Browsing by Subject "political parties"
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Item Parties, Voters, Activists: Building Ideological Linkage in Developing Democracies(2014-12-15) Koo, SejinThis study addresses the question of why ideological parties and party systems emerge in some democracies but not in others, with a special focus on developing democracies. In delving into this question, I highlight the functions of ideology as a multilevel phenomenon, and examined the party-voter linkage mechanism based on policy programs at various angles. I assume that a party has strong ideological linkage (a) when those in the electorate who support the party feel a close ideological affinity for the party, (b) when the party has a clearly defined and ideologically distinct program, and (c) when party activists are ideologically motivated and coherent within the party. Focusing on each dimension, each empirical chapter evaluates the effects of institutions, socio-economic conditions, and democratic conditions. The methodology used for this multilevel approach is ?tripartite,? combining statistical analysis (large-N cross-national comparison), content analysis (case study) and traditional surveys (inter- and intracountry comparisons). First, by examining ideological affinity between parties and voters in 46 democracies, I find that the extent of perceived ideological affinity is determined by the age, size, and ideological position of a party and that institutional and economic factors are more important than democratic conditions for the development of ideological congruence of a party system. Second, by analyzing South Korean party platforms, I find that parties in this developing democracy have evolved to programmatic ones over time since democratic transition. Lastly, by investigating the motivation and ideology of party activists in Mongolia and South Korea, I find little evidence that activists who are wealthy or are living in a wealthy district or a country are more policyseeking than those who are not, while activists in a wealthy district or country are more ideologically coherent as a group within the party. This study contributes towards a better understanding of party-voter linkage mechanisms: it proposed a conceptually-decomposed approach to linkage, provides novel measures for comparisons across parties, across countries and over time, offers a close examinations of Asian cases that were underexplored, and lastly illuminates the role of activists as a linkage themselves with the addition of a new survey dataset.Item The Causes and Consequences of Congressional Endorsements in Presidential Primaries(2013-07-22) Anderson, ChristopherLittle is known about why elected officials choose to get involved in presidential nomination struggles. Recent research argues that elected officials have a collective incentive to nominate an electorally viable and ideologically unifying candidate. Yet, elected officials must balance these collective incentives with their own personal considerations (e.g., reelection motives, policy interests, ambition, ideology) that may either foster or inhibit their ability to act on their collective desire to nominate viable, ideologically unifying candidates. Further, this research then determines the extent to which elected officials are rewarded-or punished- for getting involved during the presidential nomination process. In particular, interparty differences between the Republican and Democratic coalitions predict that Republicans, but not Democrats, will be rewarded for attempting to lead intraparty nomination struggles. Finally, this research links the aggregate-level findings that endorsements from elected officials are important determinants of nomination outcomes to the individual level by arguing that elected officials' endorsements mobilize their constituents to get involved in politics. In particular, as the mobilization process targets those who are already likely to participate in the first place, endorsements during presidential primaries leads to differential participation in politics. In sum, this research provides individual level foundations for the causes and consequences of congressional endorsements in presidential nomination contests.