The dilemma of parties systems in Czech Republic and Poland is connected indirectly with my work which was concerned in the transitions of these post-communists countries. The rise and development of these two parties systems was strongly inspired by the results of both transitions in these countries. I will concerned with deeper comparison of both parties systems, especially in the consolidated period of democracy.

This thesis describes how the religious-secular, economic, and cultural dimensions come to expression in the electoral manifestos of two political parties in the 2016 elections in Morocco. The parties in question are the Islamist-oriented Party of Justice and Development (PJD) and the non-Islamist Party of Authenticity and Modernity (PAM), viewed as leading contenders and emerged as the two biggest parties in the same election year. This study applies a qualitative text analysis of the manifestos and shows that the parties differed on two dimensions of three. The parties showed the most significant difference under the religious-secular dimension, where PJD supported increased religious influence on policymaking. In contrast, PAM kept itself neutral and neither supported nor opposed religious influence on state affairs. The next most significant difference was found under the cultural dimension. Both parties expressed support for gender equality, albeit PAM was more ambitious and proposed an amendment to the family law to equalize women with men regarding the right of the Moroccan woman to transfer her citizenship to her non-Moroccan husband. In contrast, PJD proposed extending maternity leave and fighting violence against women. The slightest differences were found under the economic dimension. Surprisingly, both parties advocated for almost the same free-market and redistribution policies even though they represented two opposing blocks in the Moroccan party system.

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Over the past decade, a third wave of autocratisation has stormed the world, hitting democracies and autocracies alike. The ongoing democratic backsliding is attributed to a range of factors. From “executive aggrandisement” and strategic manipulation of elections to "autocratic lawfare”. Such autocratic tendencies are contributing to autocratisation in dominant party regimes in Africa. If most dominant party systems are increasingly autocratising in Africa, then there is a problem with the dominant party structure that warrants academic inquiry. However, the literature on one-party dominance and democratic consolidation in Africa are a bit old, hence do not address the current debates on democratic backsliding in the continent. Botswana and Tanzania are interesting cases of autocratising dominant party systems because they have witnessed rapid erosion of democratic qualities over the decade. But what effects do these patterns of democratic backsliding have on the quality of democracy in dominant party systems in Africa? Employing a comparative research design (MSSD) and using historical institutionalism and the substantive democratic theory as well as relying on secondary data in Botswana and Tanzania (Mainly Afrobarometer surveys, V-Dem Index, CPI Index, Ibrahim Index of African Governance, and Freedom Index), this study explores this question within the framework of peace and development research. It analysed four variables: management of social tensions facing the regime, the scope of presidential power, governance performance, and the nature of the electoral competition. Findings suggest that a dominant party structure in Botswana and Tanzania creates conditions that erode the quality of democracy, hence democratic backsliding. Therefore, the thesis argues that autocratisation in Botswana and Tanzania suggests reproduction of one-party dominance at the expense of consolidation of substantive democracy. This way, a dominant party structure in Africa appears to be a peace and development research problem because it creates strong incentives for dominant parties to autocratise rather than democratise when challenged by a strong political opposition.

本文擬探討塔信政權與泰國政治變遷的關係，從兩方面來分析泰國政黨政治體系的改變，一是從制度面討論1997年憲法的選舉制度對泰國政黨政治的衝擊與影響。二是從憲法的實踐和非制度化因素，分析塔信政權之興起與終結，來觀察泰國政治變遷的過程與意義。塔信政權是在1997年憲法下所運作的產物，最後卻被長達15年不見的軍事政變所終結。本文深入剖析塔信政權執政過程，探討為何會發生軍事政變的原因，以及分析這(場政變)對泰國民主產生什麼樣的意義與影響。 / This study examines the relationship between Thaksin's regime and political change in Thailand. It analyzes the change of the Thai party system from two respects. First, it discusses the impact which the new electoral system of the 1997constitution had on the Thai party politics. Second, it analyzes the rise and the fall of Thaksin’s regime from the constitution practice and the non-institutional factors in order to observe the process and the implication of political change in Thailand. Thaksin’s regime is the result of 1997 constitution. However, it was ended by a military coup which had not happened for 15 years. We discuss deeply the history of Thaksin’s regime, why the military coup took place to close this regime, and the influence of this military coup on Thai democracy.

我國立法委員選舉自1992年全面定期改選以來，一直是採用以「複數選區單記非讓渡投票制」為主的特殊選舉制度，直到2005年第七次修憲始變革為「並立式混合制」，並已於2008年1月12日第七屆立委選舉中首度實施。 由於台灣與日本均位居東亞關鍵位置，並同為該區民主發展之典範，類似的政經發展脈絡，於是經常成為學界探討比較的對象。除了近似的經濟發展模式外，於政治層面上，兩國亦皆由「一黨獨大」的政體開始演變。尤其，兩國更先後於1994年及2005年修改國會選舉制度，且不約而同從「複數選區單記非讓渡投票制」改採「並立式混合制」。 任一國家選舉制度之變革，往往都會對其政黨體系、甚至政治運作造成相當程度之影響。因此本研究將針對此次選舉所採取的新選制，從理論、制度及實際各層面，參照日本選制改革與施行之經驗，進行新選制對我國政黨體系影響之初探。 / The overall election of legislator in our country has been reelected regularly since 1992, and it has been adopting primarily the “Single Non-Transferable Vote with Multimember-District system” (SNTV-MMD), a special electoral system. Until the seventh amending of the Constitution transformed into the “Mixed-Member Majoritarian” (MMM) in 2005, which has implemented in the seventh session of legislators’ election for the first time in January 12, 2008. Owing to both of the positions of Taiwan and Japan are very important in the East Asia, and also are the models of the development of democracy in the area. They have similar political and economic developing situation, so they are usually compared to each other by the academic community. Besides the similar economic development pattern, in the political side, both of the two countries began to evoluting from “predominant-party system”. Above all, the two countries reformed the electoral system of congress in 1994 and in 2005. They also adopted the “MMM” instead of the “SNTV-MMD” coincidentally. Changes of the electoral system in any country will impact on party system even political arrangement in a considerable degree. Therefore, I’ll focus on the new system of this election from the different sides of theory, institution, and reality in this research. According to the reformation of the electoral system of Japan and the practical experiences, doing a preliminary study of how the impact of the new electoral system on Taiwan’s party system.

Landtagswahlergebnisse in der BRD werden von empirischen Wahlforschern häufig als aktuelle Stimmungsbarometer für die Bundespolitik interpretiert. Bei dieser Interpretation von Landtagswahlen als \"Bundestestwahlen\" wird jedoch häufig vernachlässigt, dass Landtagswahlen überwiegend auch Regionalwahlen sind und landestypischen Dynamiken folgen. Empirische Untersuchungen zu Bestimmungsfaktoren von Landtagswahlverhalten wurden in Deutschland bis dato entweder in Form von qualitativen Einzelfallanalysen oder als Aggregatdatenanalysen der amtlichen Wahlstatistiken durchgeführt. Eine direkte und vergleichende Quantifizierung der Effektstärken mit Survey-Daten wurde allerdings bislang nicht vorgenommen. Die vorliegende Studie wertet deshalb im Rahmen eines replikativen Surveys 17 Landtagswahlstudien aus. So können die Effektstärken der individuellen Bewertung der Bundes- versus der Landesparteien auf die Landtagswahlentscheidungen direkt verglichen werden. Als Fazit zeigt sich, dass in Westdeutschland die Beurteilung der Landesparteien einen stärkeren Einfluss auf die individuelle Landtagswahlentscheidung ausübt als die Beurteilung der Bundesparteien. In Ostdeutschland prägt dagegen bei Landtagswahlen die bundespolitische Dimension das Abstimmungsverhalten der Wähler stärker. Die Parteipolitikverflechtung zwischen Landes- und Bundesebene ist somit bei Landtagswahlen in Ostdeutschland erheblich stärker ausgeprägt als in den alten Bundesländern. / Electoral studies often interpret German regional election results ("Landtagswahlen") as barometers of public opinion on federal governmental parties' performance. However, while interpreting German regional elections as "test-elections" for the national parliament, it is often underemphasised that subnational elections often follow a unique regional dynamics. So far, empirical investigations on the determinants of German regional elections consist either in qualitative case studies or aggregate analyses of official statistics. A quantitative study of individual-level survey data, comparing directly the explanatory power of the federal versus the subnational level, is still lacking. Conducting a repeated survey design, we analyse data from 17 German regional election surveys. Thus, the effects of individual assessments of federal parties versus their subnational counterparts on subnational voting preferences can be directly compared. The conclusion of our analyses can be summarized as follows: In Western Germany, the valuation of subnational parties has a stronger impact on individual voting preferences in subnational elections than the valuation of the federal parties has. However, in Eastern Germany, the federal dimension has a comparatively stronger effect. Hence, the federal – regional ("Länder") party system linkage is clearly stronger in Eastern than in Western Germany.

This diploma thesis analyses the media image of political party Sdružení pro republiku - Republikánské strany Československa (SPR - RSČ, The Union for Republic - Republican Party of Czechoslovakia), and the media discourse in 1990s. The thesis is focused on analysis of electronic media such as radio and TV talk shows. The time period of the analysis was chosen to capture the period when this political subject was active on Czechoslovak and later on Czech political scene, i.e. 1990-1998. The author discusses the development of the political communication of the party representatives (most of the space is dedicated to media appetence of SPR - RSČ president Miroslav Sládek) and the general political communication in mass media. The goal of the thesis is to analyse the comparison of the media appearance of the party members during the eight years from when the party entered on political scene to its political decline in June 1998. Keywords The Union for Republic - Republican Party of Czechoslovakia, analysis of media discourse, electronic media, party system, media image, development of society.

[pt] Os três ensaios que compõem esta tese, têm como objetivo analisar o funcionamento do federalismo fiscal no Brasil. O primeiro analisa as tendências de longo prazo no grau de centralização e no crescimento do governo e sua relação durante o século XX. O achado mais importante deste ensaio é que os processos de descentralização fiscal promovidos pelas Constituições de 1946 e de 1988 aceleraram o crescimento do governo. Esses processos de descentralização provocaram crises no nível federal, que levaram o governo central a aumentar sua receita tributária para compensar a perda de receitas derivada da descentralização de recursos fiscais. Do outro lado, essa descentralização provocou o crescimento da despesa dos estados e municípios, que não foi compensado pela redução da despesa do governo federal. O segundo ensaio analisa a utilização de transferências intergovernamentais como mecanismo de financiamento dos níveis inferiores de governo. Esse ensaio desenvolve um modelo analítico para explicar o efeito expansivo das transferências sobre a despesa das unidades receptoras, conhecido como flypaper effect, e as diferenças regionais na sua intensidade. Usando um modelo de parámetros variando no espaço, o estudo demonstra empíricamente a presença do flypaper effect nas finanças dos municípios brasileros e suas diferenças regionais. Finalmente, o terceiro estuda os determinantes político institucionais do comportamento fiscal dos estados durante o período 1985-1997. O ensaio mostra a existência de ciclos políticos eleitorais, a influência expansionista da fragmentação do sistema partidário sobre a postura fiscal dos estados, a disciplina fiscal imposta pela da participação política da população e o fato de que que administrações estaduais de esquerda tendem a adotar posturas fiscais mais expansionistas do que as adotadas por administrações estaduais de centro ou de direita. / [en] The three essays in this dissertation analyze fiscal federalism in Brazil. The first studies the long run trends of the fiscal centralization and the size of government and their relationship during the XX Century. The most important finding of the first essay is that the process of decentralization inspired by the 1946 and 1948 Constitutions led to an overall expansion of government activities (at the federal, state, and municipal levels). The increase in state and municipal expenditures - because of the decentralization of fiscal resources - was not matched by an equivalent reduction in federal expenditures. Because federal expenditures did not decrease accordingly, and because the decentralization of fiscal resources resulted in a loss of federal revenues, the federal government needed to increase taxes in order to narrow the deficit. The second essay analyzes the use of intergovernmental transfers to finance lower levels of government. The essay develops an analytical model to explain both the expansive effects of transfers on the expenditures of recipient governments, called the flypaper effect. as well as reasons for their regional differences. Using an space-parameter varying estimation, the study empirically demonstrates the expansive effects of intergovernmental and detects their regional differences in Brazilian local governments finances. Finally, the third essay argues that political cycles strongly influenced the fiscal behavior of Brazilian states between 1985 and 1997. The study confirms the existence of political cycles, the influence of political fragmentation, the fiscal discipline induced by the participation of the population and that left wing administrations tended to adopt more expansionary fiscal policies than center or right wing administrations.

This paper explores two important topics among the political parties and party system literature in Peru: The strength and stability of the political party system in the 80’s and the decade of the 90’s, better known as the «decade of the antipolitics». The contrast between the literature reviewed and the quantitative data from the 7 Municipal Elections, that took place among this time period, attempts to find if this phenomena occurred also at the subnational level. In the decade of the 80’s, the political party system stayed stable with rule of the four most important political parties (APRA, Acción Popular, Izquierda Unida y PPC); however, individually these political parties did not have the same performance. In the decade of the 90’s, the concept «in- dependent» did not fit equally among all the cases and together with the fujimorismo depicted the political scenario of the 90’s. / El presente artículo explora dos temas importantes en la literatura sobre partidos políticos y sistema de partidos en el Perú: la fortaleza y estabilidad del sistema de partidos en la década de los 80 y la década de los 90, más conocida como la «década de la antipolítica». El contraste entre la literatura revisada y los datos cuantitativos de las 7 elecciones municipales que tuvieron lugar a lo largo de este período de tiempo, propone buscar si dichos fenómenos se presentaron también en el nivel subnacional. En la década de los 80, el sistema de partidos políticos se mantuvo estable con el dominio de los cuatro grandes partidos (APRA, Acción Popular, Izquierda Unida y PPC); sin embargo, individualmente estos no tuvieron el mismo desempeño. En la década de los 90, la definición de «independiente» no encajó igualmente en todos los casos y junto con el fujimorismo caracterizaron el escenario político de los 90.