scholarly journals Efficient election campaign optimization using integer programming

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 341
Author(s):  
Evren Güney

Purpose: Political parties spend significant amounts of resources during their election campaigns, which are usually designed in a sub-optimal and informal way. This study aims to provide a mathematical framework for political parties to optimize their election campaigns, so that they can maximize their performance in the elections.Design/methodology/approach: In this work, we provide certain mathematical relations to determine the minimum necessary number of votes to gain additional seats in an election region under the D’hondt election rule. Also we develop a convenient mathematical model that optimizes the resource allocation scheme of a political party to maximize the potential seats won. We test our models on Turkish Parliamentary elections dataFindings: Our results show that with various basic assumptions, which are suitable for real life cases, one can obtain significant gains in the election outcomes even with small budgets. We also provide the relations among swing vote rates, unit vote costs and budget with the number seats won in a parliament.Originality/value: This study provides useful insights for both political party management teams as well as researchers. Political parties need to conduct more market research to collect and work on election data to increase their performances. From the research perspective, to the best of our knowledge, this is one of first studies that approaches to the election campaigns for the D’hondt system with mathematical optimization tools.

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 392-408
Author(s):  
Miroslav Řádek

Abstract Department of Political Science at Alexander Dubcek University in Trencin prepared its own exit poll during election day on March 5, 2016. The survey asked seven questions that were aimed at determining the preferences of the respondents concerning not only the current but also past general elections. Interviewers surveyed the choice of political party or movement in parliamentary elections in 2016 as well as preferences in past elections. Followed by questions concerning motivation to vote - when did the respondents decide to go to vote and what or who inspired this decision. The survey also tried to found out how many preferential votes did the voters give to the candidates of political parties and movements. Final question asked about expectations for the future of individual respondents. This article is the information output of the survey. The interviewers were 124 university students and its return was 1,612 sheets. The aim of this paper is to communicate the findings of this unique survey, which is unprecedented in the Slovak political science.


1989 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-254
Author(s):  
Erik Buyst ◽  
Luc Lauwers ◽  
Patrick Uvtterhoeven

This paper deals with the distribution of power among Belgian political parties during the interwar period. In the 1930s Belgium, like most European countries, was confronted with the electoral success of extreme right- and left-wing parties that wanted to change the existing political system into an authoritarian one. Usually, historians draw attention to the rapidly growing share of seats in Parliament held by extreme parties as a sign of their increasing influence on Belgian politics. Among game theorists, however, it is widely accepted that the proportion of seats is a poor proxy for power relations (Schotter, 1979). It is indeed possible that a political party acquiring a higher proportion of seats in Parliament loses its capacity to influence the outcome of a vote, and vice versa.


2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 871-892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Lennox Esselment

Abstract.Conventional wisdom about the structure of political parties in Canada has emphasized their confederal nature. In other words (and the New Democratic party excepted), parties with identical partisan complexions at the federal and provincial levels are thought to operate in “two political worlds.” This paper argues that election campaigns are a key integrating link between parties. How they fight elections reveals extensive cross-level co-operation, particularly through shared activists (local party activists, party staff and party professionals) and technological expertise. This has the effect of shrinking the space between party cousins and forges unity between them. While there are certain obstacles to electoral collaboration, there are also incentives for these parties to work to maintain and strengthen their ties with their partisan cousin at the other level. These findings make an important contribution by directly challenging the notion that Canada's federal system has led to increasingly disentangled political parties.Résumé.L'opinion communément admise au sujet de la structure des partis politiques au Canada a mis l'accent sur leur nature confédérale. En d'autres termes (exception faite du Nouveau Parti démocratique), on considère en général que les partis à caractère partisan identique au palier fédéral et provincial fonctionnent dans «deux mondes politiques à part». Le présent article avance que les campagnes électorales constituent un facteur d'intégration clé entre les différents niveaux d'un parti. La façon dont un parti dispute une élection révèle un haut degré de coopération entre les organisations provinciales et fédérales, surtout du fait qu'ils partagent des militants communs (militants locaux, personnel politique et professionnels du parti) et leur expertise technologique. Ce phénomène tend à rétrécir l'espace entre cousins du même parti et à bâtir l'unité d'organisation entre les deux niveaux. Même s'il y a des obstacles inévitables à la collaboration électorale, les partis cousins ont de bonnes raisons de veiller à maintenir et à renforcer leurs liens réciproques. Ces conclusions apportent une contribution importante à l'étude des partis politiques, en contestant directement l'idée que le système fédéral au Canada a encouragé les partis politiques de même allégeance à mener leurs activités de manière indépendante.


Author(s):  
Taras Kozak

On the base of literary sources, the gist of political influence in geographical realities was specified. The role of electoral support as the basis for impact was examined. A considerable importance of political parties’ impact on the territorial-political structure of the society, its unity and stability were outlined. Spatial conformity with a law of people’s behaviour in connection with the election to the legislative body of state power of Ukraine was explored. The results of the emergency parliamentary election to Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine 2014 in the context of the geographical impact of political parties of Ukraine were analysed. The peculiarities of voters division for parties among rural and urban population were elucidated. Positive and negative tendencies of election campaign were found out. The recommendations for harmonisation of party and political system were suggested. Key words: election, influence, electoral support, constituency, party-political system, political party.


Baltic Region ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-31
Author(s):  
Dmitry A. Lanko ◽  
Irina S. Lantsova

This article explores the Estonian ‘integration’ project, which was launched in the early 1990s to bridge the differences between ethnic Estonians and ethnic Russians by assimilating the latter with the former. Since the project will soon turn thirty, it is timely to ask whether it has been a success. This article employs Grigorii Golosov’s index of political party nationalization to understand whether the ‘integration’ project has helped to narrow the ideological divide between ethnic Estonians and ethnic Russians. In other words, the study asks whether ethnic Estonians and ethnic Russians vote for the same political parties in comparable proportions or there are ‘Estonian’ and ‘Russian’ parties in the country. The analysis of the outcomes of four local and four parliamentary elections that took place in Estonia in 2005—2019 shows that by the mid-2000s Estonia achieved a considerable level of political party system nationalization at both national and local levels. At the national level, political party system nationalization remained high in 2007—2019 despite significant changes in the country’s political party system. At the local level, however, political party system nationalization has been diminishing since 2013, leading one to conclude that the Estonian ‘integration’ project has failed to close the ideological divide between ethnic Estonians and ethnic Russians.


2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Makhorkina

The foreign policy agendas of Ukrainian political parties participating in parliamentary elections are among the important factors of influence on Ukrainians voting in favor or against. There is a positive correlation between the preferences of Ukrainian voters and the foreign policy orientations of the political parties as expressed in their electoral platforms. Even if it is not likely that in general foreign policy plays a dominant role in the average citizen’s voting decisions, it is, nevertheless, very relevant in the context of Ukrainian politics. In this article it is demonstrated that the use of foreign policy issues is a part of the overall electoral strategy of Ukrainian political parties.


Author(s):  
Carla Malafaia ◽  
Isabel Menezes ◽  
Tiago Neves

The field of civic and political participation has been studied mostly from individual, psychological approaches rather than collective, relational perspectives. Here we address this gap through a political ethnography in the youth wing of a major Portuguese political party, conducted during the fervent months right before and after the Portuguese parliamentary elections of October 2015. Investigating the meaning-making of doing politics in real-life contexts, we assess the collective learning processes involved in political participation. This paper shows that youth wings can provide quality participation experiences. Indeed, collectively envisioning and constructing a more democratic society and working for the public good are guiding principles of the wing. Debatement politics and pedagogical politics thus play a fundamental role in the wing's activity, even if they are accompanied by the more mundane, festive party politics and the backstage politics. Through their activity, the wing's members acquire and display high levels of political efficacy, critical thinking and effort regulation regarding political involvement. Methodologically, this paper shows that ethnography is well equipped to study the experience of participation, foregrounding activities and perceptions of wing's members in order to make sense of their learning processes and outcomes.


Politeja ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1(64)) ◽  
pp. 143-156
Author(s):  
Marta Cimke

En Marche! – New Political Movement or New Party? The Program and the Structure In the face of the emergence of new political movements and political parties, clearly defining these formations has emerged as a specific difficulty. The subject of the article is the La République En Marche! It came up as a movement, then transformed into a political party, gaining in popularity and securing victories in the parliamentary elections. The aim of the paper is to present the genesis and transformations within this organization and its present program. An attempt will also be made to answer the question – whether in the case of En Marche! we can talk about a new political movement, a new political party or a hybrid political organization that combines the elements of both the movement and the party.


The results of 2012, 2014, 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary elections which were conducted under the same parallel electoral system, are analyzed. The composition of the Verkhovna Rada of the 7th, 8th and 9th convocation by gender is compared, the possibility of participating in electoral races and being elected by both men and women is analyzed. The number of women and men who were selected by the proportional and majoritarian component of the electoral system is compared. The party composition of each convocation is examined. According to the 2012 elections, 450 people's deputies were elected, while only 423 people were elected during 2014 and 2019 elections. This is due to Russian aggression in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, which makes it impossible to hold elections in majoritarian constituencies of the indicated regions. With regard to the gender composition of the Parliament, the smallest number of women were represented in the 7th convocation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, while the largest number was represented in the 9th convocation. This tendency is explained by raising public awareness and greater involvement of women in politics every year, because even with the constancy of the electoral system, the number of women in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has doubled. The majoritarian component of the parallel electoral system remains inaccessible to women, because twice as many women deputies get their seats by proportional component. The political composition of the Ukrainian Parliament changes during each election campaign. Only one political party has been able to overcome the 5 percent electoral barrier in all three of its last campaigns - the All-Ukrainian Motherland Association. Another party has been able to go to parliament twice - the Petro Poroshenko bloc / European Solidarity. All other 11 parties are represented in parliament with only one cadence. A characteristic feature of all three campaigns is the support for a large part of the population of the presidential parties, both in a proportional system and in a majority one, which testifies, however, to the significant influence of the political preferences of the population rather than the influence of the electoral system. The fact that parliament is renewed by more than two-thirds during each of the three election campaigns refutes the argument that MPs or parties do not change and that a new electoral system is required to update parliament.


Author(s):  
Vitalij Semenko

The article deals with peculiarities of the regular elections in the Republic of Austria to the European Parliament in 2014, as well as the main reasons for the success of nationalists, left-wing parties, eurosceptics, populists, far-right political parties, even though the pro-European forces have retained their majority. The main results of the parliamentary elections, the conclusions of eminent political scientists, experts who researched election to the European Parliament are in details analyzed. Also, the main objectives and tasks of the party and election programs of political parties in Austria are in details characterized, which are represented in the European Parliament, this important supranational body of the European Union. Specific features of obtaining by Austria of 18 seats on the 8th next elections to the European Parliament are revealed, which took place on May 25, 2014. Keywords: Political party, euroscepticism, elections, populism, political system


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