Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Fragmentation, Frustrated Revolt, And Off-Shore Opportunity: A Comparative Examination Of Jihadi Mobilization In Central Asia And The South Caucasus, William B. Farrell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research presents analysis for identifying common risk and resilience factors that contributed to or hindered Salafi jihadi mobilization of citizens of Central Asia and the South Caucasus and examines the extent to which these factors had differing internal and external outcomes on Salafi jihadi mobilization. Three levels of analysis provide examination of regime characteristics, behavior of jihadi organizations that mobilized individuals from the region, and case studies through interviews in communities affected by jihadi mobilization in Kyrgyzstan and Georgia.

This research reveals that early distinctions in Islamist subnational struggles had oriented violence towards governments within Central Asia, while neighboring …

Multi-Level Governance Of Climate Change Adaptation: United Nations Negotiations And Adaptation Project Implementation In Nicaragua And Samoa, Anna E. Mcginn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The rapid entry into force of the Paris Agreement reaffirmed, with certainty, that the international community would continue its efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change impacts opening a new era of international cooperation on climate change. This thesis explores how both negotiations around climate change adaptation and adaptation project implementation have evolved in this post-Paris Agreement era (from adoption in December 2015 to present). Using the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) Adaptation Fund as the central lens, the chapters explore international negotiations around the Fund as well as two Adaptation Fund funded …

Digital Political Information Consumption And Ambivalent Political Attitudes., Dane Ryan Warner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understating how individuals form, reinforce, or change attitudes has a long history in political science research. This study seeks to contribute to the existing literature by bridging the gap between the ambivalence and digital political communications literature by examining the relationship between digital political information consumption and ambivalent political attitudes. Using the American National Election Studies 2016 Time Series Study, I examine the role of digital political information consumption as a moderator of value conflict and ambivalent political attitudes. The findings suggest that increased levels of information gather significantly reduce group ambivalence, candidate ambivalence, and value ambivalence.

Local Food Policy & Consumer Food Cooperatives: Evolutionary Case Studies, Afton Hupper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Darwin’s theory of natural selection has played a central role in the development of the biological sciences, but evolution can also explain change in human culture. Institutions, mechanisms that govern behavior and social order, are important subjects of cultural evolution. Institutions can help stabilize cooperation, defined as behavior that benefits others, often at a personal cost. Cooperation is important for solving social dilemmas, scenarios in which the interests of the individual conflict with those of the group. A number of mechanisms by which institutions evolve to support cooperation have been identified, yet theoretical models of institutional change have rarely been …

Representation And Restraint : Cross-National Analysis Of Fractionalization And State-Building., David Lian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to understand the relationships between democracy, ethnic-linguistic-religious (ELR) fractionalizations and state-building. The speed of a country’s economic recovery from war is used as proxy to determine the state-building process. Using Cox PH model, I conducted a large sample hazard analysis of 107 conflicts, having polity and ELR as explanatory variables. I found that competitiveness of political participation and executive constraints are associated with state-recovery while ethno-linguistic fractionalizations have the reverse effect. I propose that the institutional feedback process is equal to the product of negative executive power centralization and representation minus fractionalization; as in F = – …

Hybridity And Political Disorder : A Mixed Method Approach To Understanding The Hybrid Regime., Bryce Jamison Kleinsteuber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on two central questions; first, does regime hybridity lead to an increased propensity for political disorder; and second, what specific regime level characteristics are responsible for the increased propensity. The theoretical basis for this study is founded in the understanding that the duality of Hybrid regimes ensures that they receive neither the benefit of Authoritarian, coercive force nor Democratic plasticity and thus are unable to prevent political disorder. Therefore, during periods of political transition leaders in these regimes not only cannot prevent these events but may be incentivized to allow or even encourage certain events as a …

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 …

Commitment And Credibility In Fdi, Kathleen Sullivan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

How can firms in foreign direct investment (FDI) best protect their assets from host government contract beach? FDI is the largest and most stable form of external financing to less developed countries (LDCs). It increases job growth, technological development, and efficiency in the host country, subsequently increasing economic development. Companies prefer to invest in countries that are less prone to contract breach. I propose that credibility of commitments can help explain variation in contract breach. I propose that firms are most likely to avoid contract breach when they are involved in supply chains and when the host country has a …

Government Respect For Human Rights And Their Relation To Shadow Economic Activity, Christopher Gahagan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Shadow economic activity can have detrimental effects on many aspects of a society including trust in government policies, quality of public institutions, government revenues, and economic growth. Empirical studies have generally employed a rational actor approach and focused on economic factors. Most studies in this literature claim that when individuals do not receive the right economic stimuli from the government, it damages the relationship between individuals and the state and citizens opt to move into the shadow economy. A small but growing body of research, however, suggests that certain political factors can also lead to shadow economic activity because of …

How Political Violence Helps Explain Organized Crime: A Case Study Of Mexico's "War On Drugs", Alanna Fulk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines research from the disciplines of political science and criminal justice to develop a theory that explains geographic variation in violence related to organized crime. Large-scale organized crime violence exhibits characteristics of both ordinary crime violence and political violence, but these subjects are generally analyzed separately. However, as large-scale organized crime has become more prevalent and violent in recent years, most notably in Latin America, studies, including this one, have attempted to cross disciplinary boundaries in order to better explain trends in organized crime onset, termination and violence. This thesis argues that although the overall goal of organized …

Appropriate Adjective: Executive Authority And The Classification Of Enemy Combatants, Taraleigh Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Is the term enemy combatant an established legal category of persons under international law? Has the President exceeded his constitutional authority in classifying United States citizens who are suspected terrorists as enemy combatants? In 2018 a U.S. citizen was released after being held for 13 months as an enemy combatant. He was detained without being charged with a crime and without the ability to challenge the legality of his detention. This thesis serves two purposes. First, it will seek to trace the history of the term enemy combatant and highlight the evolution of its use by the executive branch. This …

China's Lost Face And The Two Koreas: The Effects Of Culture And Identity On Chinese Foreign Policy, Kang Kyu Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the question of why China responded particularly harshly to pro-U.S. military actions taken by South Korea, when this nation was identified as a friend to China, while responding less harshly to similar pro-U.S. military actions taken by Japan, who was not identified as a friend. My argument is that these divergent responses were caused by China’s different expectations, according to whether different nations had a perceived identity as a friend or a rival. China’s behaviors are essentially based on its own proclaimed identity and on the perceived identities of others. China has advanced the proclaimed identity of …

Gramscian Perspectives On Populism, Luke William Mooberry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increasingly liberal states are facing challenges from populist movements. This paper argues that the prison writings of Antonio Gramsci can provide important insights into the phenomenon and how to counteract it. The first two sections outline a set of Gramscian analytical tools: hegemony, non-hegemony, passive revolution, and Caesarism. These theoretical tools are then applied to different periods of the Third Republic of France, 1870-1940. This paper looks at this French example because it features unique relationships between populism, ideology, and the experience of liberalism prior to World War II. The third section demonstrates the implications of non-hegemony within international society, …

Social Identity, Economic Interest, And The Formation Of Host Attitudes Toward Refugees, Jeremy Cox

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Scholarly studies of refugee crises have historically focused on the causes of refugee flight, the experience of the refugees themselves, or the impacts of refugees on host countries. More recently, a growing body of literature has examined the interaction of refugees and host populations, and more specifically the orientations of host individuals toward refugees. This study focuses on attitude formation during refugee crises, seeking to better understand the role of social and economic factors in shaping the attitudes of host populations. The core questions for this study are whether and how social identity and economic considerations relate to attitudes. Original …

Shifting Power, Status Quo Dissatisfaction, And Power Parity: Their Effect On The Use Of Coercive Foreign Policy In International Relations, Nathan Alvin Andrew

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

How do shifts in the distribution of power effect the foreign policy decisions of states? In this dissertation, I argue that shifts in the distribution of power, status quo dissatisfaction, and power parity work together to significantly impact these decisions. Until this time, the conditional effect of these three variables has only been included in studies of major- or regional-power war, within the theoretical framework of power transition theory. To what extent do these correlates of war apply to foreign policy in general? Borrowing the insights of foreign policy substitution and the logic of the bargaining theory of war, I …

When Do Ties Bind? Foreign Fighters, Social Embeddedness, And Combatant Repertoires Of Behavior During Civil War, Pauline Luz Moore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

How does the extent to which rebel organizations are embedded into local conflict contexts - i.e. the extent to which they "fit in" or "stand out" from local populations - affect their behavior on and off the battlefield during civil war? This dissertation examines why rebel group propensities to engage in governance and violence during war vary at the macro and microlevels of analysis and uses as its point of departure the presence of foreign fighters in the ranks of rebel groups engaged in civil war. I employ a cross-national analysis of insurgencies from 1989-2011, and also conduct a theory-testing …

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 …

Reexamining The Relationship Between Divided Government And Voter Turnout, Heidi Beck

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reexamines the effect of divided government on voter turnout originally posited by Franklin and Hirczy de Miño (1998), which suggested that each year of exposure to divided government resulted in a cumulative negative effect on voters leading to alienation and lower turnout. It reconsiders this argument using more recent data, given that voter turnout in U.S. presidential elections (as measured by the Voting Eligible Population) has increased since 2000, even though divided government has occurred during this period. This thesis also uses new data and methods to address concerns about the original aggregate level research design. The research …

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 …

Mandated Representation: The Effect Of Legislative Gender Quotas On Attitudes Toward Gender Equality, Rustin Suray

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Do gender quotas actually change attitudes toward gender equality? Research suggests that quotas influence gender norms but very little work has looked at whether individual attitudes themselves change when gender quotas are enacted. This paper attempts to fill this void by studying the relationship between quota implementation and gender attitudes at a cross-national level using longitudinal survey data from the World Values Survey in a two-level random intercept multi-level model. This type of model is appropriate because it does not assume that individual observations in the data are independent from one another. The individual respondents from the WVS data are …

The Politics Of Place, The Urban-Rural Divide, And Geographic Identities In American Politics, Daniel Fudge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To test these theories, I conduct a series of empirical tests using survey data from the American National Election Survey (ANES) and an original survey experiment. Chapter two examines how people’s ideological perceptions are moderated by living in a particular area. Using the ANES data, I conduct a regression analysis with an interaction of the respondent’s ideology and the geographic location. Chapter three analyzes how individuals perceive a political candidate based on partisan and geographic information presented to the respondent. Using an original survey experiment, this study seeks to illustrate how individuals across urban and rural America perceive Republican and …

Make The Inaugural Great Again: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Donald J. Trump’S Inaugural Address, Danielle F. Dickerson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I utilized three distinct theories (ideographs, dramatism, and the bully pulpit) to rhetorically analyze and assess President Trump’s 2017 inaugural address. Ultimately, I analyzed whether Trump deviated from Campbell and Jamieson’s (1985) presidential inaugural expectations. While the presidential inaugural address was the only text analyzed, implications were drawn from Trump’s rhetoric leading up to and within the inaugural. This thesis also analyzed Trump’s rhetoric through social media, specifically Twitter, and looked at the context surrounding the inaugural. I suggest, through my research, that Trump does deviate from the traditional framework of the inaugural address, and ultimately modernized …