Research into the European Union (EU) increasingly focuses on the policy-making processes which take place within the EU, as distinct from trying to explain or predict the broad phenomenon of European integration. This thesis adopts a similar focus on EU policy-making. Policy-making in the EU is examined using a policy network approach. The main aim of the thesis is to assess how useful the policy network approach is as a means of explaining EU policy processes and policy outputs. The policy network approach is therefore applied not simply as a mechanism for describing patterns of interest intermediation but, rather, as a tool for explaining a new form of network governance in the EU. The thesis therefore aims to test the claims of the policy network literature that it can better account for policy-making in the EU than can more traditional approaches derived either from international relations (IR) or comparative politics (CP). The thesis applies a policy network approach to the study of EU environmental policy-making. Three case studies - on air quality, landfill and drinking water legislation - are examined, in order to assess whether a policy network approach can help explain the development of EU policy in these areas. Overall the thesis finds a useful role for policy network analysis in helping to explain EU policymaking and policy outputs. At the same time, however, the thesis confirms the limitations of the policy network approach at EU-level. Policy network analysis must therefore be combined with both IR and CP approaches in order to gain a fuller understanding of how EU policy is made.

After the onset of the Syrian civil conflict, over one million refugees and asylum seekers landed on Greece’s shores, and were met with chaotic asylum processing, uncoordinated non-governmental organizations, and generally debilitating discordance among all actors responsible for service provisions. (UNHCR, n.d.) Despite a long history of an obligation to burden sharing, the European Union failed to implement cross-regional policies to support Greece. And despite building policies to expedite immigration processing, the SYRIZA-led government in Greece failed to implement substantive improvement to the migratory pathway. Finally, this mismanagement is fatal, and has resulted in migrant isolation, entrapment, and in the worse cases, death. This research seeks to identify the causes of the persistence of this painful mismanagement of the humanitarian crisis, especially within camps, in Greece. To answer this question, this research will look at two common explanations for the mismanagement of camps: those that blame the Greek federal government and those that blame the European Union. Ultimately, however, this research will argue that it is the relationship between both the Greek state and the EU, marked by tension and discordance, which makes the problem of mismanagement of the crisis so persistent.

Little is known about the effects of transitional justice on the development of the rule of law in post-conflict states. There are assumptions in the literature that the prosecution of those responsible for human rights violations or convening a truth commission will help improve the rule of law. Using a mixed-method approach, which combined statistical analysis with in-country fieldwork, this investigation found that the impact of transitional justice, particularly trials, on the development of the rule of law is minimal and not automatic. In each of the four states examined, Colombia, Peru, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, meaningful effects from transitional justice were blocked by powerful post-conflict inhibiters, including a lack of state capacity, ethnicity and corruption. These findings indicate that prior assumptions about the relationship between transitional justice and the rule of law are overstated, and they point to the need for policymakers to simultaneously address these and other inhibiters while implementing transitional mechanisms.

Political corruption in the Caribbean Basin retards state economic growth and development, undermines government legitimacy, and threatens state security. In spite of recent anti-corruption efforts of intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations (IGO/NGOs), Caribbean political corruption problems appear to be worsening in the post-Cold War period. This dissertation discovers why IGO/NGO efforts to arrest corruption are failing by investigating the domestic and international causes of political corruption in the Caribbean. The dissertation’s theoretical framework centers on an interdisciplinary model of the causes of political corruption built within the rule-oriented constructivist approach to social science. The model first employs a rational choice analysis that broadly explains the varying levels of political corruption found across the region. The constructivist theory of social rules is then used to develop the structural mechanisms that further explain the region’s levels of political corruption. The dissertation advances its theory of the causes of political corruption through qualitative disciplined-configurative case studies of political corruption in Jamaica and Costa Rica. The dissertation finds that IGO/NGO sponsored anti-corruption programs are failing because they employ only technical measures (issuing anti-corruption laws and regulations, providing transparency in accounting procedures, improving freedom of the press, establishing electoral reforms, etc.). While these IGO/NGO technical measures are necessary, they are not sufficient to arrest the Caribbean’s political corruption problems. This dissertation concludes that to be successful, IGO/NGO anti-corruption programs must also include social measures, e.g., building civil societies and modernizing political cultures, for there to be any hope of lowering political corruption levels and improving Caribbean social conditions. The dissertation also highlights the key role of Caribbean governing elite in constructing the political and economic structures that cause their states’ political corruption problems.

The two decades preceding the global financial crisis of 2008 saw an increase in international migration flows. This development was accompanied by the relaxation of immigration entry controls for select categories of foreign workers across the developed world. The scale of labour immigration, and the categories of foreign workers granted entry, varied considerably across states. To some extent, these developments transcended the traditional classifications of comparative immigration politics. This thesis examines the reform process in two states with contrasting policy legacies that adopted liberal labour immigration selection and control policies during the abovementioned period. The instrumental role that immigration has played in the process of nation-building in Australia has led it to be classified as a 'traditional destination state' with a positive immigration policy legacy. By contrast, immigration has not been significant in the formation of national identity in the United Kingdom. It has a more negative immigration policy legacy and is generally regarded as a 'reluctant state'. Examining the reasons for liberal shifts in labour immigration policy in two states with different immigration politics allows insights to be gained into the processes of policy-making and the dynamics that underpin it. In Australia, labour immigration controls were relaxed incrementally and through a deliberative process. Reform was justified on the grounds that it fulfilled economic needs and objectives, and was consistent with an accepted definition of the national interest. In the UK, liberal shifts in labour immigration policy were the incidental consequence of the pursuit of objectives in other policy areas. Reform was implemented unilaterally, and in an uncoordinated manner characterised by an absence of consultation. The contrast in the manner in which reform was managed by the various actors, institutions and stakeholders involved in the process both reflected, and served to reinforce, the immigration policy legacies of the two states. Moreover, the Howard government used Australia's positive legacy to construct a coherent narrative to justify the implementation of liberal reform. This generated greater immediate and lasting support for its reforms among stakeholders and the broader community. By contrast, lacking a similarly positive legacy, the Blair government in the UK found it difficult to create such a narrative, which contributed to the unpopularity of its reforms. This thesis therefore argues that policy legacies had a significant impact on the processes and dynamics that shaped labour immigration selection and control decisions during the recent wave of international migration. The cases demonstrate that a nation's past immigration policy experiences shape its policy-making structures, as well as institutional and stakeholder policy preferences, which are core constituent components of a nation's immigration politics. The UK case shows that even when reluctant states implement liberal labour immigration policies, these characteristics tend to create feedback effects that make it difficult for reform to be durable. The relationship between immigration policy and politics thus becomes self-reinforcing. But this does not necessarily mean that states' immigration politics are rigid, since the institutions that help to make a nation's immigration policy and shape its politics will inevitably undergo a process of adaptation in response to changing contexts.

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

Why do militaries intervene in politics in some countries and not in others? Existing theories of civil-military relations do not adequately explain military politics around the world. This dissertation provides an alternative, political-economy explanation and argues that strength of property rights instituted by a state shapes the degree of civilian supremacy over its military. I show that secure property rights induce efficient allocation of resources and contribute to sustained economic growth, which helps accommodate group interests and increases trust among them. This helps create consensus among individuals and groups on the institutions of the state, which increases the legitimacy of the state and the credibility of its institutions. High levels of legitimacy and credibility of civilian institutions enable the state to make policy decisions independent of the military, thereby reducing the ability of the military to intervene in politics. Secure property rights also constrain the arbitrary behavior of the state to politicize the military and inspire the state to uphold merit-based, professional norms in the armed forces, which prevent spillover of social cleavages into the ranks of the military. This reinforces military professionalism and helps reduce the disposition of the military to intervene in politics. Finally, secure property rights provide incentives to the groups to uphold existing institutions and pursue their interests through the markets. As a result, groups refrain from “knocking on the door” of the military to secure their interests, which reduces the opportunity for the military to intervene in politics.

Few terms are more popular today than “collective security,” and few are used with such diverse meanings. Former Secretary of State Dean Acheson used the term no fewer than fourteen times in his address at the opening meeting of the Sixth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations on September 20, 1950. And, of course, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles had as the main purpose in negotiating the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty “to establish a collective security arrangement for Southeast Asia and the Eastern pacific.” To assess the true significance and possibilities of collective security in international affairs, the question must first be answered: What does “collective security” mean? The concept appears to be simple and self-explanatory. It has been defined by Georg Schwarzenberger as “machinery for joint action in order to prevent or counter any attack against an established international order.” It clearly implies collective measures for dealing with threats to peace. In a sense Ernest A. Gross, United States Deputy Representative to the United Nations, stated a truism when he declared: “There is no alternative to collective action for the achievement of security. The opposite of collective security is complete insecurity.” There are some who hold that regional security pacts add to international tensions, and may even hasten the catastrophe that are designed to prevent. It does not follow, however, that failure to take such steps may increase the prospects of peace. In fact, failure to provide regional security may add to the dangers and, in addition, may gravely jeopardize the security or even the national existence of the states which are so foolhardy as to trust altogether to the devices of peaceful settlement ina world where even the faintest sign of morality and decency are cast aside by nations who are not scrupulous as to the methods by which their materialistic ands are attained. The signatories to SEATO regard their organization as a necessity. In the face of present dangers in Southeast Asia they see no alternative.

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The function of the mass media in the democratic process is crucial to an informed public and vital to a democratic system. One primary role of the media is that of gatekeeper between political candidates and the public. The influence the media has on the electorate is heightened during the primary process of presidential elections and even more so in the pre-primary season when a large majority of potential voters have yet to form opinions of candidates. The effects of the media in the pre-primary season of politics play out in significant relationships where media coverage results in measurable increases in campaign contributions to the candidates included in this research, while the tone of content has no measurable influence. Although models that tested the ability to predict success in primaries failed to reach statistically significant levels, the raw data show high correlations between media coverage and candidate success.