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Civil Society Organizations Serving Children In Vietnam: Opportunities And Constraints Working With Government Agencies, Trang P. Kelly

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

When Vietnamese civil society organization (CSO) administrators manage their relationships with government authorities to ensure children receive social services, they operate under Vietnam’s complex political, socioeconomic, and cultural constraints in environments where the Vietnamese government employs soft power to control CSOs and their donors. This study adds to the literature on the nature of CSO in Vietnam. It details the current imbalance of power between state-sponsored organizations (SSOs) and non-SSOs and provides an updated view of how Vietnamese non-SSOs mix social, economic, and political roles as employers and advocates.

Combining a qualitative exploratory and interpretative case study, I address a …

Strategies Global Virtual Team Leaders Use To Improve Trust And Communication, Sarah Crandell Monday

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Global virtual team (GVT) members’ inability to effectively build trust and communication has the potential to negatively impact organizational outcomes. Organizational leaders are concerned with team members’ inability to build trust and communication, as it is the leading cause of reduced productivity and efficiency levels within GVTs. Grounded in the social exchange theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies GVT leaders use to improve trust and communication among GVT members. The participants were 18 GVT business leaders from six organizations located in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Data were collected using semistructured …

Asean's Ineffective Response To The South China Sea Disputes, Rithiya Serey

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Since 1992, five ASEAN member states (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam) have been involved in territorial disputes with China at the South China Sea (SCS). China’s presence in the SCS has prevented the populations of the five ASEAN member states from getting safe and productive access to the lucrative natural resources and trade routes to the outside regions. Even though the SCS disputes have caused economic and security problems for at least half of ASEAN member states, it is puzzling that ASEAN has been suboptimal and ineffective in responding to the disputes. To answer this puzzle, I argue …

Ethnic Fractionalization, Corruption, And Trust In The Courts, Sinan Nadarevic

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Prior research has examined the effects of ethnic fractionalization on trust in political institutions. However, most of the literature focuses on a general understanding of political trust, disregarding the relationship between ethnic fractionalization and individual trust in the legal system. I argue that high levels of ethnic fractionalization decrease trust in the courts. To provide empirical support for my theory, I use individual-level survey data from 32 African and Latin American countries from 2013 and I produce two findings. First, using multiple OLS fixed effects regression analysis, I find that ethnic fractionalization decreases trust in the courts. Second, using mediation …

Decision-Making And Hydraulic Fracturing: The Case Of Local Policy Elites And The General Public In Arkansas And Oregon, Clayton Creed Tumlison

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the ways in which cultural value predispositions impact decision-making associated with hydraulic fracturing (fracking) among both local policy elites and the general public in Arkansas and Oregon. First, I examine the mediating role of (dis)trust in information provided by three groups associated with the fracking debate – the energy industry, environmental groups, and the government – in shaping benefit-risk perceptions associated with fracking, and compare this process between a sample of local policy elites and the general public in Arkansas and Oregon. Findings indicate that perceptions of trustworthiness are shaped by cultural value predispositions which, in turn, …

The Influence Of Media Consumption On Trust, Political Efficacy And Social Media Activism Among Young Adults, Kerra Mccorkle- Akanbi

Dissertations

For many years, trust in government and political efficacy has increasingly been an area of interest for political scientist. Recently, social media activism has become just as intriguing. With social media playing such a dominant role in society, individuals are consuming news through their social media timelines, without having to seek it out themselves. This is especially true for young adults. Through the advancement of non-traditional media outlets, this generation is submerged in endless Facebook statuses, tweets, and television coverage of civil unrest and political polarization that has certainly had both social and political implications. While past studies conducted by …

Rapport Development And Native Language Use Between U.S. Advisors And Afghan Counterparts, Sean Ryan Ryan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Advisory activities form a central element of the U.S. National Security Strategy to mitigate the need for employment of large military formations. The commitment of large U.S. combat formations has resulted in more than 6,000 fatalities since September 11, 2001; poor relationship skills were cited as contributing factors in 51 or more fratricide-murders of U.S. soldiers by Afghan compatriots in 2012. Informed by social exchange theory, servant leadership theory, and role theory, the Army conceptual rapport framework provided a lens for this phenomenological symbolic interactionism study of rapport between Afghan counterparts and U.S. advisors. Participants included 15 English-speaking Afghan soldiers, …

Service Satisfaction, Competence And Caring: Examining The Influence Of Experience With The Public Bureaucracy On Citizen Attitudes Of Trust In Government, Lauren Kriston Harding

Doctoral Dissertations

Examining the relationship among government performance, service satisfaction and trust in government advocated by the New Public Management, this research contributes to a better understanding of the performance-trust hypothesis and its assumptions. This study evaluates the satisfaction link of the performance-trust hypothesis, investigating influences on service satisfaction and how these translate into trust. In particular, two implicit assumptions of the performance-trust hypothesis are explored. First, citizen experience with public services is examined as a measure of specific support for government. Second, the role of citizen interactions with the bureaucracy is assessed, specifically identifying the influence of citizen attitudes toward public …

The Decline In Trust In The European Union, Nathan Donald Price

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

After twenty years, the European Union is undoubtedly at a crossroads, as its institutions try to manage the sovereign debt crisis in member states and the uncertainty surrounding the future direction of the project. The challenges the European Union has faced, and the response to them, have drawn considerable attention on the capacity of the European Union to manage the interests of the Europeans. In this dissertation, I discuss the process of Europeanization and why it has resulted in suboptimal outputs. Additionally, I discuss the perception of a democratic deficit in the European Union. The purpose of this is to …

Public Confidence In Social Institutions And Media Coverage: A Case Of Belarus, Dzmitry Yuran

Masters Theses

Social scientists agree that public confidence in social institutions is a crucial element in building democratic society. This is especially true for transitional societies including post-communist countries, because the lack of public confidence in newly emerged democratic institutions can interfere with democratic development. Although different theories explaining public confidence in social institutions were developed, these theories ignored the role that mass media play in building public confidence. The goal of this study is to examine the connection between mass media coverage of social institutions and public confidence in these institutions by conducting content analysis of Belarusian newspapers, reviewing the results …

General Social Trust And Political Trust Within Social And Political Groups: A Case Study, Weylan Craig

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

People in society with high levels of generalized social trust and political trust are more likely to engage in civic activism and participation. Therefore, people involved in social and political groups will likely have higher levels of generalized social and political trust than the general public. What lacks in this realm of scholarship is a solid comparison of trust among people involved in social and political groups. This case-study analysis of generalized social trust and political trust among social and political groups shows the trust that is not only generated within each group, but also which types of groups are …

Political Language And Trust: A Study In Machiavelli And Hobbes, Lauren Wenzel

Honors Papers

It is not possible to discuss politics without assuming a degree, however minimal, of trust. To deny the existence of any trust at all is to assume, as Hobbes does, a war, whether hot or cold, of all against all. While it is possible for people to live in such a condition, they cannot live together in any sense that can be called political. Even in societies which are divided into hostile groups, people either align themselves with a group, expressing their loyalty to its goals. Alternatively, they may withdraw from the political sphere, rejecting it completely, or wait until …