Electoral Activity Research Articles

Electoral Outcomes and Managerial Perceptions of the Business Environment

A stream of literature examines the link between electoral cycles and economic activity at the firm level, but we do not know much about managers’ policy expectations and beliefs after an electoral cycle. This study attempts to address this question by exploiting an electoral cycle within a cross-sectional survey. Using the Indian parliamentary election of 2014 as exogenous variation within the India Enterprise Survey (2014), we find that a decisive electoral outcome has an effect on managerial perceptions of the business environment, measured through measures of corruption and tax administration. While we find mixed evidence for the overall effect of the election on managerial perceptions, we find smaller firms appear to have higher expectations from a new government. Results also suggest that managers reflect the mood of their region’s voting choices.

Stock Market Reaction to Election Cycles: The Nigerian Experience

This study seeks to unravel the relationship between national electoral events and industry’s stock market returns using the various presidential elections in Nigeria. The study adopts the traditional Market Model (MM) and testing with the Cumulative Abnormal Return (CAR) approach on the daily market data from the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Evidences abound that banking and Petroleum sector decreases before and increases after all elections. With the same trend for other sectors such as Conglomerates stock prices which oscillated in the same direction for the1999 and 2003; Brewery took their turn 1999 and 2011 while building sector experienced this event effect in 1999, thereby revealing industry connectivity with political activities. This manifests as their stock returns tend to reduce generally before and increase after election periods. We therefore recommend the depoliticization of public policies through strict adherence to corporate governance codes and strengthening of public institutions. This will put a check on the political manoeuvrings of the economy by boosting investors’ confidence on the market regardless of electoral activities and power swings. More importantly, for those stocks that experiences increase in value after election it is a better time to sell those portfolios and buy these stocks that experience loss in value at a post-election window.

La campaña a la Alcaldía de Manizales (Colombia) en Twitter: un caso para comprender la influencia de los medios en la interacción online entre candidatos y ciudadanos

The shift of electoral activities and political campaigns to the information and communication technologies scenario has awakened great expectations and questions regarding the possibilities that the Internet offers to create new forms of interaction and conversation between candidates and citizens. Over the past few years, Twitter has become an innovative contact channel between these two actors, as it allows for personal and direct communication on public matters. Based on a mixed and descriptive methodology, this research focused on analyzing the content of the messages published during the last 25 days of campaign on the Twitter accounts of the four mayoral candidates in Manizales (Colombia) in 2015. The results indicate, on the one hand, that the use of Twitter responded mainly to propagandistic and advertising interests; and on the other, the greater number of messages that emerged among the candidates’ followers recreated a scenario of confrontation and hostility between two ideologically opposed blocs.

Corruption And Electoral Process In Nigeria: Examining The 2015 General Election

Corruption is one of the socioeconomic malaises that bedeviled the Nigerian State for many decades which virtually eroded all aspects of good governance and effective service delivery to the populace. It has affected democratic governance particularly electoral process with vote buying, bribing of electoral body officials and manipulation of the entire process. This paper investigated how corruption affected the process and outcome of the 2015 General Elections. The methodology adopted is qualitative case study of data collection and analysis where some agencies and stakeholders that are related to the area of study were selected for interview including INEC, EFCC, politicians, party stakeholders, academicians and members of the general public through focus group discussion. The paper discovered that, the entire process of 2015 General Elections was affected by corruption and corrupt practices in terms of using public treasury for campaign activities by politicians from the two major parties; APC and PDP in their campaign and other electoral activities comprising of vote buying, excessive media campaign, spending above limit and bribing of INEC officials. The paper recommends that, for corruption to be eschewed in the electoral process, the INEC should be allowed a free hand in running the elections and the EFCC should be involved in screening contestants for political office and violaters of electoral laws should be banned from active politics permanently. The paper contributed to the existing knowledge by presenting an area that has not been given adequate attention particularly in the methodology of research of this nature.

GENDER GAPS IN VOTER'S BEHAVIOUR IN MODERN UKRAINE: FACTORS AND INFLUENCE

The article deals with the important and insufficiently studied problem of specificity of the gender influence on electors’ orientations in modern Ukraine. The studies fixed the presence of gender gaps in the electoral behavior – certain difference in electoral activity (participation in elections) and electoral preferences (decision about whom to give the own voice) among men and women. Based on the analysis of the situation in the Ukrainian society, there was determined, that the real gender gap in the electoral behavior of women and men is conditioned by the series of factors: historical (1), ideological (2), economic (3), social (4), political (5), cognitive-propagandist (6), stereotype and others (7).Their influence really determines a motivation of making electoral decisions by them. It was established, that just these factors, added by the series of partial ones (regional, type and level of elections, strategies of organizing election campaigns and so on) determine the presence of differences in the electoral behavior of men and women. Present gender gaps testify not only to the difference in the attitude to elections, they manifest the difference in approaches as to the attitude to the whole totality of social and political problems among men and women. Historical, economic, social, political, ideological factors, separated at the analysis, are more or less manifested in gender stereotypes that function in the society, that describe and legitimize men’s and women’s status in the society, their attitude to different social phenomena that results in the necessity to take them into account obligatorily at organizing elections.

Результаты интеллектуальной деятельности – инновационному потенциалу страны

In the article are considered the features that characterize the level of innovative potential in Russia in compare with other countries. The analysis of dynamics of patent activity in Russia and in the world is conducted, the assessment of condition of national innovative potential is carried out on the base of the analysis of university’s electoral activity, global innovative index, Forbes and Global-500 ratings. Weaknesses of national innovative system are detected and possible options how to increase the efficiency of creating and using the results of intellectual activity are suggested.

Acting for God? Types and Motivations of Clergy Political Activity

AbstractClergy members are often important political actors. Yet, scholars rarely distinguish among different types of clergy political activities. Here, I argue for three disaggregated categories of clergy political activity: personal, general congregation level, and election-specific congregation level. Data from two sources—the Cooperative Clergy Study and the Little Rock Congregations Study—demonstrate that important differences exist across these categories, with the majority of model variables significantly influencing different clergy political activitiesin different directions. For instance, a conservative ideology and affiliation with a Black Protestant church both negatively influence personal political activities, like donating to a campaign, while also positively influencing election-related political activities in the congregation, like distributing voter guides. Similarly, providential religious beliefs increase general congregation-level political activities, while decreasing personal and electoral activities. These relationships are obscured when political activity is considered in the aggregate, suggesting that clergy political activities are nuanced; different activities are driven by different motivations.

More Than a Score: Interest Group Ratings and Polarized Politics

This article examines the origins and influence of ideological index scores—where liberal and conservative interest groups rate legislator performance on selected roll call votes. Two such groups founded in the mid-twentieth century—the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) and the Americans for Constitutional Action (ACA)—were crucial to the development of this type of metric, transforming roll call analysis from detailed tabular scorecards into streamlined percentage scores showing how often a lawmaker voted “right.” ADA and ACA scores have been heavily utilized in political science as proxies for liberalism and conservatism and used to demonstrate the growing polarization of the congressional parties. Archival evidence suggests, however, that those scores were intended to create the very phenomenon they have been used to measure. They were deeply political rather than objective metrics, which the ADA and ACA used to guide their electoral activities in accordance with an increasingly partisan strategic plan. Each group directed campaign resources toward incumbent lawmakers they rated highly, but they did so unevenly—with the ADA favoring liberal Democrats over Republicans and the ACA showing a preference for conservative Republicans over time. By rewarding favored lawmakers in their preferred party, and using scores to highlight and discourage ideological outliers, they hoped to reshape the parties along more distinct and divided ideological lines—to create more “responsible” parties, as prominent political scientists then desired.

‘Structural Reform’ and the Problem of Socialist Strategy Today

This paper begins with the observation that the left-wing movements that have enjoyed significant political advances in Europe recently share a broad strategic orientation. They seek, that is, to combine electoral and parliamentary activity on the one hand with extra-parliamentary mobilisation on the other. Crucially, these formations seek to utilise parliamentary channels to introduce radical reforms and thus a central component of their approach is to form a ‘left government’ within the institutions of the capitalist state. Despite the failure of Syriza in office I argue that the radical left has little option but to work with these ascendant left formations and attempt to radicalise them from within. I suggest that in order to do so the radical left must transcend the twin dead ends of reformism and Leninism and the historical strategic impasse bound up with the counter-position of these strategic poles. I argue that a strategic perspective elaborated by a minority current within Syriza provides useful resources for navigating a route beyond this impasse. I then show that this perspective can be further elaborated and refined by drawing on theoretical resources associated with the concept of ‘structural reform’ developed in the late 1960s and 1970s. I argue that the work of Nicos Poulantzas and André Gorz is especially useful in this regard.

Significado y función del derecho de sufragio en la actividad electoral de un Estado democrático

The research falls within the theoretical framework of Electoral Law, as an area of knowledge of Constitutional Law. The right to vote is a basic architectural element of the constitutional clause of a Democratic State. The right to vote is a subjective right, but it is also a key part in the context of that Democratic State clause, insofar as, without elections—and therefore without the right to vote—there is no room for renovation and the resulting continuity of the institutional system on which Democracy lies. Moreover, participation by means of a referendum is also electoral activity which grants recognition and jurisdictional protection to the right to vote.

Electoral behaviour of young people at regional elections

Young people as a social institution contribute to political socialization, the scientific nature of political consciousness and the maturity of political culture, the formation of interests and the acquisition of skills for political participation, including the electoral one. This research considers the problem of electoral behavior of young people on the example of regional elections based on the ideas of social partnership between the state and youth. On the basis of the research of electoral behavior of young people at the regional level elections, the theoretical and methodological foundations of political research of this problem, mechanisms for improving the quality of political participation are defined, the main components of young people’s readiness for electoral activities on the basis of social partnership technologies combined with well-built state protectionism are also identified.

Russia Media Policy As An Instrumentality Of Political Pressure In Central-Eastern European Countries

The usage of information as a weapon in foreign and domestic policies of Russia is not a new phenomenon. Still sophistication and intensity of it grows with each passing year. Recently the EU and USA have realized this powerful latent influence of Russian media and propaganda, including electoral processes and activities of State administration. They realized that Russian misinformation poses a serious threat to United States and its European allies, first and foremost with regard to Poland, Baltic States and Ukraine. Moreover, unlike Soviet propaganda, the modern methods of the Russian information war do not rudely promote the agenda of the Kremlin. Instead, they aim to confuse, daze and divert citizens from the EU and Ukraine support. Russia seeks to undermine the support of European values, producing disarray among European allies in order to increase its influence. Ethnic, linguistic, regional, social and historical contradictions and stereotypes are used for this purpose.
 As current experience shows, Russian advocacy efforts in Europe make an important part of their hybrid approach to the projection of force. Despite the fact that the crisis in Ukraine for the first time drew the attention of the West to the importance and real meaning of the information campaign in Russia, the Kremlin's use of misinformation was launched long before the crisis. Russia carefully and purposefully prepared an information war against Ukraine. It has been increasing their presence in the information space, and also recruiting and sponsoring (corrupting) a range of politicians, civil servants and public figures in line with its strategic goals.
 Keywords: Russian media, media policy, CEE countries, cyber security, Ukraine

Opinie przyszłych pedagogów na temat medialnie głośnych zmian w systemie edukacji

The article is a report of the author’s research conducted among students of the Maria Grzegorzewska University in Warsaw in the years 2015 and 2016. The aim of the research was to recognise the students’ political views, attitudes towards democracy and electoral activity, as well as their opinion on issues popular in the mass media, such as liquidation of gymnasium and switching to the 8-grade primary school and the abolition of the obligatory school enrolment age of 6 years. The research was conducted by the author’s questionnaire containing 16 closed-ended questions. The participants were 506 stationary students of the Pedagogical Faculty at the Maria Grzegorzewska University, specialization: pedagogy and special education. The group of participants was selected randomly. The results of the research prove unambiguously that the interest in politics is very low among students; the majority of them do not have any precise views and half of them declared not having participated in the elections for Parliament. Concerning the students’ attitude towards the proposed changes in the educational system, the percentage rate shows that both proposals of the Polish government (liquidation of gymnasium and abolition of the obligatory school enrolment age of 6 years) have more supporters than opponents. The author confronts the obtained results with the results of research undertaken by large research centres on all-Poland research groups, which allows to present the attitudes of pedagogy students on the background of the general public.

DISPLAYS OF OF ELECTORAL CULTURE IN THE ELECTORAL FIELD OF THE CARPATHIAN-PODILSK REGION

Problem Statement and Purpose. The article reveals the behaviour of the voters of a certain territory in the context of ideological commitment, electoral activity, conditions and factors that influence the choice of people. Thus a tradition of electoral activity and the collective memory of the party favour is formed. Four electoral cadences were chosen for investigation over the period 2006-2014 years. It helped to determine changes in the elections interest (vote), commitment to a certain type of ideology, which was analysed according to a proportion of voting for a group of political parties with close ideological views. The manifestation of mass political consciousness, which shows itself through the electoral culture, allows us to estimate at the territorial level, the population’s attitude to certain ideologies and political orientations. The purpose of the article is to determine the role of electoral activity as a form of electoral culture. Data & Methods. The basis of the article is a theoretical and methodological development of leading experts in the field of modern political geography, electoral geography and other sciences that study the peculiarities of electoral processes. There were used such scientific methods of research as analysis and synthesis, statistical, generalization, abstraction and others. Materials of Central Election Commission were used in this article for the period 2006 – 2014 years. Results. Conclusions were made regarding certain territorial attachment of the electorate. Grouping of administrative units was implemented according to the level of electoral culture formation based on certain ideological direction. Our studies allow to note a tendency of electoral activity gradual alignment and consistency of regional character assessment of the electoral process, which suggests the formation of a common problem field of electoral culture. Based on our research, a higher formation level of electoral culture demonstrate areas of Galician region (Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Ternopil); in east-Podilsk regions and areas of multi-ethnic character (Transcarpathian, Chernivtsi) electoral culture is an indicator of social cohesion process around a particular range of views and ideas, guided by pro-European and pro-Ukrainian views.

Presidencia imperial y desequilibrio de poderes en Colombia

Este articulo identifica y caracteriza, el desequilibrio de poderes en Colombia, que ha dado lugar,
 a una presidencia imperial, deslegitimadora, del Estado de Derecho, y del mismo sistema jurídico, pues se han desvirtuado de tal forma las garantías constitucionales; que los grandes acontecimientos sociales y políticos están provocando un alto grado de obsolescencia de las instituciones jurídicas y políticas, particularmente de la Democracia en la que más se evidencia la quiebra del esquema originario propuesto para la separación de las ramas del poder público y la nula aplicabilidad la primacía del interés general sobre los intereses particulares. Se requiere por lo tanto la reconstrucción del Estado y de la democracia, para involucrar seriamente la participación de los ciudadanos, más allá de la simple actividad electoral o electorera a fin de que sean los electores y no los elegidos, quienes detenten el poder. Con tal finalidad el Estado debe reconocer la existencia y el protagonismo de las comunidades, abriendo espacios de participación y autorregulación, para que pueda tomar parte efectivamente en las políticas y en las decisiones que los afectan, contribuyendo así a fijar su destino de acuerdo, con las sanas reglas del principio de la subsidiariedad.

Nazwy komitetów wyborczych – aspekty strukturalne i aksjologiczne

The subject of this paper will be a semantic and structural analysis of the names of electoral committees, and a reference to the axiological systems that are indirectly reflected by them. The names of electoral committees are obligatory elements of electoral activities, as well as being an interesting element of political marketing.

Transnational Militancy: Diaspora Influence over Electoral Activity in Latin America

Transnational Militancy: Diaspora Influence over Electoral Activity in Latin America

Twitter as a tool for and object of political and electoral activity: Considering electoral context and variance among actors

ABSTRACTIn recent years, journalists, political elites, and the public have used Twitter as an indicator of political trends. Given this usage, what effect do campaign activities have on Twitter discourse? What effect does that discourse have on electoral outcomes? We posit that Twitter can be understood as a tool for and an object of political communication, especially during elections. This study positions Twitter volume as an outcome of other electoral antecedents and then assesses its relevance in election campaigns. Using a data set of more than 3 million tweets about 2014 U.S. Senate candidates from three distinct groups—news media, political actors, and the public—we find that competitiveness and money spent in the race were the main predictors of volume of Twitter discourse, and the impact of competitiveness of the race was stronger for tweets coming from the media when compared to the other groups. Twitter volume did not predict vote share for any of the 35 races studied. Our findings suggest that Twitter is better understood as a tool for political communication, and its usage may be predicted by money spent and race characteristics. As an object, Twitter use has limited power to predict electoral outcomes.

Future Establishment of Competition among Political Parties in Uzbekistan

This scientific analyzes article the place and role of political parties in a society. Multi-party system and political competitive factors among political parties are set forth. The participation of political parties is analyzed as an essential institution of civil society as well as national and international experience. Moreover, the author shows scientific outlook about political parties’ start on competition, struggle of political ideas and ideology during preelection campaign and electoral activity.

Electoral activity of the population of western ukraine border territory

Electoral activity of the population of western ukraine border territory