Social Movements and Information and Communication Technologies: The Case of Indigenous Peoples in Ecuador, 2007-2011
Author:
Lindsay Green-Barber
Year of Dissertation:
2012
Program:
Political Science
Over the last three decades Indigenous people in Ecuador have faced government policies threatening their internationally recognized Indigenous human rights. Although a national social movement emerged in Ecuador in 1990, the level of mobilization has since varied. This dissertation project proposes to address the question, under what conditions can the use of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) contribute to successful social mobilization, and when can the use of ICTs hinder mobilization? Through a comparative analysis of 14 indigenous organizations, I find that the extent to which the process of mobilization is successful will vary depending upon three independent variables: first, the level of strategic appropriation of ICTs by Indigenous organizational leaders; second, the level of creative adaptability of movement leaders in using ICTs, especially with regard to interactions with the government; and third, the level of movement leaders' success in distinguishing and targeting their audiences. These three variables are additive, that is, when high levels of all three elements are achieved, mobilization will be most successful and vice versa. However, mobilization will be unsuccessful if organizations fail to creatively adapt to changes in the political arena. This project should contribute to literature in social movements, the emerging literature on the intersection of ICTs and politics, and comparative politics, and has practical implications for the use of ICTs in the developing world.
Erosion of German Industrial Relations? Evidence from the Metalworking, Chemicals and Construction Sectors.
Author:
Billie Jo Hernandez
Year of Dissertation:
2012
Program:
Political Science
Germany is once again the economic powerhouse of Europe and the Eurozone. The German Model of industrial relations with respect to collective bargaining and how firms set wages is called a coordinated market economy. Conventional wisdom holds however that Germany's coordinated market economy is eroding as a result of pressures to decentralize wage setting to firm level, because it is thought that by doing so, firms will be better suited to compete in the globalized economy. In other words, the German Model, specifically the way wages are set in manufacturing may be converging to a liberalized model like we have in the United States. Unlike most studies on German labor relations, this dissertation looks beyond the metalworking sector to include two other industries, chemicals and construction, in order to provide a more fine-grained analysis of the state and trajectory of German industrial relations. The main argument put forth in this dissertation is that decentralization varies across sectors; that decentralized bargaining is not eroding the German model; and that unions and employer associations, as social partners, remain committed to the collective contract.
The New Politics of Protecting Humanitarian Space: A Private Security Revolution in Humanitarian Affairs?
Year of Dissertation:
2012
Program:
Political Science
Over the past twenty years humanitarian agencies are increasingly encountering security problems in delivering assistance to victims of armed conflict, and consequently they have searched for new security solutions that protect humanitarian space. The usual methods of gaining access to distressed populations and creating a safe area in which aid is provided--invoking obligations under international humanitarian law; adhering to neutrality, impartiality and independence; and, seeking the consent of states that host crises--has frequently failed, thereby pushing agencies to consider of unconventional approaches that deviate from traditions of "humanitarian culture" that crystallized in the late 19th century. One direction these alternative security tactics may pursue is to scale back operations or simply operate more discreetly, such as lowering the profile of humanitarian agencies, relying exclusively on locals to carry out relief work, or even withdrawal. However, other unorthodox approaches seek the use of force to set up and secure humanitarian space. Despite humanitarians' core value of operational independence, acting in conjunction with the armed forces of states or international organizations is one possibility. Humanitarian agencies, however, have also employed private security contractors to achieve humanitarian outcomes. But working with for-profit armed actors raises profound issues of the means and ends of humanitarian action. This study asks, why and how have humanitarian agencies come to view hired guns as morally palatable agents for protecting humanitarian space? It examines how the norm of security contractor usage by humanitarian agencies that arose since the start of the 1990s are the result of the influences of politics (an ideology of a maximalized version of humanitarianism that addresses the root causes of crises and a willingness to work with actors with an avowed political interest), force (conjoining humanitarian operations to military ones and looking to security tools to protect aid work), markets (competition within the humanitarian sector for funding and the incorporation of for-profit actors into humanitarian activities), this study takes up the issue of change to inquire whether the spread and formal acknowledgement of this practice constitutes a "revolution in humanitarian affairs."
Conflicting Stories: The Presidency and the Media in Framing Crises
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Program:
Political Science
My dissertation explores the ability of presidents to successfully frame crises for the mass media in three historical periods, prior to, during, and after the development of the modern presidency and mid-20th century changes in the media. Faced with both national security and scandal crises, presidents have utilized their evolving tools and understanding of media coverage to continue to exercise great power in framing crises. The president has consistently framed national security crises successfully by tapping the resources of the modern office to adapt to the daunting new media environment. In a scandal-inspired crisis, the media initially provided a forum that allowed for some presidential framing, then became far more hostile, and finally returns to a more open setting that ensured a president some influence in establishing that a scandal would be seen through his frames. Presidents over time have used framing to sustain their authority in crises, demonstrating that a more adversarial press has not eliminated presidential framing prospects.
Fail Better: Towards a Conception of Narrative Totality
Year of Dissertation:
2012
Program:
Political Science
Two opposing visions dominate the manifold ways in which totality has been conceived throughout the history: the expressive notion of totality and the generic notion of totality. This thesis argues that these conceptions should be understood as determinate negations of each other. It pays particular attention to the emergence of a narrative concept of totality in the transformation of subjectless, goalless and formless flux of history into a frame depicted by the mediated-expressive totality. It claims that it is this narration that allows the emergence and subjects in history. To make this argument, it juxtaposes two periods of the work of G. Lukács as exemples of these different visions of totality. It further discusses the introduction of the concept of finitude to 20th century political philosophy by Heidegger and evaluates its consequences that establish a framework where the access to the whole is considered to be impossible and the attempt to do so politically dangerous. The discussion of Heidegger is followed by a discussion of Althusser around whose work the impasses of the rejection of a dialectically conceived notion of totality is analyzed. The argument culminates around the work of Badiou which provides the context in which questions that were left with Lukács can be asked again: questions about the political subject: political party: the state: questions about the relation between the standpoint of totality and emancipatory politics.
Inventive Politicians and Ethnic Ascent from a Micro Approach: Italian Americans and Mexican Americans in the U.S. Congress
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Program:
Political Science
This research is about the access of outsiders to mainstream political institutions and it examines the process through which ethnic politicians reach congressional positions. This is a long-term study about ethnic candidates, their electoral experiences, and the political environments that influence their success. Using an original conceptual framework, it focuses on the cases of Italian Americans and Mexican Americans through the 20th century and up to the present time, covering two electoral periods -one centered on parties and the other shaped by national regulations. From this detailed study, a larger conclusion emerges: while some inventive candidates have influenced the political mobilization of their co-ethnics directly, the electoral changes that allow the accommodation and legitimization of an ethnic group as electoral player do not depend solely on the performance of ethnic collectivities.
Enter Neoliberalism: Transformation of the Finnish Welfare State, 1991-2007
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Program:
Political Science
Advisor:
Irving Leonard Markovitz
This dissertation examines the process of welfare state change in Finland from the end of the 1980s to the present with the purpose of finding out why and how the Finnish welfare state transformed from an egalitarian welfare state to "a competitiveness society."
THE STRUCTURE OF TRANSNATIONAL SECURITY NETWORKS
Year of Dissertation:
2012
Program:
Political Science
This dissertation maps transnational cooperation to provide security to global governance problems. It begins by outlining the context of contemporary globalization: the drivers of global security governance. It examines how the global governance of both human and traditional security has been affected by the neoliberal economics of the "Washington Consensus." There are clear markers of this transformative, de-institutionalizing change, including the privatization of the provision of security and the public assumption of risk, creating an "historical bloc." This has implications for theory building as well as policy making—security is no longer a matter only for states but a subject of global governance, requiring the cooperation of many actors. It then proposes a new way define security along four axes: source of threat, target, speed, and impact.
RULING IN PLACE: GEOGRAPHY, LEGITIMACY, AND REGIME SURVIVAL IN SINGAPORE AND TAIWAN
Author:
Anoulak Kittikhoun
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Program:
Political Science
This study explores the phenomenon of authoritarian regime durability and change in two advanced industrialized countries of East Asia - Singapore and Taiwan. Why has the regime in Singapore been able to survive while the one in Taiwan ended two decades ago? Does authoritarian rule mainly depend on coercion and/or material rewards? Are there alternative sources of regime legitimacy and stability? How does a country's political geography influence the way in which a regime maintains power? This work argues that a viable source of authoritarian regime legitimacy is the country's geo-idea, which derives from the place's physical characteristics, historical legacies, and the spatial identity of its people.
Conservatives Against Capitalism: The Conservative Critique of Capitalism in American Political Thought
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Program:
Political Science
It is commonly assumed that American conservatives, past and present, unreservedly support free-market capitalism. This dissertation, an intellectual history of conservative anti-capitalist thought in America, will challenge this assumption. It traces the historical development of a tradition in the American conservative discourse focused on the tension between conservatism and capitalism. This conservative tradition is characterized by opposition, critique and ultimately, accommodation with capitalism. While this critical tradition is no longer as central to the conservative discourse as it once had been, it illustrates how conservatives have attempted to reconcile conservative values, institutions, and tradition with the dynamism of capitalism.