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Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 27 novembre 2023) / La littérature sur la carboneutralité des municipalités (CM) examine la complexité, les problèmes et les synergies associés à ce domaine. Cette étude systématique explore les facteurs qui facilitent ou perturbent les initiatives de neutralité carbone des municipalités. Basée sur 65 études empiriques, cette recherche décrit l'évolution de la littérature sur la CM et identifie sept facteurs critiques en lien avec la CM. En outre, cette étude identifie six pistes pour la recherche future sur la CM, telles que les innovations méthodologiques et l'inclusion des parties prenantes dans le processus de gouvernance, de politique et de mise en œuvre des actions de CM. En plus d'utiliser la complexité et les synergies pour analyser la CM, cette étude présente un cadre intégratif des barrières et des stratégies utilisées par les municipalités. Ces résultats ont des implications pour les décideurs politiques et les gestionnaires dans ce domaine. / The literature on municipal carbon neutrality (MCN) examines the complexity, issues and synergies associated with this field. This systematic review explores the factors that facilitate or disrupt MCN initiatives. Based on 65 empirical studies, this research describes the evolution of the literature on MC and identifies seven critical MC factors. In addition, this study identifies six avenues for future research on MCN, such as methodological innovations and the inclusion of stakeholders in the process of governance, policy and implementation of CM actions. In addition to using complexity and synergies to analyse MCN, this study presents an integrative framework of barriers and strategies used by municipalities. These results have implications for policy makers and managers in this field.

We frequently hear that Latinos are the fastest growing minority group in the United States. We also know that like many American immigrant groups, Latinos tend to reside in states where a critical mass of their community already is settled, in this case largely for geo-political reasons (e.g. New Mexico, Arizona, California, Texas, Florida and New York). Why, then, is Latino participation in national politics lower than white, Black, and Asian voters? And who has an interest in doing something about it? This project addresses several interrelated questions concerning the place of Latinos in American politics and the health of democracy in the United States. Political parties are meant to link citizens to the state. However, parties often fear that reaching out to certain groups may alienate the concerns of some core voters, providing a disincentive to political parties to prioritize Latino outreach. Here, I ask, to what degree are local political parties involved in mobilizing Latino voters as compared to other voting groups? Interest groups have much narrower constituencies than political parties by definition, but their purpose may not be exclusively, or even primarily, electoral. So, what role do interest groups and community organizations play in getting Latinos to vote? Perhaps parties and interest groups compliment each other's efforts to mobilize Latinos, so I ask, what relationship do political parties and interest groups develop in the push to mobilize Latino voters? I hypothesize that political parties increase efforts to mobilize Latino communities when these groups of voters are known to be reliable partisan voters and pivotal to winning elections at the local, state, and/or national level. Party organizations are unlikely to target Latino voters when they are few in number and make little difference in an election. Second, interest groups and organizations concerned with Latinos issues are going to be more consistent in mobilizing Latino voters whether or not they constitute a significant segment of the population and are pivotal to winning elections at the local, state, and/or national level. To answer these questions, I use several methods to gather data. Between November of 2008 and February 2009, I conducted a mail survey of 217 county political party chairs concerning Latino mobilization in the 2008 Presidential race. The survey was submitted to the chairs of every county political party in the ten states with the highest percentage of Latino population: Arizona, California, Nevada, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and Texas. Responses were then matched to county census and election data in order to understand the relationship between mobilization activity, county demographics, and partisan identity. What best predicts Latino mobilization? Using a multiple regression model, I found that Latino population size threshold and whether a county resides in a presidential swing state most strongly predict Latino mobilization. The greater the size of the Latino community within a county's population, the more likely political parties will seek to reach out to Latino voters. The data suggests that the likelihood that local parties made an attempt to mobilize Latino voters more than doubles when the county's Latino population moves above 25% of the total population. The impact of interest group activity by community organizations also seemed to spur greater party mobilization efforts towards Latinos. Likewise, national political dynamics have a trickle down impact on local Latino communities. County party organizations are more inclined to reach out to Latino voters in states where presidential elections are contested and where Latino votes could have an impact on close elections. Lastly, I conducted a qualitative case study to understand how this mobilization operates in practice. I explored strategies taken by several interest groups and community organization leaders in Nevada during the 2010 midterm elections to detail how those groups attempt to reach and mobilize Latinos, and the possible position political parties may fill in Latino communities where interest groups have become important politically in mobilizing voters, and vice versa. The case study reveals that Latino mobilization by parties and interest groups is part of a larger phenomenon in contemporary American elections in which voters are targeted by a partisan network of political actors that employ political parties, partisan interest groups, party and outside spending organization donors, and partisan volunteers. My work parallels and expands Mildred A. Schwartz's work (1990) on party networks and the complexity of relationships between political parties and interest groups to include how these political actors interact with Latino voters in the United States. / Political Science

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No / This article focuses on parties as the main anchors of democratic consolidation and seeks to present the main factors that have affected their development in two systems that could be argued to be amongst the most stable in Latin America, those of Argentina and Chile. It argues that some of the main variables affecting that development have been, besides systemic variables: the professionalized electoral campaign; external variables including technological transfers resulting from the foreign assistance received by centre and centre-left parties; the proscription of parties by authoritarian regimes; and shocks such as electoral defeat, loss of office and economic crises. Whilst electoral campaigns show a high level of professionalization in Argentine and Chilean parties, it is moderated by the preservation - or re-acquisition - of personnel-based campaigning and mass party characteristics.

The momentous 2005 Liberian elections followed a devastating civil war. Remarkably, the winner of the presidential race was a woman, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and the second-placed was a footballer, George Weah. In addition, in stark contrast to many African elections in particular those in neighbouring Sierra Leone, voting patterns were fragmented: voters often chose President, Senators and Representatives from different parties or independents. Much can be explained by a remarkably level playing-field delivered by an interim coalition government providing no incumbent. In 2011, the Johnson-Sirleaf incumbency stood to significantly change the dynamics. This article seeks to discern whether Liberian elections maintain their unusual patterns, whether Liberia has joined the ranks of African patron-clientelist, dominant-party or two-party systems, in particular compared to that of Sierra Leone, or whether there are new twists in its democratic development. / Full text of the article was made available on the 1st March 2015 at the end of the publisher's embargo.

published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis examines the electoral performance of minor parties in English local government from 1973 to 2008, a period that has seen a sharp increase in the numbers of candidates from such parties. Beginning with an overall assessment of the extent to which candidates from minor parties have contested local elections and the level of success in being elected, the thesis then explores the spatial distribution of minor party candidates, the types of people that become candidates and, considering the relative lack of electoral success, their motivations for standing. Traditional studies of party systems frequently exclude parties that do not win a relatively large share of votes and seats or are incapable of forming part of a subsequent government or administration. However broader definitions of what constitutes a party allow that small political parties can influence policy and the behaviour of mainstream parties simply because they are present in an electoral contest. Using the concept of presence, this thesis demonstrates that there has been an unprecedented increase in contestation by minor parties over the past 10 years that has not been proportionally matched by vote share and electoral success. Examination of patterns of contestation reveals that the growth in minor party contestation is uneven across England but is not apparently related to the different electoral systems used by local authorities. Furthermore, it becomes clearer that minor party contestation appears to be primarily a function of temporal local factors and is not necessarily influenced by electoral history, thus making it difficult to predict beforehand where and when such parties may begin to contest local elections and the relative level of electoral support they might subsequently enjoy. Having examined at a general level the electoral nature of minor party activity the thesis offers a new typology, an analytical framework within which to locate the various types of minor parties that feature in modern English local government. Using individual level data we examine whether it is possible to distinguish between candidates based on their party’s location within this typology, thus testing whether the recent increase in minor party activity is due to the rise of a new political class. Initial survey observations subsequently inform the development of a multinomial logistic regression model that seeks to identify similarities and differences between candidates standing for the range of parties currently contesting English local elections. This modelling suggests that candidates from across the range of minor parties are rather similar to each other and, moreover, similar to candidates from major parties. There does not, therefore, appear to be any association between the rise in the frequency of minor party candidates and the existence of a new political class of candidates that are different to those already located within the party political mainstream. Consequently, the value of the typology as a heuristic for establishing a better understanding of minor party activity is brought into question and further research into the phenomenon of minor party contestation in English local government is recommended.