Many scholars have noted the increasingly widespread combination of politically-relevant information and entertaining or sensational media formats and presentational styles over the past several decades, falling broadly under the umbrella term of ‘infotainment.’ However, in spite of this burgeoning infotainment literature very little research has been done on the nature and dynamics of infotainment within the Canadian context. This is especially true of research on infotainment within Canada’s traditional news media outlets. To being filling this gap, this study undertakes a mixed-methods content analysis of Canadian newspapers’ coverage of the 2019 federal election to evaluate the scope and nature of infotainment therein. Building off of a systematic review and mapping of the existing infotainment literature, this study develops a comprehensive conceptual and analytical framework for defining and evaluating infotainment characteristics within ‘hard news’ coverage. The quantitative and qualitative results are outlined in detail before being evaluated for their potential implications on citizens’ information processing and political knowledge, as well as some broader evaluations of potential implications for Canadian politics. These ethico-political considerations are developed by drawing on insights from a number of literatures, including political psychology and decision-making, strategic voting, and broader media and infotainment research.

"This report concludes that the evidence from the analyses seems to support the following propositions in regard to Texas electoral behavior. (1) The 1956 election year was a critical election year in Texas. (2) A pattern indicative of an underlying economic liberalism-conservatism was present in Texas voting patterns from 1944 through 1956, but not after. (3) The Mexican-American and German counties experienced political realignment in 1956 which continued through 1972. (4) The counties affording the most support to the liberal faction shift continuously. (5) The Texas electorate had been in a state of flux since 1956. To date no pattern other than the ethnic group realignment has stabilized. (6) Party-competition in gubernatorial elections has been increasing since 1962. (7) Ralph Yarborough has been the only liberal candidate for a major statewide office to draw support in a high and uniform degree across the state. (8) Ralph Yarborough's base of support has completely shifted since 1952. (9) The Farenthold vote was most closely aligned with that of Donald Yarborough. (10) Socio-economic factors have stronger relationship to Republican, liberal Democratic candidates, and major third party candidates than to conservative Democratic candidates. (11) All evidence form these analyses points to personalism and candidate appeal as the most important independent variables operating in Texas elections. " --leaf [3-4].

Desde 1994, ininterruptamente o PSDB elege seus candidatos ao governo do Estado de São Paulo. Hegemonia eleitoral de tamanha duração vitória em seis eleições consecutivas não foi alcançada por nenhum outro partido em pleitos estaduais na história democrática brasileira recente. Tal feito é ainda mais relevante ao levarmos em conta a trajetória eleitoral paulista, historicamente associada a quadros partidários e resultados das urnas surpreendentes. Assim, o objetivo desta pesquisa é identificar as bases sociais e territoriais do voto nos principais partidos do Estado de São Paulo, com ênfase no PSDB. Para tanto, utilizamos as seguintes variáveis: pesquisas eleitorais estratificadas por renda e escolaridade; tamanho dos municípios; nível de desenvolvimento médio das localidades (ao nível das zonas eleitorais e municípios) para duas regiões previamente estabelecidas a Grande São Paulo e o interior. Identificamos que o partido tucano obtém apoio crescente na medida em que se elevam os índices socioeconômicos do eleitorado. O partido, porém, mantém um importante suporte entre os setores populares sobretudo no interior do Estado. Por fim, ainda que obtenha penetração elevada em todos os municípios paulistas, o PSDB possui melhores resultados nas pequenas localidades. Ao final, discutimos estes achados à luz do panorama eleitoral, partidário e federativo no Brasil. / Since 1994 until this date the Social Democrat Brazilian Party PSDB has been continuously able to elect its candidates to the government of the state of São Paulo. Electoral hegemony for a very long time victory in 6 consecutive elections, it has been unmatched by any other party in any State of the federation in the history of Brazilian Democracy. This is extraordinary especially if we take on account the electoral politics in the history of São Paulo where political parties and election results are usually full of surprises. Thus the objective of this research is to identify the social and territorial localization of voters according to the major parties present in the State of São Paulo, emphasizing the PSDB. In order to achieve this analysis we work with the following variables: electoral surveys stratified by income and level of education; size of the municipalities; average development of the localities (at the level of constituencies and municipalities) for two regions previously selected: the Great São Paulo and the inland. We identified a growing support to PSDB as the income rises. Nevertheless the party maintains an important level of support among the popular sectors - especially in the inland of the State of São Paulo. Finally, although it has obtained a high level of support in all the municipalities of the State of São Paulo, PSDB had its best results in the small localities. These data are discussed in the light of the political and electoral panorama in Brazil.

Esse trabalho busca apresentar os principais estudos, teorias e métodos de pesquisa da subdisciplina geografia eleitoral, desde os primeiros estudos de mapeamento eleitoral de André Siegfried, na França, e Frederick Turner, no EUA, até a perspectiva de análise eleitoral baseada nos lugares, de John Agnew. Em um segundo momento, discutimos os estudos sobre a influência do contexto no comportamento eleitoral. Argumentamos que os indivíduos do ponto de vista contextual seriam influenciados em dois níveis: por suas redes sociais de contato e de comunicação política, e pelo contexto geográfico ao seu redor, onde ocorrem as práticas sociais cotidianas. Na parte empírica do trabalho, usamos a técnica estatística de análise fatorial para identificar os períodos de mudança e estabilidade nos padrões espaciais de votação das eleições presidenciais de 1989 a 2014. Encontramos um período de estabilidade (voto normal) de 2006 a 2014, com uma clivagem regional norte/sul entre PT e PSDB. Por fim, a partir da hipótese que a mobilidade espacial e as redes de interação social modulariam a influência do contexto no comportamento eleitoral discutimos os resultados de uma análise de dados de surveys, aplicados na cidade de São Paulo em 2016. / This work seeks to present the main studies, theories, and research methods of the Electoral Geography subdiscipline, from the André Siegfrieds first studies of electoral mapping in France, the Frederick Turners in the United States, to the John Agnews place based electoral analysis perspective. After that, we discuss the studies about the context influence on electoral behaviour. We argue that, from the contextual point of view, individual electoral behaviour would be influenced on two levels: by its social networks of contacts and political communication, and by its surrounding geographical context, where everyday social interactions occur. In the empirical section of our work, we use the factorial analysis statistical technique to identify the periods of change and stability of spatial patterns during the presidential elections from 1989 to 2014. We find a stability period (normal vote) from 2006 to 2014, with a North-South regional cleavage between PT party and PSDB party. Finally, through the hypothesis that spatial mobility and networks of social interaction modulate contexts influence on electoral behaviour, we discuss the results of an analysis of data from a survey held in São Paulo city in 2016.

Les Systèmes d’Aide au Vote (SAV) comparent, sur des enjeux variés, les positions des utilisateurs avec celles des partis ou des candidats qui sont établies à partir d’une analyse de contenu de leur programme électoral. Les SAV sont un outil d’analyse novateur à usage des politistes puisqu’ils leur permettent de récolter des données empiriques à grande échelle tout au long d’une campagne électorale. L'objectif principal de cette thèse est d'utiliser les données collectées par les SAV afin d’analyser la diffusion d’un site Web à caractère informatif et politique, i.e. les SAV, auprès des internautes dans des systèmes médiatiques différents. Cette thèse teste l'hypothèse selon laquelle l'utilisation des SAV par différents groupes d'électeurs (électeurs partisans, hésitants et indécis) varie selon les systèmes médiatiques. Les analyses des données collectées par des SAV dans sept démocraties électorales représentant trois différents types de systèmes médiatiques (Democratic Corporatist, Liberal et Pluralist Polarized) montrent que les systèmes médiatiques structurent les comportements et influent sur le degré d’exposition à des informations politiques en ligne. Le second apport de cette thèse est l’utilisation des données collectées par un SAV pour l'analyse électorale, notamment pour l’étude du vote sur enjeux et des dynamiques de campagne. Plusieurs analyses sont réalisées dans cette thèse à partir des données recueillies par le SAV français de La Boussole présidentielle. Cette thèse montre que, bien qu’étant non-probabilistes, les échantillons SAV sont très informatifs à condition d’être intégrés dans un cadre de recherche approprié et d’ajuster les biais statistiques. / Online Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) are websites or online applications that show voters which party or candidate is closest to their own political ideas based on how they mark their positions on an ample range of policy issues. In addition to providing voters with reliable information in a structured manner, VAAs are an innovative data-collection tool on issue positions and on a wide set of other indicators. The main scope of this dissertation is to use VAA-collected data to learn about online information exposure during campaigns across media systems. Building on the realistic view of the Web’s political potential and its impact on the public, this dissertation test the hypothesis that VAA use by different voter groups (partisan, doubting and undecided voters) varies across media systems. The analyses of VAA-collected data in seven electoral democracies across three different types of media systems (Democratic Corporatist, Liberal, and Polarized Pluralist) show that media systems are key mediators to explain online information exposure. The second scope of this dissertation is to use VAA-collected data for the sake of electoral analysis, in particular to study issue-voting and campaign dynamics analyses. Several analyses are carried out using data collected by the French VAA of La Boussole présidentielle. This dissertation shows that, despite being non-probabilistic, VAA samples can serve as a very informative tool for the study of political and communication processes during electoral campaigns if integrated within an appropriate research framework and with the use of proper statistical adjustment.

This thesis presents a new approach to the long-standing question of how electoral rules influence the behaviour of legislators. It begins with the argument that fresh empirical advances can be made by moving beyond the pervasive but rigid assumption that all legislators want to be re-elected and, by extension, that every incumbent values this goal to the same degree. Rather, I propose that individual Members of Parliament (MPs) vary in the extent to which they personally desire or depend upon re-election. Following the principles of a difference-in-differences design, this observation allows me to devise a theoretical framework capable of testing whether MPs' vote-seeking behaviour differs within parliaments in a way that varies predictably across countries. Specifically, I propose that in electoral systems where party-centric behaviour increases re-election chances, MPs particularly invested in the goal of re-election should cater to the party to an even greater extent than their colleagues. Conversely, in systems where a personal vote can generate electoral gains, MPs most ambitious for re-election should engage in this type of vote-winning strategy to the greatest extent. I test this prediction across the UK House of Commons and the German Bundestag, and within Germany's mixed-member system. Newly-collected biographical data on over 1700 MPs is used to conduct the first systematic MP-level operationalisation of re-election ambition based on legislators' career backgrounds. Career politicians are thereby identified as those most ambitious for re-election. Using voting behaviour from 1.8 million vote choices in legislative roll-calls as a proxy for the degree to which an MP caters to the party or to his or her personal reputation, the quantitative multilevel analysis reveals strong evidence for the proposed behavioural pattern. The contribution made by this study is two-fold. First, it uncovers the interaction between electoral rules and individual re-election ambition as a new explanation for MP-level variation in legislative behaviour. Second, its research design overcomes shortcomings in previous empirical tests for the existing theory on how electoral rules impact MP behaviour (e.g. Carey and Shugart 1995), producing more robust evidence in support of this influential framework.

Desde 1994, ininterruptamente o PSDB elege seus candidatos ao governo do Estado de São Paulo. Hegemonia eleitoral de tamanha duração vitória em seis eleições consecutivas não foi alcançada por nenhum outro partido em pleitos estaduais na história democrática brasileira recente. Tal feito é ainda mais relevante ao levarmos em conta a trajetória eleitoral paulista, historicamente associada a quadros partidários e resultados das urnas surpreendentes. Assim, o objetivo desta pesquisa é identificar as bases sociais e territoriais do voto nos principais partidos do Estado de São Paulo, com ênfase no PSDB. Para tanto, utilizamos as seguintes variáveis: pesquisas eleitorais estratificadas por renda e escolaridade; tamanho dos municípios; nível de desenvolvimento médio das localidades (ao nível das zonas eleitorais e municípios) para duas regiões previamente estabelecidas a Grande São Paulo e o interior. Identificamos que o partido tucano obtém apoio crescente na medida em que se elevam os índices socioeconômicos do eleitorado. O partido, porém, mantém um importante suporte entre os setores populares sobretudo no interior do Estado. Por fim, ainda que obtenha penetração elevada em todos os municípios paulistas, o PSDB possui melhores resultados nas pequenas localidades. Ao final, discutimos estes achados à luz do panorama eleitoral, partidário e federativo no Brasil. / Since 1994 until this date the Social Democrat Brazilian Party PSDB has been continuously able to elect its candidates to the government of the state of São Paulo. Electoral hegemony for a very long time victory in 6 consecutive elections, it has been unmatched by any other party in any State of the federation in the history of Brazilian Democracy. This is extraordinary especially if we take on account the electoral politics in the history of São Paulo where political parties and election results are usually full of surprises. Thus the objective of this research is to identify the social and territorial localization of voters according to the major parties present in the State of São Paulo, emphasizing the PSDB. In order to achieve this analysis we work with the following variables: electoral surveys stratified by income and level of education; size of the municipalities; average development of the localities (at the level of constituencies and municipalities) for two regions previously selected: the Great São Paulo and the inland. We identified a growing support to PSDB as the income rises. Nevertheless the party maintains an important level of support among the popular sectors - especially in the inland of the State of São Paulo. Finally, although it has obtained a high level of support in all the municipalities of the State of São Paulo, PSDB had its best results in the small localities. These data are discussed in the light of the political and electoral panorama in Brazil.

Esse trabalho busca apresentar os principais estudos, teorias e métodos de pesquisa da subdisciplina geografia eleitoral, desde os primeiros estudos de mapeamento eleitoral de André Siegfried, na França, e Frederick Turner, no EUA, até a perspectiva de análise eleitoral baseada nos lugares, de John Agnew. Em um segundo momento, discutimos os estudos sobre a influência do contexto no comportamento eleitoral. Argumentamos que os indivíduos do ponto de vista contextual seriam influenciados em dois níveis: por suas redes sociais de contato e de comunicação política, e pelo contexto geográfico ao seu redor, onde ocorrem as práticas sociais cotidianas. Na parte empírica do trabalho, usamos a técnica estatística de análise fatorial para identificar os períodos de mudança e estabilidade nos padrões espaciais de votação das eleições presidenciais de 1989 a 2014. Encontramos um período de estabilidade (voto normal) de 2006 a 2014, com uma clivagem regional norte/sul entre PT e PSDB. Por fim, a partir da hipótese que a mobilidade espacial e as redes de interação social modulariam a influência do contexto no comportamento eleitoral discutimos os resultados de uma análise de dados de surveys, aplicados na cidade de São Paulo em 2016. / This work seeks to present the main studies, theories, and research methods of the Electoral Geography subdiscipline, from the André Siegfrieds first studies of electoral mapping in France, the Frederick Turners in the United States, to the John Agnews place based electoral analysis perspective. After that, we discuss the studies about the context influence on electoral behaviour. We argue that, from the contextual point of view, individual electoral behaviour would be influenced on two levels: by its social networks of contacts and political communication, and by its surrounding geographical context, where everyday social interactions occur. In the empirical section of our work, we use the factorial analysis statistical technique to identify the periods of change and stability of spatial patterns during the presidential elections from 1989 to 2014. We find a stability period (normal vote) from 2006 to 2014, with a North-South regional cleavage between PT party and PSDB party. Finally, through the hypothesis that spatial mobility and networks of social interaction modulate contexts influence on electoral behaviour, we discuss the results of an analysis of data from a survey held in São Paulo city in 2016.

Within the fields of electoral studies and legislative politics, the interest of this study is the Brazilian electoral system and the unity of the parties it produces. Specifically, I ask how post-electoral intraparty rank affects party unity. I determine post-electoral intraparty rank by comparing deputies’ vote share of the total national vote count. By compiling a database of 48 roll-call votes of 37 Federal Deputies from São Paulo, I compare how often the deputies toe the party line to their vote share. I also test for the geographical concentration of votes in cases where I find it relevant. My hypothesis is that deputies elected with a low vote share will vote according to their party’s recommendation to a larger degree than those deputies with a strong electoral base. I find that, based only on roll-call vote analysis, the complete sample does not demonstrate a strong relationship between voting agreement and vote share (or post-electoral rank). However, by analyzing significant cases individually, I do find a basis for my hypothesis, as well as indicators of theoretical consistency in the sample. The basis is for the most part strengthened when controlling for vote concentration. I conclude that deputies whose largest electoral base is centered in cities seem to be more autonomous in their voting, most likely for ideological reasons rather than reasons motivated by pork-barrel spending.

Diploma thesis focuses on one of the most important variables of proportional electoral systems - electoral districts. This problematic is researched in the context of municipal elections to the Prague City Assembly. In the Czech municipal electoral system this variable can be changed very flexibly and in Prague we can find three variations of electoral districts. The aim of thesis is to explore these variants of electoral districts from the point of proportionality and efficiency of governance. The topic is researched in three cases of municipal elections in Prague in 2010, 2014 and 2018. In the introduction of diploma thesis two research questions are defined. The first part is theoretical, and it is focused on the municipal electoral system in the Czech Republic, electoral district in the theory of electoral systems, variants of electoral districts in Prague and academic debate about proportionality and efficiency. Results of three researched elections are analysed as well. The analytical part of thesis is focused on models of seats distribution in accordance with electoral districts. In the conclusion results are evaluated and compared. Research questions are answered in this part as well.