I focus on three district-level demographic variables indicative of contemporary social cleavages, and construct measures of their influences on partisan representation in American state legislatures during the 1999-2000 years. Using these measures, I examine a series of questions concerning the relationship between social cleavages and state legislative outcomes. I find that district racial composition is the most important constituency-based factor influencing partisan representation and voting in legislatures, but that other constituency variables are also important under various circumstances. I also present OLS regression analyses demonstrating the independent effect of the overall representation of social cleavages on levels of legislative polarization. / text

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:32:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2004-10-27Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:23:42Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 alcantara_jc_dr_assis.pdf: 2609481 bytes, checksum: dcd797ffa53022a54bbd831deccf17a7 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O presente trabalho estuda um período da história político-partidária e eleitoral (1966-1982) brasileira, percorrendo os níveis nacional, estadual e local, com ênfase neste último. Com a chegada dos militares ao poder em 1964 e a extinção dos partidos políticos em 1965, inicia-se um novo sistema denominado bipartidarismo, que se estende até 1982. Diante da dependência partidária e eleitoral da legislação federal, os Estados e municípios se adaptaram, porém conservando suas diferenças regionais. As lideranças políticas paranaenses se articularam diante do novo jogo político e fortaleceram o partido do governo, em contraste com uma oposição decepada e fragilizada. Em nível local, embora receba a interferência da política nacional e estadual, o quadro caracteriza-se acentuadamente por contornos próprios, revelando a disputa de pessoas e grupos de interesses pelo poder local. A baixa institucionalização partidária e a volatilidade são fatores que fortalecem o individualismo na política, e o eleitor, sem referências partidárias consolidadas, até por interesses pessoais e por estar próximo dos candidatos, valoriza o personalismo. O trabalho analisa o desempenho e evolução da ARENA/PDS e do MDB/PMDB, através dos resultados eleitorais, colocando em destaque a representação da política no município de Maringá. / An analysis, at the national, state and local levels, with special emphasis to the latter, on the 1966-1982 history of party and election politics in Brazil is provided. A new bi-party system was introduced in Brazil on the arrival to power of the armed forces in 1964 and on the extinction of political parties in 1965, through 1982. Although states and counties adapted themselves to the party and electoral dependence on federal laws, they preserved their regional differences. The political leaderships of the state of Paraná organized themselves in the wake of the new political rules and strengthened the government's party. This cannot be said of the opposition, which remained fragmented and split. Although the local situation was influenced by the national and state politics, its features had special nuances that revealed the struggle of individuals and groups for local political power. Low party institutions and volatility were the chief factors that gave rise to political individualism, while the voter rated personal cult excessively. This was due to the lack of consolidated party references, invested interests and close dealing with candidates. Research investigated the performance and evolution of ARENA/PDS and MDB/PMDB through their election results, whereas the political representation in the municipality of Maringá was enhanced.

This study examines changes in the governance of Nottingham and Derby in the period 1945-1968 from a local and national perspective. In so doing it foreshadows the changes wrought by the Local Government Act 1972, which usually receives greater academic attention. Post-war, local authorities became the nation’s principal landlords, while utilities, such as electricity and gas, were nationalised. In fulfilling their new responsibilities, urban authorities were forced to build estates on the periphery of, or outside, their boundaries. The relocation of residents resulted in an exportation of urban identity and greater urban-ness, but was not accompanied by a corresponding redrawing of administrative boundaries. Nevertheless, when urban authorities sought boundary extensions they were fiercely contested by county authorities, local associations, and residents’ groups. Such associations and groups claimed to possess characteristics distinct from the authorities that wished to incorporate them. There was also a fear that democratic accountability would be lost in the creation of larger units of governance. The local feelings aroused by boundary extension proposals demonstrate that local government is more than merely an agent of central government. It is a living organism: changes to it affect not only services, but also the identity of that place. The expansion proposals of the county boroughs of Nottingham and Derby differed markedly. Uniquely amongst county boroughs nationwide, Nottingham sought no expansion under the review initiated by the Local Government Act 1958. The thesis assesses the political motivations behind this and the wider reactions to reconfiguration proposals for both county boroughs. The role of conurbations is considered in terms of local governance, including the extent to which Nottingham and Derby could be classified as one. The thesis concludes that the maintenance of existing party political strengths outweighed local sentiment, and that only those proposals for reform which benefited the former were enacted.

This study examines the impact of the European Union and the programmatic and policy changes in two Irish political parties, the Green Party and Sinn Féin. The Europeanization concept is the theoretical basis of the study and it is operationalized by the use of EU salience. The study is carried out by content analysis of national and European election manifestos prepared by the parties during the 2009–2020 time period. The findings showed an increased salience on the European Union in national election campaigns by both parties, and in the European Parliament elections by Sinn Féin. A process of Europeanization has taken place in both parties regarding foreign policy and issues related to external relations. The Green Party showed an increased emphasis on the European Union regarding environmental issues. This study contributes to the research on the European impact on national political parties and the increased importance of European level politics in the national systems.

Understanding how political parties and social movements interact and what are the results of these interactions is important for both scholars of Political Science and Sociology. This is particularly true for far-right actors since they are characterised by diverse ideological and organisational features. Understanding how parties and movements interact can help shed light on how these features develop and, ultimately, explain their success. In the dissertation a novel conceptualisation of party-movement interactions is presented, as well as a theory that aims to explain when parties and movements are more likely to develop stronger interactions on three different dimensions, frames, actions and organisations. This theory is tested by looking at two sets of far-right parties and movements, Lega Nord and CasaPound Italia in Italy and the United Kingdom Independence Party and the English Defence League in the United Kingdom. The analysis is carried out through a Political Claim Analysis and a document analysis of parties and movements documents for the period 2009-2019. The analysis finds that parties and movements have closer interactions on the frame dimension when issues they own gain prominence in the public debate and when political parties are weak electorally. In the actions dimension, interactions tend to be closer when parties are weak electorally and movement organisations moderate their repertoire of actions. Finally, in the organisational dimension, relations are closer when parties are weak electorally and in proximity of electoral campaigns. This research makes two contributions to the study of far-right parties and movements. The first is theoretical, for the paper advances a new theory of party-movement interactions that could be tested in different scenarios. The second is empirical, for the paper provides indications on when parties and movements are more likely to have closer interactions and how through these interactions they change and develop their features.

Yes / Liberia’s 2017 elections represented a watershed moment in the country’s political history. In addition to completing the first democratic transfer of power from one president to another since 1944, it resulted in wide representation across many different parties and independents as well as high levels of legislative turn-overs. Additionally, these polls brought forward unprecedented numbers of party reconfigurations, increased levels of defections, and politicians/parties losing abysmally in presumed ethno-regional bases. In this article, we argue that Liberia currently exists in a post-war arena of “post-party” politics where a profound disregard for parties is the norm, and in which the electorate and politicians alike forum shop for candidates and/or political configurations they presume will deliver the best results at national, sub-national and local levels. Although literature exploring electoral trends in Africa tends to over-emphasize ethno-regionalism as a driver and constraint in the choices of voters and politicians, we demonstrate instead that Liberians make relatively informed, strategic decisions about political alliances and ballot casting thereby subverting allegiances to ethnicity and region. By further eschewing party loyalties, Liberians have gradually become astute forum shoppers in a political marketplace that makes running for office and voting complex undertakings.

Political parties serve as a link between the state and society. Being so, they have a fundamental role in the consolidation of democratic values. It then becomes important to understand their internal functions and character. The purpose of this thesis is to measure the levels of intra-party democracy within three opposition political parties in Southern Africa. Also, this thesis seeks to show whether authoritarian political culture has an affect on a democratic party's behavior. This thesis will strive to show that as party levels of intra-party democracy decrease, fracturing in the party increases. A qualitative case study was conducted on UNITA in Angola, the ANC in South Africa, and the MDC in Zimbabwe. A content analysis was performed on the parties' respective constitutions and official party documents, as well as other scholarly writings. This was paired with an historical analysis of the case states and parties. The parties were assessed along a determined framework for intra-party democracy: political environment, legal framework of the state and party, the inclusiveness of the party, and party economics. Inclusiveness of the party gauges membership participation, leadership competition, gender parity, and oversight. The ANC exhibited the highest levels of intra-party democracy, and has shown the most stability. The MDC was found to have the lowest levels, and has split multiple times in recent years. All the parties demonstrated a need to open leadership participation and create better oversight mechanisms. Political parties proved to be a critical element in a state's potential democratic development, and though there exists deficiencies, the political parties of this study seem committed in many of their functions to this goal.

No description available.

Yes / Liberia’s 2017 elections represented a watershed moment in the country’s political history. In addition to completing the first democratic transfer of power from one president to another since 1944, it resulted in wide representation across many different parties and independents as well as high levels of legislative turn-overs. Additionally, these polls brought forward unprecedented numbers of party reconfigurations, increased levels of defections, and politicians/parties losing abysmally in presumed ethno-regional bases. In this article, we argue that Liberia currently exists in a post-war arena of “post-party” politics where a profound disregard for parties is the norm, and in which the electorate and politicians alike forum shop for candidates and/or political configurations they presume will deliver the best results at national, sub-national and local levels. Although literature exploring electoral trends in Africa tends to over-emphasize ethno-regionalism as a driver and constraint in the choices of voters and politicians, we demonstrate instead that Liberians make relatively informed, strategic decisions about political alliances and ballot casting thereby subverting allegiances to ethnicity and region. By further eschewing party loyalties, Liberians have gradually become astute forum shoppers in a political marketplace that makes running for office and voting complex undertakings.

O objetivo desta dissertação é investigar o processo político e institucional que levou, em 1954, à aprovação da reforma eleitoral que introduziu a cédula única de votação nas eleições presidenciais que elegeu Juscelino Kubitschek. A dissertação argumenta que ao contextualizar a decisão que levou à aprovação do novo método de votação, emergem novos elementos que ajudam a esclarecer o controverso episódio conhecido como contragolpe do Marechal Lott que garantiu a posse do candidato eleito. O material analisado consiste na legislação eleitoral, propostas de reformas eleitorais e a narrativa dos líderes do governo e da oposição a respeito do episódio. Conclui-se que escolha por um novo método de votação, a cédula oficial, deve ser tomada como caso de reforma eleitoral que expressa a emergência de uma dinâmica competitiva na Terceira República Brasileira. / The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the political and institutional process that resulted, in 1954, to the approval of the electoral reform that introduced the unique voting ballot in the presidential elections that elected Juscelino Kubitschek. The dissertation argues that the contextualization of the decision, by the new voting method, offers elements to understand the controversial episode known as \"Marshal Lott\'s coup\" that secured the winner\'s ternure. The material analyzed consists of electoral legislation, proposals for electoral reforms and the narrative of government\'s and opposition\'s leaders. It is concluded that by choosing a new method of voting, the official ballot should be taken as a case of electoral reform that expresses the emergence of a competitive dynamic in the Third Brazilian Republic.