Abstract “At the Intersection of Transgender Attitudes, Identity Politics, and Vote Choice” Amy Howard and Dr. Wesley Wehde, Department of Political Science, International Affairs and Public Administration, College of Arts and Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN. Political scientists have been increasingly focused on the role of identity politics in determining vote choice, with recent work including the potential penalties faced by gender and sexual minorities. Research indicates that both candidate and voter characteristics play a role in vote choice, with the largest penalties incurred by transgender candidates and small or no penalties assigned by non-religious and politically progressive voters. However, our study improves on extant research by differentiating between male and female transgender candidates; adding a non-binary option for gender identity; including a bisexual option for sexual orientation; and differentiating between moderate and far-left or far-right candidate ideologies within the Republican and Democratic Parties, respectively. In line with previous research, we conducted a conjoint experiment to examine the peculiar impact of male/female transgender, non-binary gender identity, and bisexuality on vote choice, even in comparison with straight and gay candidates. Respondents were asked to choose between ten sets of hypothetical candidates for their district House of Representatives, with Republican or right-leaning respondents being shown randomized combinations of candidates who were classified as “moderate” or “far-right,” and Democratic or left-leaning respondents being shown randomized combinations of candidates who were classified as “moderate” or “far-left.” The remaining candidate attributes were also randomized for each respondent, and included age, race, gender, education, religion, ideology, previous experience, and sexual orientation. Upon completion of our data analysis, we expect our results to be consistent with those of the aforementioned research, with gay candidates—particularly black, gay candidates—facing penalties at the ballot box, and transgender candidates facing higher penalties than gay candidates. We will build on these findings by differentiating between genders in “transgender,” and with the addition of the “non-binary,” “bisexual” options, as well as the inclusion of “far-right” and “far-left” political ideologies. This study will contribute to our understanding of how voter and candidate identities affect vote choice, particularly in the case of gender and sexual minority candidates. Such an understanding can be used to develop policies and strategies that will ultimately increase LGBTQ+ representation in government, and improve the safety, welfare and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ Americans.

The contested backlash phenomenon assumes that changes to the status quo in favor of minorities will be met with resistance and resentment from majority groups. However, previous research has yielded ambiguous results. This has resulted in a continuous confusion regarding if, when and how backlashes occur. This thesis will attempt to enhance the understanding of this phenomenon through the use of a survey experiment. The experiment tests whether it is possible to detect a backlash in public opinion through the use of a treatment text. The text presents a fictive Supreme Court decision that approves outdoor broadcasting of the Islamic call to prayer in the US. The experiment tests whether this will create an increase in resentment directed towards Muslim Americans. The experiment tests a number of hypotheses regarding when and where backlash might occur and could not find any support of the backlash hypothesis. The results instead indicated that the treatment induced a decrease in the level of resentment reported by the respondents. These unexpected results have a number of possible explanations, ranging from social desirability bias to the possibility of a legitimizing effect stemming from the treatment. The findings are in line with a growing number of researches that have failed to statistically find any proof of the backlash theory.

Demokrati som politiskt system är aldrig stabilare än det stöd det har hos befolkningen.Samtidigt visar studier att Sverige upplever en anmärkningsvärd minskning i stödet för demokrati bland de yngre medborgarna. Mot bakgrund av detta utforskas i denna studie vilken betydelse den demokratimodell som ett politiskt beslut fattas enligt har för ungas stöd gentemotden politiska beslutsprocessen. Därigenom dras slutsatser om möjliga alternativ för att reformera den representativa modellen genom att antingen förstärka eller försvaga demokratin.Detta undersöks genom ett surveyexperiment (N=134) med respondenter i åldern 18-29 år.Respondenterna fick svara på en enkät om deras attityd gentemot en politisk beslutsprocess där politikerna hade fattat beslutet antingen utifrån resultatet av en nationell folkomröstning,digitala deliberativa möten eller en expertgruppsutrednings slutsatser. En blygsam effekt av demokratimodell på stöd för beslutsprocessen uppmättes, men där expertdemokrati uppvisade en signifikant starkare effekt på stödet för beslutsmetoden jämfört med direkt demokrati. / Democracy as a political system is never more stable than the support it enjoys among the mass public. At the same time, studies show that Sweden currently experiences a remarkable decrease in democratic support among its´ younger citizens. This study examines if the model of democracy that a political decision is made according to, affect young people’s support for the political decision-making process and thus explores possible avenues for reforming the representative model by either strengthening or weakening democracy. This is investigated through a survey experiment (N = 134) among respondents aged 18 to 29 years old. The respondents were asked to answer a survey about their attitudestowards a political decision, where the politicians had grounded their decision in either the result of a national referendum, digital deliberative meetings, or the conclusion by a group of experts. Modest effects of democracy models on support for the decision-making process were found. However, expert democracy had a significantly stronger effect on support for the decision method compared to direct democracy.

Scholarly work on international mediation suggests that how third parties mediate influences the resolution of armed conflicts. However, our understanding of what explains mediator style is limited. This dissertation addresses this gap by offering the first systematic study on explanations for mediator styles at the level of the individual. It explores the research question: what explains mediator styles of individuals mediating for peacemaking organizations in armed conflicts? Mediator style is studied as themes in goals and behaviors along two dimensions: directiveness and orientation. Directiveness covers a mediator's use of leverage and varies from non-directive to directive, while orientation covers a mediator's prioritized type of outcome and varies from relationship-oriented to settlement-oriented. The dissertation develops a theoretical framework on the effects of conflict context and mediator characteristics on mediator style. It formulates a set of theoretical expectations concerning how context in the form of conflict intensity, and characteristics such as the mediator's background profile and personality, influence mediator style. The framework is evaluated and developed based on the findings of a mixed-method design combining a survey experiment and 46 semi-structured in-depth interviews with a broad variety of IGO and NGO mediators. The results on context suggest that high-intensity conflicts make mediators on average more directive than low-intensity conflicts as a result of heightened humanitarian concerns. Furthermore, on characteristics, high-profile mediators are shown to be overall more settlement-oriented than low-profile mediators as a result of their views on conflict causes and mediator accountabilities. These findings are complemented with evidence for contingent relationships between conflict intensity, mediator personality and directiveness as well as conflict intensity, mediator profile and orientation. The study thus contributes with a refined understanding of the mediator styles of international mediators that both facilitates its further scholarly exploration and provides input to the practice of peacemaking.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This paper investigates whether privatisation of welfare services increases the Swedish middle classes’ support for the welfare state. This study is situated within an adaptation of the Paradox of Redistribution, according to which privatisation may be a way of accommodating the interests of an increasingly individualistic and autonomous middle class. The support of the middle classes is thought to be crucial, as it provides the resources necessary to maintain a comprehensive welfare state. A survey experiment is used in order to examine the causal link between specific information stimuli regarding to what degree specific welfare services are provided by private actors, and survey respondents’ personal willingness to pay taxes for specific welfare services. The use of information stimuli follows from an assumption of ill-informed respondents. The willingness to pay for specific welfare services serve as a micro-level indicator of welfare state support, with a macro-level indicator serving as a complement. Key evidence is found in the micro-level case of social services, and the overall results are taken to give support for the hypothesis. The paper provides important insights into how Swedish policy makers could reason with regards to the design of welfare services, if they are interested in securing the financing, and in turn, the longevity of a comprehensive welfare state.

Knowledge and its distribution are important for people to understand the world. In principle, science and academic research is the ultimate reliable source when knowledge is at stake, and an efficient way of communicating knowledge is through stories and narratives. As the use of digital devices is increasing, so are the use of digital devices for communicating storytelling. According to previous research, immersive and interactive forms of digital storytelling, such as video games, are beneficial for communicating knowledge. These media are, however, costly and time consuming. Communicating knowledge through more simple means is thus valuable too. The aim of this thesis was to investigate which method of communication, animated video, or comic strip, that leads to best performance, most knowledge, and is preferred. To do this a mixed method approach was conducted. The participants were asked eight questions related to the narrative. With each question three response options were provided for the participants to choose from. The collected data was analyzed through two statistical analyses, as well as a qualitative analysis. The findings suggest that there is no statistically significant difference between animated video and comic strip regarding the issue of developing knowledge, but that there is a difference in preference. These findings, as well as limitations, are further discussed in the paper.

No description available.