Public opinion polls sometimes overestimate the majority and underestimate the minority, such as Taipei and Kaohsiung Mayoral Election of 2006. On one hand the study is based on spiral of silence theory to analyze the phenomenon, and on the other it tries to explore the other factors that may affect the voters¡¦ willingness to express opinion in Taipei and Kaohsiung city. According to findings, social integration effect isn¡¦t a main factor to affect people¡¦s willingness to express opinion in Taipei and Kaohsiung city. On the contrary, people¡¦s level of interpersonal communication, political efficacy and education in Taipei and interpersonal communication, political participation, political confidence and political efficacy in Kaohsiung city are important factors to increase people¡¦s willingness to express opinion. In addition, the study uses interactive variables to go a step further to explore social integration effect. The results show that the spiral of silence effect supports voters¡¦ behavior in Kaohsiung city, but doesn¡¦t in Taipei city.

All levels of governments in Canada are seeing a continued decrease in voting during elections. The lowest voter turnout rates are at the municipal level--the 2011 Vancouver municipal election saw only 34 percent of eligible voters participate. This research examines why citizen participation is decreasing in Vancouver municipal elections and focuses that research through three theories (rational voter theory, social capital and political efficacy). The research relied on existing academic literature, and combined that with primary data yielded from focus groups made up of self-declared non-voters from the 2011 Vancouver municipal election, with the addition of several subject experts (academic and those involved in running municipal campaigns). The research revealed that many non-voters are disengaged in their communities, distrust politics, do not understand the role of municipal government, and are mistrustful that voting will make a difference or that the government will represent them. They perceive that voting is too complicated in municipal elections because of factors such as having to vote for multiple positions which is a stark contrast to federal or provincial elections where they only vote for one. The thesis also identifies solutions to increase citizen participation in future municipal elections.

This thesis examines political efficacy and youth non-voting in New Zealand. Drawing from a focus group discussion and depth interviews with 20 young people, I compare and contrast the attitudes and experiences of 18-24 year-old voters and non-voters. I assess whether the theory of political efficacy is a useful conceptual tool for distinguishing between their attitudes, and evaluate the ability of efficacy theory to explain youth non-voting in New Zealand. The thesis draws attention to the oft-overlooked benefits of using qualitative methods to conduct political science research. Based on my research, I find that the standard (quantitative) operationalisation of efficacy obscures the complex and nuanced nature of young people's thoughts about politics. Depth interviews and focus groups are found to be valuable means to gain insight into the political attitudes of young people, as - unlike quantitative methods - they allow participants to elucidate themselves using language and ideas of their own. A purposive sampling strategy using snowball referrals also proved to be a useful way to recruit young non-voters, indicating to future researchers that such an approach may be a good way to access disengaged populations. Contrary to the predictions of efficacy theory and to the findings of research in the quantitative tradition, I find fewer differences between young voters and non-voters than expected: the interviews and focus group in fact reveal surprising similarities in the political efficacy of young voters and non-voters. Through my research I identify three types of young non-voters: 'disinterested', 'inconvenienced' and 'principled' non-voters, each of whom give different and diverse explanations for their non-participation. These findings suggest that the usefulness of efficacy theory as an explanation for youth non-voting may have been overstated, and my research highlights the need to remain open to other explanations for youth electoral disengagement - such as rational choice and post-materialist theories.

For more than three decades, citizen engagement in the political process in South Korea was strictly hampered by the harsh control of the public sphere by authoritarian regimes and mainstream media's failure to provide a democratic public forum. With the penetration of online and social media, the participatory culture of South Korea has significantly and qualitatively changed. During the last 10 some years, citizens actively used Internet media, such as online and social media, in mobilizing people for social and political causes. In recent elections, the use of Internet media has been considered one of the decisive factors of turnout and election results. The wide availability of information, the supply of unfettered discussion forums, and constant connectedness beyond space and geographical boundaries of the Internet are believed to work efficiently in leading citizens to the political process. However, unlike in Western countries, research to investigate the mechanism through which citizens engage in political affairs has been scant in South Korea. Drawing on the participatory democracy theory, this study examines how old and new media use in South Korea possibly change citizens' political attitudes and perceptions and how such changes subsequently trigger civic engagement in political affairs. Among various possible factors of political communication, this research pays special attention to the mediating roles of political efficacy and deliberation behaviors of the electorate during an election period in South Korea. A multitude of studies have proven that political efficacy is one of the most immediate attitudinal explanations of political action. As one acquires feelings of heightened political efficacy, one becomes more likely to get involved in the democratic process. Also, deliberation behaviors, such as political conversation and reflection on news played an important role in citizens' political life. This study explores how political efficacy and deliberation jointly affect the pathway that connects news consumption with political participation, drawing on prior political communication frameworks, such as the cognitive mediation model, the communication mediation model, and the O - S - R - O - R model. This study suggests a two-step mediation model which centers on the roles of deliberation and political efficacy in political communication. Particularly, the hypothesized model incorporates the interpersonal discussion component of the communication mediation model and the political efficacy component of the cognitive mediation model into one, in order to theorize a holistic information processing framework that channels the influences of news consumption on political engagement. The current study provides empirical evidence to the hypothesized model by carrying out two cross-sectional analyses and one auto-regressive analysis from the data of a two-wave panel survey that was conducted during the 2012 presidential campaign in South Korea. Findings reveal that political efficacy mediated the relationship between news attention and political participation. Political efficacy also played a mediating role between deliberation behaviors and political participation. In addition, deliberation behaviors mediated the relationship between news attention and political efficacy. Most important, the deliberation behavior and political efficacy jointly mediated the impact of news attention on political participation, supporting the hypothesized model of this study. Such results imply that interpersonal political discussion and intrapersonal reflection on political issues help citizens make sense of the information obtained from the media, and at the same time, boost the level of competence of their political beliefs. The results also suggest that deliberation and political efficacy play a pivotal role in connecting citizen's information seeking behaviors with political participation. The findings also show that, among diverse news channels, social media have the biggest performance power in explaining citizen engagement in the political process. In addition, the results of path comparisons demonstrate that the paths from news attention via online and social media to deliberation, political efficacy, and political participation were stronger in the Wave 2 model than in the Wave 1 model. The findings imply that online and social media are providing South Koreans a more effective pathway toward democratic participation than traditional media by motivating their deliberative and by shaping political attitudes. The present study makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the ways in which South Korean citizens take advantage of recent new media technologies to engage in political affairs. Considering that many South Koreans have long been excluded from the actual political process, this study's findings provide practical meanings in understanding how we can boost citizen engagement in the democratic process in this digital age. Additionally, the hypothesized model of the present research helps organize a large body of theories on news consumption and political participation in political communication. It also suggests larger social and cultural implications for a healthy democracy across countries beyond South Korea.

This study aims to investigate why young people in Tunisia participate less in formal and informal politics than older people. First, I compare the participatory pattern of young people in six forms of political participation (voting, party membership, organization membership, campaign activity, protesting and attending meetings/signing petitions) to older Tunisians, with merged data from the Arab Barometers five waves (2012-2019). The data shows that young people indeed participate less than the older. To find out why, I rely on socio-economic, political-psychological and socialization theories. I examine the research problem through a logistic regression model with data from the Arab Barometers fourth wave (2016-2017), which considers key explanatory variables from the socioeconomic, political-psychological and socialization theories. The results show that the biggest obstacle for young people to participate in politics is their lack of socioeconomic resources. Furthermore, access to information through education, political news and social media seem to be the most substantial variables to stimulate political participation among young people in Tunisia.

<p><a>This study sought to identify obstacles and challenges that impact political participation and involvement among Latino voters. At the same time, it explored how the Latino Democrats of Allen County (LDAC), a constituency caucus in a primarily conservative area, could address such barriers to engage Latinos from the area politically (specifically in support of the Democratic party). Social Identity Theory provided a backdrop from which to examine the challenges and obstacles that Latinos face to participating in local government. By exploring these questions from the perspective of Social Identity Theory, I examined how a demographic in a primarily conservative area grapples with their political participation. Findings suggest that Latinos struggle with their participation due to lack of awareness about opportunity, low political efficacy, lack of trust in the political process and those that facilitate it, and lack of education about how the political process works. Literature on communication strategies and techniques used by organizations and groups with similar structures and goals provided a roadmap for constructing a functional and meaningful strategic communication plan for LDAC based on the findings from this study.</a></p>

In many states, outdated rules and regulations restrict nurse practitioners (NPs) from practicing to their full potential, often limiting patients’ access to primary care. Modernizing NP state scope of practice laws and allowing patients greater access to NPs services is a priority. Unlike other professions, nurse practitioners have been unable to consistently influence legislative changes to health policy. This study examined the political efficacy and participation of nurse practitioners in the United States today (N=632). A descriptive cross sectional design, in conjunction with a political efficacy framework, evaluated nurse practitioners’ participation in political activities and their internal and external political efficacy. Increased internal political efficacy was significantly (p < 0.001) associated with NPs who were older, had specific health policy education, and have been mentored in health policy. Our findings show that NPs vote at consistently higher rates (94%) than the general population and almost 50% report contacting legislators via mail/email/phone. As a group however, NPs report limited participation in other political activities, especially grassroots efforts. These findings hold significant implications for the profession as we strive to make policy changes across the country. It is important that educators assess our current methods of educating NPs about politics and health policy. Professional organizations and policy makers must reexamine outreach and strategies to inspire greater grassroots engagement of NPs.

Research has shown that political satire programs offer both important information about contemporary politics and offer very humorous, entertaining content. This study seeks to understand how these satire programs bolster both internal political efficacy and political participation. 400 college students at two Northern California universities participated in this research. The study found that affinity for political humor can predict levels of internal political efficacy. Exposure to liberal satire was negatively correlated with affinity for political humor and political participation, and exposure to conservative satire was significantly correlated with internal political efficacy. Internal political efficacy was also positively correlated with political participation. Lastly, there was significant difference between Democrats and Republicans in terms of their exposure to political TV satire.

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