while statutory justice is mostly retributive and administered by magistrates' courts. As their jurisdiction often overlaps, victims can choose which judicial system to refer to, which may lead to contradictions between rules and inconsistencies in judgments. In this essay, we construct a model representing a dual judicial system and we show that this overlap encourages rent-seeking and bribery, and yields to high rates of petty crimes and civil disputes. <p><p>In Burundi, history has shown that instability in one country of the Great Lake region may destabilize the whole area, with dramatic effect on civilian population. Understanding the dynamics laying at the origin of violence, during and after civil conflict, is crucial to prevent violence relapse in any form, from petty criminality to larger scale combats. <p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Chapter 1: The Determinants of the Production of Research by US Universities<p>Chapter 2: Investment in Vocational and General Human Capital: A Theoretical Approach<p>Chapter 3: Urban Migrations and the Labor Market<p>Chapter 4: Local social capital and geographical mobility<p>Chapter 5: Social Supervision and Electoral Stability on the Geographical Scale in Belgium / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

L’objectif de ce mémoire est d’évaluer l’adoption du marketing politique par les partis politiques québécois. Nous entendons par marketing politique une succession d’étapes intégrées (processus marketing) qui permet à un parti politique d’identifier un besoin chez l’électorat et de créer un produit visant à y répondre. Ainsi, à la question de recherche «Est-ce que les quatre principaux partis politiques québécois (Parti Québécois, Parti libéral du Québec, Coalition Avenir Québec et Québec solidaire) ont eu recours au marketing politique lors des élections provinciales de 2012 et de 2014? », nous posons l’hypothèse que le contexte québécois en 2012 et 2014 ne permettait pas aux partis politiques d’adopter une approche marketing au cours des campagnes. À cet égard, nous avons mené une étude qualitative basée sur des entrevues faites auprès des responsables des campagnes électorales de 2012 et 2014 pour chacun des partis. Notre collecte de données et notre analyse construite autour deux éléments (les acteurs du marketing politique et l’application qu’ils ont faite du processus marketing), nous ont permis d’infirmer notre hypothèse initiale et d’établir, faits à l’appui, que certains partis ont eu recours à l’approche marketing au cours des deux dernières élections alors que d’autres s’en sont tenus à l’approche publicitaire. / This dissertation studies the adoption of political marketing by the political parties in Québec. We hear by political marketing a succession of integrated steps (marketing process) which allows a political party to identify a need from the electorate and to create a product to answer it. Thereby, to the question, "Did the four main political parties in Québec (Parti Québécois, Parti libéral du Québec, Coalition Avenir Québec and Québec solidaire) used political marketing during the past provincial elections of 2012 and 2014?" we had the hypothesis that the Québec context, in 2012 and 2014, did not allow the political parties to adopt a marketing approach during their campaign. In this respect, we led a qualitative study based on interviews led with political campaign managers from each party, who worked during the past elections of 2012 and 2014. A collection of qualitative data and an analysis based on two elements (political marketers and the way they followed the marketing process) allowed us to counter our initial hypothesis and to establish that the some political parties used the political marketing during the elections of 2012 and 2014, while others focused on tactical marketing.

Depuis la prise du pouvoir au Venezuela par le Mouvement Cinquième République (MVR) et son leader Hugo Chávez en 1998, ainsi que par l'implantation d'une nouvelle constitution en 1999, la face du pays a changé au plan politique. Alors que plusieurs chercheurs s’attardent à analyser les conditions ayant impulsé ces changements politiques, très peu tentent réellement d’en clarifier la nature intrinsèque. Ce que nous suggérons, c’est que la fin du monopole d’alternance au pouvoir entre les deux grands partis traditionnels (AD et COPEI) en 1998, puis l’implantation de la Constitution bolivarienne en 1999, ont fait entrer le Venezuela dans une nouvelle étape de la modernité. Cette nouvelle étape prendrait assise sur une extension des droits politiques, eux-mêmes devenus le socle de la démocratie. La conséquence de cela serait une refondation du politique inspirée des idéaux républicains promus lors de la fondation du pays en 1811 : la souveraineté et l’autodétermination.

Par un terrain qualitatif d’onze entrevues semi-dirigées auprès des stratèges ayant travaillé sur la campagne présidentielle du mouvement naissant de Jean-Luc Mélenchon, la France Insoumise, ce mémoire tente de dresser un portrait des pratiques en matière de marketing politique pour ce candidat. Nous nous sommes concentrés sur les pratiques visant à séduire les jeunes électeurs, afin de pouvoir valider ou réfuter l’hypothèse selon laquelle la FI a volontairement ciblé les 18-24 ans en adaptant les concepts et cheminement du processus marketing à leur comportement politique. Nous pensons que ce choix pourrait peut-être contribuer à expliquer en partie le bon résultat du candidat d’extrême-gauche, qui était, avant cela, perçu comme étant en marge du jeu électoral. Loin d’émettre un jugement moral sur ces pratiques qui sont employées quasi-systématiquement pour la plupart des partis occidentaux, les résultats révèlent plusieurs démarches de ciblage efficace et une nette professionnalisation de la campagne dans un pays culturellement sensible à la question du marketing ou du traitement des données personnelles. / Through a qualitative survey consisting of eleven semi-structured interviews with strategists who worked on French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s incipient movement, the France Insoumise, this dissertation aims to further the understanding of the political marketing practices used throughout his campaign. We focus on the practices devised to attract young voters so as to validate or refute the hypothesis that the FI purposely targeted the 18-24 years old age group, through the use of marketing inspired concepts and strategies so as to influence their political behavior. We posit that this strategy partly explains the good results of the far-left candidate who before stood on the fringes of the political ecosystem. Far from passing a moral judgement on the aforementioned use of marketing practices, which have been used in an almost systematic manner as of late in western parties; the studies’ results show the effectiveness certain targeting tactics. They also show a clear professionalization of the political marketing field in a country where the use of marketing and personal data is still a sensitive topic.

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Detta examensarbete undersöker de svenska riksdagspartiernas valprogram för att analysera de diskursiva uttrycken gällande utbildningspolitik med särskilt fokus på skolans syften. Uppsatsens utgångspunkt är att samhället befinner sig i en tid som kan benämnas som ett senmodernt samhälle, varvid den inriktar sig på valprogram för tiden 1998-2018. I analysen används en kritisk diskursanalys för att analysera texterna närmare och i uppsatsen tillämpas teorier om skola och senmodernitet av Zygmunt Bauman, Gert J.J. Biesta samt Tomas Englund. I analysen har synliggjorts att den senmoderna skolan främst präglas av tre tydliga. diskurser som möts i de svenska riksdagspartiernas valprogram. Främst syns begrepp ommätning och resultat , nostalgi och tillbakagång till det gamla samt ett klassiskt liberalt frihets- och förnuftsideal i texterna. / This master thesis examines the electoral manifestos of the Swedish parliamentary parties in order to analyze the discursive expressions regarding education policy, with a particular focus on the purpose of education. As the thesis finds its starting point in the concept of late modernity, it focuses on the electoral programmes from the time period of 1998-2018. The analysis uses a critical discourse analysis to analyze the texts in closer detail. Theories on school and late modernity by Zygmunt Bauman, Gert J.J. Biesta and Tomas Englund form the theoretical framework. The analysis establishes that the late-modern school is primarily characterized by three clear categories of discourse which intersect in the electoral programmes of the Swedish parties. Primarily, notions of measurement and results are visible in the texts, along with nostalgia and a desire to return to the past, as well as a classical liberal ideal of freedom and reason. / <p>Examensarbetet är en del av den samordnade lärarutbildningen mellan Lunds universitet och Högskolan Kristianstad. </p>