This thesis comprises four empirical papers, each devoted to a specific topic in local political economics. Paper one and two evaluate the importance of the mayor position to the future electoral success of the mayor’s party. In the first paper, the focus is on the party’s electoral outcome in subsequent mayoral elections, while the second paper is concerned with the interdependencies between the mayor’s office and elections on other levels of government. The third paper investigates the causal effect of individual parties on policy in the context of German town council politics. The objective is to measure the impact of political representation in a proportional election system on core fiscal decisions of the municipalities. The final paper studies the specific concerns when using population thresholds in regression discontinuity designs for causal inference (in the German case). The analysis reviews the German evidence on the link between the size of the legislation and government spending. / <p>Diss. Stockholm :  Stockholm School of Economics, 2011. Introduction together with 4 papers.</p>

The current forms of representative democracy have come to face various fundamental challenges such as: decrease in political participation, distrust in partisan politics and politicians and perhaps increase of ideological polarization. To take solace in the belief that the current democratic tools are far from perfect yet the finest in modern societies, has not contributed to solution-oriented modifications of its efficacy. In this thesis Lua Nazerian intends to address the inadequacies and inherent limitations in the current form of representative democracy, by analyzing its underlying assumptions through a critical examination of the fundamental challenges in Classical pluralism, Agonist and Deliberative democratic theory. Furthermore, it proposes some modifications drawn from the Socratic idea of the non-pursuit of power, the bottom-up political approach and the learnings from the worldwide Baha’i community. The study is carried out within the field of international relations with a normative approach as well as it incorporates a case study of the Baha’i electoral and decision-making principle. Nevertheless, by using the Socratic idea together with the Baha’i principles in a bottom-up approach shifts then the paradigm from the inherent competitive culture of representative democracy to a more inclusive solution-oriented culture of learning.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T20:23:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JACILEIA CADETE ABREU.pdf: 1176734 bytes, checksum: 26832f7ca152edbb09df390d43d4e166 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-05-25 / Fundação Ford / This paper focuses on the women experiences working in partisan politics in São Luís do Maranhão. Through their narratives, we sought to understand and point out the strategies and capital used by them to step into and remain in the political space, which has traditionally been occupied mostly by men. The empirical field of research is the space of political action of a women s group in the city of São Luis in the years 2000-2004 and 2004-2008, periods decisively marked by moves that highlight the strengthening of the women s rights for political participation after decades of closures and silences of greater female participation in political spheres. The theoretical framework employed in this research lies in the concepts of social capital, trajectories, strategies, and habitus developed during the work of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. This contribution allowed the development of research enabling the mapping of movement of the parliamentary investigated in their inclusion in political spaces, without losing sight of the plots prepared for them to manage the public and private lives. Life story provided the information necessary to understand the strategies used by these women in their political trajectories that are sheltered by specific social field. Thus, we used unstructured interviews as a procedure for data collection. The achievement of this work allowed understand, among others things, that in the case of investigated women, their insertion into the world of partisan politics occur because a number of reasons, among them, generally by parts of the male figures (husbands, parents or in-laws, etc.) that lead them to the political activity; another important finding is that the work indicated that the investigated people perceive politics as a "mission", as a place of generosity, solidarity, as a ministry, thus removing the representation of politics as an area par excellence of political vacation / Este trabalho focaliza as vivências de mulheres que atuam na política partidária em São Luís do Maranhão. Por meio das narrativas dessas mulheres, buscou-se perceber e apontar as estratégias e os capitais utilizados por elas para adentrarem e se manterem no espaço político que, tradicionalmente, é ocupado em sua maioria por homens. O campo empírico da pesquisa é os espaços de atuação política de um conjunto de mulheres na cidade de São Luís, nos anos de 2000 a 2004 e de 2004 a 2008, períodos decisivamente marcados por movimentos que evidenciam o fortalecimento dos direitos de participação política da mulher, após décadas de silenciamentos e interdições de maior participação feminina nos espaços políticos. O referencial teórico empregado nesta pesquisa se encontra nos conceitos de capital social, trajetórias, estratégias e habitus desenvolvidos ao longo da obra do sociólogo francês Pierre Bourdieu. Esse aporte conceitual permitiu o desenvolvimento da pesquisa possibilitando o mapeamento do movimento das parlamentares investigadas em sua inserção nos espaços políticos, sem perder de vista as articulações elaboradas por elas para administrarem a vida pública e a privada. A história de vida forneceu os elementos necessários para apreender as estratégias utilizadas por essas mulheres em suas trajetórias políticas que são abrigadas por campo social específico. Desta forma, utilizou-se de entrevistas não estruturadas como procedimento para coleta de dados. A consecução deste trabalho permitiu constatar, entre outros, que no caso das mulheres investigadas, suas inserções no mundo da política partidária se dão por uma série de razões, entre estas, geralmente, por partes de figuras masculinas (maridos, pais ou cunhados, etc.) que as encaminham para a atividade política. Outra constatação importante é que o trabalho apontou que as investigadas percebem a política como uma missão , como espaço de generosidade, solidariedade, como um apostolado, afastando, assim, da representação da política como um espaço por excelência da vocação política

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T14:58:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JACILEIA CADETE ABREU.pdf: 1176734 bytes, checksum: 26832f7ca152edbb09df390d43d4e166 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-05-25 / Fundação Ford / This paper focuses on the women experiences working in partisan politics in São Luís do Maranhão. Through their narratives, we sought to understand and point out the strategies and capital used by them to step into and remain in the political space, which has traditionally been occupied mostly by men. The empirical field of research is the space of political action of a women s group in the city of São Luis in the years 2000-2004 and 2004-2008, periods decisively marked by moves that highlight the strengthening of the women s rights for political participation after decades of closures and silences of greater female participation in political spheres. The theoretical framework employed in this research lies in the concepts of social capital, trajectories, strategies, and habitus developed during the work of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. This contribution allowed the development of research enabling the mapping of movement of the parliamentary investigated in their inclusion in political spaces, without losing sight of the plots prepared for them to manage the public and private lives. Life story provided the information necessary to understand the strategies used by these women in their political trajectories that are sheltered by specific social field. Thus, we used unstructured interviews as a procedure for data collection. The achievement of this work allowed understand, among others things, that in the case of investigated women, their insertion into the world of partisan politics occur because a number of reasons, among them, generally by parts of the male figures (husbands, parents or in-laws, etc.) that lead them to the political activity; another important finding is that the work indicated that the investigated people perceive politics as a "mission", as a place of generosity, solidarity, as a ministry, thus removing the representation of politics as an area par excellence of political vacation / Este trabalho focaliza as vivências de mulheres que atuam na política partidária em São Luís do Maranhão. Por meio das narrativas dessas mulheres, buscou-se perceber e apontar as estratégias e os capitais utilizados por elas para adentrarem e se manterem no espaço político que, tradicionalmente, é ocupado em sua maioria por homens. O campo empírico da pesquisa é os espaços de atuação política de um conjunto de mulheres na cidade de São Luís, nos anos de 2000 a 2004 e de 2004 a 2008, períodos decisivamente marcados por movimentos que evidenciam o fortalecimento dos direitos de participação política da mulher, após décadas de silenciamentos e interdições de maior participação feminina nos espaços políticos. O referencial teórico empregado nesta pesquisa se encontra nos conceitos de capital social, trajetórias, estratégias e habitus desenvolvidos ao longo da obra do sociólogo francês Pierre Bourdieu. Esse aporte conceitual permitiu o desenvolvimento da pesquisa possibilitando o mapeamento do movimento das parlamentares investigadas em sua inserção nos espaços políticos, sem perder de vista as articulações elaboradas por elas para administrarem a vida pública e a privada. A história de vida forneceu os elementos necessários para apreender as estratégias utilizadas por essas mulheres em suas trajetórias políticas que são abrigadas por campo social específico. Desta forma, utilizou-se de entrevistas não estruturadas como procedimento para coleta de dados. A consecução deste trabalho permitiu constatar, entre outros, que no caso das mulheres investigadas, suas inserções no mundo da política partidária se dão por uma série de razões, entre estas, geralmente, por partes de figuras masculinas (maridos, pais ou cunhados, etc.) que as encaminham para a atividade política. Outra constatação importante é que o trabalho apontou que as investigadas percebem a política como uma missão , como espaço de generosidade, solidariedade, como um apostolado, afastando, assim, da representação da política como um espaço por excelência da vocação política

For all their efforts to avoid a nuclear North Korea, the Clinton and Bush administrations failed to achieve this goal, the most important policy objective of the United States in its relations with North Korea for decades, mainly because of inconsistencies in U.S. policy. This dissertation seeks to explain why both administrations ultimately failed to prevent North Korea from going nuclear. It finds the origins of this failure in the implementation of different U.S. policy options toward North Korea during the Clinton and Bush administrations. To explain the lack of policy consistency, the dissertation investigates how the relations between the executive and the legislative branches and, more specifically, different government types—unified government and divided government—have affected U.S. policy toward North Korea. It particularly emphasizes the role of Congress and partisan politics in the making of U.S. policy toward North Korea. This study finds that divided government played a pivotal role. Partisan politics are also central to the explanation: politics did not stop at the water’s edge. A divided U.S. government produced more status quo policies toward North Korea than a unified U.S. government, while a unified government produced more active policies than a divided government. Moreover, a unified government with a Republican President produced more aggressive policies toward North Korea, whereas a unified government with a Democratic President produced more conciliatory policies. This study concludes that the different government types and intensified partisan politics were the main causes of the inconsistencies in the United States’ North Korea policy that led to a nuclear North Korea.

Deutschland wurde bereits zweimal, 1966–1969 und 2005–2009, von einer großen Koalition regiert. Deskriptive Zeitreihenanalysen wirtschaftspolitischer Kennzahlen zeigen nicht auf, dass es unter diesen großen Koalitionen signifikante Kurswechsel in der Wirtschaftspolitik gab. Qualitative Analysen zeigen jedoch, dass die erste große Koalition 1966–1969 die Staatstätigkeit ausgeweitet hat. Mit der im Dezember 2013 ins Amt gewählten Koalition scheint es ähnlich zu sein: Der Wechsel des Koalitionspartners der CDU/CSU von der FDP zur SPD lässt deutlich expansivere Wirtschaftspolitiken und eine Ausweitung der Staatstätigkeit erwarten.

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