No description available.

This thesis analyses the extent to which particular electoral system features and rules affect the opportunities for, and proportionality of, the representation of certain far right and regionalist at various sub-national levels in key European Community member states. The thesis employs data provided in a unique data base at the University of Plymouth. This data includes a wealth of information concerning shares of the votes and shares of the seats for as many identifiable parties as possible in a range of sub-national elections in the post World War Two period and measures the proportionality of elections using three indices of proportionality. Various authors have previously attempted to identify which electoral features are primarily the cause of disproportionalty at the national electoral level. Within this thesis we will test their claims at various sub-national levels in several west European states. We will also assess the impact of these electoral features upon the representation opportunities of certain far right and regionalist parties, as we have examples of these parties being both 'small' and 'large' at the sub-national level.

No description available.

The variation in expansion of national political parties into regional politics in Russia poses a fundamental challenge to theories of party development by presenting an empirical puzzle: why have national politics dominated in some regions yet failed to elect or even present candidates in others? Conventional explanations for party weakness in Russia invoke cultural constraints or poor institutional incentives but neither provide sufficient variation to explain these outcomes at the regional level. These failures correspond to a larger lacunae in the party literature on the process by parties become nationalized and eliminate their regional competitors. / This study addresses these empirical questions by re-examining regional elites and their ability to create informal alternatives to parties. I argue that the failure of national political party development in Russian regional politics is not simply the product of poor institutional incentives but rather due to the active opposition of regional elites. Where regional elites successfully mobilized the resources made available during transition, they prevented the entry of national parties by furnishing their own candidates with powerful financial resources and lending them reputation that resonated with the electorate. These outcomes were not predetermined by legacies of the Soviet era, however, but were rather contingent on the ability of regional executives to rapidly construct winning coalitions, particularly through the mobilization of administrative resources and the construction of patronage networks. Hence, the successful development national parties in regional politics was as much a story of weak regional regimes as it was a story of successful regional party branches.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington. / Vita. Bibliography: l. [347]-371.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (LL.M.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Law, 1977.

Thesis (B.A.Hons. 1969) from the Dept. of History, University of Adelaide,1969.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, Dept. of Political Science,Faculty of Arts, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 222-243).