Browsing Political Science (Theses and Dissertations) by Title
Now showing items 51-70 of 94
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Measurement issues in the comparative manifesto project data set and effectiveness of representative democracy
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of Political Science, 2009)In this dissertation I focus on the very widely used Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP) as the source of measurements of the policy positions of political parties. The CMP data confuse the separable notions of party's ... -
Media agendas, public opinions and elections : evidence from Ireland and the United Kingdom
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of Political Science, 2010)This dissertation analyses the news media coverage of the 2005 general election campaign in the United Kingdom and the 2007 general election campaign in Ireland. The study also investigates the public opinion in those ... -
Media Ownership, Differential Coverage, and Effects on Public Attitudes : The Case of News Coverage of Labour Unions
(Trinity College Dublin. School of Social Sciences & Philosophy. Discipline of Political Science, 2018)This dissertation examines the relationship between media ownership structures, the influence ownership has on news content and the effects of differential coverage on citizens who consume this content. It examines the ... -
Messengers of the people? : An analysis of representation and role orientations in the Irish Parliament
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of Political Science, 2002)The objective behind this dissertation is to increase academic understanding of the operation of Irish representative democracy, since there has been no similar systematic and contemporary study of Dail Eireann or its ... -
Microcosms of democracy? Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and their impact on political attitudes and behaviour in Kenya
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of Political Science, 2008)This study contributes to the general question of whether the democratic functioning of civil society organisations is a necessary condition for building a democratic political culture. Specifically, it empirically tests ... -
New model army. The end of militarism in the Federal Republic of Germany
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of Political Science, 2008)The thorough transformation of post-war Germany has led to a dramatic reassessment of its foreign and security policy, characterised by a strong emphasis on international cooperation and an extremely limited role of military ... -
Party nationalization and the provision of public goods in democracies : a theoretical and empirical investigation
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of Political Science, 2015)The project investigates the extent to which political parties' organizational coverage and electoral geography - the degree to which they are successful at gaining electoral support throughout all regions within a country ... -
Political parties in new and established democracies : explaining party pluralism, party unity and party death
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of Political Science, 2013)This dissertation is comprised of three distinct but related research papers which seek to contribute to our understanding of institutional development of legislative parties and party systems in new and established ... -
Politics as usual or exceptional elections? : a comparative study of sub-Saharan Africa's multiparty systems
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of Political Science, 2011)This thesis studies multiparty systems in sub-Saharan Africa in the period 1989-2008. The characteristic of sub-Saharan Africa's party systems that shall be examined is the manner in which electoral support and legislative ... -
Post-conflict governments 1975-2004 : designing effective assistance
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of Political Science, 2013)Understanding the causes and consequences of internal conflict has become a priority for researchers in economics, international relations and political science over the past two decades. Conflict patterns have changed ... -
Presidential institutions and democracy : the political economy of succession and term limits
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of Political Science, 2007)This thesis focuses on the logic of succession and term limits in all presidential regimes (1975-2005). The aim is to describe presidential tenure institutions and succession strategies and outcomes, to explain these ... -
Promoting peace or inciting violence? Explaining how decentralisation systematically affects the propensity of regional ethnic conflict
(Trinity College Dublin. School of Social Sciences & Philosophy. Discipline of Political Science, 2023)This thesis investigates the varying effects of decentralisation on ethnic conflict. It seeks to offer a unified theory explaining why the outcomes of decentralisation reforms differ. More specifically it studies how these ... -
Public opinion and Irish neutrality : a theoretical and empirical test of the 'rational public' hypothesis
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of Political Science, 2007)Opinion polls have consistently shown that public opinion in Ireland is strongly in favour of neutrality. There is a significant discourse in the media and in academic texts which argues that Irish neutrality is a ‘myth’ ... -
Reality bytes : cyberterrorism and terrorist use of the Internet
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of Political Science, 2006)The analysis contained herein treats the relationship between terrorism and the internet. Instead of treating cyberterrorism as the most important conjunction of terrorism and the Internet (as has been the tendency to ... -
Representing Europe's citizens : an analysis of political representation in the European Union
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of Political Science, 2013)This project investigates how well the EU functions as an instrument of political representation. It addresses five separate but intrinsically linked research questions: are citizens' perceptions of representation important ... -
The role of environmental issues in European elections. Assessing whether European elections establish an electoral connection based on these issues
(Trinity College Dublin. School of Social Sciences & Philosophy. Discipline of Political Science, 2023)This thesis investigates whether European elections establish an electoral connection based on the environment, a relevant EU-policy issue, at three different stages: the electoral campaign, election day, MEPs' vote in the ... -
Social background and intra-party attitudes in Ireland
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of Political Science, 2014)This thesis examines the extent to which the distribution of politicians’ social background characteristics is associated with attitude variation within political parties. It addresses the research question with quantitative ... -
Split-ticket voting in mixed-member electoral systems : a theoretical and methodological investigation
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of Political Science, 2013)Mixed-member electoral systems give people the opportunity of voting for the same representative body by casting two votes: one for a national party under proportional rules and one for a local candidate under majoritarian ... -
Stability and change in the choice available to voters : the set of potential leaders of government: an aggregate level study of eleven European countries, 1950-1999
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of Political Science, 2005)Choice is an integral aspect of the democratic system. This thesis is about stability and change in choices available to voters. In particular, it is about the choice of potential leaders of government available to voters. ... -
Stakeholder influence in the European Commission's stakeholder consultations
(Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of Political Science, 2013)This thesis investigates lobbying by stakeholders, i.e. firms, NGOs and industry organisations as well as other private and public bodies from the international to local level, in the context of the European Commission's ...