The rationale behind economic voting is simple: the citizen votes for the government if the economy is doing all right; otherwise, the vote is against (Lewis-Beck and Stegmaier 2000). However,...Show moreThe rationale behind economic voting is simple: the citizen votes for the government if the economy is doing all right; otherwise, the vote is against (Lewis-Beck and Stegmaier 2000). However, various studies have found cross-country and across-time variation regarding the intensity of economic voting (e.g., Paldam 1991; Anderson 1995; Duch and Stevenson 2008), leading an increasing number of scholars to discuss and test potential moderators of the economic vote equation (e.g., Anderson 2000; Duch and Stevenson 2008). Nonetheless, only a few authors have regarded the characteristics of the alternative to the underperforming incumbent, the opposition, as potential moderating factors (Anderson 2000; Maeda 2009; Ferrer 2023). Therefore, the goal of this thesis is to understand how the configuration of the parliamentary opposition, regarding its fragmentation and polarization, impacts its viability as an alternative and, consequently, the intensity of economic voting. Using data from 208 elections that took place in 29 European democracies between 1989 and 2021, I found that a more fragmented opposition actually increases the intensity of economic voting. However, I did not reach any statistically significant conclusions regarding the effect of the polarization of the opposition on the intensity of economic voting.Show less
In corporate consociationalism, power-sharers are pre-determined, which in some cases ended up in differentiation of citizens into constituent groups and Others. In Bosnia and Herzegovina,...Show moreIn corporate consociationalism, power-sharers are pre-determined, which in some cases ended up in differentiation of citizens into constituent groups and Others. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, individuals who don't affiliate as Bosniak, Serb or Croat, are therefore categorized as Others. Given that the right to stand for presidential elections or a seat in the House of Peoples is reserved for constituent peoples, Others are excluded from that right. The following thesis analyzes why this exclusion remains despite international efforts to reform the Bosnian Constitution until this day. Investigating the case from 2005, the beginning of the first reform negotiations, to 2018, when the last general elections took place under discriminatory conditions. Proposing a causal mechanism of four steps, I argue that the issue lies in the general approach of corporate consociationalism, in which cooperation is unlikely due to the institutionalization of often hostile ethnic groups. Finally, in this thesis, it becomes clear that the link to this issue is the abuse of the veto-right in Bosnia, making cooperation and negotiation on complex political problems nearly impossibleShow less
