Suchergebnisse

This analysis of six separate votes on family leave legislation spanning three congresses and 15 key votes in the first session of the 103rd Congress found that gender plays a role in voting patterns. The social policy implications of these differences are discussed in this article.

Examines characteristics of those who use abortion as a major factor in selecting a political candidate; based on a survey of 418 voters in Muncie, Indiana.

Contributors to this forum respond to Max Albert's The Voting Power Approach: Measurement without Theory (2003) that argued against Lionel S. Penrose's theory (1946, 1952) of the measure of a priori voting power, based on the intuition of voting power as I-power. Dan S. Felsenthal & Moshe Machover respond to Albert's two significant arguments -- his argument that this theory is inapplicable to real-life situations & his rejection of the Principle of Insufficient Reason. Dennis Leech defends the voting power approach as a way of thinking about voting systems in terms of outcomes. Albert's criticisms are actually an attack on power indices, & his insistence that there is only one type of power index for all purposes is incorrect. Christian List presents an analogy with inequality indices to demonstrate why Albert's conclusion that they can be ignored is not in line with his diagnosis of the theoretical status of these indices. While power indices are a more recent addition to research, they deserve more time for their value to be proved. 1 Table, 41 References. L. A. Hoffman

Whereas the classic literature on strategic voting has focused on the dilemma faced by voters who prefer a candidate for whom they expect has little chance of winning a seat, we consider the dilemma faced by voters in PR systems who do not expect their preferred party to be in government. We develop hypotheses relating to strategic voting over multi-party governments that we test using the New Zealand Election Study (NZES) campaign study of 2002. We find evidence that expectations play a role in structuring vote choice. While there is clear evidence of wishful thinking there is also evidence that voters respond to expectations about government formation. These expectations may mobilize voters and lead them to defect from their first preference.

Whereas the classic literature on strategic voting has focused on the dilemma faced by voters who prefer a candidate for whom they expect has little chance of winning a seat, we consider the dilemma faced by voters in PR systems who do not expect their preferred party to be in government. We develop hypotheses relating to strategic voting over multi-party governments that we test using the New Zealand Election Study (NZES) campaign study of 2002. We find evidence that expectations play a role in structuring vote choice. While there is clear evidence of wishful thinking there is also evidence that voters respond to expectations about government formation. These expectations may mobilize voters and lead them to defect from their first preference.

This article analyzes the predictors of preferential voting in flexible list systems, focusing on political sophistication, voting rules and district size. It relies on a field experiment carried out in Portugal on the 2015 legislative election day. We found that the effect of district size depends on the nature of the voting rules introduced (optional or compulsory preferential voting). Also, political interest tends to lose its significance when preferential voting is compulsory. Thus, preferential voting does not constitute an obstacle for those with less political sophistication to express a vote, especially when the voting rules make preferential voting compulsory. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

This panel of scholars will examine the multifaceted history of voting rights of African Americans, focusing on the political, sociological, and legal implications of efforts to restrict and deny access to the vote—the fundamental instrument of democracy. Of particular interest will be an exploration of the effects of incarceration on the black community and the relationship between criminal records and voting rights. Yet by devoting equal time to the achievements of African Americans, this discussion will also emphasize and celebrate the civil rights initiatives that led to the expansion of voting rights, which in turn led (at least partially) to the election of the first African- American president of the United States. The panelists will conclude by offering perspectives on the possibilities for the continuation of re-enfranchisement movements. ; https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/armstrong-moveable-feast/1009/thumbnail.jpg

AbstractDespite wide scholarly interest in the Voting Rights Act, surprisingly little is known about how its specific provisions affected Black political representation. In this article, we draw on theories of electoral accountability to evaluate the effect of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the preclearance provision, on the representation of Black interests in the 86th to 105th congresses. We find that members of Congress who represented jurisdictions subject to the preclearance requirement were substantially more supportive of civil rights–related legislation than legislators who did not represent covered jurisdictions. Moreover, we report that the effects were stronger when Black voters composed larger portions of the electorate and in more competitive districts. This result is robust to a wide range of model specifications and empirical strategies, and it persists over the entire time period under study. Our findings have especially important implications given the Supreme Court's recent decision in Shelby County v. Holder.

Objective. This study is designed to assess the impact of support for union and social interest groups on labor union members' voting. Methods. Descriptive and logit analyses of members' support for senatorial and gubernatorial candidates in the 1994 Pennsylvania elections examine the relationship between support for the union and support for the Christian Coalition and National Rifle Association. Results. The results indicate that union members who are more supportive of labor's political goals are more likely to support union‐endorsed candidates. But union members differ considerably in their support for union political goals vis‐a‐vis the Christian Coalition and National Rifle Association. Conclusions. Unions were a potentially pivotal force in the 1994 Pennsylvania elections. If they had been better able to educate their members about the importance of voting their economic self‐interest, then the election outcomes might have been reversed.

Purpose
The purpose of this study is threefold: first, to determine whether civic education has a positive impact on voting intentions among the electorate; second, to establish whether attitudes towards voting behaviour (ATVB) mediate the relationship between civic education and voting intentions; and third, to determine whether educational level moderates the relationship between civic education and voting intentions.


Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted a survey research design and a quantitative approach. Data were collected from a sample of 1,450 registered voters from the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. A regression-based approach was adopted to test the study hypotheses using Hayes-PROCESS Macro 3.5.


Findings
The results indicate that civic education is positively associated with voting intentions. Further analysis reveals that ATVB significantly mediates the association between civic education and voting intentions. Additionally, educational level positively moderates the relationship between civic education and voting intentions.


Practical implications
The findings offer implications for governments and democratic institutions.


Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to provide empirical evidence of the mediating effect of ATVB and the moderating effect of educational level on the relationship between civic education and voting intentions. This study provides useful insights into the factors that influence voting intentions.

In the 2002 Irish general election, 138,011 voters cast their ballots electronically. Election officials published full sets of electronic ballots, including candidate rankings. This article analyses these unique electronic voting data. The intention is to explore a range of features of Irish voting behaviour and draw more general inferences about the structure of voter preferences. The results reveal that most voters rank very few candidates; that the level of 'pure' party voting is relatively low; that many Irish voters seem in practice to use the single transferable vote electoral system as a form of 'disapproval' voting; and that the pattern of rankings recorded dramatically underlines the traditional 'Fianna Fáil versus the rest' characterization of Irish party politics.