Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Economics – Political aspects – Policy sciences'

Defence date: 04 December 2020
Examining Board: Professor David K. Levine (European University Institute); Professor Arthur Schram (European University Institute); Professor Daniela Iorio (University of Bologna); Professor Cemal Eren Arbatli (National Research University Higher School of Economics Moscow)
This thesis is a collection of independent empirical essays in the field of political economy. The first chapter investigates the electoral effects of a local public good provision, using a local food subsidy program that took place in Turkey, 2019. Exploiting the variation in the geographical distances of voters to the food subsidy program groceries, I establish three results. First, the food subsidy program has a statistically significant positive effect on the incumbent vote share. Second, the effects of the program are conditional on partisanship. Although the effects of the incumbent vote share do not change across different partisan groups, the effects on turnout are heterogeneous and countervailing across partisans of incumbent and opposition party. Finally, I find that much of the electoral effects of the program come from areas where voters are uniformly partisans of either party rather than from areas with mixed partisan profiles. The second chapter investigates the evolution of class distinctiveness in economic preferences across countries and over time. To this end, I first develop a new measure of class distinctiveness by using predictive modeling. I then estimate this new measure for 18 European countries for three points in time using micro-level survey data. After validating the newly developed measure, I test whether the variation in the strength of class-based voting can be explained by the class distinctiveness in economic preferences. In the third chapter, co-authored with Nicole Stoelinga, we test whether hosting or bidding on the Olympic games leads to an increase in the exports of the host and bidding countries. Previous studies on this question provide mixed findings and typically suffer from empirical problems such as selection bias. We re-evaluate the problem by applying a synthetic control approach. Our results indicate that hosting or bidding on the Olympic Games may affect exports positively or negatively depending on the countries’ initial reputation in terms of trade.
-- 1. The Differential Electoral Returns to a Local Food Subsidy Program -- 2. Class Distinctiveness & Class Voting -- 3. Escaping the Reputation Trap : revisiting the Olympic effect

Defence date: 19 May 2022
Examining Board: Prof. Andrea Ichino, (EUI, Supervisor); Prof. Andrea Mattozzi, (University of Bologna and EUI, Co-Supervisor); Prof. Frederico Finan, (University of California, Berkeley); Prof. Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, (Paris School of Economics and EHESS)
This thesis in four chapters focuses on political economy, migration, and public economics. The first chapter, joint with Vincent Pons and Clémence Tricaud, investigates the effects of campaign finance rules on electoral outcomes. In French departmental and municipal elections, candidates competing in districts above 9,000 inhabitants face spending limits and are eligible for public reimbursement. Using an RDD around the population threshold, we find that these rules increase competitiveness and benefit the runner-up of the previous race as well as new candidates, in departmental elections, while leaving the polarization and representativeness of the results unaffected. These results appear to be driven by the reimbursement of campaign expenditures, not spending limits. We do not find such effects in municipal elections, which we attribute to the use of a proportional list system instead of plurality voting. The second chapter, joint with Lars Ludolph, analyzes the effects of the migration wave from Central and Eastern European countries (AC-12) following their EU accession in 2004 on local level redistribution in England. We apply a difference-in-differences estimation strategy and find that greater migration flows led to spending on means-tested social care services to decrease in relative terms, while spending on education services increased. Our mechanisms suggest that, because of AC-12 migrants’ young age at the time of arrival, the 2004 EU enlargement alleviated some of the pressure faced by social care spending in England. We find no evidence that spending shifts are driven by a change in the local willingness to redistribute income. The third chapter investigates the effect of ideological distance between EU Commissioners for Agriculture and Regional Policy and heads of governments on the allocation of agricultural and regional funds flowing to member states. Results show that ideological distance is a strong deterrent of funds being channeled. The effects are strongest in pre-election years, for countries providing the Commissioners in charge of the given portfolios, and for countries that are single-party-ruled as opposed to coalition-ruled. These results provide first hand evidence that the behavior of European Commissioners follows similar principles to national level elected politicians and can help the debate surrounding EU reforms and the political independence of its executive body. The fourth chapter, joint with Pietro Panizza, exploits a reform in Italy that granted mayors the right to run for a third consecutive term in towns below 3,000 inhabitants. We employ a difference-indiscontinuity design and find evidence of pandering effects by mayors in both their first and second term at the time of the reform. Results differ depending on the term of the mayor reflecting the importance of the horizon of when mayors’ spending decisions pay off. We also find suggestive evidence of potential capture of first term mayors in the south of Italy.
1 The Impact of Campaign Finance Rules on Candidate Selection and Electoral Outcomes: Evidence from France 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Research setting 1.3 Empirical strategy 1.4 Effects in departmental elections 1.5 Effects in municipal elections 1.6 Mechanisms 1.7 Conclusion 2 Migration and Redistributive Spending: Evidence from Local Authorities in England 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Institutional setting 2.3 Sampling frame and data sources 2.4 Empirical strategy 2.5 Results 2.6 Robustness tests 2.7 Mechanisms 2.8 Conclusion 3 A Politically Independent Executive Arm? EU Commissioners’ Ideological Alignment and Budget Allocation in the European Union 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Institutional Setting 3.3 Data and Empirical strategy 3.5 Mechanisms 3.6 Conclusion 4 Term Limits and Accountability: Evidence from Italy 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Research setting 4.3 Research design 4.4 Main results 4.5 Mechanisms 4.6 Conclusion -- References -- A Appendix to Chapter 1 -- B Appendix to Chapter 2 -- B.1 Main results with controls - full table -- B.2 Local authority spending and funding -- B.3 Spatial distribution of other migrant groups -- B.4 2001 Census variables for matching -- B.5 UKIP results -- C Appendix to Chapter 3 -- D Appendix to Chapter 4 -- D.1 Figures -- D.2 Tables

This study analyzes the Bangladesh Crisis by building upon previous works that have applied microeconomic theory to international relations. One of the most innovative lines of inquiry from the realist school is to study international relations through analogy with microeconomic theory. Although used to analyze conflict, war, and the workings of the international system, a strict application of microeconomic theory to interstate crises is rare. This thesis will endeavour to contribute to this linkage.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2000.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study attempts to overcome past failings in the analysis of post-apartheid South Africa's foreign policy. In contrast to "explanations" offered by most previous analyses, this work demonstrates that the behaviour exhibited by Pretoria is not immutable or simply subject to the global "realities", but is derivative of the specific historic conjuncture of forces that joined together during the transition from apartheid, and which remain open-ended. The changes in the African National Congress' economic and political policies during the transition period are seen as the key to any attempt to understand Pretoria's post-1994 foreign policy behaviour. This is intimately connected to the structural changes in the international political economy and the change in the balance of international class forces brought about by the neo-liberal counter revolution. Deploying a theoretical framework derivative of the work of the Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci, this study situates South Africa's foreign policy in a world where the ideology of neo-liberalism has achieved hegemonic status amongst the transnational elite class - fractions of national elites, representing and reflecting the interests of money capital. Such a hegemonic project informs the beliefs of the Government of National Unity and the subsequent foreign policy activities postured by Pretoria. This study attempts to understand how and why the ANCacceded to the dominant discourse of neo-liberalism and why this must be contextualised within the structural constraints brought to bear upon the GNUin an increasingly globalised world. This accession to neo-liberal beliefs has gIVen nse to contradictions within the domestic polity between contending class fractions and within the ANC'sown ranks. This has provoked a fundamental tension in Pretoria's overall foreign policy, where on the one hand South Africa accepts the fundamental normative world order, whilst on the other pushes various reformist initiatives which seek to re-negotiate Pretoria's standing within this framework. Specifically, South Africa's behaviour in multilateral organisations has been marked by a tactical middlepowermanship role, essentially problem-solving, which seeks to smooth out the international system so that the ongoing world order may function as "efficiently" as possible. Such behaviour has been qualitatively different from the activist role that was expected from an ANC-led administration. Indeed, the activism exhibited by South Africa has been largely centred around the promotion of the liberalisation of markets and free trade, albeit tempered by an awareness of the need to reconcile its acceptance of the hegemonic order, with that of the appeals of a historically important fraction of its support constituency: the Left and labour. Attempts to reconcile these two positions, of promoting "free" trade whilst at the same time demanding "fair" trade for example, mirror the broader contradictions that have been evident in South African foreign policy. They reflect the historic compromise that saw the ANCcome to administrative power, and also the desire by the government to balance its neo-liberal credentials with certain reformist convictions. This has been most evident in Pretoria's behaviour in multilateral organisations. SLXmultilateral initiatives, and Pretoria's role within each, are examined: the World Trade Organisation, the Cairns Group, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Commonwealth, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Implications for future South African foreign policy are drawn out, and a critical eye cast on whether such roles played out by Pretoria are immutable, or subject to change.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie poog om vorige tekortkominge in die analise van post-apartheid Suid-Afrika se buitelandse beleid te oorkom. In teenstelling met die "verduidelikings" wat deur meeste vorige analises gebied word, illustreer die werk dat Pretoria se buitelandse gedragspatroon nie onveranderlik is en bloot onderhewig is aan die globale "realiteite" nie, maar voortvloei uit die besondere historiese tydsgewrig van magte wat saamgevoeg is gedurende die oorgang van apartheid na 'n onvoorspelbare era. Die veranderinge binne die African National Congress se ekonomiese en politieke beleid gedurende die oorgang periode word voorgehou as die sleutel tot enige poging om Pretoria se post-1994 buitelandse gedrag te verklaar. Strukturele veranderinge in die internasionale politieke ekonomie en die veranderinge in die magsbalans tussen internasionale klasse as gevolg van neo-liberalisme, het 'n fundamentele impak op die aard van hierdie buitelandse gedrag. Met behulp van 'n teoretiese raamwerk gedistilleer uit die werk van die Italiaanse Marxis, Antonio Gramsci plaas die studie Suid-Afrika se buitelandse beleid in 'n wêreld waarin die neo-liberale ideologie hoogty vier veral onder die transnasionale elite klas - fraksies van nasionale elites verteenwoordigend van die belange van finansiële kapitaal. Sodanige hegemoniese projek onderlê die oortuiging van die Regering van Nasionale Eenheid (RNE) en voortvloeiende buitelandse beleidsaksies. Die studie probeer vasstel hoe en waarom die ANC toenemend gehoor gegee het aan die oorheersende neo-liberale diskoers en waarom hierdie toetreding gekontekstualiseer moet word in terme van die strukturele beperkinge waaronder die RNE onderhewig is in 'n immerglobaliserende wêreld. Hierdie toetrede tot neo-liberale oortuiginge het aanleiding gegee tot teenstrydighede intern, tussen strydende klasfraksies asook binne die ANC se eie geledere. Hierdie teenstrydighede word ook weerspieël in Pretoria se buitelandsebeleids aksies in die algemeen. Aan die een kant aanvaar Suid- Afrika fundamenteel die normatiewe basis van wêreldorde, terwyl daar ook aan die ander kant gepoog word om Pretoria se posisie binne hierdie wêreldorde te bowe te kom. Suid-Afrika se gedrag in multilaterale organisasies in die besonder word gekenmerk deur 'n taktiese intermediêre rol ("middlepower role") hoofsaaklik van 'n probleem-oplossende aard, wat daarop gemik is om die internasionale sisteem so glad moontlik te funksioneer en teenstrydighede binne die wêreldorde te oorkom. Hierdie rol konstitueer 'n fundamentele wysiging van die aktivistiese rol wat van 'n ANC-regeerde Suid-Afrika verwag is. Die aktiwiteite wat wel deur Suid-Afrika geopenbaar is, sentreer hoofsaaklik om die bevordering van vrye en regverdige handel, alhoewel gerigsnoer deur 'n bewustheid van die behoefte om sodanige posisie te versoen met die aanvaarding van die bestaande hegemoniese orde aan die een kant en die eise van arbeid en politieke steun aan die Linkerkant van die politieke spektrum. Pogings om hierdie twee posisies te versoen - om "vrye" sowel as "regverdige" handel te versoen byvoorbeeld, weerkaats die algemene teenstrydighede waardeur Suid-Afrikaanse buitelandse beleid gekenmerk word. Die paradokse is tekenend van die historiese kompromie wat tot die ANC se bewindsoorname aanleiding gegee het asook die regering se behoefte om sy neoliberale orientasie te balanseer met bepaalde hevormingsoortuiginge. Hierdie patroon is besonder merkbaar in die geval van multilaterale organisasies. Ses multilaterale inisiatiewe en Pretoria se verhoudinge met elk van die volgende internasionale organisasies word van naderby bekyk, veral ten opsigte van die Wêreldhandelsorganisasie, die Cairns Groep, die Verenigde Nasies Konferensie oor Handel en Ontwikkeling, die Onverbonde Beweging, die Statebond en die Kernspêrverdrag. Daar word gewys op die implikasies vir Suid- Afrika se buitelandse beleid, terwyl daar krities gevra word of sodanige rolle wat deur Pretoria gespeel word, 'n bepaalde onveranderlikheid geniet of ook onderhewig is aan veranderinge.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2001.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Spatial Development Initiatives (SDIs) became the Department of Trade and Industry's (DTI) official policy in 1995/6 to accommodate problems, such as unemployment and empowerment, through sustainable development. We consequently pose the question whether the government has realised a strategic fit, i.e. whether the initial intention with the SDI strategy has consequently been achieved and, if not, what the main lessons are to fill the strategic gap? This question will be addressed in five chapters. The first chapter will provide the reader with the necessary background information on these initiatives. Before concluding (Chapter 6), the following three chapters will follow the inherent logic of the SDI strategy, i.e. economic investments are crowded in (Chapter 3) through a facilitating and mediating role of government (Chapter 4) in order to solve employment and empowerment (Chapter 5). Each realm, i.e. economic- political/institutional-and social, is evaluated on its contribution to the success of the Spatial Development Initiative. On the one hand it is difficult to say categorically whether or not there was a strategic fit, because the strategic aims were not initially written out in measurable detail. If the aim was to employ and to empower, while strengthening the institutions, we could qualitatively discern only when institutional capacity building (like in Lubombo) was a clear aim, that the resulting effect of the SDI strategy was significant. The employment and empowerment efforts may have been more disappointing than hoped for. But again this is difficult to discern because it may be too early to observe the trickle down effects. Neither is it easy to measure the many achievements that were recorded, and still then, they will probably look very relative because of the immensity of the problem. In 2001 the South African Government acknowledged that it has failed in its empowerment programme, while a Presidential Summit was convened in 1998 to search for employment solutions. Against this background and given that not more effort is made to measure the results of the efforts to create employment, has to indicate that the SDIs have not left behind an impression of having performed well in terms of their strategic aim. On the one hand this was because government strongly tended towards attracting foreign investment while paying too little attention to the subsequent needs of SMMEs. Moreover is there a need for an integrated and long-term development plan that allows rational choices to be made. Nevertheless, the fact that evaluations are commissioned and that government publicly admits a mistake could be the signs of a learning organisation, which again is the start of a positive process.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Ruimtelike Ontwikkelings Inisiatiewe (ROI's) het die Departement Handel en Nywerheid se amptelike beleid in 1995/96 geword om probleme soos werkloosheid en swartbemagtiging deur middel van volhoubare ontwikkeling aan te spreek. Ons stel gevolglik die vraag of die regering 'n strategiese plan gehad het waarbinne die ROI inisiatief gepas het, of dit gewerk het en wat die lesse te leer is? Hierdie kwessie sal in vyf hoofstukke aangespreek word. Die eerste hoofstuk voorsien die leser van die nodige agtergrondinligting oor dergelike inisiatiewe. Die samevatting is hoofstuk ses, maar dit word deur drie ander hoofdstukke voorafgegaan: 'n logiese beoordeling van die ekonomiese determinante (hoofstuk drie), die fasiliterende rol van die regering (hoofstuk vier) en die suksesse, al dan nie, van werkskepping en bemagtiging (hoofstuk vyf). Elke tema word beoordeel in die lig van die vraag of dit bydra to die sukses van ROI's. Aan die een kant is dit moeilik te verklaar of daar 'n strategiese plan was omdat so 'n plan nie vooraf uiteengesit was nie. Indien dit die bedoeling was om werkgeleenthede te skep en om bemagtiging te bevorder, sou mens slegs na enkele inisiatiewe hoef te kyk, bv die Lubombo Plan. In so 'n geval was die suksesse tog beduidend. In die algemeen was die werkverskaffings- en bemagtigingsresultate egter teleurstellend. Dit is moontlik steeds te vroeg om 'n finale oordeel uit te spreek. Op hierdie stadium is dit geen eenvoudige taak om prestasies in die lig van die groter problematiek te meet nie. Bv in 2001 het die regering bevestig dat bemagtigingsprogramme in die lig van die presidensiele beraad van 1998, misluk het. Teen hierdie agtergrond word die indruk geskep dat die ROI's moontlik nie hul strategiese doelwitte bereik het nie. Sedertdien het die regering daarna gestrewe om buitelandse direkte investering na Suid-Afrika te lok deur middel van privatisering en klein, mikro en medium ondernemings te vestig. Die planne was moontlik meer suksesvol. Al hierdie inisiatiewe behoort in 'n enkele langtermyn ontwikkelingsplan opgeneem te word sodat rasionele keuses gemaak kan word. Dan sal daar duidelikheid wees oor die rol en plek van ROI's. Dit bestaan nog nie. Nietemin doen die regering reeds beoordelings van hulle planne met die oog om dit te hersien en die erkenning dat sekere planne nie hulle mikpunte bereik nie, is tekens daarvan dat 'n leerproses aan die orde van die dag is wat tog 'n positiewe begin was.

This study examines politics disadvantages used in competitive policy debate. Specifically, this research examines politics disadvantages for their role and relevance in deliberation, an important form of political communication. Deliberation is the means by which citizens can engage in discussions of salient policy issues, and make political judgments about policies. This study developed a grounded theory about the type of deliberation manifest in politics disadvantages. Pre-constructed politics disadvantages from websites such as PlanetDebate.com, Cross-X.com, as well as from summer policy debate workshops were analyzed to develop a grounded theory. Through the process of coding and theoretical memoing, categories of political communication emerged from the disadvantage shells. The theory indicated that politics disadvantages develop an acontextual, narrowly adversarial view of deliberation. This theory was juxtaposed against already established theories of deliberation to reveal that politics disadvantages show serious deficiencies in the ways in which deliberation is taught to policy debaters.

Thesis (MA (Political Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The essence of this study is about structural change and how it is affected by competing social forces. My primary aim is to examine the problems and contradictions in Mozambique‟s development strategy and to gain an understanding of how these problems are influenced by the structure of the contemporary world order. A central focus will be on how social forces at various levels influence the way in which development strategy is formed through superior material capabilities, shaping ideas and establishing institutions. The main argument is that the hegemonic neoliberalist ideology has been perpetuated in Mozambique by external social forces and has become the mainstay of the development approach in the country. By acknowledging that theory is used by different social groups for various purposes, I depart from the common assumption of considering the Mozambican development example as a success, and rather ask „for whom it has been a success‟. The theoretical approach in this study is based on Coxian Critical Theory (CCT) and a significant proportion is dedicated to evaluate Cox‟s works and how he applies his theoretical framework in the analysis of the changing world order. To get a better appreciation for the strengths and weaknesses of CCT, the study will also examine the works of several scholars that use CCT in their studies of social forces in Southern Africa. The case study will be guided by the findings generated by the theoretical evaluation, particularly with regards to the way CCT allows for various points on entry in the analysis. The case study of Mozambique generated three main conclusions. Firstly, that Frelimo has failed to create a broad based consensus for its ideology among different social forces in Mozambique and that the historic bloc in Mozambique remains fragile. Secondly, that the economic elite in South Africa and the ANC collaborated with Frelimo in structuring the development strategy in Mozambique, and through this collaboration, perpetuated values consistent with the hegemonic neoliberal consensus. Finally, that the prevailing order in Mozambique is strengthened by the involvement of the international community and that structural change is unlikely to take place without the development of a stronger civil society. The theoretical contribution of the study has been to further support that the logic provided by CCT remains valid in the African context, and that it is highly compatible with other social theories. Furthermore, the study concludes that CCT is particularly compatible with post-colonial theory and social psychology and can be used to address the shortcomings of each other.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die sentrale punt van die studie is strukturele verandering en hoe dit beïnvloed word deur mededingende sosiale kragte. Die primêre doel van die tesis is om die probleme en teenstrydighede in Mosambiek se ontwikkelingstrategie te ondersoek en om te verstaan hoe hierdie probleme verband hou met die struktuur van die teenswoordige wêreld-orde. ‟n Belangrike fokus is ook hoe sosiale kragte op verskeie vlakke die wyse waarop ontwikkelingstrategie gevorm word beïnvloed, via besondere materiële vermoeëns, die vorm van idees en die skep van instellings. Die hoof argument is dat „n hegemoniese neoliberale ideologie perpetueer is in Mosambiek deur eksterne sosiale kragte en dat dit sodoende die bakermat van dié land se benadering tot ontwikkeling geword het. Deur te erken dat teorie deur verskillende sosiale groepe vir uiteenlopende redes gebruik word, beweeg ek weg van die algemene aanname, naamlik dat ontwikkeling in Mosambiek as suksesvol beskou kan word. Die vraag moet eerder gestel word, “vir wie is ontwikkeling in Mosambiek „n sukses?” Die teoretiese benadering in hierdie studie is gegrond op Coxiaanse Kritiese Teorie (CKT) en „n betekenisvolle proporosie van die studie word gewy aan „n evaluering van Cox se benadering en hoe hy dit toepas in „n analise van die veranderende wêreld-orde. Ten einde „n beter waardering daar te stel vir die voor- en nadele van CKT, ondersoek die studie ook die bydraes van „n aantal ander geleerdes wat die benadering gebruik in hul bestudering van sosiale kragte in Suider-Afrika. Die gevalle-studie word gerig deur die bevindinge wat gegenereer word deur hierdie teoretiese evaluering, in die besonder met betrekking tot die manier waarop CKT die gebruik van verskillende invalshoeke tot die analise fasiliteer. Die Mosambiekse gevalle-studie lewer drie hoof-gevolgtrekkings op. Eerstens, dat FRELIMO nie daarin geslaag het, om „n breë konsensus vir sy ideologiese uitgangspunte onder die verskillende sosiale kragte in die land te skep nie. Derhalwe, is die „historiese blok‟ in Mosambiek kwesbaar. Tweedens, dat die ekonomiesse elite in Suid-Afrika en binne die African National Congress (ANC) vi saamgewerk het met FRELIMO om die ontwikkelingstrategie in Mosambiek te struktureer. In daardie opsig, is waardes perpetueer wat saamhang met die hegemoniese neoliberale konsensus. Laatstens, dat die heersende orde in Mosambiek versterk word deur die betrokkenheid van die internasionale gemeenskap en dat strukturele verandering in dié land onwaarskynlik is sonder die ontwikkeling van „n sterker burgerlike samelewing. Die teoretiese bydrae van die studie ondersteun verder die premis dat CKT geldig bly binne die konteks van Afrika en dat dit versoenbaar is met ander sosiale teorieë. Verder, word die gevolgtrekking gemaak dat CKT ook besonder versoenbaar is met post-koloniale teorie en sosiale sielkunde en dat dit gebruik kan word om die tekortkominge in elkeen aan te spreek.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This report seeks to investigate the extent and success of multilateral foreign aid aimed at poverty alleviation in two countries, Angola and Zambia. Links between aid, economic growth, and poverty alleviation are also investigated. It is found that aid alone cannot create economic growth in order to alleviate poverty, and growth from aid alone is not sustainable - as the case study of Zambia shows. In Zambia, aid did not have enough impact to change the legacy of unsound economic polices, as the institutions that led these processes lacked the capacity to design sound policies to manage the aid projects. In the case of Angola, the whole process of using aid for poverty alleviation was seriously retarded by the civil war. The war is clearly one of the major causes of the poverty that exists in Angola - unlike in the case of Zambia where poverty is a chronic situation. As poverty alleviation is critical to both these countries, they should concentrate on empowering the poor with capacity-building skills, and multilateral aid should promote this. In terms of aid agreements with multilateral institutions, conditions must be in place before aid is granted to promote the interests of the poor. Well-designed aid can be successfully implemented, and can be sustainable. However, this will work only if all stakeholders from the bottom to the top are actively involved in the planning through to the implementing stages. Apart from empowering the poor, government and multilateral agencies also need to encourage the growth of the private sector in these two countries.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie verslag stelondersoek in na die omvang en sukses van multilaterale hulpverlening aan Zambië en Angola wat gemik is op die verligting van armoede. Die verband tussen hulpverlening, ekonomiese groei en armoedeverligting word ook ondersoek. Daar word bevind dat hulpverlening nie outomaties aanleiding gee tot groei -plus-armoedeverligting nie, en dat ekonomiese groei wat op hulpverlening gebaseer is, onvolhoubaar is, soos Zambië illustreer. In Zambië kon hulpverlening nie daarin slaag om swak ekonomiese beleid reg te ruk nie, vanweë die gebrek aan institusionele kapasiteit. In die geval van Angola was pogings om hulp te benut vir armoedeverligting ernstig in die wiele gery deur die burgeroorlog, een van die hoofoorsake van armoede in Angola. Aaangesien armoedeverligting "n kritiese uitdaging vir albei state is, moet die armes bemagtig word deur kapasiteitsbou, en multilaterale hulp moet daarvoor geoormerk word. Dit impliseer dat hulpverleningsooreenkomste aan voorwaardes wat die armes bevoordeel, onderworpe moet wees. Goed-ontwerpte hulp kan suksesvol toegepas word, en kan volhoubaar wees. Dit voorveronderstel egter dat alle belangegroepe aktief betrek word. Naas die bevordering van die belange van die armes, moet die privaatsektor in albei state ook verder uitgebou word.

Thesis (MA (Political Science. International Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005.
Tourism is regarded as the world’s largest industry. The various contributions the industry can make towards the global economy and towards creating employment has been acknowledged. In South Africa, sport has been used as a method of nation building and a way of building the country’s national prestige since its re-entry into the global community. The two sectors, tourism and sports, accompany with them the potential to create employment and generate economic spin-offs, as well as enhancing the quality of life for citizens. In light of the many benefits that sport and tourism can generate, South Africa has attempted to host and participate in numerous sports events. Since the end of apartheid, it has hosted several international sporting events, which include the Rugby World Cup in 1995 and the Cricket World Cup in 2003 as well as continental sporting events such as the Africa Cup of Nations in 1996. South Africa has also hosted international events of a smaller degree, which include the Presidents Cup 2003, held in George in the Western Cape. Golf tourism in the Garden Route in particular has escalated to a large degree. Some of the top golf courses can be found there and thus the Western Cape province is closely linked to the golf industry. The main focus of this study is to explore the impact that the Presidents Cup had on the town of George, its community members as well as its contribution towards the tourism industry. It attempts to investigate whether the event generated economic spin offs and whether it has resulted in development for the town and its people. Through a series of face- to- face interviews, the study explores what the perceptions are among key stakeholders in the community concerning the economic and other spin offs. One of the key findings is that the event has contributed to the escalation of various new golf estates in and around George and these has left community members disgruntled. This has resulted in provincial government placing a moratorium on any further development of golf estates along the Garden Route. It has also amounted to property values rising, making it difficult for the locals to afford proper housing. In an attempt to adequately address the issues that have been raised and to preserve and maintain the natural environment for future generations, it is the contention of this study that sustainable development is pivotal. If implemented in a proper way it can have far reaching benefits for all.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2003.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This case study examines the implications of globalisation for business-government relations in South Africa since 1990. The study proposes that business, bolstered by globalisation, is increasingly gaining influence in the policy process of South Africa. The unfolding era of neo-liberalism has ushered in an enormous surge in the power of capital and a decline in the organization and influence of labour. This surge in relative power has allowed the South African business community, to impose its own discipline on government and to narrow the sphere of public decisions. Fear ofloss of competitiveness, in attracting capital, both domestic and international, has forced government to make their policies increasingly capital-friendly rather than responding to popular will or broad social interest. The study establishes the features of globalisation and South Africa's position within this process through an analysis of the relationship between the ANC and business that developed in South Africa between 1990 and 1994, and later facilitated the ANC's acceptance of a neo-liberal macroeconomic strategy in 1996. By analysing; firstly, the influence of business within the policy-making process since 1996, and secondly, the influence of business in the outcomes of government's black economic empowerment strategy, the study shows that business has attempted to optimise its position vis-a-vis the currents of globalisation. The study concludes that the working partnership between business and government, established in terms of the BEE strategy is based on the mutual need of each other, as both government and business face the brutal capriciousness of foreign investment, the major challenge posed by globalisation. The South African business community is however in a unique position with respect to South Africa's ongoing transformation. Within the post-apartheid context, and South Africa's reconfigured power equation between government and business, globalisation would appear to give corporate South Africa added leverage over its rival social partners in the tug-of-war over the terms of development.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie gevalle-studie bestudeer die implikasies van globalisasie vir besigheidregering verhoudings in Suid-Afrika vanaf 1990. Die studie stel voor dat besigheid, aangehelp deur globalisasie, toenemend invloed verkry in die beleidsproses in Suid- Afrika. Die nuwe era van neo-liberalisme het 'n groot toevloei in die mag van kapitaal binne gesien en 'n afname in die organisasie en invloed van arbeid. Die beweging van relatiewe mag het die Suid-Afrikaanse besigheids-gemeenskap toegelaat om sy eie dissipline op die regering op te lê, en om die sfeer van openbare besluite te vernou. Die vrees van verlies van mededinging in die aantrekking van kapitaal, beide plaaslik en internasionaal, het die regering gedwing om hul beleide toenemend kapitaalvriendelik te maak, eerder as om te reageer op populêre wilskrag of breë sosiale belang. Die studie bevestig die kenmerke van globalisasie sowel as Suid-Afrika se posisie in hierdie proses. Dit word bepaal deur 'n analise van die verhouding tussen die ANC en ondernemings wat tussen 1990 en 1994 in Suid-Afrika ontwikkel het en later deur die ANC se aanvaarding van 'n neo-liberale makro-ekonomies strategie in 1996, gefasiliteer is. Deur eerste die invloed van besigheid binne die beleidmakings-proses vanaf 1996 te analiseer en tweedens te kyk na die invloed van besigheid in die uitkoms van die regering se swart ekonomiese bemagtings strategie (BEE) wys die studie dat besigheid probeer het om sy posisie deur die vloei van globalisasie te optimiseer. Die studie sluit af met die erkende vennootskap tussen besighede en die regering. Hierdie vernootskap is gevestig op die terme van die BEE strategie, wat gebasseer is op wedersydse belang, want beide die regering en besighede staar die brutale wispelturigheid van buitelandse belegging in die gesig. Hierdie groot uitdaging word deur globalisasie voortgebring. Die Suid-Afrikaanse besigheidsgemeentskap is in 'n unieke posisie, in die sin van Suid-Afrika se voortgaande transformasie. Binne die post-apartheid konteks en Suid-Afrika se hergestruktueerde mags verhouding tussen die regering en besighede, wil dit voorkom asof globalisasie die besigheids-sfeer van Suid-Afrika 'n toename van mag oor sy mededingende sosiale vennote te gee, in die konflik oor die terme van ontwikkeling.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Since its arrival onto the U.S. energy scene in the early 2000s, shale gas has had a significant impact on the global energy market. The fact that the shale gas supply of a single country has had such a widespread influence on the global energy market hints at the power that this energy resource holds as a ‘game changer’. With the fifth largest estimated shale gas reserves in the world, South Africa now faces the challenge of developing its own shale gas resources in the Karoo Basin. Having lifted the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in September 2012, the South African government has indicated its interest in pursuing the commercial extraction of the country’s estimated shale gas reserves. This comes in light of the country’s potential energy crisis, as well as an increased role for natural gas in the country’s energy mix. South Africa has no history of shale gas extraction and currently has no legislation or regulatory practices in place to deal specifically with shale gas and hydraulic fracturing. The South African government thus faces the challenge of drawing policy lessons from other experienced shale gas-producing nations, such as the U.S., to close these regulatory gaps and exploit its national shale gas resources in an environmentally and economically responsible way. Consequently, this thesis focuses on the regulation of the American shale gas industry by asking what policy lessons the South African government can draw from the United States of America on its regulation of shale gas extraction. Richard Rose’s lesson-drawing approach to policy learning was adopted as the theoretical framework for this study and can also be applied as an analytical tool to aid in data collection and data analysis. Furthermore, the framework was operationalised through the research methods used for this case study, which consisted of a review of literature on the U.S. regulation of shale gas extraction. This research produced a number of key findings in the form of policy lessons for South Africa. Four main policy lessons were drawn on the regulation of shale gas extraction: regulation of shale gas extraction must occur at all levels of government—national, provincial and local; policy research must be used to inform policymaking for the development of new legislation specific to shale gas and hydraulic fracturing, so as to avoid regulatory exemptions often linked to ad hoc policymaking on shale gas extraction; each level of government and their related regulatory agencies must have clearly defined regulatory roles relating to shale gas and hydraulic fracturing; and finally, there must be uniformity in terms of the regulatory focus of shale gas regulators at all levels of government.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sedert skaliegas vroeg in die jare sedert 2000 op die Amerikaanse energietoneel verskyn het, het dit ‘n beduidende impak op die globale energiemark gehad. Die feit dat die voorraad skaliegas van een land so ‘n wydverspreide invloed gehad het op die globale energiemark is ‘n aanduiding van die mag van hierdie energiebron as ‘n spel-wisselaar.Suid-Afrika het die vyfde-grootste skaliegasreserwes ter wêreld, en staan nou voor die uitdaging om sy eie skaliegasreserwes in die Karookom te ontwikkel. Nadat die moratorium op hidrobreking in September 2012 opgehef is, het die Suid-Afrikaanse regering aangedui dat hulle belangstel om die land se beraamde skaliegasreserwes kommersieel te ontgin. Dit het ontstaan in die lig van die potensiële energiekrisis wat Suid-Afrika in die gesig staar, asook die begeerte dat aardgas ‘n groter rol moet speel in die land se mengsel van energiebronne. Suid-Afrika het geen geskiedenis van skaliegasontginning nie en tans is daar geen wetgewing of regulerende praktyke in plek wat spesifiek te make het met skaliegas en hidrobreking nie. Die Suid-Afrikaanse regering staan dus voor die uitdaging om te leer uit die beleidsrigtings van ander ervare skaliegaslande soos die V.S.A. ten einde hierdie leemtes in regulering op te hef en sy nasionale skaliegasreserwes op ‘n omgewingsvriendelike en ekonomies-verantwoordelike manier te ontgin. Gevolglik fokus hierdie tesis op die regulering van die Amerikaanse skaliegas-industrie deur te vra watter beleidslesse die Suid-Afrikaanse regering kan leer by die Amerikaanse regering oor die regulering van hulle skaliegasontginning. Richard Rose se 'lesson-drawing'-benadering tot die leer van beleid is aanvaar as die teoretiese raamwerk vir hierdie studie en kan ook aangewend word as 'n analitiese instrument om te help met dataversameling en -analise. Die raamwerk is verder geoperasionaliseer deur die navorsingsmetodes wat gebruik is vir hierdie gevallestudie, wat bestaan het uit 'n oorsig van die literatuur oor die V.S.A. se regulering van skaliegasontginning. Hierdie navorsing het ‘n aantal sleutelbevindinge opgelewer in terme van beleidslesse vir Suid-Afrika. Die vier vernaamste beleidslesse oor die regulering van skaliegasontginning wat na vore gekom het, is die volgende: die regulering van skaliegas moet op alle vlakke van regering geskied – nasionaal, provinsiaal en op plaaslike vlak; navorsing oor beleid moet gebruik word om beleidsvorming in te lig sodat nuwe wetgewing ontwikkel kan word wat spesifiek gerig is op skaliegas en hidrobreking, ten einde uitsonderings op regulering te voorkom wat dikwels verbind word met ad hoc beleidsformulering; elke vlak van regering en sy verwante reguleringsagentskappe moet duidelik gedefinieerde reguleringsrolle hê ten opsigte van skaliegas en hidrobreking; en, ten slotte, daar moet eenvormigheid wees in die reguleringsfokus van skaliegasreguleerders op alle vlakke van regering.
National Research Foundation (DAAD-NRF)

1. Contextual outline of the PhD Research

Climate change is today often seen as one of the most challenging issue that our civilisation will have to face during the 21st century. This is especially so now that the most recent scientific data have led to the conclusion that the globally averaged net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming (IPCC 2007, p. 5) and that continued greenhouse gas emissions at or above current rates would cause further warming (IPCC, 2007 p. 13). This unequivocal link between climate change and anthropogenic activities requires an urgent, world-wide shift towards a low carbon economy (STERN 2006 p. iv) and coordinated policies and measures to manage this transition.

The climate issue is undoubtedly a typical policy question and as such, is considered amenable to economic scrutiny. Indeed, in today’s world economics is inevitable when it comes to arbitrages in the field of policy making. From the very beginning of international talks on climate change, up until the most recent discussions on a post-Kyoto international framework, economic arguments have turned out to be crucial elements of the analysis that shapes policy responses to the climate threat. This can be illustrated by the prominent role that economics has played in the different analyses produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to assess the impact of climate change on society.

The starting point and the core idea of this PhD research is the long-held observation that the threat of climate change calls for a change of climate in economics. Borrowing from the jargon used in climate policy, adaptation measures could also usefully target the academic discipline of economics. Given that inherent characteristics of the climate problem (e.g. complexity, irreversibility, deep uncertainty, etc.) challenge core economic assumptions, mainstream economic theory does not appear as appropriately equipped to deal with this crucial issue. This makes that new assumptions and analyses are needed in economics in order to comprehend and respond to the problem of climate change.

In parallel (and without environmental considerations being specifically the driving force to it), the mainstream model in economics has also long been (and still is) strongly criticised and disputed by numerous scholars - both from within and outside the field of economics. For the sake of functionality, these criticisms - whether they relate to theoretical inconsistencies or are empirically-based - can be subsumed as all challenging part of the Cartesian/Newtonian legacy of economics. This legacy can be shown to have led to a model imprinted with what could be called “mechanistic reductionism”. The mechanistic side refers to the Homo oeconomicus construct while reductionism refers to the quest for micro-foundations materialised with the representative agent hypothesis. These two hypotheses constitute, together with the conjecture of perfect markets, the building blocks of the framework of general equilibrium economics.

Even though it is functional for the purpose of this work to present them separately, the flaws of economics in dealing with the specificities of the climate issue are not considered independent from the fundamental objections made to the theoretical framework of mainstream economics. The former only make the latter seem more pregnant while the current failure of traditional climate policies informed by mainstream economics render the need for complementary approaches more urgent.

2. Overview of the approach and its main insights for climate policy

Starting from this observation, the main objective of this PhD is thus to assess the implications for climate policy that arise from adopting an alternative analytical economic framework. The stance is that the coupling of insights from the framework of evolutionary economics with the perspective of ecological economics provides a promising way forward both theoretically as well as on a more applied basis with respect to a better comprehension of the socioeconomic aspects related to the climate problem. As claimed in van den Bergh (2007, p. 521), ecological economics and evolutionary economics “share many characteristics and can be combined in a fruitful way" - which renders the coupling approach both legitimate and promising.

The choice of an evolutionary line of thought initially stems from its core characteristic: given its focus on innovation and system change it provides a useful approach to start with for assessing and managing the needed transition towards a low carbon economy. Besides, its shift of focus towards a better understanding of economic dynamics together with its departure from the perfect rationality hypothesis renders evolutionary economics a suitable theoretical complement for designing environmental policies.

The notions of path-dependence and lock-in can be seen as the core elements from this PhD research. They arise from adopting a framework which is founded on a different view of individual rationality and that allows for richer and more complex causalities to be accounted for. In a quest for surmounting the above-mentioned problem of reductionism, our framework builds on the idea of ‘multi-level selection’. This means that our analytical framework should be able to accommodate not only for upward but also for downward causation, without giving analytical priority to any level over the other. One crucial implication of such a framework is that the notion of circularity becomes the core dynamic, highlighting the importance of historicity, feedbacks and emergent properties.

More precisely, the added value of the perspective adopted in this PhD research is that it highlights the role played by inertia and path-dependence. Obviously, it is essential to have a good understanding of the underlying causes of that inertia prior to devising on how to enforce a change. Providing a clear picture of the socio-economic processes at play in shaping socio-technical systems is thus a necessary first step in order to usefully complement policy-making in the field of energy and climate change. In providing an analytical basis for this important diagnosis to be performed, the use of the evolutionary framework sheds a new light on the transition towards low-carbon socio-technical systems. The objective is to suggest strategies that could prove efficient in triggering the needed transition such as it has been the case in past “lock-in” stories.

Most notably, the evolutionary framework allows us to depict the presence of two sources of inertia (i.e at the levels of individuals through “habits” and at the level of socio-technical systems) that mutually reinforce each other in a path-dependent manner. Within the broad perspective on path dependence and lock-in, this PhD research has first sketched the implications for climate policy of applying the concept of ‘technological lock-in’ in a systemic perspective. We then investigated in more details the notion of habits. This is important as the ‘behavioural’ part of the lock-in process, although explicitly acknowledged in the pioneer work of Paul David (David, 1985, p. 336), has been neglected in most of subsequent analyses. Throughout this study, the notion of habits has been studied at both the theoretical and applied level of analysis as well as from an empirical perspective.

As shown in the first chapters of the PhD, the advantage of our approach is that it can incorporate theories that so far have been presented opposite, partial and incomplete perspectives. For instance, it is shown that our evolutionary approach not only is able to provide explanation to some of the puzzling questions in economics (e.g. the problem of strong reciprocity displayed by individual in anonymous one-shot situations) but also is very helpful in bringing a complementary explanation with respect to the famous debate on the ‘no-regret’ emission reduction potential which agitates the experts of climate policy.

An emission reduction potential is said to be "no regret" when the costs of implementing a measure are more than offset by the benefits it generates such as, for instance, reduced energy bills. In explaining why individuals do not spontaneously implement those highly profitable energy-efficient investments ,it appears that most prior analyses have neglected the importance of non-economic obstacle. They are often referred to as “barriers” and partly relate to the ‘bounded rationality’ of economic agent. As developed in the different chapters of this PhD research, the framework of evolutionary economics is very useful in that it is able to provide a two-fold account (i.e. relying on both individual and socio-technical sources of inertia) of this limited rationality that prevent individuals to act as purely optimising agents.

Bearing this context in mind, the concept of habits, as defined and developed in this study, is essential in analysing the determinants of energy consumption. Indeed, this concept sheds an insightful light on the puzzling question of why energy consumption keeps rising even though there is an evident increase of awareness and concern about energy-related environmental issues such as climate change. Indeed, if we subscribe to the idea that energy-consuming behaviours are often guided by habits and that deeply ingrained habits can become “counter-intentional”, it then follows that people may often display “locked-in” practices in their daily energy consumption behaviour. This hypothesis has been assessed in our empirical analysis whose results show how the presence of strong energy-consuming habitual practices can reduce the effectiveness of economic incentives such as energy subsidies. One additional delicate factor that appears crucial for our purpose is that habits are not fully conscious forms of behaviours. This makes that individuals do not really see habits as a problem given that it is viewed as easily changed.

In sum, based on our evolutionary account of the situation, it follows that, to be more efficient, climate policies would have to both shift the incumbent carbon-based socio-technical systems (for it to shape decisions towards a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions) and also deconstruct habits that this same socio-technical has forged with time (as increased environmental awareness and intentions formulated accordingly are not sufficient in the presence of strong habits).

Accordingly, decision-makers should design measures (e.g. commitment strategies, niche management, etc.) that, as explained in this research, specifically target those change-resisting factors and their key features. This is essential as these factors tend to reduce the efficiency of traditional instruments. Micro-level interventions are thus needed as much as macro-level ones. For instance, it is often the case that external improvements of energy efficiency do not lead to lower energy consumption due to the rebound effect arising from unchanged energy-consuming habits. Bearing this in mind and building on the insights from the evolutionary approach, policy-makers should go beyond the mere subsidisation of technologies. They should instead create conditions enabling the use of the multi-layered, cumulative and self-reinforcing character of economic change highlighted by evolutionary analyses. This means supporting both social and physical technologies with the aim of influencing the selection environment so that only the low-carbon technologies and practices will survive.

Mentioned references:

David, P. A. (1985), Clio and the economics of QWERTY, American Economic Review 75/2: 332–337.

IPCC, 2007, ‘Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis’, Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Solomon, S. D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M. Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 996 pp.

Stern, N. 2006, ‘Stern Review: The economics of Climate Change’, Report to the UK Prime Minister and Chancellor, London, 575 p. (www.sternreview.org.uk)

van den Bergh, J.C.J.M. 2007, ‘Evolutionary thinking in environmental economics’, Journal of Evolutionary Economics 17(5): 521-549.

Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Cette thèse propose une analyse de l'incapacité du gouvernement des Etats-Unis à modifier en profondeur sa politique d'immigration. Elle montre que son principal facteur explicatif est institutionnel : la résilience du régime d'immigration, entendu comme mode de régulation de l'admission d'immigrants, s'explique par sa capacité à s'appuyer sur une structuration de l'économie politique de l'immigration favorable au blocage des réformes. Pour démontrer cette proposition, notre étude est donc articulée en deux blocs : les facteurs engendrant une crise du régime, et ceux permettant son statu quo. Dans un premier temps, les facteurs structurels et conjoncturels de la crise du régime sont étudiés. Une analyse empirique de la régulation de l'immigration met en évidence ses deux dysfonctionnements structurels : d'une part un déséquilibre croissant entre le nombre de candidats à l'immigration et l'offre de visas et, d'autre part, la formation d'un stock de résidents en situation irrégulière. Néanmoins, l'analyse des représentations de la population américaine concernant cette régulation démontre que la volonté de réformer les conditions d'admission de l'immigration relève aussi de facteurs subjectifs. Une conjoncture économique dégradée intensifie la perception d'une crise du régime, et la préférence pour sa fermeture. Dans un second temps, les facteurs explicatifs de l'absence de fermeture du régime sont analysés. La validité de deux hypothèses explicatives de sa résilience est démontrée par une analyse des épisodes de réforme de 1994 à 2010. En premier lieu, la mise en œuvre politique d'une réforme donne la primauté aux préférences des groupes d'intérêts organisés (communautés immigrées, employeurs, syndicats, nativistes) par rapport à celles de l'opinion publique. En second lieu, les préférences antagonistes de ces groupes d'intérêts les rendent incapables de coopérer : malgré sa non-optimalité, le régime d'immigration correspond donc à une issue stable des négociations législatives, car il limite les pertes de l'ensemble des acteurs en présence.

This thesis examines the conditions under which democratically elected policymakers are more likely to provide policies that compensate individuals that lose from international trade. It develops and empirically tests a theoretical framework of compensation in open economies that accounts for differences in the degree to which governments benefit losers from trade. It first develops a theory of preference formation based on economic geography, and then argues that electoral and legislative institutions jointly condition the supply of compensation. The theoretical analysis provides three sets of observable implications evaluated using micro- and macro-level data in Europe and Latin America. First, exposure to international competition increases demand for policy that compensates for the costs of trade, but this effect is more pronounced among those individuals in economically specialised and uncompetitive contexts where reemployment in the event of a shock is difficult. Second, policymakers in proportional electoral systems face weak incentives to target trade losers in geographically concentrated and uncompetitive regions. In contrast, majoritarian institutions generate incentives to increase compensation when trade losers are geographically concentrated. Another implication is that under some conditions, the presence of a strong upper house that represents regional interests dampens the provision of compensation, and the relative effect of electoral rules. The empirical implications of the argument are tested using a multi-method research strategy that combines cross-national and case study analyses and draws on quantitative and qualitative techniques. Chapter 3 tests the micro-level implications of the model using survey data for European regions over 2002-2006. The findings indicate that regional economic specialization and regional competitiveness jointly condition the impact of trade on preferences for compensation. Chapter 4 systematically tests the extent to which the geographical concentration of trade losers conditions the effect of electoral institutions on levels of compensation. It uses panel data from 14 European countries from 1980 to 2010. The findings indicate that where trade losers are concentrated, lower district magnitude leads to more compensation. Chapters 5 and 6 conduct case studies of compensation in Spain and Argentina, both countries that underwent deep liberalisation and offer significant variation at the regional and institutional level. Chapter 5 explores preferences over compensation in selected regions in Spain and Argentina, and shows that regional specialisation and competitiveness were important in shaping levels of support for compensation. Chapter 6 examines the role of electoral institutions and legislative veto bargaining in shaping the politics of compensation in Spain and Argentina.

Researchers use natural phenomena in a number of disciplines to help explain human behavioral outcomes. Research regarding the potential effects of magnetic fields on animal and human behavior indicates that fields could influence outcomes of interest to social scientists. Tests so far have been limited in scope. This work is a preliminary evaluation of whether the earth’s magnetic field influences human behavior it examines the baseline relationship exhibited between geomagnetic readings and a host of social and political outcomes. The emphasis on breadth of topical coverage in these statistical trials, rather than on depth of development for any one model, means that evidence is only suggestive – but geomagnetic readings frequently covary with social and political variables in a fashion that seems inexplicable in the absence of a causal relationship. The pattern often holds up in more-elaborate statistical models. Analysis provides compelling evidence that geomagnetic variables furnish valuable information to models. Many researchers are already aware of potential causal mechanisms that link human behavior to geomagnetic levels and this evidence provides a compelling case for continuing to develop the line of research with in-depth, focused analysis.

Geographical indications (GIs) are one form of protective labelling used to indicate the origin of food and alcohol products. The role of protected geographical indicators as a promising sustainable rural development tool is the basis for this research. The protection of geographical indications is a rather controversial subject and much research is still required for both sides of the debate. The research method employed for this study is qualitative critical social science. Two Case studies are used to investigate the benefits brought to rural areas through the protection of GIs. The case studies include the GIs Jersey Royal and Welsh Lamb both from the United Kingdom a member of the European Union (the EU is in favour of extended protection of GIs for all agro-food products under the 1994 WTO/TRIPS agreement on geographical indications). Twenty-five indepth interviews were conducted for this study the duration of the interviews was approximately one hour. The study identifies predominantly indirect links between GIs and sustainable rural development, through economic and social benefits bought to rural areas by the GIs investigated - less of a connection was found to ecological elements. No considerable cost for GI protection was discovered. This finding suggests that GIs are worthwhile for implementation in New Zealand as a rural development tool.

Many researchers argue the increasing reliance on sit/lie ordinances to regulate homeless people's use of public space is one in a suite of neoliberal policies that shape the geographies of public space in cities to serve the needs of global capital. However, these policies are developed at the local, not global, level as specific actors make claims in the public sphere that communicatively shape policy formation. Through comparative case study, this research asks, how do different actors, situated in specific local and global contexts, influence the adoption of sit/lie ordinances? I examine two cases of policymaking in Portland and San Francisco. I use discourse analytic strategies and thematic coding of newspapers, archival documents, and key informant interviews to look at policy-making processes as they occur in their political, social, and economic contexts. I focus especially on the role of language in policy-making, policy-making arenas, and actions of grassroots actors, drawing from three interdisciplinary literatures to develop an explanatory theory of policy-making. I find the four interrelated explanatory factors in policy-making were: the actors (neoliberal and right-to-the-city); the tactics they use; the policy talk they use; and the policy arenas. First, political processes provide windows of opportunity and determine arenas for political activities. The different policy arenas (citizen election, committee, council led, litigation, etc.) influence the audience that the actors care about, and thus the policy talk. Additionally, elected officials have a determining effect on which arenas they use, which in turns structures the opportunities for policy talk. Second, the arena influences the depth to which resisters can discuss the issues with the wider public and decision-makers. This may explain why the right-to-the-city frame may not have been used as much as the academic literature might suggest. Resisters find it much harder to use this framing with the general public or elected officials because it takes too much time to explain to those unfamiliar. Instead, they rely more on concepts that may be more familiar like the dependent poor and unequal impact of the law on minority groups. Third, I find local actors have different positions in the global economy, however on the local level their different avenues and strategies of involvement are due to local conditions rather than global ones. The location in the global political economy seems to be less important than local political decision making contexts and the actions of individuals who are locally powerful due to their economic status and political connections. This suggests room for resisters to use local politics to resist these ordinances, without having to take on the entire global economy. Finally, actors use different narratives to influence decision makers and each other, responding and shifting to competing frames over time. The change over time is important, as it shows how policy debates change based on influences from different actors. My findings suggest the framing of the original necessity for the policy can influence the policy trajectory, but actors can and do respond and successfully shift policy talks over time. The dissertation concludes with additional implications for grassroots practice based on these theoretical findings.

This study focuses on the rhetoric of racial politics and the ideology of exclusion it produces. This study analyzes the political rhetoric constructed by David Duke, white supremacist, disavowed neo-Nazi, Ku Klux Klan member, and former Louisiana State Representative. The topics of affirmative action, reverse discrimination, immigration, and welfare were chosen for analysis. Using ideological criticism, this study reveals the role Duke pays in America's increasingly exclusionary political environment. Specifically, this study uses the concepts employed by Louisa Martin Rojo in exploring the rhetorical process of demonization which is used to turn someone or something into an enemy. The process needed to demonize an enemy involves two rhetorical strategies: division and rejection. Division establishes the opposing categories in the conflict, manifesting itself as an arguments between "us verses them" or "good verses evil." Rejection further demonizes the enemy by rhetorically marginalizing, segregating, or creating a negative image about them. Through his rhetoric, Duke strives to provoke feelings of resentment by utilizing demonization to reject and divide whites from minorities. In his rhetoric, Duke excludes people of color from society by portraying affirmative action as minority special privilege, reverse discrimination as white exclusion, welfare as a bastion of illegitimacy, and immigration as the downfall of American culture. Attempting to exclude minorities from society, Duke moves beyond Rojo's concept of demonization and uses scapegoating to blame minorities for America's social ills. By using people of color as a scapegoat, Duke effectively excludes them from participating in the debate over social concerns.

Notre recherche a consisté à poser la politique internationale du climat comme une politique publique et à montrer quelles étaient les dynamiques et les acteurs étant intervenus dans sa construction. Nous nous sommes en particulier attelé à mettre en exergue l'univers de sens ( "référentiel") à partir duquel les dispositifs de cette politique ont été élaborés, ainsi que la manière dont la dynamique d'opposition des intérêts propre aux négociations internationales s'y articulait.
Doctorat en sciences politiques
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This thesis analyzes the ideologies present the campaign rhetoric surrounding the 2008 California legislative initiative Proposition·8. Using Foss' method of ideological criticism the campaign is read prior after the opposition response to determine if an ideological shift occurs. The study is framed to identify this shift as a potential product of oppositional interaction, a characteristic of rhetoric defined by Smith and Windes. The study concludes that the shift in ideology during the campaign by the supporters of Proposition 8 was a significant development. The response from the Proposition 8 campaign reframed the debate, making the electorate vulnerable to a different ideology. This new ideology places the state education apparatus, not the courts, in the spotlight as the state mechanism that is in dispute in the marriage controversy. When placed in .this context, theories of political economy are employed to explain how the electorate may have interpreted these arguments. One. explanation offered is that the response ideology of the Proposition 8 campaign allowed voters to vote to outlaw gay marriages as a proactive response to a mistrust of education. The discussion section indicates that this could be an adjustment to existing ideologies, or development of an issues specific ideology that is only relevant for one issue in the mind of the individual. Ultimately, this study demonstrated the utility of ideology as a method to analyze political rhetoric and examines the role that oppositional interaction plays in the long-term development of public dialectic.

Abstract (version française suit)

Although the EU is a privileged point of focus for political science studies, its discursive activity has not received all the attention it deserves. This corpus analysis adopts a descriptive approach, based on the Neo-Aristotelian trend in argumentation theory, by using both analytical categories of classical rhetoric and (emic or etic) categories that belong to the conceptualization of the debate entertained by its own participants. The corpus consists of public interventions by representatives of the three main EU Institutions (Commission, European Council and Parliament). The speeches were pronounced between June and December 2005. Since it is discussed every seven years, the topic of the Financial Perspectives offers the possibility of making diachronic comparisons; it also allows identifying values, projects and means of the European construction at a rhetorical level. The last six months of 2005 followed two significant events: the conflicting attitudes of European Governments regarding the Iraq war and the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty by referendums.

In the absence of any other metaphysical or natural foundation, the technocratic enterprise provides the European project with a rational and secular justification that is not always assumed as such, though, by the presidents of the Commission. The conceptual metaphors stemming from the preambles to the treaties convey the idea that European integration will be achieved by triggering a gradual process that should lead to the realization of an ultimate aim.

From a rhetorical point of view, the Financial Perspectives are in need of legitimacy. In 2005, the rhetorical invocation of dates/milestones, abundantly used by former presidents of the Commission, does not seem to work anymore. Both the requirement of unanimity in the legislative procedure and the habitus of European deliberation make it necessary to find an agreement; this consequently promotes “consensus” as a meta-communicational argument. The notion of a “consensus” runs against such theoretical (epistemological) and pragmatic objections that it proves imperious to wonder about its origin and roots. One should take into account not only scholarly conceptions of “consensus” (Habermas, the Deliberative Democracy movement), but also naïve and popular visions of it.

The EU Institutions are aware of the difficulty they meet in awakening citizens’ interest, and they have developed their Communication Policy in order to give themselves the means to overcome this obstacle. A systematic reflection on their strategy should take into account the divergent opinions of Moravscik and Hix, as well as the possibility of grounding the EU project anew on a revival of ancient homonoïa.

DISCLAIMER. The content of this thesis represents solely the views of its author and cannot in any circumstances be regarded as the official position of the European Commission.

Résumé

Quoique l’Union Européenne (UE) soit un objet de prédilection pour les politologues, son activité discursive n’a pas reçu toute l’attention méritée.

La thèse offre une analyse de corpus effectuée sur base d’une grille de lecture incluant des catégories rhétoriques étiques et émiques. Elle adopte une approche descriptive puisée dans le versant néo-aristotélicien de l’étude de l’argumentation. Le corpus a été constitué d’interventions publiques tenues par les représentants des trois principales Institutions Européennes (Commission, Conseil Européen, Parlement Européen) entre juin et décembre 2005. Le sujet des Perspectives Financières, débattu à intervalles réguliers, permet des comparaisons diachroniques ;il permet aussi de contraster les valeurs, les projets et les moyens de la construction européenne. La conjoncture des six derniers mois de 2005 présente la particularité supplémentaire que le projet de Traité Constitutionnel venait d’être rejeté et que les gouvernements européens s’étaient auparavant divisés sur l’intervention en Irak.

En l’absence d’un fondement métaphysique ou naturel, l’entreprise technocratique fournit au projet politique européen une justification rationnelle et laïcisée, même si elle n’est pas assumée explicitement en tant que telle par tous les présidents de la Commission. Les métaphores conceptuelles mobilisées dans les préambules des traités traduisent le fait que l’unification européenne devrait s’accomplir à la fois par l’entremise de réalisations progressives et à travers la poursuite d’un objectif lointain.

Sur le plan rhétorique, les Perspectives Financières sont en manque d’une légitimité emblématique. La clause des rendez-vous, des étapes cruciales, abondamment utilisée dans le passé par les présidents de la Commission, cesse de fonctionner en 2005. La nécessité d’un accord, issue tant de la lettre de la procédure législative par unanimité que de la coutume des délibérations, est devenue matière à un argument méta-communicationnel qui en est arrivé à englober toute circonstance susceptible de faciliter le « consensus ». Cette dernière notion soulève des réticences théoriques (épistémologiques) et pragmatiques qui imposent de s’interroger sur son origine. La problématisation que nous avons opérée tient compte non seulement des conceptions savantes du « consensus » (Habermas, courant de la Démocratie Délibérative), mais aussi de ses variantes populaires ou vulgarisées.

Les Institutions Européennes sont conscientes de la difficulté qu’il y a à motiver l’intérêt citoyen, et elles ont voulu, à travers leur Politique de Communication, se donner les moyens de dépasser cet obstacle. La thèse mène, à ce propos, une réflexion plus générale qui tient compte des avis opposés de Moravcsik et Hix, et d’une éventuelle refondation dans l’homonoïa de la rhétorique classique.

DISCLAIMER. Le contenu de cette thèse représente le point de vue de son seul auteur et ne peut en aucune circonstance être considéré comme la position officielle de la Commission Européenne.

Doctorat en Langues et lettres
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La coopération internationale est inscrite sur l'acte constitutif de l'Organisation des Nations Unies du 26 juin 1945. Moyen d'échange et de dialogue entre acteurs internationaux, son objectif a été de trouver des solutions aux difficultés économiques, sociales, culturelles et sécuritaires de l'après-guerre pour sauvegarder la paix du monde. Elle s'est considérablement développée, allant de la forme bilatérale à celle multilatérale, dans tous les domaines et sur tous les continents. Parmi ses nombreux cadres d'échanges, le dispositif français de coopération, avec son assistance technique spécialisée dans tous les domaines, demeure une référence certaine. Il s'est déployé à travers une stratégie de géopolitique internationale où domaines militaire en plus grand et sportif en plus petit en constituent un des traits caractéristiques. La coopération française et internationale ont été un accompagnement décisif pour le continent africain après les indépendances, mais aussi un important moyen stratégique d'influence pendant la Guerre Froide. Le sport et la coopération sportive y joueront leur partition. Pour les Américains, Français, Anglais, Soviétiques et leurs partenaires respectifs, la coopération a été très efficace et a permis de sauvegarder leurs intérêts sur le continent africain. Elle demeure encore aujourd'hui un important moyen de pression sur la scène africaine, influant souvent sur les résultats des échanges et l'efficacité des actions de coopération. Finalement, c'est une coopération internationale de 1960 à 2010, avec ses réussites et ses échecs, d'une taille parfois limitée mais qui reste un moyen de dialogue pour le monde et surtout pour le continent africain engagé sur le difficile chemin de la démocratie. C'est par une approche théorique libérale et une méthode qualitative que cette recherche a été réalisée, sur le principal terrain du Burkina Faso avec ses particularités sociales et son histoire, qui constituent une grille de lecture idéale.

Abstract Amidst the worst disaster to impact a major U.S. city in one hundred years, New Orleans’ main trauma and safety net medical center, the Reverend Avery C. Alexander Charity Hospital, was permanently closed. Charity’s administrative operator, Louisiana State University (LSU), ordered an end to its attempted reopening by its workers and U.S. military personnel in the weeks following the August 29, 2005 storm. Drawing upon rigorous review of literature and an exhaustive analysis of primary and secondary data, this case study found that Charity Hospital was closed as a result of disaster capitalism. LSU, backed by Louisiana state officials, took advantage of the mass internal displacement of New Orleans’ populace in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in an attempt to abandon Charity Hospital’s iconic but neglected facility and to supplant its original safety net mission serving the poor and uninsured for its neoliberal transformation to favor LSU’s academic medical enterprise.

Relying on framing theory, this study used The New York Times to explore how Chinese news was depicted before, during and after the Beijing Summer Olympics. The research regarding how the Chinese government tried to leverage the Olympics to enhance its image is often deliberated. However, there have only been a 3 few studies on the evaluation of the effects the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games had on the image of China, as depicted by The New York Times. This study generated an understanding of the impact the presentations of The New York Times had on the soft power used by China through the Beijing Summer Olympic Games. The study examined how the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics were associated with the depiction of Chinese news in The New York Times during the pre-, mid-, and post-Olympics years. Specifically, world and business sections within The New York Times were mainly influenced by the effects of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. In addition, there were no direct associations found between the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and how China was depicted photographically in The New York Times. In terms of the above factors; this study showed that China's national image did not improve in the New York Times after the 2008 Bejing Summer Olympic Games.

The global context of decision making continues to adapt in response to international threats. Political psychologists have therefore considered decision making processes regarding major uses of force a key area of interest. Although presidential personality has been widely studied as a mitigating factor in the decision making patterns leading to uses of force, traditional theories have not accounted for the emotions of individuals as they affect political actions and are used to frame public perception of the use of force. This thesis therefore measures expressed emotion and cognitive expressions in the form of expressed aggression, passivity, blame, praise, certainty, realism, and optimism as a means of predicting subsequent major uses of force. Since aggression and blame are precipitated by anger and perceived vulnerability, they are theorized to foreshadow increased uses of force (Gardner and Moore 2008). Conversely, passivity and praise are indicative of empathy and joy respectively, and are not expected to precede aggressive behavior conducted to maintain emotional regulation (Roberton, Daffer, and Bucks 2012). Additionally, the three cognitive variables of interest expand on existing literature on beliefs and decision making expounded by such authors as Walker (2010), Winter (2003) and Hermann (2003). DICTION 6.0 is used to analyze all text data of presidential news conferences, candidate debates, and State of the Union speeches given between 1945 and 2000 stored by The American Presidency Project (Hart and Carroll 2012). Howell and Pevehouse's (2005) quantitative assessment of quarterly U.S. uses of force between 1945 and 2000 is employed as a means of quantifying instances of major uses of force. Results show systematic differences among the traits expressed by presidents, with most expressions staying consistent across spontaneous speech contexts. Additionally, State of the Union speeches consistently yielded the highest scores across the expressed traits measured; supporting the theory that prepared speech is used to emotionally frame situations and setup emotional interpretations of events to present to the public. Time sensitive regression analyses indicate that expressed aggression within the context of State of the Union Addresses is the only significant predictor of major uses of force by the administration. That being said, other studies may use the comparative findings presented herein to further establish a robust model of personality that accounts for individual dispositions toward emotional expression as a means of framing the emotional interpretation of events by audiences.
M.A.
Masters
Political Science
Sciences
Political Science; International Studies Track

Ghana is considered an oasis of peace despite having the same mix of ethno-political competitions for state power and resources; north-south horizontal inequalities; ethno-regional concentrations of Christians and Muslims; highly ethnicised elections; a natural resource dependent economy; and a politically polarized public sphere, among others, that have plunged other countries in Africa into violent and often protracted national conflicts. Use of the conflict paradigm to explain Africa's conflicts glosses over positive deviance cases such as Ghana. This study used the peace paradigm in a mixed method, grounded theory research to examine Ghana's apparent exceptionalism in staving off violent national conflicts. From the survey of 1429 respondents and 31 Key Informants, findings indicate Ghanaians are divided on whether their country is peaceful or not. They are equally divided on classifying the state of peace in Ghana as negative or positive. Instead, they have identified sets of centrifugal and centripetal forces that somehow self-neutralize to keep Ghana in a steady state of unstable peace. Among the lift forces are strongly shared cultural and Indigenous African Religious values; symbiotic interethnic economic relationships; identity dissolution and cultural miscegenation due to open interethnic systems of accommodation and incorporation; and the persistence of historical multi-lateral political, sociocultural, and economic relationships. On the drag side are the youth bulge; emergent religious intolerance; elite exit from the state in using private solutions for public problems; and highly politicized and partisan national discourses that leave the country with no national agenda. In sum, Ghana is no exception to the rule. The four interconnected meso theories that this study identifies provide pointers to what factors Ghana needs to strengthen to avert descent into violence.

This study explores the changing nature of filial piety in contemporary society in rural China. With the economic, social and political upheavals that followed the Revolution, can 'great peace under heaven' still be found for the rural Chinese family as in the traditional Confucian proverb,"make yourself useful, look after your family, look after your country, and all is peaceful under heaven"? This study explores this question, in terms not so much of financial prosperity, but of non-tangible cultural values of filial piety, changing familial and gender roles, and economic migration. In particular, it examines how macro level changes in economic, social and demographic policies have affected family life in rural China. The primary policies examined were collectivisation, the hukou registration system, marketization, and the One-Child policy. Ethnographic interviews reveal how migration has affected rural family structures beyond the usual quantifiable economic measures. Using the village of Meijia, Sichuan province, as a paradigmatic sample of family, where members have moved to work in the cities, leaving their children behind with the grandparents, the study demonstrates how migration and modernization are reshaping familial roles, changing filial expectations, reshuffling notions of care-taking, and transforming traditional views on the value of daughters and daughters-in-law. The study concludes that the choices families make around migration, child-rearing and elder-care cannot be fully explained by either an income diversification model or a survival model, but rather through notions of filial piety. Yet the concept of filial piety itself is changing, particularly in relation to gender and perceptions about the worth of daughters and the mother/ daughter-in-law relationship. Understanding these new family dynamics will be important for both policy planners and economic analysts.

This dissertation comprises three empirical essays in political economy. The first essay analyzes the implementation of a French social program by subnational governments following a decentralization reform. Using program implementation data, it shows that local political environments strongly influence implementation decisions after decentralization, and that decentralization results in an overall tightening of benefits. The second essay reports the results of a conjoint field experiment involving German welfare offices. Using random assignment of cues about ethnicity and other characteristics in requests to welfare offices, it is shown that putative non-German applicants receive replies at the same rate as putative Germans, but are disadvantaged in terms of the substantive quality of responses. This suggests that minority populations do experience discrimination when attempting to access social benefits. Finally, the third essay uses micro-level voter file data from Illinois to measure whether property tax limitations reduce participation in local elections. In contrast with prior research, results from panel regressions with matching adjustments suggest that tax limitations do not affect political participation negatively. Together, these essays contribute to our understanding of public finance and social policy in contexts characterized by multi-level governance.

The present study proposes a model, termed the hybrid model, to explain fiscal-policy responses to financial crises. Although it is applied throughout the present study to the Eurozone, the model’s geographic and substantive scope apply more broadly. Combining and building upon past approaches, the hybrid model proposes three independent variables: partisanship, political capacity, and external actors. The model builds on the literature’s three dominant approaches: partisan, domestic approaches; approaches that emphasize convergence; and approaches that emphasize divergence, represented here primarily by the Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) literature. The hybrid model integrates the domestic emphasis of the partisan approach with the international emphases of the convergence and, to some extent, VoC approaches. The hybrid model builds on the domestic politics of the partisan approach by integrating coalition logic and the tension between coalition partners into the partisan approach’s political landscape. The model also advances the convergence and VoC approaches by providing an explanation for variation in the pressure of financial markets, both over time and across countries, which mediates the influence of external actors in the domestic affairs of sample countries. In addition, with respect to the dependent variable, the present study develops a disaggregated measure that accounts for the diverse distributional implications of fiscal policies’ various dimensions. With respect to empirics, the present study employs a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Broadly, the large-N results provide support for the hybrid model, particularly as it pertains to partisanship. Event analyses and case studies support the role of external actors; the empirics show the degree to which financial-market pressure mediates the influence of external actors. Combined, the quantitative and qualitative approaches indicate problems with consonance, the particular dimension of political capacity considered in the present study. Both quantitative and qualitative results reveal that consonance, i.e., between-party tensions in coalition governments, provides an incomplete characterization of the factors influencing the political capacity of single-party and coalition governments. The case studies suggest that within-party tensions and party-system strength, as additional measures of political capacity, play key roles in shaping fiscal-policy responses. The empirics also confirm the importance of disaggregating fiscal policy, the dependent variable, beyond the broad measures of fiscal deficit, expenditure, and revenue adopted in the present literature.

Defence date: 13 July 2005
Examining board: Prof. Massimo Motta, Supervisor, EUI ; Prof. Eliana La Ferrara, Università Bocconi ; Prof. Theresa Osborne, visiting EUI ; Prof. Francis Vella, EUI
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017
-- War, poverty and aid : evidence from a large landmine clearance program in Mozambique -- Public infrastructure and development : instrumental variable evidence from darn construction in India 19G0-1992 -- Public infrastructure and dvelopment : instrumental variable evidence from darn construction in India 19G0-1992

Defence date: 17 May 2016
Examining Board: Professor Árpád Ábrahám, EUI, Supervisor; Professor Piero Gottardi, EUI; Professor Facundo Piguillem, EIEF; Professor César Sosa-Padilla, McMaster University.
In this thesis I develop two models that bring together macroeconomics and political institutions; these models allow me to draw conclusions about the impact of institutions on economic outcomes, and about the effect of economics on political results. In the first essay, I provide a formal theory that explains the effect of government coalitions on the probability of sovereign default, and the seemingly excessive prevalence of surplus coalitions across the democratic world. In the second essay, I construct a model of an endowment economy in which a leader distributes income, and I show how investments in de facto power enable the leader to significantly increase his tenure in office, while collecting a large share of rents for his private benefit. Throughout the thesis it is assumed that leaders are selfish, and institutions (incentives) are the main determinant of their behavior in power.

Who supports social policy in the developing world? Most of what we know about micro-level preferences for social policy comes from well-developed, wealthy countries of the OECD, where governments can credibly commit to policy enforcement and implementation. This dissertation explores preferences for social policy in post-communist countries, where weak constraints on the state challenge the welfare state. In doing so, it provides novel insights both into social policy debates in these countries and the coalitions which support (or oppose) social policy. I argue that support for social policy depends on how institutions shape the expectations of actors about the costs they pay into social policy programs versus future benefits. I draw on existing theories of political economy to propose four mechanisms -- misappropriation, contract enforcement, free-riding, and macro-economic risk -- that alter the distribution of winners and losers from social policy. Misappropriation stems from officials' ability to divert funding away from intended uses. While for most this imposes dead-weight costs on social policy, where institutions are poor. the politically well-connected can benefit from diverted funds to decrease social policy costs. The contract enforcement mechanism emerges due to the inability of weakly constrained states to enforce contracts. Predictions are similar to misappropriation, but actors also cannot trust other private actors with control of social policy. Free-riding emerges when bureaucrats are unwilling to expend effort to ensure tax compliance. Again, this imposes dead-weight costs on most, but garners support from tax evaders, who can free-ride. Finally, the macro-economic risk mechanism suggests that macro-economic volatility is heightened in settings with weak institutions, which increases both individual risk and support for social policy. The empirical portion of the dissertation tests the observable implications of each of these mechanisms. Chapter 2 provides a first-cut, cross-national test of part of the argument using micro-level data from a cross-national survey of 28 post-communist countries. I draw on work on informality in the post-communist world to identify individual characteristics associated with tax evasion to test the free-rider mechanism. Consistent with it, I show that those associated with evasion support social policy more where institutions are weaker. Chapter 3 posits that if the mechanisms I propose matter, actors will appeal to the logic of my theory during concrete reform debates. I test this using evidence from the 2001 pension reforms in Russia. I combine analysis of the legislative debates surrounding reform with in-depth content analysis of the Russian media, which draws on an original dataset of all mentions of reform in 352 Russian newspapers, journals, and trade magazines. I show that all four mechanisms were indeed major concerns. Chapter 4 tests the theory at the firm level, using a survey of 666 Russian firms to look at preferences where institutional quality is weak. I test whether firms that I predict support the welfare state in such settings -- those with political connections and a comparative advantage in hiding from the authorities -- actually do so. In addition to providing some support for the misappropriation and free-riding mechanisms, this chapter is a contribution in its own right: it is among the first to use surveys to study firms' preferences for social policy. Finally, chapter 5 uses a survey experiment conducted on 1600 respondents to attempt to understand the ceteris paribus effect of institutions on the average individual. Using a simple framing experiment, I provide three different treatment groups with information about bribery, tax evasion, and the extent to which private pension funds commit fraud to test the misappropriation, free-riding, and contract enforcement mechanisms, respectively. The chapter offers mixed evidence. The dissertation makes contributions to both the study of the welfare state and the political economy of institutions and investment. First, the dissertation explores preferences for social policy in the developing world and introduces institutional quality concerns to this literature. My work particularly focuses attention on the ways certain groups can abuse social policy to pass costs onto others, adding nuance to existing understandings of who benefits from social policy. Second, it advances our understanding of how institutional quality shapes economic decision making and provides evidence as to how different pathologies of poor institutions shape economic decisions.

The key underlying question of this dissertation is how individuals develop informed views about the open international economy and make informed decisions as consumers, workers and voters. Globalization has generated competing interest groups that are highly informed about its effects. Each of these groups can exploit its informational advantage and strategically provide information to less informed individuals in order to shape their policy preferences and economic and political behavior. Focusing on this informational discrepancy among domestic actors, this dissertation investigates the mechanisms and the effects of information dissemination from three different angles. The first chapter examines the role of product-related information provided by the news media, biased in favor of domestic firms, in shaping consumer behavior. In the second chapter, I examine the role of trade-related information provided by interest groups in altering the trade preferences of workers. In the third chapter, I examine the role of trade-related information provided by political elites in shaping their constituents' attitudes toward trade. These essays contribute to the extant international political economy literature by introducing an actor that has been largely neglected, illuminating new causal mechanisms with information at the center, and clarifying the causal effect of certain economic groups in trade policy preference formation.

Qin, Shuang.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013.
Includes bibliographical references.
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstracts also in Chinese.

Why do some communities have access to essential services, such as water or health care, and neighboring communities do not? How do citizens influence the distribution of public services? This dissertation presents a theory of "trading favors" in which I argue that communities can coordinate and trade their collective votes for preferential access to public services. This long-term relationship with politicians is a form of local distributive politics, and I highlight that neighborhood associations provide a platform for voters to organize and increase their bargaining power towards politicians. I argue that 1) high community activity and 2) strong, unified leadership can enable group members to coordinate their votes before an election and get the attention of politicians after the election to improve their access to public services. I focus on variation in water access: water scarcity is a growing global concern, and access to water is often manipulated as a political tool. During 18 months of fieldwork, I collected extensive qualitative and quantitative evidence from the state of Ceará in Northeast Brazil. I include a historical discussion of the origins of community organizing and introduce a typology of community organizing. I illustrate the theoretical mechanisms through case studies of neighboring communities that draw on 104 qualitative interviews with rural residents, local leaders, state bureaucrats, and academic experts. I test my main hypotheses through statistical analysis of an original household survey with 1,990 respondents from 120 rural communities merged with precinct-level electoral data. I also analyze long-term voting patterns at over 15,000 electoral precincts across Ceará in five municipal elections. I find that water access is most reliable and secure in communities with high community activity, strong social ties, and constant leadership. I find evidence for my main mechanism: organized communities are more likely to concentrate their votes, and bloc voting improves water access. Communities are very consistent in their bloc voting behavior over time: the same places continue to concentrate their votes, and the same places continue to disperse their votes. I also find evidence that many communities switch allegiance across elections, which indicates that communities are credible in their threats to switch their electoral support if they do not get the services they need. My findings shed light on the important but poorly understood influence of collective action on local politics and development. The distributive politics literature tends to focus on decision-making by parties and politicians. My results demonstrate the agency of voters in organizing collectively to select and influence candidates that make distributive appeals, especially through neighborhood associations. I develop our understanding of local leaders, who often serve as development/vote brokers and intermediate access to the state, and I provide evidence that poor citizens bargain with their votes and can use bloc voting as a grassroots strategy for improving public service access.