The role of ideology and religion on voting behaviour has declined. But, what does then determine voting behaviour nowadays? New dimensions and (short-term) factors seem to play a role and there is...Show moreThe role of ideology and religion on voting behaviour has declined. But, what does then determine voting behaviour nowadays? New dimensions and (short-term) factors seem to play a role and there is more attention to the personalization thesis. Some politicians are treated as celebrities and image, appearance and also clothing are subjects considered to be important. The suits of Mark Rutte and Diederik Samsom have been widely discussed in the run-up to the 2012 Dutch parliamentary elections. Does fashion rule? The central question of this master thesis is: Does the clothing style of politicians influence trait perceptions and voting behaviour of Dutch voters? A quantitative analysis of data obtained by an experimental study will be the basis for this research. Unknown men will be photographed in different clothing styles, which randomly assigned groups of respondents will evaluate on the basis of six leadership traits. What will be analysed is if indeed the men in suits with ties are statistically significant more positively evaluated on the six leadership traits compared to, for example, men in jeans and a casual sweater. By testing four hypotheses, an answer to the research question can be given and the implications of the results will be discussed. This analysis distinguishes between the assessment by men and by women, by different age groups and by clothing style of respondents themselves. In a first step to discover the influence of clothing on the evaluation of Dutch politicians and voting behaviour, this study focuses only on male politicians, mainly because men still dominate among party leaders in national parliamentary elections. What seems to come out of the questionnaires overall, is the fact that it depends on the person what he has to wear. Faces are more important when evaluating unknown persons in pictures. Clothing style can in some way increase or decrease the evaluation scores of some traits, but no clear relationship is to be found between certain traits and a specific clothing style. Politicians’ clothing can reinforce certain leadership traits in the eyes of voters, however, it differs between politicians which clothing style enhances which leadership traits. In general, an in-between clothing style yields the most positive responses and the most votes. But when looking independently at each trait, quite different evaluations appear between different persons. Some small changes in methodology and recruitment of respondents will make the findings of further research stronger. In further research, women definitely have to be included as stimuli persons and possibly political attitude also.Show less
Wat zijn de belangrijkste predictoren van de stemintentie bij Tweede Kamerverkiezingen van Hindoestaanse jongeren in Nederland? Om een antwoord op deze vraag te vinden heb ik een kwantitatief...Show moreWat zijn de belangrijkste predictoren van de stemintentie bij Tweede Kamerverkiezingen van Hindoestaanse jongeren in Nederland? Om een antwoord op deze vraag te vinden heb ik een kwantitatief onderzoek uitgevoerd onder Hindoestaanse jongeren in de leeftijd van 14-19 jaar die in Nederland wonen. Niet-Hindoestaanse jongeren in Nederland zijn in het onderzoek betrokken als vergelijkingsgroep. Het wetenschappelijk kader is een combinatie van de volgende drie theorieën: rational choice theory, resource availability theory en political socialization theory. De vragenlijst is via een websurvey (in Qualtrics) of op papier ingevuld. De steekproef omvatte 177 Hindoestaanse en 178 niet-Hindoestaanse respondenten die de vragenlijst volledig hebben ingevuld. Meer Hindoestaanse dan niet-Hindoestaanse jongeren hebben de intentie tot stemmen (76% respectievelijk 71%). Minder Hindoestaanse dan niet-Hindoestaanse jongeren geven aan waarschijnlijk niet of zeker niet te gaan stemmen (24% respectievelijk 29%). Subjectieve politieke kennis blijkt de belangrijkste predictor voor de stemintentie van de Hindoestaanse respondenten te zijn. De variantie in stemintentie van deze groep kon voor 24% worden ‘verklaard’. Voor de niet-Hindoestaanse respondenten geldt dat gepercipieerde stemintentie van de omgeving de belangrijkste predictor van stemintentie is. Maar voor deze groep respondenten zijn ook subjectieve politieke kennis en politieke interesse mede bepalend voor stemintentie. De verklaarde variantie in stemintentie van deze groep respondenten is 52%. Mijn onderzoeksresultaten bieden nieuwe inzichten in de variabelen met betrekking tot stemintentie van Hindoestanen die in Nederland wonen en waarnaar tot nu toe weinig onderzoek is verricht. De maatschappelijke relevantie is dat de Hindoestaanse gemeenschap via dit onderzoek inzicht krijgt om instrumenten te ontwikkelen om de stemintentie van Hindoestaanse jongeren te vergroten.Show less
Newspapers in Greece have long been considered as mouthpieces for the parties. This connection between parties and press is typically described as "parallelism". Even though conventional wisdom...Show moreNewspapers in Greece have long been considered as mouthpieces for the parties. This connection between parties and press is typically described as "parallelism". Even though conventional wisdom agrees on the party preferences of newspapers, such claims have not been empirically tested. Based on a content analysis of newspaper front pages during two election campaigns, this study tests the validity of those claims, and assesses their nature. The findings support popular perceptions of newspaper party preferences. They also show that newspaper support is more likely to rely on negativity, by means of attacking the opponent party, rather than praising the affiliated party. This tendency towards negativity is higher when the newspaper's preferred party is the challenger during that campaign. Finally it is shown that, contrary to research on campaign ads, negative coverage in Greece is not more likely to address policy issues than positive coverage. Thus, it has poor contribution to the information environment available to voters. The findings cover a void in the literature and offer insight into the stance of partisan press during election campaigns. They can be tested in countries with similar, but also different, levels of parallelism in an effort to search for common patterns.Show less
My study focused on knowledge about the EU. It was my aim to explain the variance in this knowledge among Europeans and to answer the question: What explains the variance in the knowledge about...Show moreMy study focused on knowledge about the EU. It was my aim to explain the variance in this knowledge among Europeans and to answer the question: What explains the variance in the knowledge about European Union among European citizens?Show less
The European Union has become increasingly important in Dutch politics. The Dutch referendum on the Constitutional Treaty of 2005 marked a turning point, with a growing resistance to European...Show moreThe European Union has become increasingly important in Dutch politics. The Dutch referendum on the Constitutional Treaty of 2005 marked a turning point, with a growing resistance to European integration emerging. This study looks at the gap between Dutch MPs and Dutch voters in positions on European integration and finds that since the 2005 referendum the gap has all but closed.Show less
Advanced master thesis | Political Science (Advanced Master)
open access
The concept of reconciliation has been researched often by scholars. Reconciliation is part of the post-conflict reconstruction strategy and the process is mostly seen by scholars as a relevant and...Show moreThe concept of reconciliation has been researched often by scholars. Reconciliation is part of the post-conflict reconstruction strategy and the process is mostly seen by scholars as a relevant and wanted process. However, is that the case in reality? The question researched here is: why do governments engage in national post-conflict reconciliation strategies? This study reviews two post-conflict situations where a reconciliation process was initiated; Rwanda and Sierra Leone. We aim to determine on what factors governments base their choices regarding reconciliation. The cases are examined from a legalist and pragmatist approach. Legalists argue that states choose reconciliation and justice because they believe in the international norms it represents, because they believe in the preventive and deterrent effect of justice and the educational example it can be. Pragmatists however, argue that states choose reconciliation on the basis of self-interest and the distribution of political power. They also argue that states not always believe in the necessity of reconciliation and acknowledge the usefulness of amnesties. The cases of Rwanda and Sierra Leone demonstrate that the choice for reconciliation cannot be fully explained from the legalist approach but are better understood from the pragmatist point of view. Both situations show that the choice of a state for reconciliation is based on different factors that can be summarized as the concept ´the politics of reconciliation´. The government of Rwanda uses the fear of the population for a future genocide in order to keep tight control over the country. The reconciliation initiatives are used to keep track of anything that is going on in society that could be a potential threat and to teach the RPF ideology in order to keep a firm grip on political power. Sierra Leone is influenced by the international community that demands post-conflict reconciliation. It has been argued that one of the origins of the Sierra Leone conflict was poverty and the country has the desire to reconstruct its economy for which a high amount of external investment is needed. These reasons fit within the idea of pragmatists, that actors base their choices upon self-interests, in these cases ensuring political power and attracting external investment.Show less
