Post-Civil War Democratization: Domestic and International Factors in Movement Toward and Away from Democracy (open access)

Post-Civil War Democratization: Domestic and International Factors in Movement Toward and Away from Democracy

Post-civil war democratization is a critical element of building sustainable peace in the post-civil war states. At the same time, studies of democratic transition and survival suggest that the post-civil war environment is not hospitable to either the transition to or survival of democracy. The post-civil war environment is contentious. Former protagonists are fearful about their security and at the same time they want to protect their political and economic interests. The central argument of this study is that former rivals can agree to a transition toward democracy to the extent that a stable balance of power exists between the government and rebel groups, a balance that eliminates the sort of security dilemma that would encourage one or both to resume armed conflict. And the balance should ensure access to political power and economic resources. This study identifies factors that contribute to the establishment of such a balance of power between former protagonists and factors that affects its stability. These factors should affect the decision of former protagonists on whether or not they can achieve their political and economic interests if they agree to a transition toward democracy once civil war ends. Factors that are conducive to a transition toward …
Date: May 2010
Creator: Joshi, Madhav
System: The UNT Digital Library
Discovery of Resources and Conflict in the Interstate System, 1816-2001 (open access)

Discovery of Resources and Conflict in the Interstate System, 1816-2001

This study tests a theory detailing the increased likelihood of conflict following an initial resource discovery in the discovering nation and its region. A survey of prior literature shows a multitude of prior research concerning resources and nations' willingness to initiate conflict over those resources, but this prior research lacks any study concerning the effects of the discovery of resources on interstate conflict. The theory discusses the increased likelihood of conflict in the discovering nation as both target and initiator. It further looks at the increased chance of conflict in the discoverer's region due to security dilemmas and proxy wars. The results show strong support for the theory, suggesting nations making new resource discoveries must take extra care to avoid conflict.
Date: May 2010
Creator: Clark, Bradley
System: The UNT Digital Library
"Let the End be Legitimate": An Analysis of Federal District Court Decision Making in Voting Rights Cases, 1965-1993. (open access)

"Let the End be Legitimate": An Analysis of Federal District Court Decision Making in Voting Rights Cases, 1965-1993.

Integrated process models that combine both legal and extralegal variables provide a more accurate specification of the judicial decision making process and capture the complexity of the factors that shape judicial behavior. Judicial decision making theories borrow heavily from U.S. Supreme Court research, however, such theories may not automatically be applicable to the lower federal bench. The author uses vote dilution cases originating in the federal district courts from the years 1965 to 1993 to examine what motivates the behavior of district and circuit court judges. The author uses an integrated process model to assess what factors are important to the adjudication process and if there are significant differences between federal district and appellate court judges in decision making.
Date: May 1998
Creator: Morbitt, Jennifer Marie
System: The UNT Digital Library
Language Policy, Protest and Rebellion (open access)

Language Policy, Protest and Rebellion

The hypothesis that language discrimination contributes to protest and/or rebellion is tested. Constitutional language policy regarding administrative/judicial, educational and other matters is measured on three separate scales developed for this study; the status of each minority group's language under its country's policy is measured by another set of scales. Protest and rebellion variables are taken from Gurr's Minorities at Risk study. Findings include an indication that group language status contributes positively to protest and rebellion until a language attains moderate recognition by the government, at which point status develops a negative relationship with protest and rebellion, and an indication that countries with wider internal variations in their treatment of language groups experience higher levels of protest and rebellion on the part of minority groups.
Date: May 2001
Creator: Lunsford, Sharon
System: The UNT Digital Library
Hazardous Waste Policy: a Comparative Analysis of States' Enforcement Efforts (open access)

Hazardous Waste Policy: a Comparative Analysis of States' Enforcement Efforts

The major purpose of this study is to analyze hazardous waste enforcement by the states as mandated by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA). States' historical enforcement records from 1980 to 1990 are analyzed to determine the pattern of variations in enforcement. This study differs from previous studies on hazardous waste regulation in that it employs longitudinal data from 1980 to 1990 to analyze states' enforcement effort.
Date: May 1995
Creator: Okere, Lawrence N. (Lawrence Ndubuisi)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Ethnic Politics in New States: Russian and Serbian Minorities After Secession (open access)

Ethnic Politics in New States: Russian and Serbian Minorities After Secession

New states are often born in a volatile environment, in which the survival of the new country is uncertain. While analysis of the nationalizing new governments exists, research focuses mainly on domestic politics. I argue that the treatment of minority that remains in the new states is a function of the interaction of the dual threat posed by the minority itself domestically on one hand and the international threat coming from the mother state to protect its kin abroad on the other hand. Specifically, I argue that there is a curvilinear relationship between domestic and international threat and the extent of discrimination against the politically relevant minority. Most discrimination takes place when domestic and international threats are moderate because in this case there is a balance of power between the government, the minority, and the rump state. With time-series-cross-sectional (TSCS) data analysis this dissertation systematically tests the treatment of Russian and Serbian minorities in all post-Soviet and post-Yugoslav states between 1991 and 2006 and finds statistically significant results for the curvilinear hypothesis. Territorial concentration of the minority and the ratio of national capabilities between the mother and the seceded states prove to be especially important predictors of minority treatment. In …
Date: May 2013
Creator: Batta, Anna
System: The UNT Digital Library
Military Spending, External Dependence, and Economic Growth in Seven Asian Nations: a Cross-National Time-Series Analysis (open access)

Military Spending, External Dependence, and Economic Growth in Seven Asian Nations: a Cross-National Time-Series Analysis

The theme of this study is that seven major East Asian less developed countries (LDCs) have experienced "dependent development," and that some internal and external intervening factors mattered in that process. Utilizing a framework of "dependent development," the data analysis deals with the political economy of development in these countries. This analysis supports the fundamental arguments of the dependent development perspective, which emphasize positive effects of foreign capital dependence in domestic capital formation and industrialization in East Asian LDCs. This perspective assumes the active role of the state, and it is found here to be crucial in capital accumulation and in economic growth. This cross-national time-series analysis also shows that the effects of external dependence and military spending on capital accumulation and economic growth can be considered as a regional phenomenon. The dependent development perspective offers a useful way to understand economic dynamism of East Asian LDCs for the past two decades.
Date: May 1992
Creator: Ko, Sung-youn
System: The UNT Digital Library
Strategic Versus Sincere Behavior: The Impact of Issue Salience and Congress on the Supreme Court Docket (open access)

Strategic Versus Sincere Behavior: The Impact of Issue Salience and Congress on the Supreme Court Docket

The theory proposed here is that the Supreme Court behaves in a strategic manner at the agenda-setting stage in order to vote sincerely on the merits. To test this, I measure the impact issue salience and ideological distance between Congress and the Supreme Court has on the agenda. The results indicate that whether the Supreme Court behaves either sincerely or strategically depends on the policy area. The strategic nature of the Supreme Court at the agenda-setting phase may be in large part why some research shows that the Court behaves sincerely when voting on the merits. By behaving strategically at the agenda-setting phase, the Court is free to vote sincerely in later parts of the judicial process.
Date: May 2002
Creator: Williams, Jeffrey David
System: The UNT Digital Library
Who Benefits? The Effects of Foreign Aid and Foreign Direct Investment on Human Rights (open access)

Who Benefits? The Effects of Foreign Aid and Foreign Direct Investment on Human Rights

The global emphasis on human rights has generated a surge of studies into what causes regimes to abuse the basic rights of their citizens. Causes of abuse can be internal or external in nature, based on economics, politics or cultures. This study examines the effects of foreign aid and foreign direct investment on three types of human rights: personal integrity, civil and political, and subsistence. I perform ordinary least squares regression analyses with panel-corrected standard errors on a pooled cross-sectional time series design incorporating 127 countries from 1976 to 1996. While my results are not significant, it is important to observe that there is a tendency toward negative relationships for the majority of the analyses.
Date: May 2007
Creator: Moses, Misty
System: The UNT Digital Library
The use of democratic institutions as a strategy to legitimize authoritarian rule. (open access)

The use of democratic institutions as a strategy to legitimize authoritarian rule.

Numerous authoritarian states use institutions usually associated with democratic regimes like a constitution, elections, and a legislature. This seems to be counterintuitive. Authoritarian regimes should rather shrink away from democratic institutions. Elections can be won by the opposition and legislatures can make decisions against the interests of the ruler. So, why do autocratic regimes install institutions which limit their power and threaten their survival in office? Assuming actors behave rationally, one should expect authoritarian rulers only to introduce procedures working in their favor. This study looks at the effect of institutions in authoritarian regimes. The findings suggest that legislatures significantly lower the chances of regime breakdown in the long run. However, particularly in election years, authoritarian regimes are facing a higher likelihood of failure.
Date: May 2007
Creator: Michalik, Susanne
System: The UNT Digital Library
Agenda-Setting by Minority Political Groups: A Case Study of American Indian Tribes (open access)

Agenda-Setting by Minority Political Groups: A Case Study of American Indian Tribes

This study tested theoretical propositions concerning agenda-setting by minority political groups in the United States to see if they had the scope to be applicable to American Indian tribes or if there were alternative explanations for how this group places its agenda items on the formal agenda and resolves them. Indian tribes were chosen as the case study because they are of significantly different legal and political status than other minority groups upon which much of the previous research has been done. The study showed that many of the theoretical propositions regarding agenda-setting by minority groups were explanatory for agenda-setting by Indian tribes. The analyses seemed to demonstrate that Indian tribes use a closed policy subsystem to place tribal agenda items on the formal agenda. The analyses demonstrated that most tribal agenda items resolved by Congress involve no major policy changes but rather incremental changes in existing policies. The analyses also demonstrated that most federal court decisions involving Indian tribes have no broad impact or significance to all Indian tribes. The analyses showed that both Congress and the federal courts significantly influence the tribal agenda but the relationship between the courts and Congress in agenda-setting in this area of policy …
Date: May 1990
Creator: McCoy, Leila M. (Leila Melanie)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Politics of Funding State Senior Higher Education in Texas: An Analysis of the Pressure Group-Policy Process (open access)

The Politics of Funding State Senior Higher Education in Texas: An Analysis of the Pressure Group-Policy Process

The purpose of this study is to provide research on the funding of state senior higher education in Texas. The focus of this work is on the pressure group-policy process. At the beginning of the study, several questions were raised to assist in establishing boundaries for the research, the collection of data, and the construction of a heuristic model to conceptualize the policy process. The historical and legal factors which affect the funding of higher education were then examined. Attention was focused on the constitutional and statutory provisions which pertain to general appropriations and capital outlays for public higher education. Formula and non-formula items were examined as well as the sources of capital funds.
Date: May 1980
Creator: Wilson, Samuel Paschal
System: The UNT Digital Library
Planning, Budgeting, and Development in Jordan: An Examination of How These Policy Processes Function in a Poor and Uncertain Environment (open access)

Planning, Budgeting, and Development in Jordan: An Examination of How These Policy Processes Function in a Poor and Uncertain Environment

The purpose of this dissertation is to study the planning and budgeting processes in Jordan to determine whether the findings of Caiden and Wildavsky about those processes in other poor countries generally are applicable to Jordan. An attempt is made to answer the research questions by comparing data from national plans, budgets, and expenditures during a fifteen-year period (1970-1984). In Jordan, as in other developing nations, the role of planning and budgeting is highly significant to the success of the country's hopes for development. This research tries to evaluate the role of planning and budgeting as policy instruments in the process of development in Jordan. The second focus of the dissertation concerns the possibilities and problems of assessing the impact of governmental policies on development. Specifically, an assessment is made to determine the impact of governmental expenditures on development as evidenced in Jordan s gross national product during the last fifteen years. The following questions are addressed in order to examine the impact of government action on economic development. First, what are the impact and significance of government expenditures, as a combined measure, on the gross national product in Jordan? Second, which governmental expenditure areas provide the greatest contribution to …
Date: May 1987
Creator: Al-Lawzi, Sulieman Ahmed
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Multivariate Analysis of Regional Political Integration the Case of the Caribbean Free Trade Area and the Caribbean Community and Common Market, 1965-1983 (open access)

A Multivariate Analysis of Regional Political Integration the Case of the Caribbean Free Trade Area and the Caribbean Community and Common Market, 1965-1983

The purpose of this study is three-fold. The first is to provide the reader with a review of the literature concerning the topic of regional political integration. The second purpose is to provide an operational definition of regional political integration which can be useful in the testing of hypotheses. Regional political integration is defined in terms of the regional decision-making process. Various levels of regional political integration are defined, operationalized, and identified. The levels from lowest to highest are as follows: regional promotion, regional information exchange, regional policy coordination, regional monitor, and regional authoritative decision-making. The third purpose of the study is to analyze the factors which are hypothesized to be correlated with and responsible for the changing levels of regional political integration.
Date: May 1987
Creator: Staten, Clifford Lee
System: The UNT Digital Library
Korean Electoral Behavior: The 1992 and 1997 Presidential Elections (open access)

Korean Electoral Behavior: The 1992 and 1997 Presidential Elections

This is a study of Korean presidential elections. Its purpose is to determine how Koreans voted in the 1992 and 1997 presidential elections and to examine the factors that contributed to winners. In addition, the study compares the two elections by developing three models: candidate choice, voter turnout and political interest models. Using post election data from the Korean Social Science Data Center a multinomial logit regression was used in the candidate choice model. It shows that Korean voters selected their candidates mainly in terms of interest in the elections, age, orientation toward the governing or opposition parties, the regional effects of the Southwest (Honam) and the Southeast (Youngnam), and the evaluation of merged parties in 1992 or a united candidacy of parties in 1997. A Monte Carlo simulation was also employed to test the traditional assumption of candidate strength. It indicates that Kim Young-Sam had a more cohesive support from his older supporters in the 1992 election while Kim Dae-Jung had a greater cohesive support from his older supporters in the 1997 election. Both Kim Young-Sam's and Kim Dae-Jung's loyalists were crucial to the winning candidates in the 1992 and 1997 elections respectively. How did people vote? To address …
Date: May 2000
Creator: Kang, Kyung-Tae
System: The UNT Digital Library
The United States Supreme Court's Volitional Agendas, 1801-1993: Historical Claims versus Empirical Findings (open access)

The United States Supreme Court's Volitional Agendas, 1801-1993: Historical Claims versus Empirical Findings

In this study, I examined the Supreme Court's agenda from 1801 to 1993 to determine the composition and dynamics of the issues that have dominated the business of the Court. Specifically, I set out to test empirically Robert G. McCloskey's (now standard) characterization of the Supreme Court's history, which sees it as dominated by nationalism/federalism issues before the Civil War, by economic issues just after the War through the 1930s, and by civil rights and liberties since the 1930s. The question that drove my investigation was "Is McCloskey's interpretation, which appears to be based on the great cases of Supreme Court history, an accurate description of the agenda represented in the Supreme Court's total body of reported decisions?" To test McCloskey's historical theses I employed concepts adapted from Richard Pacelle's (1991) important work on the agenda of post-Roosevelt Court and used the methods of classical historical analysis and of interrupted time-series analysis. Data for my research came from existing datasets and from my own collection (I coded the manifest content of thousands of Supreme Court's decisions from 1887 back to 1801). The most important finding from my analyses is that McCloskey not withstanding, the pre-Civil War Supreme Court's agenda was …
Date: May 2000
Creator: Ogundele, Ayodeji O.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Progress or Decline: International Political Economy and Basic Human Rights (open access)

Progress or Decline: International Political Economy and Basic Human Rights

This dissertation is a cross-national, empirical study of human rights conditions in a dynamic international political economy. The scope of the examination covers 176 developed and developing countries from 1980 through 1993. Through evaluating the numerous theoretical aspects of human rights conceptualization, I draw upon Shue's framework and consider whether there are indeed "basic rights" and which rights should fit into this category. Further, I address the debate between those who claim that these rights are truly universal (applying to all nations and individuals) and those who argue that the validity of a moral right is relative to indigenous cultures. In a similar vein, I empirically investigate whether various human rights are interdependent and indivisible, as some scholars argue, or whether there are inherent trade-offs between various rights provisions. In going beyond the fixation on a single aspect of human rights, I broadly investigate subsistence rights, security rights and political and economic freedom. While these have previously been addressed separately, there are virtually no studies that consider them together and the subsequent linkages between them. Ultimately, a pooled time-series cross-section model is developed that moves beyond the traditional concentration on security rights (also know as integrity of the person rights) …
Date: May 1999
Creator: Milner, Wesley T.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Exogenous Influences and Paths To Activism

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
The focus of this research was to ascertain the indirect effects upon activism of intervening variables and recognized exogenous influences upon activism. In addition, this research also focused upon the differences and similarities of a recruited activist model and spontaneous activist model. Regression and path analysis were used to measure the direct and indirect effects of the exogenous and intervening variables. This research found that when the intervening variables, political interest, political awareness, exposure to media, altruism, and self-interest were introduced to both the recruited and spontaneous models, the direct effects of the variables were enhanced.
Date: May 2000
Creator: Ray, Grady Dale
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Shift of the Egyptian Alliance from the Soviet Union to the United States, 1970-1981 (open access)

The Shift of the Egyptian Alliance from the Soviet Union to the United States, 1970-1981

The purpose of this study is to examine internal and external factors affecting the Egyptian-Soviet alliance during the period under investigation. Chapter I provides background information on Egyptian-Soviet relations, and in Chapter II important developments in those relations are outlined. Chapter III examines the October War of 1973 and Soviet policy during the war. Chapter IV traces efforts to reach a settlement in the Middle East, highlighting the role of the United States in the negotiations. Finally, Chapter V demonstrates that Egypt, like other small nations, has not surrendered its interests to the aims of either of the superpowers.
Date: May 1986
Creator: Rashdan, Abdelfattah A. (Abdelfattah Ali)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The President's Influence on Congress: Toward an Explanation of Senators' Support for Presidents Carter and Reagan (open access)

The President's Influence on Congress: Toward an Explanation of Senators' Support for Presidents Carter and Reagan

This study examines the possible effect of the president's vote totals in states on Presidents Carter's and Reagan's support among senators. Using senators' Congressional Quarterly (CQ) presidential support scores as the dependent variable, this paper hypothesizes that Carter and Reagan's support is significantly and positively related to their electoral success in that Senator's state for the years 1977 through 1988. Several control variables are included to help explain support. There is qualified corroboration for the hypothesis that senator's presidential support scores are significantly and positively related to the president's electoral success for specific administrations and for specific-party senators, although not for the original hypothesis that aggregated the period 1977 to 1988.
Date: May 1994
Creator: Endsley, Stephen C. (Stephen Craig)
System: The UNT Digital Library
Soviet Cultural Diplomacy in the Middle East: a Case Study of USSR'S Cultural Relations with Egypt and Syria, 1955-1971 (open access)

Soviet Cultural Diplomacy in the Middle East: a Case Study of USSR'S Cultural Relations with Egypt and Syria, 1955-1971

This study examines the nature and patterns of Soviet cultural activities in Egypt and Syria, the motivations behind those activities, and the contribution of the Soviet cultural effort toward the attainment of overall Soviet Middle East policies. Chapter I provides background information on Soviet-Arab relations, and in Chapter II Soviet objectives in the Middle East are examined. Chapter III identifies the important components of the Soviet cultural instrument in Egypt and Syria. Chapter IV assesses the contribution made by the cultural tool toward the attainment of Soviet objectives in Egypt and Syria. Finally, Chapter V demonstrates that the Soviet cultural enterprise exerted little impact on overall Soviet policy in the Middle East.
Date: May 1987
Creator: Aka, Philip Chukwuma
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Organizational Improvement of the Village Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Fort Worth, Texas, 1969-1988: a Case Study of Forces Responsible for Organizational Change (open access)

The Organizational Improvement of the Village Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Fort Worth, Texas, 1969-1988: a Case Study of Forces Responsible for Organizational Change

This study documents that external and internal forces were causes of change at VCWTP. External forces caused. Fort Worth to reorganize and introduce new management at VCWTP after 1982. These improvements led to VCWTP being selected best managed wastewater treatment plant in the nation by EPA in 1988. This study first analyzes external and internal forces responsible for changes at VCWTP. A history of plant operations also is reviewed. Personnel interviews were conducted of perceptions of employees. Finally, statistics obtained of the plant operation from 1969 to 1988 are compared with personal interviews. Five forces effect change at VCWTP; population, regulatory requirements, political conflicts, an organizational and managerial factors. Turnaround occurred as external and internal corrections were made.
Date: May 1993
Creator: Akidi, Innocent O. (Innocent Okechuknu)
System: The UNT Digital Library
External Inputs and North Korea's Confrontation Policy: A Case Study of Linkage Politics (open access)

External Inputs and North Korea's Confrontation Policy: A Case Study of Linkage Politics

In an inquiry into national behavior, students of international relations treat national data as independent variables. Students of comparative politics treat them as dependent variables in an attempt to compute foreign policy outputs. There is reason to believe that international and comparative studies can be incorporated into a system of linkage politics. This study employs the framework of "linkage politics" of James N. Rosenau in an attempt to investigate the North Korean confrontation policy from 1953 to 1970. The basic assumption upon which this research operates is that the foreign policy of the North Korea has been a function of "fused linkages" between the nation's international environment and national conditions. "Fused linkage" is defined as a phenomenon by which certain national outputs and environmental inputs reciprocate in a continuous cycle. Thus the fused linkage case for North Korea's confrontation is defined as "circular confrontation." Based on Rosenau's proposed linkage framework, this study presents its own analytical framework. The major linkage groups are conceived of "exogenous" and "endogenous" conditions. Both of these conditions are divided into "constants" and "variables" and are treated as such. Each of these conditions was in turn analyzed with reference to relevant referents. Throughout the study particular …
Date: May 1973
Creator: Kim, Yu-Nam, 1939-
System: The UNT Digital Library
Increasing the Players: Expanding the Bilateral Relationship of Conflict Management (open access)

Increasing the Players: Expanding the Bilateral Relationship of Conflict Management

This research seeks to explore the behavior of international and regional organizations within conflict management. Previous research on conflict management primarily examines UN peacekeeping as the primary actor and lumps all non-UN actors into a single category. I disaggregate this category, examining how international and regional organizations interact when deciding to establish a peace mission, coordinate a peace mission with multiple organizations, and finally, how this interaction affects the success of peace missions. I propose a collective action theoretical framework in which organizations would rather another actor undertake the burden and costs of implementing a peace mission. I find the United Nations is motivated to overcome the collective action problem through an increase in the severity of the conflict. Regional organizations are motivated to establish a peace mission as the economic and political salience of the conflict increases, increasing the possibility of the regional organization acquiring club goods for its member states. The presence of a regional hegemon within a regional organization also significantly increases the likelihood of an organization both establishing a peace mission and taking on the primary role when coordinating a joint mission. I argue this is because a regional hegemon allows the organization to more easily …
Date: May 2014
Creator: Stull, Emily A.
System: The UNT Digital Library