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Some of the material in is restricted to members of the community. By logging in, you may be able to gain additional access to certain collections or items. If you have questions about access or logging in, please use the form on the Contact Page.
This study examines legal protection of the right to personal integrity, which is the most frequent object of inquiry in the social science literature that examines cross-national patterns of human rights abuse. Previous research...
In this study, a general framework for understanding sanctions success with an emphasis on target characteristics has been employed. The hypotheses presented in this study identify target compliance through the effect of globalization on...
Since its inception the European Union has made great strides in the realm of regional integration. However, the political and economic crises of the last decade have fundamentally changed the political landscape of the EU and have had...
In the Aftermath of the September 11th attacks, the fear of apocalyptic terrorism has caused many Americans and academics worldwide to reexamine previously held beliefs on the morality and suitability of torture as a means of ensuring...
Transnational terrorism (TNT) is a process that, by definition, involves both international and domestic actors. A non-trivial portion of the literature that seeks to answer the question of why TNT occurs has focused on country-level...
In this dissertation, I seek to explain why states fail to commit to the exchange of fugitive offenders with every other state, even where there appear to be several benefits to doing so. Commitment is equated with signature to bilateral...
While formal and empirical studies of international relations have investigated the conditions under which weak states win conflicts against strong countries, there has been little systematic examination of how weaker states' incentives...
Allegations of bias against political conservatives and in favor of liberals in America’s universities are frequently heard from a variety of critics. This dissertation puts these claims to rigorous empirical test with five large-N...
This dissertation uses insights from political psychology and theories of elite influence to examine an important but understudied aspect of democratization - the role of physical insecurity in transitional democracies. To examine how...
Newly transitioned democracies frequently exhibit authoritarian traits at the subnational level. The literature on subnational authoritarianism tends to focus on how these enclaves interact with national governments, ignoring how they...
This dissertation explores the role of earmarks, also known as pork projects, in several facets of American politics. After reviewing the changing history and various means of measuring earmark projects, I attempt to determine which...
The conditions under which legislators engage in idiosyncratic behavior remain poorly understood. Their personal ambitions and desires constantly confront obligations to constituents and institutional constraints. Often, lawmakers pursue...
In this dissertation, I assess the role of religious commitment in how individuals see the political information environment, learn about politics, and construct political opinions. While religiosity is an enormously complex concept, I...
Elected representatives have incentives to vote as their constituents would. Otherwise, they face the prospect of being removed from office in the next election. However, scholars studying the degree to which legislators act in the...
There are two opposing views on the conciliatory strategy of regulatory enforcement. Proponents argue that this cooperative-oriented strategy, which is accompanied with accommodative style and enhanced networks of regulatory officials, ...
In the first paper of the dissertation, I ask, How do residential community associations (RCAs) vary in the type of neighborhood issues/problems they devote time to solving? Are some issues more important in neighborhood development, ...
This dissertation explores the impact of institutional reforms on electoral and public goods provision outcomes. My first substantive chapter investigates the question of how institutional reforms affect voter mobilization in weekly...
This project focuses on the aftermath of civil war. Leaving the Past Behind? A Study of the URNG and FMLN Transitions to Political Parties asks a fundamental question related to the transition of insurgent groups to political parties...
In this dissertation, I examine the causes and consequences of perceptions of politicians' character traits. I argue that character traits are best understood as reflections of particular moral foundations. Just as people vary in the...
How do non-governmental organizations handle authoritarian pressure? NGOs exist to complete their missions, but can only do so when allowed by a regime. Meanwhile, autocrats benefit from NGO resources if they are not outweighed by costs...
In this dissertation, I examine the selection of foreign policy advisors as part of a strategic decision-making process by the political leader. Among other things, I find that the hawkish foreign policy preferences of a state's...
Do states that fit the audience cost expectations for effectively signaling preferences and resolve enjoy a greater likelihood of not facing reciprocation for threatening words or uses of force? This paper seeks to theoretically and...
Representation may be viewed as a dance in which the citizens and their representatives move in graceful unison. The question posed here is not whether this dance occurs, but rather what sustains it. Results presented throughout this...
This dissertation examines three enduring questions for the study of conflict. First, I consider how domestic institutions affect threat credibility, arguing that audiences can either help or hinder a leader during bargaining. Second, I...
This dissertation consists of three individual studies that examine the influence of military capabilities on international conflict. Chapter 2 examines the influence of naval power on non-contiguous hostile disputes. I present a unique...
This dissertation contains three essays that aim to better understand the topic of business-state relations in authoritarian regimes. To do this, I use various causal inference techniques and utilize Russia as my geographic focus. Below...
This manuscript serves to reexamine previous literature regarding the use of different information environments to help guide the political decisions of the uninformed electorate. Sixteen years ago, Larry Bartels approached the issue of...
This dissertation examines the interactive effect of power and third-party peace operations on the bargaining offers made by warring groups during civil war. Chapter 1 sets up the motivation for the research and provides a broad overview...
The purpose of this project is to gain a broader understanding of how the multiple contexts in which individuals interact influence political behavior and attitudes. By drawing upon and adapting work from community psychology the...
The study of diffusion and adoption of innovations in political science is incomplete and unable to answer the question why do policies diffuse? Additional information should be incorporated into the process. Specifically, rightly...
The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the extent to which state institutions and politics influence the policy-making process for childcare regulation, and the impact of such regulation and its enforcement on the supply of...
By integrating theory from political economy and consumer psychology, this dissertation provides a framework for understanding consumer preferences toward trade liberalization. Public support for protection is typically analyzed through...
Ideas, Interests, and American Economic Competitiveness: How Were the "Peddling Prosperity" Attempts Successful and Unsuccessful in the Polarized Legislature?
In this dissertation, I argue that concern about economic competitiveness, which emerged among political elites in the United States in the 1980s, became a coherent and salient economic idea around which a new dimension in the issue...
In this dissertation, I consider what makes some states value ocean space more than others, and how these differences in value affect state actions. I posit that history, geography, legal systems, and national narratives all play a role...
My dissertation "Inequality, Context, and Prosocial Behavior: An Examination of Redistributive Preferences" contributes to an emergent literature on the effects of inequality on policy outcomes by illuminating the psychological and...
This dissertation explores two distinct lines of inquiry that are linked thematically through their focus on how narrow or broad an individual's world is affects that individual's beliefs and actions, as well as their regional focus on...
This dissertation consists of three individual essays which examine the relationship between interstate power distributions, hostile interstate relationships, and international conflict. Chapter 2 argues that strategic interstate...
My dissertation project examines the causes of FDI inflows in autocratic countries, attempting to answer the puzzle "Why do some autocratic countries attract more FDI inflows than others?" Given the credible commitment issue that FDI...
While significant scholarly attention has been given to the literatures on civil war and on alliances, there has not been any exploration of the important role international alliances play in civil war onset. This dissertation posits...
Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are third-party administrators that assist employers and insurers in managing prescription drug benefits. The practices of PBMs remain largely unregulated at the national level and lack transparency, ...
Do transnational ethnic linkages between third party states and disputants affect the probability of intervention? If so, how does regime type, power distribution of groups, and borders affect this decision? Do these interventions help...
How do judges use process to further their goals? The judicial politics literature places disproportionate emphasis on one type of judicial action---the decision on the merits. This emphasis obscures how judges make use of other aspects...
A debate has emerged over the impact that partisan local elections have on policy. While Ferreira and Gyourko (2009) found a null effect, Gerber and Hopkins (2011) find that the relationship is more complex. Gerber and Hopkins (2011), in...
There are numerous examples from history that indicate that leaders can disagree about the impact that certain strategies and weapons systems will have on a conflict. The conflict literature in general tends to overlook these...
In this dissertation, I attempt to answer the question, what are the important factors that predict whether or not people will learn political facts? I make the case that two mechanisms of motivated reasoning theory—confirmation bias and...
After World War II, the six original members of the European Union claimed economic convergence to be one of their main goals in the Treaty of Rome. Since then, the organization has had to deal with global economics trends, membership...
The main aim of this dissertation is to study the underlying competition between governments and terrorist organizations for support of the population. The government and the terrorist organization are locked in a struggle to win the...
This dissertation consists of three individual studies on the role of state governments in social welfare. The first paper discusses the relationship between gubernatorial administrative capacity and the ability for Democrats to increase...
In this study I investigate an array of aspects concerning cultural conflict. I use Samuel Huntington's civilizations, from his theory of a Clash of Civilizations (1993), as a means of identifying different cultures. Taking advantage of...
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