Electoral Policies Research Articles

Young voices, significant influence: Lowering the voting age and young people’s readiness for voting

In recent years, there has been a notable shift in electoral policies worldwide, particularly regarding the lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18. In the context of readiness towards voting, the influence of parents, peers, and social media influencers on adolescents is crucial to consider. Research indicates that teenagers often adopt the political ideologies and attitudes of their parents, which can significantly shape their readiness and approach to voting. This paper thus, seeks to discover young voters’ attitudes towards voting and their readiness for the 15th general election (GE15) in Malaysia. Through a statistical analysis of attitudes and their readiness towards voting, the study uncovers the significant influence of this policy shift. This highlights the implication of young voters in shaping the future of democracy.

Moving the electoral goalposts: State and local strategies of electoral intervention in the U.S.

Central to the partisan divide in American politics is disagreement over the fundamental legitimacy of American elections. Due to the decentralized nature of election administration in the US, these disagreements have led to a complex web of heterogeneous electoral institutions. Scholars have made impressive progress on untangling the effects of these different institutions — unfortunately, less is known about the sources of adoption of such proposals. Using time-series cross-sectional data on the adoption of various electoral policies by state governments from 2001–2018, I examine the role of politics and identity in shaping the types of electoral interventions adopted by state legislatures during an important period of increasing politicization of such interventions. Applying dynamic panel models and constructing a novel measure of the concentration of Black population within competitive congressional districts, I find that the effects of race, competition, and ideology on electoral interventions differ across both partisan lines and issue areas.

Local Alien Enfranchisement and External Efficacy Perceptions: Intended and Unintended Effects on Non-citizens and Citizens

Do citizens and non-citizens perceive themselves as more politically influential in contexts with more immigrant-inclusive local enfranchisement policies? Despite long-standing debates about the unequal responsiveness in the political systems of many advanced democracies, we still know little about whether targeted public policies at the local level can alter perceptions of political representation among residents. Importantly, little attention has been paid to the potential intended and unintended consequences of local electoral policies on external efficacy and research designs that include non-citizen residents. In this paper, we argue and test whether local alien enfranchisement raises external efficacy among non-citizens as a highly effective marker of immigrant inclusivity. Next, considering the potential spill-over effects of alien enfranchisement on citizens, we examine whether such electoral expansion is associated with a perceived increase in competition for political influence and a subsequent decline in citizens’ external efficacy. Empirically, we focus on the Swiss case and exploit local electoral institutions’ sub-national and temporal variation using longitudinal data from the Swiss Household Panel from 1999 to 2014. The paper adds to earlier work by proposing local policy context regarding non-citizen enfranchisement as one of the predictors of external efficacy on the resident population. Our findings suggest that perceived political influence among non-citizens is higher in municipalities with inclusive enfranchisement. We find no evidence for citizens experiencing lower external efficacy when voting rights are extended, making alien enfranchisement potentially a valuable tool to improve political integration among immigrants in today’s diverse democracies.

E-Enabling as a Technological Platform for Electoral Democracy in Uganda

Globally, failure to have active, effective, and full participation in elections makes democracy wishful thinking. Considering the ineffectiveness of traditional methods of political participation alone, online political participation (e-enabling), especially through the use of the internet and social media, comes in handy in a bid to have a fair and credible election. This study investigates how e-enabling can act as a technological platform for electoral democracy in Uganda. Specifically, the study aims to establish the relationship between e-enabling and electoral democracy among citizens in Uganda. Using the mixed methods, under a descriptive correlational survey, a sample of N=482 respondents were in the study. Based on Pearson’s correlation coefficients, results reveal that e-enabling is significantly related to electoral democracy. Providing platforms like fair electoral policies and guidelines to enable people freely adopt and utilise the internet in elections through free social media, free or low-cost internet, good nationwide networks, minimising internet shutdowns so that all electoral stakeholders can freely express themselves and actively engage in all stages of the electoral process with the utmost fairness, transparency and accountability will go a long way in having e-enabling as a technological platform for strengthening electoral democracy in Uganda

Politik Hukum Partai Politik dan Pemilihan Umum

According to modern democracies, political parties and elections are institutions that cannot be separated from one another. Each Political Party will always try to gain great popular support during the General Election so that the People's Representative Institution is dominated by the Political Party concerned. General elections are people's parties which are a manifestation of the principle of people's sovereignty, so it is during elections that the people are given freedom in making political choices and attitudes through candidates for people's representatives who are members of Political Parties. The will of the people is the basis of government power. That will be born in periodic and honest elections conducted in general elections and in common with secret voting, by means of free and equal voting. Thus, freedom, honesty, secrecy and equality are essential in the administration of elections. Political, legal, political party and electoral policies in guarding democratization in Indonesia have undergone significant shifts over time. General elections are considered a real form of democracy and the most concrete form of public participation in participating in the administration of the state.

How Priming Fairness and Priming Constitutionality Impact the Effect of Partisan Self-Interest on Citizen Support for Election Reforms

Abstract Prior research suggests that citizen attitudes toward electoral laws and reforms derive from how individuals weigh two competing considerations: the rule’s procedural fairness and one’s partisan self-interest (or how they perceive the policy affects their party’s electoral prospects). Recent experimental work shows that despite a role for fairness concerns, policy support levels shift (at least to a degree) based on its anticipated impact on who votes. We examine how the presentation of the trade-off between fairness and partisan advantage influences election reform opinions. Using two sets of survey experiments, we find that priming fairness reduces, but does not eliminate, the effect of partisan self-interest in shaping policy evaluations. Priming a reform’s constitutionality so as to provide cover to infringe upon fairness considerations, however, does not exacerbate the impact of partisan self-interest on support for adoption. These results expand our understanding of how citizens weigh different factors when assessing electoral policies.

Rhetorical analysis of two motivational speeches in Croatia

The paper examines two motivational speeches delivered by presidential candidates Zoran Milanović and Kolinda Grabar Kitarović during the 2019 presidential election campaign in Croatia. The emphasis is on the use of rhetorical operations and ideology-related vocabulary as a means of persuasion, as motivational speech aims to persuade an audience. The research begins by asking two research questions: RQ1) What principles of strategic communication do presidential candidates use to persuade audience to take a desired course of action? and RQ2) What incentive elements and rhetorical devices are used by each speaker to address the public? To answer the questions, two models of political discourse analysis are used: the persuasion and the lexical-argumentative model. The analysis is based on three hypotheses: H1) Motivational speech, as part of epideictic rhetoric, implements elements of persuasion, direction, intensity and persistence and involves not only linguistic, but also personal and psychological factors, H2) The characteristic structure of elements of incitement includes the use of positively and negatively charged words and phrases to reinforce the feeling of (non-)belonging to a group, and H3) Possible differences between motivational speeches are not gender specific, as both motivational speakers are career politicians with different political affiliations. Within the framework of two models of analysis, 20 excerpts representing 134 speech utterances are selected from each speech. The results show that (i) both motivational speakers use a variety of persuasive tools to attack the opponent(s), introduce electoral policies, legitimize their political positions, or define the ideological groups of belonging and (ii) there are both similarities and differences in the rhetorical design of the speeches analyzed, uncovering various patterns of judgment about political reality.

Divergent Electoral Policies: Why Some States Increase Ballot Access

AbstractWhy have some states adopted policies expanding ballot access while others have restricted access to the ballot? Since the 1990s, some states have been adopting policies restricting access to the ballot such as requiring identification. At the same time, states have been adopting a variety of registration reforms that lower the barriers to registration and voting. Using an original, 45-state dataset, we examine state innovation within the policy domain of electoral reforms in US states. We find reforms have an independent and, sometimes, negative effect on the innovation of states in electoral reforms. Next, we use dyad analysis to examine the spread of a single policy: automatic voter registration. We find that the propensity to innovate both within and across a state makes the spread of automatic voter registration more likely. Our paper contributes to the broader understanding of why states adopt electoral reforms.

Residential mobility and its effect on voter turnout in Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria

The study is aimed at assessing the effect of residential mobility on voter turnout or electoral participation, by exploring: the average distance between a polling unit and voter residence and the relationship between residential mobility and voter turnout in Alaka LSDPC Estate, Surulere Local Government Area. The study targeted a population of residents who moved into the neighborhood between 2015 to 2019 general elections, employed a hundred percent sample size, considering the marginal figure of 36 families and the sampling technique adopted was the snowballing and purposive. For data analysis, descriptive statistics were used for the average distance between a polling unit and voter residence, and ANOVA and linear regression were used to analyze the relationship between residential mobility and voter turnout. The current study found out that there is a significant relationship between residential mobility and voter turnout, as the average distance between a polling unit and a voter’s residence is greater than 20 km which implies that it is very far and inaccessible. Residential mobility indeed affects voter participation, with a P = 0.001 value and R2 value of 0.513 (51.3%). It is recommended that residential mobility be considered in electoral policies, laws, initiatives, and programs by the electoral body to ensure total inclusion.

Too old to vote? A democratic analysis of age-weighted voting

Are there any prima facie reasons that democracies might have for disenfranchising older citizens? This question reflects increasingly salient, but often incompletely theorized complaints that members of democratic publics advance about older citizens’ electoral influence. Rather than rejecting these complaints out of hand, we explore whether, suitably reconstructed, they withstand democratic scrutiny. More specifically, we examine whether the account of political equality that seems to most fittingly capture the logic of these complaints – namely, equal opportunity of political influence over electoral outcomes – can justify disenfranchising older citizens. We conclude that equal opportunity of influence cannot ground a blanket disenfranchisement of older people and that, taken in conjunction with other general considerations that apply to all sound electoral policies, partial disenfranchisement proposals (i.e. proposals for reducing the electoral influence of older citizens via age-weighted voting) are both quasi-inapplicable and practically unrobust across a relevant range of political contexts.

Party nominee or independent candidate? Examining Electoral Reforms and the Use of Digital Technologies for Voter Participation in South Africa

This article discusses electoral reforms and the use of digital technologies for voter participation in South Africa. The study employed focus group discussions and in-depth interviews through semi-structured questions to engage with voters and politicians. Informed by theories on politics and technology, the articles notes that the current electoral system has advantages and disadvantages, though it can be enhanced by the inclusion of a mixed proportional or constituency-based electoral system whereby voters elect political party candidates or independent candidates to represent their constituencies. The article argues that digital technologies alone cannot enhance voter participation without electoral policies that promote voter participation in the candidate selection processes for provincial and national elections. The article further highlights the fact that the use of digital technologies and a mixed electoral system are desirable for maximum citizen participation in national and provincial elections. However, some political parties enjoying dominance in the multi-party democracy might perceive reform as unfavourable. The article concludes that consensus and political will are fundamental to harness all progressive electoral reforms and digital tools for sustainable democracy.

The Path to Asian American Representation

Asian Americans have made substantial progress from being seen as a foreign threat during times of high anti-Asian sentiment to their current image as legally recognized U.S. citizens that can vote and run for office; however, there still exists significant representation challenges created from electoral policies and politics that pose barriers between Asian Americans and elected office. This article will analyze the progress and struggle of Asian American political representation through a legal, political, and electoral lens and support solutions that break down these barriers to Asian American political power. Much of this discussion about obtaining Asian American political power requires familiarity with the racial stereotypes of Asian Americans such as the “perpetual foreigner” and the “model minority” stereotypes, since many voters often incorporate stereotypes into the evaluation of their candidates. Three strategies (multiracial campaign platforms, panethnic campaign fundraising, and Voting Rights Act expansion) will be presented that will take these stereotypes into account and provide a path to Asian American representation.

Designing a Model for Agenda-Setting of Electoral Policies with a Political Marketing Approach

The purpose of this study was to design a model for determining the agenda of electoral policies with a political marketing approach. This study is a qualitative research that has been performed using grounded theory method and Strauss and Corbin model, which is based on three stages of open, axial and selective coding. In this regard, in-depth interviews were conducted using theoretical snowball sampling with election experts, deputies, governors and university professors. The number of samples continued until the responses reached saturation (with 17 interviews). Data analysis was performed in three stages of open coding, axial coding, and electoral coding and then the intended model was explained based on the paradigm model of grounded theory. (Executive issues of the electoral institution, weakness of the party system, misunderstanding of political marketing and legal and supervisory problems) were identified as contextual factors, and the (cultural, political, economic) dimensions were identified as contextual factors from the perspective of research participants. Strategies are included in three dimensions: solving executive and supervisory problems, reforming the understanding of political marketing, strengthening the party system and the resulting consequences including upgrading the country’s party system, upgrading the country’s electoral system and the country’s political development.

Mainstream South African Newspapers’ Coverage of National Elections in Post-apartheid South Africa 1994–2014

During each of the five elections held in post-apartheid South Africa, from 1994 to 2014, the African National Congress (ANC) accused the mainstream media of being racially biased against the predominantly black political party. The newspapers and the other media were condemned for being privately owned and monopolised by white capital and dominated by white editorial staff, who allegedly reported negatively and critically on the party’s electoral policies—thus alienating it from the voters. Despite such criticism, the ANC gained a majority of votes at each election. This article examines: i) the presumed powerful influence of the press on electoral support for the ANC; ii) the extent that newspaper reporting on elections were racially biased against, and hostile to the ANC; and iii) the racial composition of the editorial staff. Five influential South African newspapers were analysed: three daily newspapers, Beeld, The Star, and Sowetan; and two weekly publications, The City Press and The Sunday Times. A total of 111 170 newspaper articles and editorial pieces relating to the elections were content-analysed to establish their manifest positive, negative, or neutral tonality. It was found that mainstream newspapers’ reporting did not negatively influence voters’ support for the ANC, that reports on elections were predominantly objective with a slight positive bias in favour of the ANC, and that the racial composition of editorial staff changed from being predominantly white to more representative of black personnel, which in turn introduced more visible anti-white bias.

Subordinating Federal Transfers: Analysis of Fiscal and Electoral Policies in Russian Regions in 2013-2018

Subordinating Federal Transfers: Analysis of Fiscal and Electoral Policies in Russian Regions in 2013-2018

Dual Citizenship as Power Politics: The Case of the Carpathian Basin

The article focuses on dual citizenship and voting rights, not as the rights of an individual, but from the perspective of state. Therefore, citizenship is concentrated into a power-political resource inside and between states, as a means of gaining and maintaining domestic power and interests. Our case is Carpathian Basin, in which the Fidesz-led government has sought to increase its influence by guaranteeing dual citizenship to ethnic Hungarians. In addition, the citizenship and electoral policies are placed into wider European context in relation to external voting rights and the ideas of specific quota systems for the representation of the citizens abroad. We assert that the extension of citizenship with voting rights to those living abroad has transformed elections from a purely national matter to regional or even global issue. In Hungary it seems plausible that new electorate, outer-Hungarians, secured the two-third majority for the government both in 2014 and 2018.

Parallel authoritarian powers: an explanation of Mexico’s authoritarian regime breakdown

ABSTRACTMany scholars suggest that dominant parties enhance authoritarian regime resiliency by regularizing and directing the distribution of spoils, careers, and policy among members of the authoritarian coalition. This article challenges this assertion by providing a novel mechanism to explain why, under stress, some dominant party regimes are more likely to break down than others. The argument posits that an autocracy’s capacity to fend off systemic crises increases when elites who control the power to make decisions locate themselves in the same organization (for example, the military, the bureaucracy, a political party) as elites in charge of implementing these decisions. If elites of these types locate in different organizations (what I refer to as a “parallel power” arrangement), in the face of systemic adversities elite collective action suffers and, consequently, regime resiliency decreases. I illustrate the applicability of the argument in the case of Mexico’s party-based autocracy. The stability of this regime was fatally damaged when, in the presence of systemic challenges in the 1980s and 1990s, the state’s bureaucracy – in charge of making decisions – decided to enact economic and electoral policies against the wishes of the elites in the dominant party, who were in charge of implementing many of these decisions.

Parliamentary election and electoral violence in Bangladesh: the way forward

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the 10th national election held on 5 January 2014, and the violent incidents took place during, before and after the election in Bangladesh. Violence-free competitive, fair and credible national election is a prioritized issue in the politics and governance discourse in Bangladesh now. In this paper, relevant literature has been reviewed first for conceptual understanding, Then, the paper investigates to explore the causes and outcomes of violence took place centering the 10th parliamentary election in Bangladesh. Finally, it prescribes possible ways forward to overcome this crisis.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is descriptive and qualitative in nature and based on secondary sources of materials. As it focused on a particular country and issue relating to the electoral violence of a particular national election in Bangladesh, it is a case study too. Most of the information and data have been used from published documents like journal articles, books and newspaper reports. Relevant information collected also from online sources.FindingsThe electoral violence may happen for various causes, yet the significant cause is the motive of the incumbent for picking up power over and again. Similarly, lack of cooperation of political parties, negligence and domination of ruling parties over opposition are also responsible for electoral and political violence before, during and after the election. In addition, violation of human rights, rule of law and, finally, the poor governance of Bangladesh are because of the lack of meaningful democratic government, strong political will and consensus among all political parties.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of this research is the lack of financial supports to collect empirical data from concerned stakeholders through field visit.Practical implicationsThe paper deals with an urgent issue of Bangladesh which is essential for a free, fair and credible election. To make the EC an independent institute, a law should be enacted for recruitment of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and other commissioners of EC as per Article 118(1) of Bangladesh Constitution. To find out neutral and impartial CEC and other members of EC, a search committee is very essential, and for constituting a search committee, a law also should be enacted by the Parliament. Therefore, it would be very helpful for electoral and legal reform to overcome the problem of electoral violence in Bangladesh.Social implicationsThe findings of this paper will be accepted by the readers, scholars and policymakers. A radical change will come to the politics and governance of Bangladesh. Thus, the paper would be beneficial for the society and community people as well as citizens of Bangladesh.Originality/valueThe paper would be helpful for policymakers to revamp the existing drawback of electoral policies and practice in Bangladesh. For a meaningful and effective Parliament, it would be necessary. The paper would be essential for the future scholars and researchers of this area to use as reference. Finally, the academicians and readers will find their food in the field of politics, administration and governance.

English

Electoral campaigns are essential aspects of election. However, opposition political parties in Ethiopia have been challenged due to limited media alternative. In the 2015 general election, some political parties were using social media to conduct campaigns. Hence, this case study aimed to describe the status of these parties in the use of social media. The research utilized a qualitative approach as dominant method. Blue Party, Ethiopian Democratic Party (EDP), and Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) were selected purposefully because they were active in social media use. In-depth interview, focus group discussions, and social media contents were used to collect data. The study used thematic analysis with a quantitative content analysis. The result revealed that political parties were introducing electoral symbols, policies, offline campaigns, and profiles of candidates through social media though there were discrepancies among them. The language predominantly used was Amharic that covers an average of 98% of the total messages. In terms of the mediums used, the study found that political parties were mainly releasing their messages through texts and a combination of texts and images. These two mediums cover an average of 77%. These imply the parties’ concomitance with the interest of the audiences. Generally, despite the use of social media to conduct campaigns is at its infant stage, the political parties dedication to use as well as their view on the potential of these media indicate that social media are becoming alternative channels of electoral campaigns in Ethiopia. Key words: Social media, political parties, Ethiopia, 2015 general election, electoral campaigns,

Beyond convergence: unveiling variations of external franchise in Latin America and the Caribbean from 1950 to 2015

ABSTRACTA growing literature deals with the models that states have developed to reach out to their emigrant communities. The literature covers a wide range of initiatives, most notably electoral policies. In this line of research, we present a comparative view of the citizenship policies of Latin American and Caribbean states using a data set that includes information (yearly observations from 1950 to 2015) of the external franchise policies of 22 countries. First, this paper describes the scope of inclusion of non-resident citizens in terms of electoral rights. Second, we study the evolution over time of the external franchise policies of the countries under study. Despite cultural, historical and obvious geographic commonalities across countries, the analyses reveal that the convergence trend in the external franchise policies developed by Latin American and Caribbean countries is limited to a most general level. Below that level many variations in terms of specific electoral rights, types and venues of representation of emigrants are observable. These variations range from exclusion of non-resident citizens in terms of electoral rights, to full inclusion, when emigrants have active and passive electoral rights in all the national elections held in the states of origin (presidential and/or legislative).