Defence date: 6 June 2011Examining Board: Professor Mark Franklin, European University Institute (Supervisor); Professor Fabrizio Bernardi, European University Institute; Professor Bernhard Weßels, Social Science Research Center Berlin; Professor Christopher Wlezien, Temple UniversityPDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD thesesDemocratic politics are structured by elections. Governments come and go, campaigns come and go, policies come and go, and so forth. In representative democracy, the mere existence of elections strongly alters the behavior of representatives who are interested in re-election and of voters who are affected by political communication. Unlike many of our models, the real world structures p...