In this paper we discuss the electoral behavior of the 7th Legislator Election in single-member districts. The system impacted the election essentially. According to Median Voter Theorem by Anthony Downs, the candidates become imperious to look for support from the median voters rather than the partisans. And the candidates manipulate the elections with moderate campaign strategies. Base on Downs¡¦ theory, in this paper we extended the analysis by considering conditions such as the properties of electoral districts and candidates¡¦ status to clarify the electoral behavior in the election.

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-108). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

One of the main goals for political parties is to attract as many voters as possible. The competition for voters among the parties is especially relevant in a multiparty system. A voter in such a system may choose between several parties and can order them in any way he or she pleases. Thus, the voter has an order of party preferences. In this thesis, I argue that differences in a voters’ first and second preference order can be used as a resource to discover unique patterns in the voters’ party identification. To address this conjecture, I have used the Super-Riks-SOM dataset to study such patterns between the years 2005, 2011 and 2013. The results show that along the points of measure, the Swedish voter has become less willing to vote for the middle parties. Hence, the pattern indicates that the party identification in the second preferences is more balanced in 2013 than in 2005.

Political parties in the United Kingdom are increasingly focusing their constituency-level campaigns on marginal seats; such a focus has been echoed by academic researchers studying the effectiveness of intense constituency campaigning in boosting local electoral outcomes. Yet there has been little investigation into the impact of the redirection of campaigning resources on safe constituencies; while existing research suggests that intense campaigns are effective in boosting local electoral outcomes, it is possible that a relative lack of campaigning may be harmful. This thesis addresses this gap by exploring in detail the detrimental impact of low level campaigning on both turnout and vote share in safe constituencies by the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats. The study is situated within the literature of campaign effectiveness, also drawing on theories of voter behaviour. It offers a critical evaluation of existing research into constituency campaigning, contending not only that a lack of campaigning can be harmful, but also that these effects are impacted by nuances of local incumbency and party differentials. To explore this, the thesis conducts a quantitative examination of the effects of constituency campaigning conducted at UK general elections from 1987 to 2010. It also expands existing literature in two ways; by formulating and applying a refined way in which to measure relative levels of campaigning, and also exploring the potential of leader visits as a measure of local campaigning for the first time in the UK. The focus on rebalancing attention towards safe constituencies places the concept of marginality at the core of this thesis. In exploring the concept in detail, potential explanations for the origins of marginality are considered, drawing on theories of population stability and party support bases. Using a refined measure of relative levels of campaigning, a link is established between marginality and campaigning, which also considers the important role of incumbency. When exploring the impact of low levels of campaigning, the results indicate that in many cases there is a harmful impact on both turnout and vote share, although the effects are greater for the latter. The findings suggest that local incumbency is a central factor in deciding the detrimental impact of low levels of campaigning, with such campaigns run by opposition parties resulting in far greater declines in their vote share when compared to equivalent campaigns run by incumbents. In an era of increasing focus on marginal constituencies during election campaigns, this thesis explicitly considers the impact of a lack of campaigning in safe constituencies, the role of incumbency and also applies new measures. In doing so, new empirical insights are produced into the importance of constituency campaigning in the UK, through an approach both rooted in and building upon existing studies.

In advanced democracies, many citizens abstain from participating in the political process. Does low and unequal voter turnout influence partisan election results or public policies? If so, how can participation be increased and how can the electorate become more representative of the greater population? / Government

The following study is comprised of three essays, each examining a different manner by which race and party impact political participation. Through the analysis of both intra-party primary and inter-party general elections, I find that candidates are more likely to run, and voters are more likely to turn out, when the social groups they belong to comprise a larger portion of the electorate. While race often serves as the key social identity in determining rates of participation, these effects are contingent on partisan forces governing the broader electoral process.

This thesis study political participation in Sweden. More specifically political participationthrough three indicators on political participation. These three indicators are “voter turnout”,“accountability” and “community engagement”. This studies purpose is to analyze if Swedenhas high or low political participation. The inspiration to make this study comes from a desireto validate or question the assumptions made by The Economist Intelligence Unit in theirdemocracy index from 2020 about Swedens political participation. In their democracy indexthey ranked Sweden low in the democracy category “Political participation” compared toother high ranked democracies. Results from this study shows that Sweden doesn’t have lowpolitical participation, at least according to the indicators that’s been used in this study. Thisalso indicates that the assumptions made by the EIU about Sweden’s low politicalparticipation can be highly questioned. To come to these results this study uses Dahls fivecriteria’s for evaluating a democratic process, and then operationalizing the theory to threedifferent indicators on political participation. The method is then by a case study aboutSweden’s political participation. The material used is from different government fundedorganizations that conducts statistical surveys on voter turnout, accountability, andcommunity engagement.

This study aims to explain why voters in Sweden choose to cast their vote on the, often more unknown and smaller, local municipality party rather than an established larger party. Earlier studies have focused more on why the local parties are created, this study has a different approach as it tries to explain voter behavior rather than party creation. To achieve this goal a survey has been sent out to all the local parties registered for the kommunfullmäktige election before 2018s election. The study finds that the most significant reason for the voters seems to be the representatives of the local party, therefore strengthening the earlier theories of the importance of the so-called local entrepreneur. A second important result was the fact that voters believe that local parties best represent the voters view on local issues, as the local party focuses on trying to fix those issues without the need to take the national policy into consideration. Future studies with a larger sample size could develop the theory further and answer some unanswered questions, such as: Why local parties seem to cluster together in neighboring municipalities.

In this paper I examine how closeness between the traditional political blocks affects voter turnout in the Swedish municipal elections 2014 and 2018. The results of the two elections shows that closeness between the traditional blocks is not a relevant factor for individuals when they decide to vote or abstain. The voter turnout do not increases when its close between the political blocks. The rapport argument for the complexity in predicting coalition government in multi-party systems. This makes voters consider other factors then closness when they decide to vote or abstain. Despite the none statistic significant results of closeness and turnout, the most relevant factors when individuals decide to vote or abstain is based on socioeconomic variabels. The voter turnout is therefore more likley to be affected by socioeconomic characteristics than a tight race between political blocks.