Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-84). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Called “The Pride of the Bluegrass,” Elmendorf Farm changed the style and substance of commercial pedigree breeding in early twentieth-century America. Between 1897 and 1914, James B. Haggin readily transformed the Kentucky farm first as a nationally preeminent horse stud, famous for its bloodlines and scales, and second as a premier dairy operation, exceptional for its sanitation, science, and size. Here rested the large-scale production of the world’s fanciest Thoroughbreds and finest milk. At the same time, Haggin’s farm reflected a lifestyle that has come to be celebrated and cherished as the ideal Kentucky landscape. A factory-style plant of large scales, of specialization, and vertical integration was disguised with the lavish iconography of portico mansions, rolling lawns, and white-planed fences, behind which million-dollar animals grazed on lush bluegrass. But a crucial, and significant, characteristic of this farm was the wage laborers who performed the back-breaking work. The labor and lives of the farm’s black workers, in particular, shows how Elmendorf helped reinforce a system of labor relations in central Kentucky, one peculiar to horse business and one segmented by race. Ultimately, this study of Elmendorf Farm shows the unforgettable imprint of Haggin’s complex personality, as well as his modern philosophies of business, but it also demonstrates conclusively the fallacy of an acquisitive nature and aggressive impulses in commercial animal breeding. As a powerful financier in the late nineteenth-century, Haggin’s perpetual objective was ever “large economies of scale.” Haggin made and lost fortunes by creating great industrial enterprises, and his Bluegrass stud proved no different—even if his individual actions meant defying the norm and jeopardizing entire industries. This best explains why the world’s greatest breeding and milking farm, in many ways, failed. When Haggin applied a dual logic of industrial and aristocratic expansion to a Kentucky breeding farm, the pedigree industry, however fragile and vulnerable, was pushed to extremes and instability of both horse and milk industries resulted. Those famed marble columns, the remaining evidence of Elmendorf Farm, now stands in a lush Bluegrass field, representing one of the most spectacular failures in modern agricultural history.

Cette recherche retrace les aspects manifestes et latents d’une rupture structurelle en Tunisie pendant la gouvernance de l’ancien Président Ben Ali (7 novembre 1987 - 14 janvier 2011), au niveau de la dynamique fonctionnelle entre l’instance politique et médiatique d’un côté et l’instance citoyenne de l’autre. Un soulèvement populaire s’est produit dans le pays entre décembre 2010 et janvier 2011 mettant fin au régime de Ben Ali, causé par nombres de facteurs économiques, sociaux et politiques. Cette rupture est aussi l’un des éléments pouvant expliquer cette révolte. Il a été question, dans ce travail, de démontrer les aspects du dysfonctionnement de la dynamique et les facteurs qui ont déclenché et renforcé un malaise populaire. Nous avons choisi d’aborder ce sujet d’un point de vue discursif, en observant et analysant l’interaction de la parole des trois composantes de l’espace public : la sphère politique, médiatique et citoyenne. Tout au long des deux décennies de Ben Ali, une corrélation non dissimulée s’est installée entre pouvoir politique et médias, dont le but est d’assurer et de maintenir la légitimation du président et de son régime. Dans cette corrélation l’instance citoyenne ainsi que sa parole sont écartées en tant qu’acteur actif participant à la vie politique. Elle est cependant présente comme objet d’autorité et d’instrumentalisation. Le fonctionnement et les réactions de cette instance face à un rôle bien assigné et bien défini de la part de l’alliance politico-médiatique ont été approchés à partir du socle conceptuel de la psychologie sociale. Mots-clés : discours politique, analyse de discours, discours de presse, opinion publique, persuasion, réception, psychologie sociale, Tunisie, Ben Ali. / This thesis traces the self-evident and less obvious aspects of the process that led to the overthrow in Tunisia of th regime of President Ben Ali (November 7th 1987 - 14th 2011); it centers on the dynamics behind the conflict between the media and political apparatus and the civilian population. The uprising between December 2010 and January 2011 ended in the dismantling of Ben Ali's regime, due mainly to economic and political factors. This study highlights the failures that led to popular discontent. We center on a discursive viewpoint, observing and analysing the interaction between three components of the public space: the political, media, and citizen spheres. Throughout Ben Ali's rule of two decades, political power and the media blatantly collaborated so as to maintain the legitimacy of the President and his system. This pact also put aside citizen expression, rendering them mute, as they were reduced to an instrument of those in power. We then studied how they sought emancipation and to alter their limited role via a social psychology approach.

Beginning in December 2010, Tunisian citizens used techniques of protest, resistance and intervention in a struggle for freedom from the systems that had for decades denied them agency, autonomy and dignity. As a result of their resistance, in January 2011 the Tunisian people successfully deposed the authoritarian president Ben Ali after 23 years in power. Though this movement began spontaneously and operated without designated leadership, the role of the national labor union - The Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail (UGTT) - was vital in mobilizing and directing the uprising. This thesis will interpret the events of the 2011 Tunisian uprising through the framework of civil resistance, as defined by Gene Sharp and Hardy Merriman. Through the use of political defiance and noncooperation, civil resistance employs nonviolent tactics to challenge and remove entrenched political leaders and systems. This study will analyze the Tunisian uprising and the role of the UGTT in the movement using three indicators of civil resistance success: unity, strategic planning, and nonviolent discipline. Despite sporadic incidents of violence, this thesis asserts that the 2011 Tunisian uprising successfully enacted nonviolent civil resistance, and the implementation of nonviolent political action has made the establishment of a genuine and lasting democracy a real possibility for the future. The UGTT were invaluable in the 2011 uprising as facilitators and collaborators with the Tunisian people, and currently function in a pivotal nonpartisan and objective intermediary political role. Though the outcome remains uncertain and the conclusion of the revolution in flux, the 2011 Tunisian uprising has set an example and a precedent for civil resistance to the rest of the world.

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