<p>AbstractTitle: Electoral campaigns, social media and young voters – a studie of how Moderaterna andSocialdemokraterna are going to reach out to the young voters in the electoral campaign of2010. (Valkampanjer, sociala medier och unga väljare- en studie av hur Moderaterna ochSocialdemokraterna ska nå de unga väljarna i valet 2010).Number of pages: 45Author: Sara RothmanTutor: Göran SvenssonCourse: Media and communication studies CPeriod: Autumn semester 2009University: Division of Media and Communication, Departement of Information Science,Uppsala University.Purpose/ Aim: The aim of this essay is to research how the two largest parties in Sweden,Moderaterna and Socialdemokraterna, are going to reach out to the young voters in theelectoral campaign of 2010. I will also find out how the young voters are going to collecttheir information before the election. That information will be compared to the strategies ofthe parties, in that way I can tell if their strategies match the young voters plans ofinformation search.Material/Method: In my eximination I chose to use two informant interviewes and fourdifferent groups of discussion. The informant interviewes were directed to the two peoplewho are in charge of the communication in the two largest parties in Sweden, Moderaternaand Socialdemokraterna. Two of the groups of discussion contained young people who aregoing to vote for the first time in the election of 2010, and two of the groups contained peoplewho will be voting for the second time. They were four people in every group. The people incharge of the communication in the parties were contacted thru e-mail and I met them on theirworkplaces. The young voters were partly friends of mine who brought people they knew tothe groups. In that way some of them knew each other, but not everybody.Main results: One important thing that I realised after the discussion with the young voterswas that there is a big difference between those who are going to vote for the first time andthose who will vote their second time in the election of 2010. It is impossible to characteriseyoung people as one group because they are all so different from each other. I also found outthat the young people use different media, and so will the parties in their campaigns. It is hardto satisfy all youth but my study shows that many needs will be satisfied because bothtraditional media and new media will be used in the electoral campaigns.Keywords: Electoral campaign, social media, young voters, strategic commnunication,Moderaterna, Socialdemokraterna</p>

AbstractTitle: Electoral campaigns, social media and young voters – a studie of how Moderaterna andSocialdemokraterna are going to reach out to the young voters in the electoral campaign of2010. (Valkampanjer, sociala medier och unga väljare- en studie av hur Moderaterna ochSocialdemokraterna ska nå de unga väljarna i valet 2010).Number of pages: 45Author: Sara RothmanTutor: Göran SvenssonCourse: Media and communication studies CPeriod: Autumn semester 2009University: Division of Media and Communication, Departement of Information Science,Uppsala University.Purpose/ Aim: The aim of this essay is to research how the two largest parties in Sweden,Moderaterna and Socialdemokraterna, are going to reach out to the young voters in theelectoral campaign of 2010. I will also find out how the young voters are going to collecttheir information before the election. That information will be compared to the strategies ofthe parties, in that way I can tell if their strategies match the young voters plans ofinformation search.Material/Method: In my eximination I chose to use two informant interviewes and fourdifferent groups of discussion. The informant interviewes were directed to the two peoplewho are in charge of the communication in the two largest parties in Sweden, Moderaternaand Socialdemokraterna. Two of the groups of discussion contained young people who aregoing to vote for the first time in the election of 2010, and two of the groups contained peoplewho will be voting for the second time. They were four people in every group. The people incharge of the communication in the parties were contacted thru e-mail and I met them on theirworkplaces. The young voters were partly friends of mine who brought people they knew tothe groups. In that way some of them knew each other, but not everybody.Main results: One important thing that I realised after the discussion with the young voterswas that there is a big difference between those who are going to vote for the first time andthose who will vote their second time in the election of 2010. It is impossible to characteriseyoung people as one group because they are all so different from each other. I also found outthat the young people use different media, and so will the parties in their campaigns. It is hardto satisfy all youth but my study shows that many needs will be satisfied because bothtraditional media and new media will be used in the electoral campaigns.Keywords: Electoral campaign, social media, young voters, strategic commnunication,Moderaterna, Socialdemokraterna

In this dissertation we analyze the role of parties’ electoral competition in aggregating voters’ preferences over policy and its impact on tax design. The representation of voters’ interests is central for the analysis of public finance since the issue of aggregation is closely linked to the tradeoff between efficiency and redistribution, and the size and composition of public spending. Parties’ aggregation of preferences is related to the mechanism in which policy makers (parties) weigh the relative merits of competing goals of the tax system (in our analysis, redistribution versus efficiency), and reveals the welfare calculus throughout parties identify groups of individuals who might be beneficiated (hurt) by policy changes. In the first essay we analyze the influence of voters in modifying tax policy through tax initiatives. In this essay we argue that the process of aggregation of preferences between the competition for votes in a representative democracy and the majority rule are different. This, in turn, might lead to the approval of a tax rate limit (TRL) initiative. We argue that the rationale for a TRL proposal is to substitute feasible tax structures rather than to constrain the government’s power to collect taxes. In addition, we provide a model that predicts the tax structure that would arise as a result of a TRL The second essay addresses the role of voters’ partisan attitudes in the determination of fiscal policies. We argue that partisan attitudes and its distribution across the electorate influence the proportion of the expected votes that different coalitions deliver in the election. We identify conditions in which voters’ partisan attitudes affect the provision of a public good and the redistributive properties of the tax structure. The third essay extends our previous analysis of the impact of voters’ partisan attitudes on tax design by incorporating parties that are policy motivated. In this setting, the relative merits of efficiency versus redistribution in designing the tax system are determined by the process of aggregation of voters’ preferences and parties’ preferences over policy. The conflict between parties and the electorate’s preferences over tax policy depends on voters’ partisan attitudes. In particular, voters’ party affiliation soft parties’ electoral constraints, allowing parties to advance the interests of their constituents. The model predicts that redistribution (efficiency) will play a more prominent role for a party that represents a coalition of low (high) income individuals with a high (low) taste for public goods.

Voter participation among Saskatchewans citizens has decreased in both federal and provincial elections, especially in the past decade or so, and especially among 18-24 year olds. Provincially, turnout has fallen almost 20 percentage points over a four-year period. Saskatchewan voter turnout in federal elections has fallen almost 15 percentage points in a similar time period. The purpose of this thesis is to uncover potential factors that might help to explain why turnout has decreased so markedly. Though a number of factors exist to explain why fewer citizens are participating on election day, this thesis has worked to seek out the explanation in two forms. First, taking into account the civic literacy theory of Henry Milner, this thesis has examined Saskatchewans junior and senior high school curricula in an effort to find changes in the way civics has been taught. Marked changes have iv been found, and differences in the prescribed teaching of civics throughout the years point to the possibility that the way in which civics is taught to students may have an effect on whether they feel a duty or obligation to vote. Second, this thesis has, following the social capital theory of Robert Putnam, concluded through a brief survey of membership numbers in a small number of community and volunteer organizations as well as church attendance and volunteer levels that community involvement may also be a factor in deciding whether to vote. This thesis has concluded that more, duty-oriented civic education is needed in Saskatchewans junior and senior high schools in order to ensure that students leaving the education system feel an obligation to participate on election day and in the community more than they are presently.

Voter participation among Saskatchewans citizens has decreased in both federal and provincial elections, especially in the past decade or so, and especially among 18-24 year olds. Provincially, turnout has fallen almost 20 percentage points over a four-year period. Saskatchewan voter turnout in federal elections has fallen almost 15 percentage points in a similar time period. The purpose of this thesis is to uncover potential factors that might help to explain why turnout has decreased so markedly. Though a number of factors exist to explain why fewer citizens are participating on election day, this thesis has worked to seek out the explanation in two forms. First, taking into account the civic literacy theory of Henry Milner, this thesis has examined Saskatchewans junior and senior high school curricula in an effort to find changes in the way civics has been taught. Marked changes have iv been found, and differences in the prescribed teaching of civics throughout the years point to the possibility that the way in which civics is taught to students may have an effect on whether they feel a duty or obligation to vote. Second, this thesis has, following the social capital theory of Robert Putnam, concluded through a brief survey of membership numbers in a small number of community and volunteer organizations as well as church attendance and volunteer levels that community involvement may also be a factor in deciding whether to vote. This thesis has concluded that more, duty-oriented civic education is needed in Saskatchewans junior and senior high schools in order to ensure that students leaving the education system feel an obligation to participate on election day and in the community more than they are presently.

Aquesta tesi doctoral estudia el paper dels marcadors discursius procedents de verbs de percepció en català en el debat polític. En concret, se centra en el funcionament de les formes aviam, a veure, miri i escolti, originades en els verbs veure, mirar i escoltar, en el debat electoral. Es tracta d'un grup d'elements bastant homogeni des del punt de vista semàntic, que realitza un paper destacat en el gènere analitzat pel que fa a l'organització de l'intercanvi comunicatiu i a l'argumentació. L'estudi abasta dos vessants interrelacionats: en primer lloc, aborda els aspectes semàntics i morfosintàctics d'aquests marcadors i, a continuació, els pragmaticodiscursius. Així, posa de manifest com, des del punt de vista semàntic, aquests marcadors han passat del significat literal que tenien com a verbs (percepció física visual i auditiva) a un significat metafòric relacionat amb la percepció intel·lectual i/o a un significat discursiu relacionat amb la connexió i amb la subjectivitat del parlant. El treball mostra també com, paral·lelament al canvi de significat, aquestes formes perden (en major o menor grau) les característiques categorials que les definien com a verbs, de manera que deixen de funcionar com a predicats per a realitzar una funció connectiva en el nivell textual. Quant a les funcions pragmàtiques i discursives dels elements estudiats, directament relacionades amb els aspectes semàntics i formals descrits, es concreten en dos nivells: el de l'organització discursiva i el de les relacions que s'estableixen entre els participants en el debat. Com a organitzadors del discurs, aquests marcadors estructuren el diàleg i gestionen l'intercanvi, i, al mateix temps, realitzen funcions vinculades al torn de parla o al tema. Com a indicadors de les relacions entre els participants, aquests elements ens situen en el terreny de la cortesia lingüística, ja que s'utilitzen fonamentalment per a introduir actes que amenacen la imatge positiva de l'interlocutor. El marc teòric en què es desenvolupa aquest treball integra aportacions diverses basades en enfocaments teòrics centrats en l'ús lingüístic. Per una part, la lingüística cognitiva i la teoria de la gramaticalització acullen l'evolució semanticosintàctica dels marcadors discursius procedents de verbs de percepció. Per una altra, l'anàlisi del discurs, i particularment l'anàlisi de la conversa i els estudis sobre cortesia lingüística, proporcionen explicacions adients al paper discursiu d'aquestes formes en el debat electoral. / This doctoral dissertation deals with discourse markers that derive from Catalan verbs of perception in the political debate. The study focuses on the forms aviam, a veure, miri and escolti, whose origin is to be found in veure, mirar and escoltar. In addition, it analyzes the function of these elements in the electoral debate. The research presents two interrelated facets. In a primary plane, it treats semantic and morphosyntactic aspects; in a secondary plane, pragmatic-discoursive ones. From the semantic point of view, the aforementioned markers go from the literal meaning they had as verbs of perception (visual and auditive physical perception) to a metaphorical and discoursive meaning related to intelectual perception. Along with the semantic change, these forms lose (to a smaller or greater degree) the categorial characteristics that defined them as verbs, and stop working as predicates to carry out a connective function in the textual plane. At the pragmatic level, the functions of the analyzed elements can be spelled out in the following way: firstly, they manage the interactional exchange; secondly, they indicate the relations of power that are established between the participants of the debate. The theoretical frame on which this work is grounded integrates a diversity of approaches that focus on language use: cognitive linguistics and the theory of grammaticalization explain the semantic-syntactic evolution of the markers; discourse analysis and, particularly, conversational analysis and the studies on linguistic politeness provide adequate answers to the discourse role carried out by these forms in the electoral debate.

Election boycotts are a common occurrence in unconsolidated democracies, particularly in the developing world, with prominent examples from recent years occurring in Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and Ethiopia. Despite the frequent occurrence of boycotts, there are few studies available in the scholarly literature concerning the effectiveness of electoral boycotts, particularly as a strategy of opposition parties seeking to bring about the end of electoral authoritarian governments. This paper is based in the democratization literature, with a particular focus on the behavior and vulnerabilities of hybrid or electoral authoritarian regimes. Using an original dataset with global coverage including hybrid regimes from 1981 to 2006, this paper uses event-history analysis to determine the efficacy of boycotts in national elections among other risk factors thought to undermine electoral authoritarian regimes as well as the possibilities for subsequent democratization occurring following both contested and boycotted electoral processes.

The overarching question of this dissertation is do Latinos prefer co-ethnic candidates and if so, to what degree? I examine how Latinos evaluate co-ethnic candidates—both those who share one’s partisanship and who do not. In addressing the former, is the evaluation higher of a candidate who not only shares one’s partisanship but also ethnicity or is the double in-group status redundant? I then address a more complex question, how do Latinos evaluate Latino candidates who do not share their partisan identity. The dilemma of having contradictory social group identities places a voter at an electoral fork in the road. To understand which road the voter ultimately takes I consider individual ethnic social group identification and the substantive meanings of ethnic group categories. I look at how different dimensions of Latino group identity influence the ultimate evaluation of a coethnic candidate. More specifically, I consider how and when a Latino social group identity influences political choice. I begin addressing the questions of when and how a Latino ethnic group identity can influence a political choice through an analysis of extant survey data. I also make use of original survey experiments that allow me to determine if there is a causal relationship and to probe the dimensions of Latino group identity. The results indicate that there is an in-group candidate preference. In some instances, an ethnic in-group match by itself predicts political choice, but not for all Latinos and not all the time. More substantive measures of Latino group identity serve to differentiate who among Latinos are most likely to prefer an ethnic in-group candidate. I find that substantive measures moderate a preference and in some instances a distancing from the Latino candidate. In general, Latinos with higher levels of Latino group identification are those most likely to support a Latino candidate. However, the preference for a Latino candidate depends on whom that Latino candidate is—Republican or Democrat. In short, Latino preferences for co-ethnic candidates are variegated, but significantly and substantively influenced by the individual’s level of ethnic identification and the type of Latino candidate choice at hand. / Dissertation

<p>Less democratic countries conduct elections under the majoritarian electoral formula more often than under proportional representation by a wide margin. Yet, robust democratic systems utilize both majoritarian and PR electoral formulas with great success. This dissertation approaches this empirical puzzle and tries to unveil what role, if any, electoral formulas play in politics.</p><p> To do so, it focuses on the electoral process exclusively and utilizes Judith Kelley's recently completed comprehensive dataset on election quality to perform some large-sample statistical analyses of the relationship between the electoral formula, ethno-cultural polarization and election quality. Then, it presents three in-depth case studies of Nigeria, Ghana and Indonesia to unveil in more detail institutional origins and the mechanisms of electoral manipulation, as refracted through the electoral formula. </p><p>The conclusions reached are that PR is much better suited for conducting free and fair elections in ethno-culturally polarized countries. Yet, majoritarian and mixed formulas perform just as well when polarization is low. This finding is directly related to an ongoing debate by institutional designers and academics alike and provides systematic quantitative and detailed qualitative support. The study also suggests that PR might not only mediate inter-ethnic differences when disagreement is high, but also reduces the level of polarization if applied over several electoral cycles.</p> / Dissertation

We follow the approach of expressive voting and consider that voters with more extreme ideology can enjoy higher utility after voting. However, along with effect of ideology, voters also take the difference of his ideology and candidate¡¦s into account. Given the above assumptions, two candidates choose their ideology before voters decide whether and for whom to vote. Two candidates¡¦ ideology converges to the middle point if voters¡¦ utility generated by expressive voting approach is less important than by instrumental voting approach. In the opposite, two candidates¡¦ ideology diverge and the voters with mild ideology refuse to vote in point if voters¡¦ utility generated by expressive voting approach is more important. We examine the ANES data of ten U.S. presidential elections from 1972 to 2008. The nested logit model is used to estimate the corresponding coefficients of voters¡¦ utility generated by expressive voting approach and instrumental voting approach. The data supports our conjecture that voters with more extreme ideology are more likely to cast their votes.