Sitting on the Fence: Positioning swing voters in Trinidad's ethnically divided society

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seon Raymond
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Costas Panagopoulos

Over the past few decades, a fundamental shift in political campaign strategy has been afoot in U.S. elections: Political campaigns have been gradually shifting their attention away from swing voters toward their respective, partisan bases. Independents and weak partisans have been targeted with less frequency, and the emphasis in contemporary elections has been on strong partisans. This book documents this shift—away from persuasion toward base mobilization—in the context of U.S. presidential elections and explains that this phenomenon is likely linked to several developments, including advances in campaign technology and voter-targeting capabilities as well as insights from behavioral social science focusing on voter mobilization. The analyses show the 2000 presidential election represents a watershed cycle that punctuated this shift. The book also explores the implications of the shift toward base mobilization and links these developments to growing turnout rates for strong partisans and attenuating participation among independents or swing voters over time. The book concludes these patterns have contributed to heightened partisan polarization in the United States.


Ghana Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-80
Author(s):  
Kevin S. Fridy ◽  
Mary R. Anderson ◽  
Victor Brobbey ◽  
William M. Myers
Keyword(s):  

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 200-220
Author(s):  
Hannah Tischmann

AbstractThis article analyses literary approaches to the relation between the folkhem, the Swedish welfare state, and the miljonprogram (a public housing program between 1965 and 1974 implemented by the social democratic government with the aim to build 1 million homes to solve the housing shortage). Since its initiation, this housing program has been subjected to critique addressing, among others, issues with quality and the promotion of segregation and social exclusion. Literary discussions since the mid-1960s have both responded to this critique and challenged it. They have questioned the impact of welfare politics on a still divided society by drawing on negative aspects of miljonprogram-areas. Recent texts that negotiate class and ethnicity, however, reclaim these areas with positive descriptions. They highlight their meaning as homes for a large part of Swedish contemporary society and thereby re-connect to the original idea of the folkhem – a home for the people.


2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takaaki Masaki

Abstract:This article utilizes a newly available dataset on the geographical distribution of development projects in Zambia to test whether electoral incentives shape aid allocation at the subnational level. Based on this dataset, it argues that when political elites have limited information to target distributive goods specifically to swing voters, they allocate more donor projects to districts where opposition to the incumbent is strong, as opposed to districts where the incumbent enjoys greater popularity.


2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 178-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raghuram G Rajan

When citizens in a poor constrained society are unequally endowed, they are likely to find it hard to agree on reforms, even though the status quo hurts them collectively. Each citizen group or constituency prefers reforms that expand its opportunities, but in an unequal society, this will typically hurt another constituency's rents. Competitive rent preservation ensures no comprehensive reform path may command broad support. The roots of underdevelopment may therefore lie in the natural tendency toward rent preservation in a divided society. (JEL D72, O10, O17)


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