Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Prosperity Versus Equality At The Polls, Nathan B. Oman

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

All Roads Lead To Najaf: Grand Ayatollah Al-Sistani’S Quiet Impact On Iraq’S 2010 Ballot And Its Aftermath, Ernesto H. Braam Ll.M

Journal of International and Global Studies

This paper explores the influence of Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali al-Sistani on political developments in Iraq in the post-Saddam Husayn era and examines the discourse surrounding Sistani regarding his perceived activism or “quietism” with respect to political matters. The doctrine and statements of this most prominent Shi’i religious leader are analyzed and interpreted in the context of Iraq’s contemporary, often violent, history. Specifically, Sistani’s public statements during the run-up to the 2010 parliamentary elections and their aftermath are examined for the extent to which his voice resonates among the Iraqi people. The analysis reveals that Sistani demonstrates concern for the …

Diffusion Of Nationalist Voting In Scotland And Wales: Emulation, Contagion, And Retrenchment, James Lutz

James M Lutz

No abstract provided.

Marginality, Major Third Parties, And Turnout In England In The 1970s And 1980s: A Re-Analysis And Extension, James Lutz

James M Lutz

No abstract provided.

Welsh Political Mobilization: A Comment And A Note, James Lutz

James M Lutz

No abstract provided.

The Political Business Cycle In Ontario: An Empirical Analysis Of Financial And Demographic Data Across Medium To Large-Sized Ontario Municipalities, Robert Mcgarva

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper examines whether there was a political business cycle in Ontario municipalities from 2000 to 2006. An analysis of the top 70 lower- or single-tier municipalities by population was conducted based on financial and employment data obtained from the Ontario Financial Information Return and Municipal Performance Measurement Program websites, in addition to Statistics Canada. The findings reveal that there is weak evidence for the existence of a political business cycle in Ontario municipalities between 2000 and 2006.

Savina Cuéllar And Bolivia's New Regionalism, Miguel Centellas

Miguel Centellas

The social forces that brought Evo Morales to power reshaped the dynamics of politics in Bolivia. Although partly driven by ethnic or socioeconomic differences, regional move- ments have support beyond a narrow elite base and reflect changes in Bolivia’s political landscape stemming from 1990s political reforms, older historical legacies, and recent political developments. The June 2008 election of Savina Cuéllar, an indigenous woman, as prefect of Chuquisaca highlights the complex and evolving nature of political identi- ties. Identities constructed on the basis of regional claims are as important as—and analytically distinct from—identities constructed on the basis of ethnicity or socioeco- …

A Study Of The 2006 Municipal Elections In Ontario Analyzing The Effectiveness Of The Campaign Period And Campaign Spending Of Incumbent Mayors And Their Bids To Be Re-Elected, Wendell Graves

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper examines the 2006 municipal elections in Ontario and the manner in which individual mayoral candidates, including incumbent mayors, exercised the length of their campaign period, as well as the amount of money that the candidates spent during their pursuit of office. A case study of municipal elections in 10 municipalities – Barrie, Belleville, Caledon, Innisfil, Milton, Oshawa, Quinte West, Sarnia, St. Thomas, and Waterloo – was undertaken, wherein five of the incumbent mayors were re-elected and five were defeated. The findings generally support the hypothesis that incumbent mayors who maximize the length of their campaign period while spending …

Presidential Elections, Southwest Minnesota State University

Elections/Voting

Bibliography and photographs of a display of government documents from Southwest Minnesota State University.

A Solution Looking For A Problem: Testimony Before The 2010 Maryland General Assembly On Senate Bill 570/House Bill 986: Campaign Materials – Stockholder Approval, Larry S. Gibson

Faculty Scholarship

The U.S. Supreme Court in Citizens United v Federal Elections Commission declared unconstitutional under the First Amendment right to freedom of speech federal statutory limitations on corporate political expenditures. Before Citizens United, Maryland was already among the 26 states that permitted corporations to make direct political contributions and to make independent political expenditures. Consequently, Citizens United did not change Maryland election law and practice. The Maryland General Assembly has steadfastly resisted efforts to change the Maryland approach. Over the past several years, the General Assembly has repeatedly rejected bills that would have banned political contributions by business entities. Many in …

Do Muslims Vote Islamic?, Charles Kurzman, Ijlal Naqvi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Islamic parties have won parliamentary elections in several countries in recent years, leading some observers to speculate that Muslims vote Islamic whenever they are given the chance. However, a review of every parliamentary election in Muslim societies over the past 40 years shows that Islamic parties often compete and rarely win—and the freer the election, the worse these parties perform. In addition, an unprecedented collection of Islamic party platforms shows that Islamic parties have transformed since the 1980s, publicly endorsing democracy and women's rights and de-emphasizing shari'a and jihad. This record suggests that Islamic parties have embraced elections more than …

Public Opinion And The 1996 Elections In Russia: Nostalgic And Statist, Yet Pro-Market And Pro-Yeltsin, David S. Mason

David S. Mason

Between 1991 and 1996 Russia underwent a precipitous economic and social decline with decreases in production, gross national product, and wages, and increases in inequality, crime, and corruption. Most people experienced a decline in their standard of living, and many fondly recalled the security and stability of the communist era.

The State Of Democracy In The Andes: Introduction To A Thematic Issue Of Revista De Ciencia Politica, Maxwell A. Cameron

Maxwell Cameron

This overview finds evidence for concern about the ability of the governments in Colombia and Venezuela to hold free and fair elections and a trend toward the concentration of executive power in most countries in the sub-region. The separation of powers has been most sharply eroded in Venezuela; but Bolivia and Ecuador are moving in a similar direction. Colombia has a robust constitutional order, including a remarkably independent judiciary, however, constitutional order is threatened by the growing concentration of executive power. At the same time, most Andean countries are experimenting with new mechanisms of participation. There are sharp contrasts between …

Long Lines At Polling Stations? Observations From An Election Day Field Study, Douglas M. Spencer, Zachary S. Markovits

Douglas M. Spencer

This pilot study represents the first systematic attempt to determine how common lines are on Election Day, at what times of day lines are most likely to form, what are the bottlenecks in the voting process, and how long it takes an average citizen to cast his or her ballot. This study highlights the importance of evaluating polling station operations as a three-step process: arrival, check-in, and casting a ballot. We collected data during the 2008 presidential primary election in California, measuring the efficiency of the operational components of 30 polling stations across three counties. We found statistically significant, and …

The 2009 Presidential And Legislative Elections In Bolivia, Alexandra Alpert, Miguel Centellas, Matthew M. Singer

Miguel Centellas

No abstract provided.

Explaining The 2004 Exit Poll Error As A Product Of Response Bias And Not Fraud : A Comparison Of The "Spiral Of Silence" And "Political Ambivalence" Perspectives As Heurism For Analyzing The Causal Structure Of Differential Response In The Exit Polls, Tamas Bodor

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Leaked exit poll data on the 2004 Presidential election suggested that John Kerry was ahead in several key states and was winning the election. Yet the official vote tallies showed that George W. Bush easily secured his second term. The unprecedented degree of discrepancy between the exit poll estimates and the official tallies fuelled a fierce controversy. Since no particular methodological shortcomings had been identified, some advanced the "reluctant Bush respondent" hypothesis, arguing that the exit polls overstated the Kerry vote because Bush supporters were less willing to express their views by participating in the exit polls. Since no information …

Finding A Voice: Using The Internet For Free Speech And Expression In Iran, Chelsea Zimmerman

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In July 2009, many Iranians took to the streets to protest the results of the presidential election in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won with a reported 62% of the vote. The protests, stemming from allegations of electoral fraud, quickly exposed the government's limited tolerance for dissent. In addition to street demonstrations, protestors utilized social networking websites to express their opposition to the election results. The world, following Internet feeds, witnessed the restrictive mechanisms Iran’s government placed on expression and speech. People throughout the world admonished Iran for the government's interference with cell phone and Internet networks. Iran’s free speech and expression …

A Content Analysis Of Elite U.S. Newspapers' Coverage Of Iran, 1979 And 2005, Melissa Kamal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is a quantitative content analysis of the New York Times and Washington Post coverage of Iran during the period surrounding the Ayatollah Khomeini's ascension to power in 1979 as well as the period surrounding Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election in 2005. The results showed that coverage of Iran in the elite American print media as it related to terror was higher in the period after Khomeini came to power and also in the period after Ahmadinejad's election than it was in the period immediately preceding their respective ascensions. The results also showed that there was more coverage of Iran as …

The Dignity Of Voters—A Dissent, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

Since the waning days of the Burger Court, the federal judiciary has developed a generally well-deserved reputation for hostility to constitutional claims of individual right. In the field of democratic process, however, the Supreme Court has not only affirmed and expanded the applications of previously recognized rights, but has also regularly recognized new individual rights and deployed them with considerable vigor. The latest manifestation of this trend appears to be the emergence of a new species of vote dilution claim that recognizes a constitutionally grounded right against having one’s vote “cancelled out” by fraud or error in the casting and …

Against The State Governance, Governance From Below & Governing Through Terrorism: Analytically Investigating The Technologies Of Power Within The Terrorist Arsenal., Allen Gnanam

Allen Gnanam

Terrorism as a violent and destabilizing act performed by terrorists, meaning loyal followers of political or religious agendas who hold resent and animosity toward a certain authority/ government (Lin, Liou, & Wu, 2007, pg. 149), will be explored and analyzed through the utilization of the governmentality perspective. For the purposes of this paper terrorism governance will refer to the governance/ control/ influence exerted by terrorists and terrorism. The focus of this explorative and analysis paper will be to identify diverse terrorism oriented technologies of governance, and analyze the ways in which these technologies enable terrorist to exert governance both indirectly …

Have Nominating Conventions Lost Power?, Tyler Branz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Do conventions still have relevance in the modern political world? Some call them glorified television infomercials for presidential candidates while others refer to them as admired pillars of American political history. Whichever viewpoints one identifies with, presidential conventions are interesting to study historically, and can be studied analytically. The following case studies examine the institution of the nominating convention: what they do, how they form, what they have accomplished and how they affect the voters. This study finds that conventions are still meaningful in American politics, particularly for affecting party unity, candidate image and, to a lesser degree, party platform.

The Dilemma Of Direct Democracy, Craig M. Burnett, Elizabeth Garrett, Mathew D. Mccubbins

Faculty Scholarship

The dilemma of direct democracy is that voters may not always be able to make welfare- improving decisions. Lupia’s seminal work has led us to believe that voters can substitute voting cues for substantive policy knowledge. Lupia, however, emphasized that cues were valuable under certain conditions and not others. In what follows, we present three main findings regarding voters and what they know about California’s Proposition 7. First, much like Lupia reported, we show voters who are able to recall endorsements for or against a ballot measure vote similarly to people who recall certain basic facts about the initiative. We …

Can Mature Democracies Be Perfected?, Guy-Uriel Charles

Faculty Scholarship

One of the more vexing questions about democracy that is often debated among political theorists, political scientists, and legal scholars is whether the democratic character of mature democracies can be improved. From one view, that of democratic realists, mature democracies are perfected as a matter of definition and as a matter of realistic expectations. Because mature democracies are those that respect core democratic principles, variations outside the core are simply policy differences based upon each democratic polity’s willingness to engage in a different set of trade-offs. For democratic realists, variations in democratic practice that are not related to core democratic …

2010s Courses At Yale, David R. Mayhew

David Mayhew