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Political Knowledge And Political Engagement In The United States, Brittany Shaul
Political Knowledge And Political Engagement In The United States, Brittany Shaul
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This thesis examined the impact of political knowledge on forms of political engagement in the United States. Prior literature has established a relationship between political knowledge and political engagement, where those with higher political knowledge were more likely to engage politically through acts such as voting. This study distinguished between the various forms of political engagement and political knowledge, and seeks to provide relevant data on who is more likely to have political knowledge, and what impact having political knowledge has. This served to reexamine trends found in past literature, in order to see if these trends have persisted or …
Comparative Analysis Of The Relationship Between State Security And Ethnic Minority Oppression, Grayson Lanza
Comparative Analysis Of The Relationship Between State Security And Ethnic Minority Oppression, Grayson Lanza
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This research investigates the relationship between the state economic outlook, state security apparatus and the presence of ethnic minority oppression within the state's borders. Modern states have developed extensive security apparatuses as they have developed their economies and this research intended to identify the possibility of a connection between the development of these aspects of the state in relation to ethnic minority repression. The research is broken up into a research design and introductory section, a case study section, and a final analysis and conclusion section. Each of the four case studies studied a and ethnic minority relationship, and in …
More Guns, Less Butter, And Officers At The Table: Understanding The Nexus Between The Military's Integration Into Politics And Resource Allocation In Democracies And Non-Democracies, Salah Ben Hammou
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The civilianization of government is often seen as a necessary prerequisite for successful democratization and healthy civil-military relations. This thesis explores the impact of integrating the military into political decision-making on the distribution of "guns" and "butter" – military spending and social spending - across dictatorships and democracies. Whereas a general consensus suggests that autocracies allocate greater goods to the military and fewer goods to the general public relative to democracies, an understudied variable is the military's integration into politics in both democracies and autocracies. Given that military elites have greater incentives relative to civilian elites to prioritize military spending …
The African Puzzle: A Study Of Democratic Backsliding In Sub Saharan Africa, Ailbhe Rice
The African Puzzle: A Study Of Democratic Backsliding In Sub Saharan Africa, Ailbhe Rice
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The following study examines the future of democratization and the apparent trend towards autocratization within the context of democratic backsliding in Sub-Saharan Africa. Initially, the findings indicate that regionally, backsliding is not acting fundamentally different in Sub-Saharan Africa when compared to other regions. The analysis finds that regime duration and civil conflict are both significant when it comes to the study of democratic backsliding. The variable for the prior military regime's is extremely significant in all of the models and is, therefore, a strong indicator of backsliding in Africa. The chief takeaway from the study is in the variable for …
Ethnic Exclusion & Conflict In The Caspian: Comparing Kazakhstan & Azerbaijan, Danny Krikorian
Ethnic Exclusion & Conflict In The Caspian: Comparing Kazakhstan & Azerbaijan, Danny Krikorian
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Political science explains various motives for political violence. This research focuses on a particular kind of motivation: ethnicity. The 20th century has seen many instances of ethnic violence, and this research seeks to understand why it occurs in one place and time and not the other. Traditionally the literature on ethnic violence reflects on economic conditions, regime type, geopolitics and historical context as significant variables. This research posits that Kazakhstan managed to avoid ethnic violence because it is more politically developed. The existence of an accommodative legislative assembly, which assures the rights of ethnic minorities, is an example of Kazakhstan's …
Anti-Capitalism In The Contemporary Age: The Case Of The United Socialist Party Of Venezuela, William Maddens
Anti-Capitalism In The Contemporary Age: The Case Of The United Socialist Party Of Venezuela, William Maddens
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the popularity of anti-capitalist parties around the world has fallen. However, there are still surviving anti-capitalist political parties that survived this fall. In examining these parties, it must be determined whether they have any fresh ideas to overcoming the challenges of transitioning to a socialist society, and if they have any answers to the problems that plagued past attempts at socialism. One such party that has enjoyed much electoral success is the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. When taking a look at party programs, platforms, and statements made by party leaders, …
Determinants Of Terrorist Target Selection: A Quantitative Analysis, Taylor Haywood
Determinants Of Terrorist Target Selection: A Quantitative Analysis, Taylor Haywood
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Existing research on the subject of terrorism is vast, spanning causes of terrorism, the membership of terrorist groups, types of terrorist attacks, and more. One area of terrorism research, though, has received only limited consideration: terrorist target selection. What research does exist explains target selection almost exclusively as a function of ideology (Asal et al. 2009, 270 and 274; Drake 1998b, 54-56 and 58). However, such a limited causal focus obscures other possible, and probable, explanations of terrorist target selection. This paper proposes an alternative explanation of terrorist target selection that includes ideological and terrorist group capability variables, as well …
Ideas, Beliefs, Strategic Culture, And Foreign Policy: Understanding Brazil's Geopolitical Thought, Marcos Rosas Degaut Pontes
Ideas, Beliefs, Strategic Culture, And Foreign Policy: Understanding Brazil's Geopolitical Thought, Marcos Rosas Degaut Pontes
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Brazil is an important player both at regional and global levels, figuring prominently in almost all lists of emerging states and regional powers. It is one of the world's largest democracies, the fifth most populous country in the world, the world's seventh-largest economy, and Latin America's largest economy, accounting for approximately 60% of South America's GDP, 47% of South America's territory and 49% of South American population, a G20 member, and an active contributor to United Nations peacekeeping operations. However, despite being usually depicted as a "monster country" which would help shape global affairs, Brazil has never been able to …
Rivalry-Prone Dyads? Interstate Religious Differences And Military Conflict, Manar Elkhaldi
Rivalry-Prone Dyads? Interstate Religious Differences And Military Conflict, Manar Elkhaldi
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The link between religion and interstate military conflict has attracted a lot of attention among scholars of international relations and also foreign policy makers and religious organizations. This study examines whether religious differences between states in a dyad may partly affect various types of militarized conflict. It is argued in the literature that religion promotes stronger loyalty and sense of obligation than other cultural identities (Juergensmeyer, 1993); I argue that religious identity may be used by states effectively to mobilize people by means of rhetoric to generate and sustain popular support for conflict with other states. Thus I expect that …
The Russian Connection: How Russia Became A Leader In The World's Human Trafficking Market, Anthony De Mauro
The Russian Connection: How Russia Became A Leader In The World's Human Trafficking Market, Anthony De Mauro
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This thesis assesses how the history of the USSR and its collapse affected the human trafficking market. By conducting a historical analysis of the Soviet Union, key aspects of Soviet society were determined that allowed for the human trafficking market to establish and operate extremely lucratively; a focus on some of the established factors of human trafficking including corruption, law enforcement, the economy, organized crime, and the dissolution of the Soviet government. While this thesis highlights the historical factors of Russian human trafficking, this thesis does not determine why human trafficking exists beyond the surface exploitation that human trafficking consists …
A Generational Perspective On The Development Of The Political History Of Modern Iran, Gregory Mcdowall
A Generational Perspective On The Development Of The Political History Of Modern Iran, Gregory Mcdowall
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Mark Twain once remarked, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." If such recurrences happen with some discernible periodicity it would support the view that society develops cyclically. Though still controversial, this perspective has found a home in the long wave cycle theories of economics and international relations. For decades, international relation theorists have argued over which factor has primarily driven the interstate system, but this paradigm transforms that debate into a query over which of them serves as the medium for carrying waves of social change, be it war, trade, class, or gender relations. William Strauss and Neil …
Sexism And Women: The Implications Of Female Gender Resentment, Christine Regnier-Bachand
Sexism And Women: The Implications Of Female Gender Resentment, Christine Regnier-Bachand
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Do women suffer from a societal Stockholm Syndrome which leads them to display high levels of modern and traditional sexist behavior? Does a woman*s level of modern or traditional sexist behavior influence her political choices? Female gender resentment and sexist biases are an understudied area of the extant literature on sexism. Typically the focus is placed on men*s sexist attitudes and treatment of women, but is it possible that women also contribute to the subordination of their gender through sexist practices? These are questions which this thesis attempts to answer. The findings indicate that working women under the age of …
An Empirical Analysis Of The Association Between Types Of Interventions And Civil War Onset, Melinda Mellott
An Empirical Analysis Of The Association Between Types Of Interventions And Civil War Onset, Melinda Mellott
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Quantitative studies have focused on economics, social structures, and lack of political freedoms as being elemental factors for civil war onset. However, these studies have neglected the possibility of a civil war being an unintended consequence of international military intervention. I conduct an empirical analysis of the association between military intervention and civil war onset by collecting data for twenty countries within the Middle East/North African regions from 1980 to 2000. Using the International Military Intervention data set, I categorized “international intervention” into nine different types, all of which were regressed with intrastate war data derived from the Correlates of …
Risk Perceptions Of Climate Change In International Environmental Negotiations, Christine Dellert
Risk Perceptions Of Climate Change In International Environmental Negotiations, Christine Dellert
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Climate change poses an unprecedented risk to global human security and future generations. Yet actions to mitigate or adapt to the changing climate system vary greatly among countries and their constituencies. Despite mounting evidence detailing the economic, social, and ecological risks of climate change, many scholars agree that the greatest threats associated with climate change involve delaying or ignoring necessary action. Using theorizing of “risk society” from Ulrich Beck and others, this thesis examines how countries, environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and business interests construct the risk of climate change and how their respective discourses conflict in international environmental negotiations. This …
Deadly Premonition: Does Terrorist-Leader Psychology Influence Violence Lethality?, Clayton Besaw
Deadly Premonition: Does Terrorist-Leader Psychology Influence Violence Lethality?, Clayton Besaw
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This thesis seeks to address a theoretical and empirical gap within terrorism studies, and more specially the study of terrorist-group lethality. This research updates a model of terrorist-group lethality by including terrorist-leader psychology as an individual-level variable in predicting terrorist-group lethality. Terrorist-leader statements were analyzed by using two novel coding schemes called Operational Code and Leadership Trait Analysis to create quantified measurements of leader cognitive beliefs and personality traits. The empirical portion of this study utilizes pooled cross-sectional time-series data within the framework of fixed effects and multi-level estimation models. The results find that terrorist-leader psychology, and more specifically Instrumental …
Leadership Distrust, Need For Power, And The Initiation Of Militarized Interstate Disputes, Gary Smith
Leadership Distrust, Need For Power, And The Initiation Of Militarized Interstate Disputes, Gary Smith
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Does a leader's psychology affect his/her likelihood of initiating a militarized interstate dispute? The study of leadership psychology has continuously found support for the central assumption that leaders matter in explaining a state's foreign policy behavior. However, many of these research projects have relied on small-sample case studies and experimental methods that have limited generalizability. In this paper, I use two variables drawn from the research program on leadership trait analysis (distrust and need for power) in a multivariate large-n study to explain the initiation of militarized interstate disputes (MIDs). 1,601 cases are drawn from the Correlates of War MID …
The Effects Of State Leader Psychology On Civil War Lethality, Brandon Kelley
The Effects Of State Leader Psychology On Civil War Lethality, Brandon Kelley
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Does a state leader's psychology influence lethality in civil wars? This thesis analyzes the aforementioned question during post-1945 civil wars. This particular subject, paying close attention to individual psychology at the state level, is gaining traction amongst scholars, though limited scholarly attention has addressed whether leader psychology is an indicator of conflict severity in terms of lethality. The psychology of the state leader in this thesis is assessed from leadership traits and operational code indices, specifically direction of strategy (I1) and interpretation of the nature of the political universe (P1). The data and cases used are pulled from datasets by …
The Modern Gender Gap In Partisanship And Ideology: A Cross-National Analysis, Tiffany Quick
The Modern Gender Gap In Partisanship And Ideology: A Cross-National Analysis, Tiffany Quick
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This thesis updates and expands upon the developmental theory of the gender gap in party and ideological identification originally posited by Norris and Inglehart (2000) to explain why women in advanced industrial nations are more likely to hold more leftist ideological identification than men. A comparative cross-national analysis using data from the World Values Survey (2004-2008) extends Norris and Inglehart's study, with an examination of the gender gap in advanced industrial, post-communist and developing nations. To further explore the nature of the gender gap in the United States, data from the American National Election Study (Cumulative File and 2012 cross-section) …
When Leaders Repress: A Study Of African States, Ashley (Timmerman) Wilkes
When Leaders Repress: A Study Of African States, Ashley (Timmerman) Wilkes
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
When do leaders choose state-sponsored repression as a response to certain threats to the state? Conventional wisdom states that authoritarian regimes will be more likely to use these repressive acts in order to maintain law and order, as well as to suppress the opposition. However, previous literature on the subject fails to recognize the effect of irregular civil wars on this decision, as well as the types of repression that will - or will not - be used against citizens. I analyze cross-sectional time series data in 46 African states between 1990 and 2010 on human rights violations and their …
Uncovering The Sub-Text: Presidents' Emotional Expressions And Major Uses Of Force, Elias Assaf
Uncovering The Sub-Text: Presidents' Emotional Expressions And Major Uses Of Force, Elias Assaf
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The global context of decision making continues to adapt in response to international threats. Political psychologists have therefore considered decision making processes regarding major uses of force a key area of interest. Although presidential personality has been widely studied as a mitigating factor in the decision making patterns leading to uses of force, traditional theories have not accounted for the emotions of individuals as they affect political actions and are used to frame public perception of the use of force. This thesis therefore measures expressed emotion and cognitive expressions in the form of expressed aggression, passivity, blame, praise, certainty, realism, …
Explaining State Crisis Behavior Using The Operational Code, William George
Explaining State Crisis Behavior Using The Operational Code, William George
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Does the operational code of a state's leadership have an effect on its behavior during foreign policy crises? Specifically, do states with more conflictual operational codes opt for a more conflictual response to crises, or do systemic and structural variables intervene to limit their significance? While the study of individual level psychology in international relations has been gaining momentum, the causal links between beliefs and behavior have yet to be solidified. This study used ordered logistic regression across three models to determine the effect of the operational code on state crisis behavior while controlling for key domestic and crisis dimension …
The Effects Of Divided Government On Women's Organizations' Political Activity In Developed Democracies, Alexandria Wilson
The Effects Of Divided Government On Women's Organizations' Political Activity In Developed Democracies, Alexandria Wilson
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This study examines the relationship between divided government and women's organizations' political activity. In the literature divided government is associated with political openness leading to a decline in the repression of alternative political views and increased organizational activity. In this thesis I hypothesize that divided government is related to increased participation in political activity by women's organizations. Political activity is expected to increase during periods of divided government due to increased opportunities to influence formal government as political parties and elected officials compete for public support. This study analyzes political activity by organizations associated with the women's movement in two …
Hidden In Plain Sight: Development And Testing Of A Model To Evaluate Political Leadership Tactics, Albert Citron
Hidden In Plain Sight: Development And Testing Of A Model To Evaluate Political Leadership Tactics, Albert Citron
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This thesis analyzes the kinds of verbal and nonverbal signals elites manifest to show leadership qualities. Launching from Max Weber’s conceptual framework of charisma as a power term and Harold Lasswell’s study of propaganda, this study takes a multidisciplinary approach to studying political leadership with elements of communication methodology and an ontological basis in evolutionary psychology. The study’s goal is to offer a framework for defining and evaluating the diverse signal patterns employed by political elites in three real-life situations. These are the Malta Summit, the 1992 Virginia Presidential Debate, and the 2012 South Carolina Republican Presidential Primary. The cases …
The Perception Of Turkey In The Middle East In The Last Decade: The Cases Of Egypt And Tunisia, Mesud Hasgur
The Perception Of Turkey In The Middle East In The Last Decade: The Cases Of Egypt And Tunisia, Mesud Hasgur
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This study examined the factors affecting the perception of Turkey in the Middle East from 2002 onwards by analyzing the combination of media, political elite discourse and people's political predispositions in the cases of Egypt and Tunisia. The research is separated into two parts. In the first part of 2002-2010, the factors of democratization, economic development, foreign policy activism, Islamic Oriented Government as well as Turkish TV series were found to be critical in the explanation of Turkey's popularity. In the second part of 2010-2013, democratization and foreign policy activism were the most effective factors while the other variables still …
Becoming A Food Citizen, Nicole Hornung
Becoming A Food Citizen, Nicole Hornung
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Environmental citizenship is positioned as a platform where the rights of social and environmental justice converge with civic engagement and responsibility. As industrialized economies continue to exhaust the limits of finite natural resources and exacerbate conditions of global climate change, scholars have questioned if environmental citizenship models offer a method for deepening obligations to a sustainable movement. In the material culture enjoyed by Western civilizations, existing research supports that an individual’s purchases are seen as an indicator of their values and identities. Consequently the commitment to responsible buying behavior or sustainable consumption is in a sense an expression of eco-citizenship. …
African Regional Organizations And Democracy, Stephanie Schoppert
African Regional Organizations And Democracy, Stephanie Schoppert
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Instability and political repression are two reasons why many states in Africa are unable to develop. African regional organizations have the potential to encourage democracy, stability and development within their regions if they have the right tools. Using case studies of two major interventions by African regional organizations this thesis will determine what those tools may be. Both the intervention of ECOWAS into Liberia and the SADC into the DRC were rife with problems but they were able to bring some stability and even democracy to states in crisis. This thesis finds that African regional organizations can promote democracy and …
Institutional Vs. Non-Institutional Sources Of Presidential Influence: Explaining Congressional-Presidential Relations In The Age Of Polarization, Derek Culp
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This thesis examines the determinants of presidential success with Congress. Seven essential sources of presidential power in the current era of party polarization were derived from the extant literature, and these factors were delineated into the institutional (formal) and non-institutional (informal) policymaking tools of the presidency. Variables that explain presidential legislative success include: intraparty support in Congress, the use of veto bargaining, executive orders and signing statements (institutional factors); as well as public approval, ‘going public,’ and strategic lobbying of Congress (non-institutional factors). Case studies of the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush analyze the role of these …
Regional Organizations And The Durability Of Peace, Juliana Velasco
Regional Organizations And The Durability Of Peace, Juliana Velasco
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This thesis investigates the role of regional organizations in peacemaking and peacekeeping, particularly on the effects of peace agreement duration. This is important because the United Nations has been traditionally seen as the default international peacekeeping force but recently, more responsibility is being given to regional organizations. This study hypothesizes that regional organizations’ ability to clear commitment problems, create specific agreements, and willingness to enforce agreements make them the most effective third parties to deal with many conflicts. However, the study also hypothesizes that regional organizations are less fit to mediate conflicts based around ethnicity, identity, or religious disparities. By …
On Obama Administration Gun Policy With Continual Reference To The Multiple Streams Model, Michael Hristakopoulos
On Obama Administration Gun Policy With Continual Reference To The Multiple Streams Model, Michael Hristakopoulos
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The Multiple Streams model developed by John Kingdon (1995) and Nikolaos Zahariadis (2007) provides a valuable framework for understanding the nature of policy change. This investigation draws extensively upon the Multiple Streams framework in order to understand the development of gun-control policy initiatives under President Barack Obama. The investigation uses a case-study approach with in-depth analysis of four different mass-shooting events that took place in the United States between 2009 and 2012. Reconstruction of the shooting events and detailed parsing of the Obama administration’s official responses to each incident, when viewed through the Multiple Streams lens, clearly explain why Obama’s …
Governmental Responses To Terrorism: Creating Costs And Benefits, Kenneth Klose
Governmental Responses To Terrorism: Creating Costs And Benefits, Kenneth Klose
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This thesis assesses four governmental responses to terrorism: conciliation, denial, legal restriction, and violence, each of which may be focused on an organization or its leaders. The theory makes predictions on the resulting frequency and severity of terrorism. Unless responses reduce an organization’s capacity or desire to attack, the frequency of attacks may be reduced, while the severity continues to increase. The theory is tested using a time series regression analysis of the effects of government action on terrorism in Algeria and the Philippines. In general, the results show that conciliation may led to increases in terrorism in the short …