Electioneering

This paper examines the crisis of electioneering in Nigeria, against the backdrop of untoward electioneering experiences in the country over the years. By way of exegetic interrogation of Nigeria’s electoral history and trends, the paper observes that electioneering in Nigeria has been marred by contradictions that threatened political stability in the country. The paper submits that this scenario vitiates the prospect of sustainable democracy in the country. Keywords: Electioneering; political stability; prebendal state/ politics; democratic dispensation.

This article examines the role of digital media in three recent national election campaigns:
Australia in 2007 and Canada and New Zealand in 20081. Examining the process of technology adoption and strategic use by parties and individual candidates, it explores similarities and
differences in the use of these evolving campaigning channels. Against the current literature on variables influencing technology adoption, specific attention is given to the use of different
communication channels as tools to target specific audiences, the adoption of a wide variety of technologies to ensure broad (‘mass’) reach, and the co-ordination of messages across different platforms. The analysis aims to identify structural, organisational, technological and cultural determinants of variation in the adoption and deployment of these technologies.

"Most political parties are created to win power democratically, but Cumann na nGaedheal was built by men already governing a country. The Cosgrave Party tells the unique story of a political party born into government amidst the bloodshed of civil war. It reveals the true complexity of Cumann na nGaedheal and investigates the internal politics of the party as it struggled with ideological tensions and personality clashes -- all occurring while its leaders simultaneously ran a government and built a state, despite threats from those both outside and within the political system. Finally, it fixes the party's role in Irish history of consolidating the tradition of constitutional nationalism in Ireland.



Reviews:

'Ciara Meehan's book brings a fresh perspective on an overlooked period of Irish history as well as insights into probable policies of Ireland's next government' -- Professor John P. McCarthy (Fordham University), The Irish Echo, 2 March 2011.


'This thought-provoking book plugs a gap in historical accounts of the Free State' -- Dr John-Paul McCarthy (Oxford University), Sunday Independent, 25 April 2011.

'Ciara Meehan’s The Cosgrave Party is the first monograph devoted solely to the Cumann na nGaedheal party, and as such is an important addition to the literature. Its novel focus on electioneering, in particular, should make this book noteworthy to historians of the Irish revolution, and to those interested in 20th-century Irish history more broadly ... this is a great addition to the literature on the 1920s' -- Professor Jason Knirck (Central Washington University), Reviews in History, 9 September 2011.
Full review here: http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1120"

This article investigates the extent to which provincial political parties made use of social media in their strategy, organization and communication in order to achieve their electoral goals during the Quebec 2012 general election. Using data from a series of 19 interviews conducted with online strategists and campaign directors from the five leading parties active in the 2012 election, we identify the strategic objectives these organizations followed when developing their social media campaigns. The strategists' narratives reveal that social media became a central component of electioneering and that parties were carrying out, in various forms, hybrid campaigns that combined traditional and emergent communication technologies and employed both old and new types of organizational principles.

Kadri Unat, Durmayalım Düşeriz-İktidardan Muhalefete CHP'nin Seçim Propagandaları, Siyasal Kitabevi, Ankara, 2016, ISBN: 978-605-9221-41-2, 471 sayfa. Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Tarihi, Türkiye'nin Siyasal Hayatı alanlarında akademik çalışmalar yürüten Kadri Unat tarafından kaleme alınan Durmayalım Düşeriz-İktidardan Muhalefete CHP'nin Seçim Propagandaları adlı kitap 2016 yılında yayımlandı. Yazarın, doktora tezinden ürettiği kitap Cumhuriyet döneminin ilk siyasi partisi ve ilk iktidar partisi olan Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi'nin (CHP) 1927-1957 yılları arasındaki, genel seçim propagandalarını ele almaktadır. 27 yıl iktidarda kalan ve neredeyse Cumhuriyet tarihi ile bütünleşmiş bir siyasal yapılanma olarak yorumlanan CHP, bu durumun doğal ve aynı zamanda bilimsel bir gereği olarak Cumhuriyetin ilk yılları üzerine çalışma yapanların ele alması gerektiği bir konu haline gelmiştir. Bu bakımdan çalışma ele alınan konu ve dönem bakımından çeşitli bilim dallarında çalışan uzmanların çalışmalarına olgusal ve kısmen de teorik bir çerçeve sunmaktadır. Kitabın kapağında yer alan görüntü ve yine kitabın isminde yer alan "Durmayalım Düşeriz" ifadesinin de yer aldığı afiş, İhap Hulusi tarafından 1946 seçimleri için hazırlanan bir çalışmadır. İki şehirli ve iki köylü vatandaşın resmedildiği bu afişte yazarın da ifade ettiği gibi sık sık ulusalcı ve seçkinci kimliği vurgulanan CHP'deki dönüşüm yansıtılmaya çalışılırken, aynı zamanda toplumsal cinsiyet, toplumsal sınıf, dini inanç ve yaş bağlamında herhangi bir ayırıma yönelmeden, toplumun tüm kesimlerini kucaklayan bir siyasal parti iddiası vurgulanmak istenmiştir (s. 239). Kitap Giriş (ss.11-24) kısmı ve üç ana bölümden oluşmaktadır. Kitap, yazarın çalışmasında yer verdiği konular hakkında değerlendirmelerinin yer aldığı Sonuç (ss. 447-457) kısmıyla son bulmuştur.

Disagreement persists about when, if at all, disenfranchisement is a fitting response to criminal wrongdoing of type X. Positive retributivists endorse a permissive view of fittingness: on this view, disenfranchising a remarkably wide range of morally serious criminal wrongdoers is justified. But defining fittingness in the context of criminal disenfranchisement in such broad terms is implausible, since many crimes sanctioned via disenfranchisement have little to do with democratic participation in the first place: the link between the nature of a criminal act X (the ‘desert basis’) and a fitting sanction Y is insufficiently direct in such cases. I define a new, much narrower account of the kind of criminal wrongdoing which is a more plausible desert basis for disenfranchisement: ‘political wrongdoing’, such as electioneering, corruption, or conspiracy with foreign powers. I conclude that widespread blanket and post-incarceration disenfranchisement policies are overinclusive, because they disenfranchise persons guilty of serious, but non-political, criminal wrongdoing. While such overinclusiveness is objectionable in any context, it is particularly objectionable in circumstances in which it has additional large-scale collateral consequences, for instance by perpetuating existing structures of racial injustice. At the same time, current policies are underinclusive, thus hindering the aim of holding political wrongdoers accountable.

Elections constitute a livewire that gives real meaning to democracy on which great nations have been built. A cardinal factor of elections is the electioneering campaign, which is run on funds so huge that candidates to elective offices cannot attempt to undertake it alone. The magnitude of this funds have potentials to impact (positively or negatively) on an economy, as made more manifest by the experience of the general elections of 2015 in Nigeria. This paper therefore, described electioneering campaigns in Nigeria and their impact on the Nigerian economy. The theory that forms the framework of study is economic shock theory. The study used survey method. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. The findings showed that electioneering campaigns have caused a serious shock to the Nigerian economy. Hence, the implication of these findings is that if Nigeria continues with their mindset of electioneering campaign, the economy will continue to deteriorate. Hence, the study recommended that the federal government should empower the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to step up on its duties as regards the implementation of electoral laws in terms of the financial laid – down rules in elections so as to control its negative impact in the country's development.