Human Rights and the Strategic Use of US Foreign Food Aid (open access)

Human Rights and the Strategic Use of US Foreign Food Aid

How does respect for human rights affect the disbursement of food aid by US foreign policymakers? Scholars analyzing foreign aid generally look at only total economic aid, military aid or a combination of both. However, for a more nuanced understanding of human rights as a determinant of foreign aid, the discrete foreign aid programs must be examined. By disentangling component-programs from total aid, this analysis demonstrates how human rights influence policymakers by allowing them to distribute food aid to human rights abusing countries. Consequently, policymakers can promote strategic objectives with food aid, while legally restricted from distributing other aid. The primary theoretical argument, which links increasing human rights abuse with increasing food aid, is supported by results from a Heckman model. This procedure models the two-stage decision-making process where foreign policymakers first, select countries for aid and then, distribute aid to those selected.
Date: December 2007
Creator: Fariss, Christopher J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Trade Negotiations in Agriculture: A Comparative Study of the U.S. and the EC (open access)

Trade Negotiations in Agriculture: A Comparative Study of the U.S. and the EC

This study applies Destler's institutional counterweights to Putnam's two-level analysis, substituting Liberal Institutionalism and Realism for internationalism and isolationism, in a comparative case study of the roles played by the U.S. and the EC in multilateral trade negotiations in agriculture under the aegis of the General Agreement for Tariffs and Trade during the first half of the Uruguay Round. Using game theory as an analytical tool in the process, this present study demonstrates that a clear pattern emerges in which stages of cooperation and deadlock can be easily anticipated in games of Chicken and Prisoners' Dilemma in accordance with various but predictable levels of institutional influence.
Date: December 1994
Creator: Gordon, H. William (Harold William)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Structural Adjustment, Civil Society, and Democratization in Sub Saharan Africa (open access)

Structural Adjustment, Civil Society, and Democratization in Sub Saharan Africa

Two recent developments dominate the political economy of Sub Saharan Africa -- the adoption of economic structural adjustment reforms and the emergence of pressures for the democratization of the political process. Economic reform measures have spawned civil society, made up of anti-authoritarian, anti-statist, non-governmental organizations, that demand political liberalization. This study is an attempt to analyze, theoretically and quantitatively, the unanticipated association between these developments. Democratic institutions inherited by Sub Saharan Africa at independence were subverted either through military coups or by the abuse and misuse of the institutions by an inordinately ambitious political elite. Thus, about a decade into independence more than three quarters of the sub continent virtually came under authoritarian rule. Contemporaneously there was a decline in the economies of these countries, forcing them to borrow from international financial institutions, in order to offset their balance of payment difficulties. By the mid-1980s most of Sub Saharan Africa had also instituted structural adjustment programs. Using a pooled cross-sectional time series model of analysis, data gathered from Sub Saharan African countries are analysed to test the explanatory power of the three extant contending theories of development: classical, dependency, and neoliberal. Then, most importantly, the analysis examines the relationship between …
Date: December 1995
Creator: Iheduru, Obioma M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Rise and Fall of Military Regimes in the Sudan, 1956-1989 (open access)

The Rise and Fall of Military Regimes in the Sudan, 1956-1989

This study attempts to explore the factors that contributed to the rise and fall of military regimes in the Sudan from independence in 1956 to 1989. Further, the study tries to identify the factors that led to the collapse of either or both civilian and military regimes. Most of the studies on military politics have focused their research on either military coups or, more recently, on military withdrawal from politics. This work tries to synthesize the study of military coups and military withdrawal from politics into a single theoretical framework.
Date: December 1992
Creator: Ali Ahmed, Hassan Elhag
System: The UNT Digital Library
Management of Communal Conflict in the Middle East: The Case of the Kurds (open access)

Management of Communal Conflict in the Middle East: The Case of the Kurds

The objective of this study is to describe and analyze the management of communal conflict in the Middle East, focusing on the Kurds. To this end, an effort is made to examine (1) the means that have been used to manage the Kurdish conflict by Middle Eastern countries; (2) the degree of success or failure of applied measures and (3) possible explanations for the first two questions.
Date: December 1983
Creator: Khosrowshahi, Manouchehr Rostamy
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Rational Choice Theory of Bureaucratic Responsiveness in Democracies (open access)

A Rational Choice Theory of Bureaucratic Responsiveness in Democracies

This dissertation addresses a question fundamental to democratic government: Under what conditions are bureaucrats responsive to citizens and elected officials?
Date: December 1991
Creator: Smith, Barry Vaughan
System: The UNT Digital Library
Balance-of-Power Theory and the Ethiopian-Somali Conflict of 1977- 1978 (open access)

Balance-of-Power Theory and the Ethiopian-Somali Conflict of 1977- 1978

Balance-of-Power theory was tested by examining the 1977-1978 Ethiopian-Somali conflict and its outcome. The theory, according to Waltz (1979), claims to explain the international outcome arising from realpolitik or power politics, namely, the formation of balances of power. Given the close fit between the major developments leading to the eruption of conflict and the principal propositions of balance-of-power theory, the outcome of the conflict was expected to be consistent with that posited by the theory. This expectation was borne out by the study's finding which indicated that the conflict has produced a similar result. Confirmation of the theory was achieved by further subjecting the finding to the verification test established by Waltz.
Date: December 1987
Creator: Ogundele, Ayodeji O. (Ayodeji Olusesi)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Modernization and Political Instability: a Theoretical and Empirical Exploration (open access)

Modernization and Political Instability: a Theoretical and Empirical Exploration

The present study is an effort to examine and understand the relationship between modernization and political instability. The following chapters focus on the effects of modernization on political instability. Data on twenty-four African nations are analyzed to test empirically the validity of the hypothesis. Chapter IV concludes the thesis by offering a general summary and conclusions.
Date: December 1986
Creator: Umezulike, Bedford Nwabueze
System: The UNT Digital Library
Salvador Allende: the Rise and Fall of a Chilean Marxist (open access)

Salvador Allende: the Rise and Fall of a Chilean Marxist

This study is concerned with describing and analyzing the factors that led to the election and subsequent defeat of Salvador Allende. The research information was selected from leading books, periodicals, government documents, archives, and newspapers. The thesis presents the political history of Allende's rise to power, the social structure that made his victory possible, the development of major programs that facilitated his ascension and that made his decision inevitable, and, finally, an analysis of his administration with observations as to why he failed. The importance of the lower class, the middle class, the military, and the United States are presented as factors contributing to Allende's victory and later accelerating Allende's fall from power.
Date: December 1975
Creator: Speaks, David L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Political Leadership Crisis and Violation of Human Rights in the Arab World: A Study of the Rulership of the Arab Countries, 1970-1990 (open access)

The Political Leadership Crisis and Violation of Human Rights in the Arab World: A Study of the Rulership of the Arab Countries, 1970-1990

This dissertation analyzes the political leadership crisis and the violations of human rights in the Arab countries during the period 1970 to 1990. The main purposes of this study could be briefly summarized as follows: (1) to explore scientifically whether there is a political leadership crisis in the Arab World; (2) to explore the concept of political leadership, i.e., what constitutes political leadership, what are its necessary requirements, and what differentiates it from dictatorship; and (3) to examine the effects of political leadership in the Arab countries upon the violation of human rights.
Date: December 1993
Creator: Benruwin, Mohammed (Mohammed A.)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Foreign Policy-Making in Jordan: the Role of King Hussein's Leadership in Decision-Making (open access)

Foreign Policy-Making in Jordan: the Role of King Hussein's Leadership in Decision-Making

The purpose of this study is to identify King Hussein's belief system, or operational code as it is called by George and Holsti, and to test its influence on foreign policymaking in Jordan. The research has three related goals: to identify King Hussein's operational code through analysis of his writings and speeches during the period between 1967 and 1980, to review four major foreign policy decisions in an attempt to understand the factors affecting the decision making process in Jordan, and to analyze these decisions to ascertain the impact of the king's personality and beliefs on them in order to discover whether the operational code construct can be used to predict or explain Jordan's foreign policy behavior.
Date: December 1989
Creator: Rashdan, Abdelfattah A. (Abdelfattah Ali)
System: The UNT Digital Library
External Factors and Ethnic Mobilization : A Global Study of the Causes of Military Mobilization among Ethnic Groups, 1945-1995 (open access)

External Factors and Ethnic Mobilization : A Global Study of the Causes of Military Mobilization among Ethnic Groups, 1945-1995

The main purposes of this study are to elaborate on the concept of ethnic military mobilization and to identify the factors that contribute to its occurrence.
Date: December 1998
Creator: Nejad, Jalal K. (Jalal Komeili)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Unexpected Unexpected Utilities: A Comparative Case-Study Analysis of Women and Revolutions (open access)

Unexpected Unexpected Utilities: A Comparative Case-Study Analysis of Women and Revolutions

Women have been part of modern revolutions since the American Revolution against Great Britain. Most descriptions and analyses of revolution relegate women to a supporting role, or make no mention of women's involvement at all. This work differs from prior efforts in that it will explore one possible explanation for the successes of three revolutions based upon the levels of women's support for those revolutions. An analysis of the three cases (Ireland, Russia, and Nicaragua) suggests a series of hypotheses about women's participation in revolution and its importance to revolutions' success.
Date: December 2000
Creator: Casey, Walter Thomas
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Role of the Peasant Masses in Marxian Political Theory and Practice: a Comparison of Classical and Indian Marxian Views (open access)

The Role of the Peasant Masses in Marxian Political Theory and Practice: a Comparison of Classical and Indian Marxian Views

The central thesis is classical Marxian views concerning the peasant masses have been adopted regarding India; two causal factors are the Hindu Caste system and parliamentary democracy. Descriptive and analytical methodology is utilized to study classical and Indian Marxian theory and its relationship to "Marxist" practice in India. Four major elements involved are: wealthy landowners, poor and landless peasants, the Indian government, and Indian communists. Nonimplemented land reforms and recent capitalist farming compounded the problem. Attacks were launched on the Congress government by three communist parties. Government coalition has included the CPI, and has implemented agrarian reforms advocated by the CPI(M), thereby postponing possible militant communist success.
Date: December 1975
Creator: Mathews, Eapen P.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Montesquieu, Diversity, and the American Constitutional Debate (open access)

Montesquieu, Diversity, and the American Constitutional Debate

It has become something of a cliché for contemporary scholars to assert that Madison turned Montesquieu on his head and thereafter give little thought to the Frenchman’s theory that republics must remain limited in territorial size. Madison did indeed present a formidable challenge to Montesquieu’s theory, but I will demonstrate in this dissertation that the authors of the Federalist Papers arrived at the extended sphere by following a theoretical pathway already cemented by the French philosopher. I will also show that Madison’s “practical sphere” ultimately concedes to Montesquieu that excessive territorial size and high levels of heterogeneity will overwhelm the citizens of a republic and enable the few to oppress the many. The importance of this dissertation is its finding that the principal mechanism devised by the Federalists for dealing with factions—the enlargement of the sphere—was crafted specifically for the purpose of moderating interests, classes, and sects within an otherwise relatively homogeneous nation. Consequently, the diverse republic that is America today may be exposed to the existential threat anticipated by Montesquieu’s theory of size—the plutocratic oppression of society by an elite class that employs the strategy of divide et impera.
Date: December 2015
Creator: Drummond, Nicholas W.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Senate Apprenticeship Norm: A Longitudinal and Multivariate Investigation (open access)

The Senate Apprenticeship Norm: A Longitudinal and Multivariate Investigation

This study has as its central focus an investigation into the existence and nature of the apprenticeship norm in the United States Senate. Over its history, the Senate has been frequently portrayed as a body guided by rather restrictive, informal rules of behavior for its members. The apprenticeship norm has been identified by some as the most important of these rules; contributing to the Senate's centralized and conservative policy orientation. More recently, however, it has been argued that the Senate has become a more decentralized and fragmented body within which the apprenticeship norm is no longer important. The present study offers for the first time an empirical test of the existence and nature of the apprenticeship norm for selected sessions of the Senate for the time period 1940-1976. The frequency of performance of various types of floor activity by members of the Senate were correlated and regressed with years of service in the Senate as well as with other background characteristics of Senators to test both for the existence of the apprenticeship norm as well as to identify its relevance relative to other potential explanations of Senate floor behavior. Several definitions of apprenticeship were advanced and tested.
Date: December 1983
Creator: Carter, James L. (James Lee), 1937-
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Political and Administrative Role of Planning and Budgeting in Saudi Arabia: Adaptation for Rapid Change (open access)

The Political and Administrative Role of Planning and Budgeting in Saudi Arabia: Adaptation for Rapid Change

This study examines the political and administrative role of planning and budgeting in Saudi Arabia. It demonstrates how they have contributed to lessening the political crises of distribution, participation, and penetration that confront developing countries. The study also investigates how these two bureaucratic processes have helped adapt rapid changes in a manner acceptable to the cultural milieu. In addition, the study explores the politics of planning and budgeting and identifies the roles various actors play. The evolution and institutionalization of planning and budgeting are examined through printed materials and interviews with planners and budgeters in the Ministries of Planning and Finance. In addition, a number of the Ulama, businessmen, former government bureaucrats, officials of key ministries and agencies, and media were interviewed in an attempt to understand how they interact in the politics of planning and budgeting.
Date: December 1989
Creator: Al-Kahtani, Mohammed S. A. (Mohammed Saeed A.)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The State of Democracy in the Arab World (open access)

The State of Democracy in the Arab World

This comparative study assesses the state of democracy and examines the process of democratization in the Arab World between the years 1980-1993. It addresses shortcomings in the mainstream democracy literature that excluded the Arab World from the global democratic revolution on political cultural grounds. To fulfil the objectives of this study, I employ both the qualitative and quantitative research approaches to test a number of hypothesized relationships. I hypothesize that transition to democracy is negatively associated with economic development, militarism, U.S. foreign policy, the political economy of oil, and dependency. I contend that emerging civil society institutions so far have had no significant effect on democratization in the Arab World. Finally, I hypothesize that the level of democracy in the Arab World is influenced greatly by the issue of civil rights. In order to investigate the hypothesized relationships, the following data sets have been used: Gastil's Freedom House Data set, "Repression and Freedom in the 1980s" data set, and Vanhanen's 1990 data set. The findings of this study support the aforementioned hypothesized relationships. I find that Arab countries, in general have made modest progress toward democracy, making the Arab World part of the global revolution.
Date: December 1995
Creator: Al-Olimat, Muhamad S. (Muhamad Salim)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Journalist as Legislator (open access)

The Journalist as Legislator

The focus of the study is the way which members of the press corps in the Texas Capitol influence policy-making through their friendships with legislators and through the news stories which they write. Methods of study included questionnaires to reporters and to legislators, interviews with members of both groups, and review of news stories written about the regular session of the 64th Texas Legislature. Respondents reported that journalists were used as "expert consultants" in legislative strategy as well as in policy content areas. While informal relationships were found to have an impact on policy, published news stories were perceived as having greater influence.
Date: December 1975
Creator: Linn, Travis
System: The UNT Digital Library
Professional Public Relations and Political Power in Texas (open access)

Professional Public Relations and Political Power in Texas

"The problem with which this investigation is concerned is the determination of the role played by public relations professionals in Texas politics. This exploration of modern campaign technology relies on a survey of related literature, published and unpublished, and on personal interviews conducted in 1968-69 with candidates for public office, party workers, public relations experts, campaign managers and consultants, and media specialists involved in the Texas Democratic Gubernatorial primary campaigns of 1968...the findings show that the public relations professionals are playing an ever increasing role in Texas politics and that their expertise and skills play a particularly important role in political campaigning. The Texas Democratic Gubernatorial primary campaign of 1968 illustrates the widespread use of professional consultants by Texas politicians and indicates that their use has had recognizable consequences for the distribution of power and influence."-- leaf [1].
Date: December 1970
Creator: Mansfield, Michael W.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Religious Resurgence and Religious Terrorism: a Study of the Actions of the Shiʹa Sectarian Movements in Lebanon (open access)

Religious Resurgence and Religious Terrorism: a Study of the Actions of the Shiʹa Sectarian Movements in Lebanon

The purpose for undertaking this case study of the Shi'a in Lebanon is threefold. First, as a hypothesis-generating case study, its objective is to formulate relevant hypotheses about religious resurgence and religious terrorism. This study achieves this objective by formulating 14 general and nine special hypotheses, and testing and confirming the latter. Second, the purpose of this study is also to explore the trajectory of the Lebanese Shi'a's sectarian mobilization. This exploration permits the conceptualization of geocultural immobility and its effect upon a religious minority. It deduces that the Lebanese Shiga's geo-cultural immobility is directly related to their active religious resurgence. The third purpose is to study the changes in the objectives and tactics of a religious minority, that of the Muslim Shi'a in Lebanon. This research is able, via its primary and secondary data, to show a relationship between the Lebanese Shiga's religious resurgence and their use of religious terrorism. This study introduces the concept of geo-cultural immobility. A minority's geo-cultural immobility is identified as an imposed low geographic mobility within a nation with low cultural pluralism. It establishes the Lebanese Shi'a's geo-cultural immobility, to which it attributes their religious resurgence. This Lebanese Shi'a religious resurgence is proven in …
Date: December 1988
Creator: Schbley, Ayla Hammond
System: The UNT Digital Library
What Can the Collective Action Problem Tell Us about the Recurrence of Civil War and the Long-term Stability of a Country? (open access)

What Can the Collective Action Problem Tell Us about the Recurrence of Civil War and the Long-term Stability of a Country?

This study attempts to explain why some countries experience multiple civil wars while others who have experienced a civil war build long-term stability from the rubble of conflict. The explanation of why civil war recurs focuses on the collective action problem, centering on the rebel leaders' ability to solve the Rebel's Dilemma. I further argue that once the Rebel's Dilemma has been solved once it is much easier for rebel leaders to solve it again and again. The empirical finds suggest that the political situation resulting from the first war plays a strong role in the solutions to the collective action problem and thus the long-term stability following a civil war. Namely, the level of democracy, partition and third party enforcement of the peace all affect the ability of the rebel leaders to solve the collective action problem and the likelihood of another civil war.
Date: December 2005
Creator: Kohler, Matthew
System: The UNT Digital Library
Does Cultural Heterogeneity Lead to Lower Levels of Regime Respect for Basic Human Rights? (open access)

Does Cultural Heterogeneity Lead to Lower Levels of Regime Respect for Basic Human Rights?

This dissertation is a cross-national investigation of the relationship between cultural heterogeneity and regimes' respect for basic human rights. The quantitative human rights literature has not yet addressed the question of whether high levels of cultural diversity are beneficial or harmful. My research addresses this gap. I address the debate between those who argue that diversity is negatively related to basic human rights protection and those who argue it is likely to improve respect for these rights. Ultimately, I propose that regimes in diverse countries will be less likely to provide an adequate level of subsistence (otherwise known as basic human needs) and security rights (also known as integrity of the person rights) to their citizens than regimes in more homogeneous countries. Using a data set of 106 non-OECD countries for the years 1983 and 1993, I employ bivariate, linear multivariate regression, and causal modeling techniques to test whether higher levels of ethnolinguistic and religious diversity are associated with less regime respect for subsistence and security rights. The analysis reveals that higher levels of cultural diversity do appear to lead to lower respect for subsistence rights. However, counter to the hypothesized relationship, high levels of diversity appear to be compatible …
Date: December 2002
Creator: Walker, Scott
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Politics of F. Scott Fizgerald (open access)

The Politics of F. Scott Fizgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald is valued for his contribution to literary arts, culture and his discussion of the American Dream. I argue that his discussion of the American Dream was a lens through which he gave readers access to political insights and an education about political philosophy, American politics, virtue, and reasoning. The American Dream, at its greatest, for Fitzgerald is a nation building myth but at its lowest is a dull materialistic construct. Throughout his works Fitzgerald connects philosophic ideas to the American Dream in attempts to educate and ennoble his readers. The ability to judge well is a critical piece of self-government that was a focus of Fitzgerald's throughout his body of work. In The Beautiful and Damned, by giving weight to Platonic ideals of beauty and goodness, and Platonic heuristics like the allegory of the cave he attempted to negate the detrimental effects of nihilism in America at his time and after. In The Great Gatsby, by presenting virtue of the contemplative life that could be cultivated by his readers, in his time, and including esoteric teachings on those virtues and values he attempted to negate the detrimental effects of materialism on the American dream. Finally, in The …
Date: December 2023
Creator: Shiveley, Sara Carson
System: The UNT Digital Library