Defining Unlikely Candidates Across Electoral Systems: A Comparative Analysis of Barack Obama and Alan García
Defining candidates is a longstanding tradition in political science. It makes it possible to form a greater understanding of how candidates are influenced by electoral systems and how they operate within those systems. Significant research has been completed to understand the impacts of electoral s...
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| Language: | en_US |
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The University of Arizona.
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10150/579150 |
| Summary: | Defining candidates is a longstanding tradition in political science. It makes it possible to form a greater understanding of how candidates are influenced by electoral systems and how they operate within those systems. Significant research has been completed to understand the impacts of electoral systems on candidates that seek public office and strong definitions have been developed for outsider candidates who rise to power despite existing outside of the traditional party system. However, little attention has been paid to candidates who exist within the traditional party structure but still cannot be classified as likely to find electoral success. Yet despite the odds against them, these candidates do win elections and it is important to understand the factors that allow this to occur so that the role of unlikely candidates can be better conceptualized. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a greater understanding of these unlikely candidates and form a definition that can be utilized across various electoral systems. This definition will then be applied to two candidates in separate systems to confirm its utility regardless of each country's individual electoral laws. |
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