Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Caren Addis. / Ph.D.

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Political Science, 2014. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 158-164). / This thesis examines the relationship between public opinion and the way senators vote on specific issues, and how this "responsiveness" might vary across income groups. The independent variable of interest, state-level income group preference, is estimated using multilevel regression and post-stratification (MRP) analysis. This is an improvement over earlier methods, particularly when modeling income group level opinion where there are insufficient sample sizes in national surveys. Income group opinions are found to be distinct across issue areas and the top ten percent of the income bracket are found to hold different opinions when compared to a more inclusively defined high-income group. Ideal point estimation is used to generate the dependent variable of senator responsiveness based on roll call votes. The first-stage MRP estimates of state-level income group opinion are then regressed on the corresponding senators' ideal points by issue area. While this paper expected the second stage analysis to support an Instructed-delegate model of responsiveness, where senators vote in accordance with constituents' interests, no evidence of such a relationship is found, even at the aggregate opinion level. The evidence suggests that senators are looking elsewhere when making their policy decisions. / by Elisha W. Heaps. / S.M.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 2013. / "February 2013." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-281). / Who makes claims on the state and how? This dissertation examines the processes through which citizens seek to secure public resources from the state and, by extension, the patterns of participation and citizen-state relations that emerge. Using the case of rural India, I explore whether and how citizens navigate their local environments to demand public services such as drinking water, health services and education, or access to welfare and poverty reduction programs. My fieldwork in the state of Rajasthan, consisting of 400 in-depth interviews and a survey of 2210 households across 105 villages, reveals variation in the incidence and practice of claim-making, ranging from those who do not engage the state at all, to direct petitioning of officials, to strategies mediated through non-state actors and informal institutions. Such variation cannot be adequately explained by an individual's socioeconomic status, by the characteristics of formal institutions, or by levels of development in a locality. Rather, I find that claim-making practice is shaped by the degree to which a person is exposed to people and settings across such social and spatial lines. Through ties that extend beyond the immediate community and locality, a person encounters information and ideas about the state and its resources as well as an array of contacts that provide linkages to the state. Socio-spatial exposure across divisions of caste, class, neighborhood, or village expands both the opportunities and knowledge necessary for citizen-state engagement, increasing both the likelihood as well as the breadth of claim-making practice. These findings shed critical light on our understanding of both distributive politics (who gets what from the state) and democratic practice (who participates and how). / by Gabrielle K. Kruks-Wisner. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 226-242). / by Stephen Bennett Page. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)-Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 2012. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 283-292). / Emerging economy governments commit to protect the property rights of foreign firms through a variety of contracts, from treaties to direct agreements. In an era of liberalized capital flows, these contracts are thought to be self-enforcing: the fear of capital exit compels governments to honor their obligations. But extraordinary variation in contract sanctity in countries around the world suggests the inadequacy of this view. This dissertation seeks to explain the varying pressures on emerging economy governments to honor or break contracts with foreign firms. I find that foreign firms' national origins play a key role in their contract sanctity. Firms of the same nationality are more likely to share political risks thanks to a variety of institutional and historical factors specific to the home-host country relationship. Co- national firms can also uniquely access diplomatic support. Shared risks and resources make firms more likely to act in ways costly to the host government when a co-national firm's contract is broken. In contrast, firms are likely indifferent to breach with firms of another nationality. These firm-level reactions generate a counterintuitive result in the host country as a whole. The more diverse foreign firms' national origins, the more space a host government has to compromise one national group's contract sanctity without threatening broader capital access. Using quantitative analysis, I demonstrate that firms differentially draw down FDI after government breach of contract with co-national firms. I also use over 130 interviews with foreign investors in Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania to demonstrate that co-national actors' protests are stronger and more effective when the foreign investor community is less nationally diverse. The theory offered here takes seriously the bilateral relationship embedded in each foreign investment transaction. Far from having faded from relevance in a world of economic globalization, bilateral relations shape foreign firm and diplomatic responses to breach. Because host governments breach contracts with certain foreign firms and are met with indifference by others, nationality diversity can be a liability to investors while providing an opening for governments to prioritize other goals over the property and preferences of foreign capital. / by Rachel L. Wellhausen / Ph.D.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Political Science, 2014. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 429-440). / Violent non-state actors have consistently served as a destabilizing force within the international system. These groups create a base within a state's sovereign territory, the "base state," and utilize this platform to mount conventional attacks, insurgencies, and terrorist campaigns against other states, with or without the support of the base state. Coercion directed at base states has been declared a central tenet of American Foreign policy and one that is shared by many states threatened by these groups. This study examines the efficacy of coercion as a tool to compel a state to halt the basing of violent non-state groups, a strategy which I call "transitive compellence." Empirically, employing transitive compellence has produced a broad range of outcomes. At times, this strategy has achieved its desired objective of inducing a state to contain the violent group, whereas at other junctures, these tactics have backfired. This study offers a theory to explain the conditions under which a base state can be successfully coerced into taking action against a violent group that resides within its borders and addresses why states have varying reactions to transitive compellence over time. I argue that the cost of compliance for the base state is shaped by the foreign policy and domestic political relationship between the violent group and the state. These components define the base state's cost-benefit calculation, which impacts the state's willingness to comply with the coercer's demands. The violent group's cross-border activity necessarily affects the base state's foreign policy, and thus the base state has a stake, positive or negative, in the international dimension of the group's action. Similarly, to the extent that the group resides within the base state, and interacts with its population and political system, the base state has a domestic stake as well. Specifically, acting against the group domestically triggers all of the costs and risks of a protracted political or military conflict with the group. Thus, it is necessary to examine the costs of -containing the violent group across both dimensions. These two distinct elements of the relationship each impose different and often conflicting costs and benefits for complying with the coercer's demands. Analyzing these components yields insights into the complex dynamic between the group and the state, as well as the magnitude of difficulty in severing these ties. This theory is tested with three longitudinal in-depth case studies where transitive compellence was utilized in an attempt to quell violent non-state actor activities: Israel vis-A-vis the Fedayeen in Jordan; Turkey vis-a-vis the PKK in Syria; and Turkey vis-a-vis the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan. A focused, structured comparison of these cases relied on interviews in the field with current and former policymakers, military personnel, journalists, academics, and analysts, in addition to extensive archival research, secondary historical materials, and media accounts. An analysis, within and across these cases, reveals strong support for the theory. / by Keren Eva Fraiman. / Ph. D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 277-303). / by Peter J. Liberman. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 2006. / Vita. / Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, p. 483-517). / The study seeks to explain the rise of "China threat" arguments in the United States and Japan in the 1990s by using three theories of states behavior- realism, organization theory, and democratic peace theory. The rise of "China threat" arguments occurred in the United States and Japan because of a convergence of several factors, the most important of which was the increase of China's relative power after the Cold War. The distribution of power among states strongly affects their intentions and military capabilities. The study introduces and suggests the importance of the strategic safety-net in shaping threat perception. A strategic safety-net emerges when state's survival depends on cooperation with another state. When the strategic safety-net exists, states suppress self-interested behavior and the ally's intentions are perceived as benign. Interviews with former government officials in the United States and Japan confirmed that strategic necessity restrained U.S. and Japanese behavior towards China during the Cold War and limited suspicion of China. The fraying of the strategic safety-net led to the advent of "China threat" arguments. / (cont.) The main difference between the United States and Japan was that whereas in the U.S. case threat perception was shaped by a primacy strategy, Japan had to face a preponderant United States and a rising China at the same time. "China threat" arguments were suppressed in Japan while Japan was unsure about its relationship with the United States. The consolidation of Japan's relationship with the United States led to a surge of"China threat" arguments in Japan in 2000. The interests of domestic organizations were not the major cause of the initial rise of "China threat" arguments. The relevant organizations, including the military services, made "China threat" arguments only after they gained currency within the society. The study also finds that China's undemocratic nature did not independently cause the perception of threat. / by Chikako Kawakatsu Ueki. / Ph.D.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Wenyun Liu. / M.S.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-137). / This thesis aims to find a solution to a commonly held problem of ethnic violence that is engendered by the press. Based on the premise that governmental influence on the press in the form of press restraints can prevent the recurrence of deadly ethnic violence, it argues for certain types of press restraints in societies that (1) are just emerging from ethnic conflict and (2) lack the societal norms and established institutions that stem from traditions of democracy, is formulated. Taking Singapore as a case study, it shows that race issues were progressively de-politicized from 1956 to 1972 as a consequence of governmental influence. The Singapore case is taken to illustrate the gains to be attained from press restraints, and also to point out some potential caveats that would need to be accounted for in policies regarding press restraints. / by Saleena Begum Saleem. / S.M.