publicly paper and electronic copies of this gocument in whole iart.

I would like to thank some people who were involved in the creation of this thesis: • Berry Schoenmakers of TU Eindhoven for introducing me to the topic of cryptographic voting protocols. • Evangelos Karatsiolis for his work in guiding me through the process of writing this thesis and his constant motivation. • Roberto Samarone Araujo for hours of discussing various protocols with Evengelos and me. • Warren D. Smith for providing with a preliminary version of his upcoming book »How Mathematics can Improve Democracy«. • Ute Günther and Christian Burgmann for their proof-reading. Nonetheless, any remaing errors shall be blamed on me. • Andrea Peter for her love and for cheering me up when I was down. • Last but not least my parents, Jacqueline Herrnkind and Hans Peter Klink – without their love and continuous support, this thesis would never have been written.

Embedded Systems group:

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The principle aim of this dissertation is to investigate the philosophical application of quantum information theory to interpretational issues regarding the theory of quantum mechanics. Recently, quantum information theory has emerged as a potential source for such an interpretation. The main question with which this dissertation will be concerned is whether or not an information-theoretic interpretation can serve as a conceptually acceptable interpretation of quantum mechanics. It will be argued that some of the more obvious approaches – that quantum information theory shows us that ultimately the world is made of information, and quantum Bayesianism – fail as philosophical interpretations of quantum mechanics. However, the information-theoretic approach of Clifton, Bub, and Halvorson introduces Einstein’s distinction between principle theories and constructive theories, arguing that quantum mechanics is best understood as an information-theoretic principle theory. While I argue that this particular approach fails, it does offer a viable new philosophical role for information theory. Specifically, an investigation of interpretationally successful principle theories such as Newtonian mechanics, special relativity, and general

to facilitate student transfers in the international educational systems, and the QM courses. I will also show the e-spaces in our Fronter system where different kinds of communication take place such as © ©2 20 00 05 5--2 20 00 09 9 Q Qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve e S So oc ci io ol lo og gy y R Re ev vi ie ew

to understanding how psychological factors contribute to physical disease, as illustrated by constructs that are still current such as the repressive coping style (20), alexithymia (21), denial (22), suppression (23), Type C personality (24), and the Type D personality (25). All of these constructs have in common