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DC Field | Value | Language |
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dc.contributor.advisor | Burghardt, A. F. | en_US |
dc.contributor.author | Wolfe, Susan Jacqueline | en_US |
dc.date.accessioned | 2014-06-18T16:59:13Z | - |
dc.date.available | 2014-06-18T16:59:13Z | - |
dc.date.created | 2009-11-11 | en_US |
dc.date.issued | 1975 | en_US |
dc.identifier.other | opendissertations/723 | en_US |
dc.identifier.other | 1876 | en_US |
dc.identifier.other | 1061584 | en_US |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11375/12333 | - |
dc.description.abstract | <p>This thesis develops a model of political information flow appropriate to the under-studied at-large, non-partisan, multi-candidate municipal electoral system. The model integrates those three elements usually treated as separate entities, namely the candidates, the channels and the electors. Focus is on the many channels, both social and media, which link the candidates and the electors. Candidates make information inputs into channels which they select on the basis of their perception of the channels and their available resources. Elector reception of information is dependent upon their customary use of information channels, candidate use of the channels and the ability of the channel to effect contact. It is suggested that elector output, the vote, is a function of elector response to the information and to the channel which conveys it. One personal channel, neighbours, emphasised in the literature as a significant explanatory variable is selected for detailed study. The contribution of neighbours as a political information channel to the Neighbourhood Effect and the Friends-and-Neighbours Effect is investigated.</p> <p>The integrated, multi-channel political information model is successfully developed and tested by applying it to the 1972 City of Guelph, Ontario municipal election. It is used to evaluate channel utilisation strategies, channel contact effectiveness and channel influence. Both social and media channels are found to be important, but those long term social and media contact channels linking electors and candidates are found to be most significant. These favour the incumbents and those non-incumbents who have been able to develop and utilise these channels over a prolonged period. In the particular context of the Guelph municipal election the local newspaper, and the social channels of work associates, business contacts and friends are found to be especially effective in making contact between candidate and elector and influencing the outcome, or vote. Neighbours are of less significance as a channel than the literature had indicated.</p> <p>When a Neighbours' Model was developed and tested, by application to the 1974 Guelph municipal election, neighbours were found to be less important than friends and other social channels. The exception was when a local candidate was involved. Then considerable differences were identified between areas that were superficially similar. In the older stable residential neighbourhoods, neighbours were familiar with, discussed and supported their local candidate, but in the newer areas non-local candidates were as well or better known than the local candidate, more discussion took place with friends and work associates and non-local candidates elicited equal or higher levels of support. The contribution of the neighbours' social contact channel to the Neighbourhood Effect and the Friends-and-Neighbours Effect is more variable and more complex than the existing literature has indicated.</p> <p>The integrated multi-channel model and the neighbours model are here developed and applied specifically to illumine the functioning of the at-large, non-partisan electoral system, but could prove useful in comparative studies of partisan and non-partisan, ward and at-large systems at the municipal level. The integrated multi-channel model could also provide an integrative framework for the study of the partisan systems at higher governmental levels.</p> | en_US |
dc.subject | Geography | en_US |
dc.subject | Geography | en_US |
dc.title | Political Information Channels in an At-Large Municipal Electoral System (City of Guelph 1972 and 1974) | en_US |
dc.type | thesis | en_US |
dc.contributor.department | Geography | en_US |
dc.description.degree | Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) | en_US |
Appears in Collections: | Open Access Dissertations and Theses |
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fulltext.pdf | 11.25 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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