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L’identification partisane, comme concept d’analyse en comportement électoral, est transversale. Ce concept est présenté et analysé dans différents contextes géographiques, historiques et sociaux. Il est questionné, critiqué et, dans certains cas, accepté par les chercheurs du comportement électoral. Cela étant dit, l’identification partisane a longtemps été mise de côté au Québec au profit d’autres variables perçues comme étant plus probantes dans l’explication des comportements politiques. Ce mémoire réexamine l’identification partisane en tant que phénomène sous-étudié dans le contexte électoral québécois. Pour y arriver, ce mémoire analyse l’identification partisane grâce à un sondage postélectoral tenu après l’élection québécoise de 2018, une élection surprenante et importante avec la victoire historique de la CAQ. Le mémoire a deux objectifs principaux. Premièrement, il vise à mieux comprendre le profil sociodémographique et les opinions des partisans québécois. Deuxièmement, il examine les effets de l’identification partisane sur les attitudes et les perceptions politiques. Les résultats suggèrent que les partisans québécois sont relativement nombreux et qu’ils présentent un profil assez typé: ils sont plus âgés, croient que l’enjeu de l’indépendance est important et ont une opinion plus extrême sur l’axe gauche-droite. Les résultats montrent également que ces mêmes partisans sont plus intéressés à la politique, plus satisfaits du fonctionnement du système démocratique, plus optimistes à propos de la disposition des gouvernements à répondre aux demandes de l’électorat mais moins susceptibles de penser qu’ils peuvent comprendre la politique et y participer. Ce mémoire conclut que la question de l’identification partisane au Québec mérite une plus grande attention de la part des chercheurs que ce ne fut le cas jusqu’à présent. / Partisan identification, as a concept for analyzing electoral behavior, is studied across a range of contexts. It is present and has been analyzed in different geographical, historical, and social contexts. The presence of partisanship is questioned and criticized in some cases and accepted in other contexts by researchers of electoral behavior. In Quebec, partisan identification has historically been disregarded in favor of other variables and determinants of the vote choice. This MA thesis takes as a starting point that partisanship is understudied in Quebec and seeks to reexamine the presence and role of partisan identification in the Quebec electoral context. To achieve this, the thesis examines partisan identification by means of an analysis of a post-election survey that was fielded after the 2018 Quebec election – an election which resulted in a surprising and historically important victory for the CAQ. The study has two main objectives. First, it aims to better understand the socio-demographic profile and the and the attitudes of partisans in Quebec. Second, it examines the effects of partisan identification on political attitudes and perceptions. The results suggest there are partisans in Quebec: they are older, believe that independence is an important issue, and hold more extreme views on the left-right axis compared to non-partisans. The results also show that partisans are more interested in politics, more satisfied with democracy, more confident that the government will respond to the demands of the electorate, and less confident that they can understand and participate in politics than nonpartisans. This study concludes, therefore, that the question of partisanship, historically and legitimately dismissed, is now under-researched.

This dissertation explored the differences in federal budget communication associated with the development and passage of the Federal Budget Resolution for Fiscal Years 1999, 2000, and 2001. A computer-aided (i.e., DICTION) content analysis was completed to explore Executive, Legislature, and Agency budget communication for source-based and party-based differences. Source-based differences were explored using the variables Activity, Realism, Optimism, Commonality, Certainty, Public Interest, Budget Concepts, and Functional Budget Categories. When reviewing the findings as a whole — and taking into account the variables, data, and time period analyzed - a distinct and predominant source-based perspective was not present in the federal budget communication associated with the development of the Congressional Budget Resolution. However, it was possible to identify predominant sources for individual variables Activity, Optimism, Commonality, and Certainty. Party-based differences were explored within seven themes: the use of Lakoff's value language; discussions of campaign actors; coalition building rhetoric; moral virtue and entrepreneurialism rhetoric; language of order, efficiency and unity; public interest; and, accusatory language. Variables included Liberal Language, Conservative Language, Party References, Voter References, Leader References, Commonality, Familiarity, Realism, Human Interest, Rapport, Praise, Inspiration, Liberation, Tenacity, Communication, Denial, Public Interest, Blame, and Pessimism. The analysis of party-based differences revealed that Democrats were more likely to incorporate language associated with the following variables: Liberal Language, Conservative Language, Party References, Voter References, Leader References, Human Interest, Rapport, Liberation, Blame, and Pessimism. Republicans were more likely to incorporate language associated with Familiarity, Realism, Tenacity, Communication, and Denial. This research illustrates that within our political institutions generally, and the budget specifically, there are significant source-based and party-based differences in the goals and values communicated by the actors within the federal budget process. If it is possible to gain a better understanding of how actors within this key process communicate, public administrators will be better equipped to engage each other in an honest dialogue and debate that facilitates agreement and understanding. Until source-based and party-based communication barriers have been broken down, the negative tenor in political communication and the public's apathy and frustration towards the political process will continue. / Ph. D.

This dissertation comprises of three problems in the area of Political Economy and Industrial Organization. The first chapter concerns how ideologically-opposite media firms report a particular event to maximize their payoffs from advocating their ideology and strengthen reader trust which increases if the report is proximate to their beliefs. I use these facts to develop a Hotelling's linear city model of competition where the two media firms choose their respective locations which signify the impression they want to impart to its readers. I find partisan media provides accurate information while covering topics favorable to its ideology. However, for unfavourable topics, the media never provides an indifferent report, but either defends its own ideology or delivers a partially accurate report. For unfavourable issues, imparting an indifferent impression rewards a media with lowest equilibrium payoffs. I identify sufficiency conditions where readers give better assessment to news of a media located farther away from their ideology than one which is nearer. Increasing competition by the entry of a third firm does not necessarily alleviate the level of bias in the news economy. The second paper studies the pricing schedule of a monopolist while it sells a non-durable product over two time periods. The consumer's experience with the product is correlated with two possible states — good (bad) experience is more probable under a high (low) state. Given this, I study the monopolist's pricing scheme in the two periods when consumers are wishful — overly optimistic about the high state even after a bad experience. I provide a comparative study of prices in each periods when the monopolist announces prices with and without commitment when consumers are either naive or sophisticated. The final chapter provides an understanding of the efficacy of two types of trade sanctions (import and export) using a directed network model. Sanctions are common punitive measures taken by a sender player to discipline a target player. Empirical evidences in the realm of international trade show differences in the effectiveness between import and export sanctions. This paper shows that such differences can be explained by one specific centrality feature of the underlying trading network — betweenness-centrality. This measure lends insights to the trade spill-overs following sanctions underscoring why sanctions are ineffective. I highlight when a higher value of this centrality acts as a sufficient condition towards effective sanction. Based on this analysis, one can conclude whether import or export sanction will be more effective for a given trade network. / Doctor of Philosophy / Three essays spanning across topics of political economy and Industrial Organization has been studied. The first essay `Media bias in the best and worst of times' studies how ideology-motivated (partisan) media firms try to create impressions to its audience about a particular issue to increase its payoffs from either of the two sources — reader trust and advocating its ideology. This trade-off depends on the type of issue at hand which either aggravates or moderates a media's wish to generate bias in its news. I investigate not only the degree of bias for any given event, but also study how profits of media are impacted from doing so. The second chapter `Monopoly pricing under wishful thinking' investigates the pricing strategies of a seller when he sells a non-durable product to a wishful buyer twice, over two time periods. Under two possible states of the world — textit{high} and textit{low} — the buyer can derives either a good or bad experience. It is assumed that a good experience is more likely than a bad one under textit{high} state. Would the buyer re-purchase the product after having a bad experience in the first period? A wishful buyer is overly optimistic about a good experience in the future even after a bad experience in the current period. Such optimism paves the way for pricing strategies in favor of the seller under certain conditions. My aim has been to highlight these conditions and draw comparison with a pricing model with non-wishful buyers. The third chapter investigates the effectiveness of trade sanctions. Such sanctions are imposed by a sender country against a target country when the latter has taken an action which the sender disapproves — initiating domestic war, building nuclear arsenals, etc. The sanctions are enforced until the target. However, only 30% sanctions are effective in disciplining the target. This paper studies if any feature of the trade network can explain why sanctions fail and what type of trade sanction — import or export — will be optimal in any given trade network.

During the United States Civil War, southwestern Virginia was mired in a bloody guerrilla conflict that involved Confederate irregular combatants defending the region from invading or raiding Union Army forces. Simmering for the entirety of the war, this conflict revolved around the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad (VandT), a critical railway that ran through southwestern Virginia and connected the southwestern Confederacy with Richmond and the rest of Virginia. As the war progressed, this railway moved increasingly large amounts of foodstuffs and minerals vital to the Confederate war effort, and by the later stages of the war it was the most important railway in the South. Union Army commanders in West Virginia recognized the incredible importance of the VandT to the Confederacy, and launched a multitude of major and minor invasions and raids into southwestern Virginia with the intent of crippling the railroad. Confederate partisan rangers, bushwhackers, and home guards played separate roles in weakening, distracting, and hampering Union Army operations in southwestern Virginia, thereby helping to defend the VandT from attacks. Their actions played a crucial role in ensuring the survival of the railroad until nearly the end of the war, and thus Confederate guerrillas had a strategic effect on the course of the war in southwestern Virginia. / Master of Arts / During the United States Civil War, Confederate guerrillas in southwestern Virginia played a critical role in the defense of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad (V&T) in southwestern Virginia. The V&T ran from Bristol, Tennessee to Lynchburg, Virginia, and connected the fertile fields and mines of southwestern Virginia and the southwestern Confederacy with the rest of Virginia. The railroad proved to be one of the most critical transportation assets in the entire Confederacy, and thus it attracted the attention of Union armies in West Virginia who consistently tried to attack and cripple the railroad throughout the course of the war. Confederate guerrillas weakened, distracted, and hampered Union Army operations in southwestern Virginia, thereby helping to defend the V&T from assaults and enabling the railroad to survive until almost the very end of the conflict.

A presente dissertação busca entender as razões do insucesso dos pequenos partidos políticos em Cabo Verde e o seu fraco desempenho eleitoral ao longo da história política cabo verdiana. O modelo do financiamento público tem sido apontado como a causa principal deste resultado. Questionamos essa explicação, buscando mostrar que a razão que está por trás do insucesso dos pequenos partidos não se deve unicamente à dificuldade de acesso ao financiamento público, mas também a outras variáveis, nem todas elas institucionais. Através da análise dos dados do Afrobarómetro é possível inferir que os pequenos partidos não têm apoio da população. As pessoas não transferem as suas preferências numa terceira força partidária, favorecendo assim os dois grandes partidos, fomentando ainda mais o bipartidarismo. / This work seeks to understand the reasons for the failure of small political parties in Cape Verde and its weak electoral performance throughout the political history Cape Verdean . Public funding model has been suggested as the main cause of this result. We question this explanation, seeking to show that the reason behind the failure of small parties is not due solely to the difficulty of access to public funding, but also to other variables, not all of them institutional. By analyzing the Afrobarometer data we can infer that the small parties have no popular support. People do not transfer their preferences in a third party force, favoring the two major parties, encouraging even more bipartisanship.

A presente dissertação busca entender as razões do insucesso dos pequenos partidos políticos em Cabo Verde e o seu fraco desempenho eleitoral ao longo da história política cabo verdiana. O modelo do financiamento público tem sido apontado como a causa principal deste resultado. Questionamos essa explicação, buscando mostrar que a razão que está por trás do insucesso dos pequenos partidos não se deve unicamente à dificuldade de acesso ao financiamento público, mas também a outras variáveis, nem todas elas institucionais. Através da análise dos dados do Afrobarómetro é possível inferir que os pequenos partidos não têm apoio da população. As pessoas não transferem as suas preferências numa terceira força partidária, favorecendo assim os dois grandes partidos, fomentando ainda mais o bipartidarismo. / This work seeks to understand the reasons for the failure of small political parties in Cape Verde and its weak electoral performance throughout the political history Cape Verdean . Public funding model has been suggested as the main cause of this result. We question this explanation, seeking to show that the reason behind the failure of small parties is not due solely to the difficulty of access to public funding, but also to other variables, not all of them institutional. By analyzing the Afrobarometer data we can infer that the small parties have no popular support. People do not transfer their preferences in a third party force, favoring the two major parties, encouraging even more bipartisanship.

Part of the resistance against the Nazi Germany were partisan troops operating in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. They arose in mountainous and forested areas - particullarly suitable terrain was at Moravia-Slovak border, the Moravia-Silesian Beskids and the region Wallachia. The first partisan units were formed there in the spring of 1942 but the major resitance started only after the partisan unit led by Ján Ušiak and Dajan Bajanovič Murzin crossed the border from Slovakia to Moravia and I. Czechoslovak Partisan Brigade of Jan Žižka was founded. This thesis deals wiht the activities of querilla units operating in Wallachia during World War II. It primarily focuses on the troops whitch were part of I. Czechoslovak Partisan Brigade of Jan Žižka therefore is set mainly in the final period of the war, that is 1944-1945. The aim is to analyze life in the partisan units and the problems that the partisans had to face. In selected cases, the close supporters of the guerillas will also be reflected. Most of the professional literature on the topic of the partisan movement focuses mainly on the description of fighting, diversion and sabotage actions or other significant moments in the activities of partisan groups. Therefore, the thesis will focus mainly on less obvious aspects of this...

Few environmental problems exemplify market-failure better than municipal solid waste does: A direct by-product of economic production and consumption, its collection and disposal (still mainly at landfills, in many countries) incurs high capital and running costs, creates environmental and health impacts and, in European Union countries, risks incurring heavy financial penalties. The main remedy proposed in environmental economics is a marginal tax on the disposal of mixed household waste, intended to incentivise its reduction and separation for recycling. But taxes are politically unpopular, expensive to administer and generate variable response − sometimes stimulating illegal disposal of waste instead of its reduction. Taxes also risk undermining the moral benefits people seem to enjoy from cooperating voluntarily. Inducing voluntary cooperation could cultivate moral motives and generate cooperation, but this has received less attention in environmental economics to date. The aim of this thesis is to examine the determinants of cooperation by households in waste management activities, investigating the role that government policy can play in stimulating it, and focusing on the role of price incentives and of scheme promotion. Chapter 1 introduces the issue of waste management as an economic problem, and the role of household cooperation as a promising solution. Chapter 2 surveys the literature on the topic of what determines household cooperation in waste management and identifies the key gaps which the thesis seeks to address. Three manuscripts are presented in Chapters 3, 4 and 5, each of which examines a distinct question on the determinants of household cooperation in waste management. Chapter 6 concludes with a synthesis of main findings, key policy cues and suggestions for future research. The first manuscript titled “Voluntary recycling despite financial disincentives” employs a unique merged panel data set (n = 4,644) using data from 58 localities over 86 weeks to assess the determinants of participation in a voluntary waste separation scheme in Malta. The two manuscripts that follow are based on a nationally-representative telephone survey (n = 1,037), containing two embedded experiments, and conducted during 2013, in Malta, for this thesis. Manuscript 2 titled “Partisanship, priming and participation in voluntary recycling” tests whether party identification, as distinct from environmental or political ideology, can act as a determinant of participation in a recycling scheme, particularly if the scheme is promoted in a manner that associates it with the party in government. Manuscript 3 titled “The impact of a Pay as You Throw tax level and label on home-composting” examines the potential of a Pay As You Throw (PAYT) tax, and of its labelling, to induce substitution of biodegradable waste away from mixed kerb-side disposal and into home-composting. It also examines the prospect that this type of intervention stimulates illegal disposal. Synthesising the results of three studies, the thesis finds that: 1. The type of households most likely to cooperate in waste management schemes are multiple-person ones facing lower constraints of space and time, where members hold pro-environmental preferences. This confirms findings of similar studies in other contexts, helps forecast uptake and may guide the design and promotion of schemes to target low-lying fruit and tackle relevant constraints. 2. Driven mainly by moral motives, households are willing to recycle voluntarily even if it is less convenientc e than disposing of un-separated waste, and they are willing to pay for it. This is a useful finding for municipalities with low budgets, unable to institute taxes or fearing illegal disposal as a reaction. 3. Political preferences are relevant to recycling: Where negative sentiment towards the party in government exists, (even subtle cues) promoting the scheme as a government scheme and associating it with the party in government can suppress participation. Decoupling political communication from scheme promotion can release more households into cooperative effort. 4. Responses to waste taxes are not just a matter of price level but also of tax salience: A tax label can significantly increase waste separation and home-composting but it also boosts higher illegal-disposal intent. The way a fee is labelled therefore itself forms part of the intervention tool-kit, meriting pre-testing and capable of manipulation. These findings make a marginal contribution to gaps in the environmental economics literature by integrating insights from psychology. They are also intended to offer simple and applicable ideas to policy-makers and to scheme-operators aiming to increase household cooperation in waste management.

In many federal countries, local governments run large deficits, even when fiscal supervision by state authorities is tight. I investigate to which extent party alignment of governments and fiscal supervisors influences budget deficits. The dataset includes 427 German local governments for the period 2000–2004. I exploit a period after a far-reaching institutional reform that entirely re-distributed political powers on both the government level and the fiscal supervisor level. Results do not show that party alignments of governments and supervisors (co-partisanship) drive short-term deficits. Instead, I find that the ideology of partisan governments and supervisors matters: left-wing local governments run higher deficits than their right-wing counterparts; left-wing supervisors tolerate higher deficits than right-wing supervisors. These findings imply that political independence for fiscal supervisors is recommended.