Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 30-39). / Under what circumstances can political entrepreneurs shape policy change? By relying upon the multiple streams framework, this research studies some of the factors that underpin decision-making in the public sector. Through a discussion of the process whereby Mexico became both the first developing country to permanently invite all international observers to monitor domestic human rights violations and the first country not undergoing a civil war to establish an Office of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, the case debates the extent of maneuvering room and the strategies of political entrepreneurs. The study suggests political entrepreneurs can shape policy change without steadfast support from neither elected officials nor a favorable domestic political environment. / by Bruno Verdini Trejo. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M. and S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 68-70). / In this thesis, I ask three questions about the nature of power transition theory. First, I ask whether power transition theory can be generalized beyond identification of great powers or regional hierarchies. Lemke and Werner introduce the concept of a multiple hierarchical order, in which mutually relevant regional powers can go to war over dissatisfaction with a regional status quo. I submit that this concept can be generalized into a continuous concept to include all states within the umbrella of the theory. Second, I ask how often status quo states initiate war in power transition cases. Jack Levy explains that status quo states have a motive to launch a preemptive war against a revisionist state, before it becomes too powerful to defeat. I submit that these motivations lead to a high incidence of status quo actor-initiated war in power transitions. Finally, I ask whether the rate of change of relative power matters during a transition period. I hypothesize that quick changes in the relative difference in power between two states would create a fast-closing window of opportunity. This closing window creates a crisis and motivates leaders to move quickly, leading to a higher probability of avoidable war. Incorporation of rate of power transition could explain war in power transition cases yet to achieve true parity, or even explain peace in a period of parity and revisionism. To test these questions, I create a large, inclusive (571,000+ N) dataset of nearly all dyads between 1821 and 2001, using the Correlates of War Composite Index of National Capabilities as the basis of power independent variables, and a composite of distance and power measurements to determine the relevance independent variable. I run a number of regressions of the power and relevance independent variables against the onset of war. I reach decisive conclusions about the nature of power dynamics in the international system, and propose their incorporation into the power transition literature. Generalized, continuous measurements of relevance, parity, and rate of change of power transition increase the explanatory power of the model; the revisionist state does not always or even usually provoke power transition war; finally, higher rates of power transition lead to a higher probability of war. The thesis ends with a number of shortfalls with the model I propose, and a number of further revisions and expansions of power transition theory. / by Erik Fogg. / S.M.and S.B.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 322-334). / This dissertation examines the regulation of conflicts of interest involving state legislators through the passage of ethics laws during the period from 1954-1996. The aim is to explain why legislators, who are notoriously loathe to regulate their own ethics, enacted a range of ethics laws during this time. I use a mixture of qualitative case studies and regression analysis at the individual and state levels, in order to explain the factors that lead legislators to oppose ethics reforms and the circumstances which facilitated refine success. Three main factors account for legislators' positions on ethics proposals: economic self-interest, institutional power, and ideology. Despite these reasons for opposing regulation, legislators agreed to enact ethics laws under certain conditions. Scandals and media attention to the problem of legislative ethics, as well as the efforts of governors and public interest groups, helped facilitate reform. In addition, the initiative process was a powerful weapon used by reform advocates, both for the enactment of new laws and the authorities of independent ethics commissions. While these outside actors and institutions played a critical role in explaining the likelihood and extent of reform, institutional features within the legislature itself also shaped the outcome of reform efforts. Although many states enacted relatively comprehensive ethics laws, these laws contained important concessions made to legislators in the course of bargaining with governors and public interest groups. Further, when it came to enforcement of the new laws, legislators have maintained close control over the new commissions, using methods such as appointment of commissioners, budgetary control, and legal challenges. Consequently, few state ethics commissions with jurisdiction over legislators have sufficient power and independence to carry out their mandate. Overall, the new legislative ethics laws and their enforcement are consistent with a picture of legislators as rational actors concerned with maintaining their economic wellbeing and institutional power, as well as legislative autonomy and power with regard to the executive branch. / by Beth Anne Rosenson. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 1986. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY. / Bibliography: leaves 387-410. / by Michael C. Ryan. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY. / Bibliography: leaves 578-603. / by Thomas WestermanWolf. / Ph.D.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Political Science, 2015. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 514-540). / Why do states that consider one another enemies opt to pursue cooperation instead of continue conflict? When do states replace military competition with normal interstate politics? This dissertation proposes and tests a new theory to explain the emergence of peace between rivals. It finds that economic crises create incentives for national leaders to pursue conciliatory behavior toward strategic rivals, but these incentives are disrupted when leaders face veto players within their government. Economic urgency motivates leaders to consider new policies, compelling them to focus their attention on revising rather than merely sustaining core elements of their state's grand strategy. Economic necessity is insufficient, however, since the presence of competing power centers within a government raises the political cost of pursuing new policies. Even when leaders perceive peace to be in the national interest, they are unlikely to be able to transform relations with a rival so long as internal veto players exist. Only when both economic need and political capability are present is rivalry termination possible. To test this theory, this dissertation utilizes a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. It employs process tracing and congruence procedure in detailed studies of the history of four cases: the U.S.-Soviet rivalry from 1964 to 1989, the Sino-Soviet rivalry from 1958 to 1989, the Sino-U.S. rivalry from 1958 to 1972, and the Indo-Pakistani rivalry from 1947-1999. These cases provide substantial within- and across-case variation in the variables important for domestic primacy theory, as well as variation associated with potential alternative explanations that might confound hypothesis testing if excluded from the analysis. These historical accounts are supplemented with quantitative data on the universe of over 100 strategic rivalries since World War II, 67 of which have terminated. Using this data, I demonstrate that rivalries are more than three times as likely to end when conditions are favorable according to domestic primacy theory than they are when conditions are unfavorable. / by Christopher Oren Clary. / Ph. D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 2011. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / What explains the puzzling variation in America's foreign policy posture? This study proposes and tests a theory of American grand strategy that places an emphasis on two key variables: the ideological content of American liberalism and geopolitical conditions abroad. It distinguishes between two varieties of thought within the American liberal tradition-termed negative liberty and positive liberty-and deduces implications for American foreign policy from their content. Differing concepts of liberty cause American statesmen to adopt different interpretations of international threats, different choices in managing strategic trade-offs, and different preferences for military and diplomatic policy tools. Systemic pressures also integrate strategic ends and means, making foreign policy more coherent over time. These propositions are united together with several insights from geopolitical theories to form a Theory of Liberal Foreign Policy (TLFP), which predicts America will pursue distinct grand strategies under different ideological and systemic conditions. This study uses a variety of primary source documents to measure TLFP's variables and assess its theoretical power. TLFP is tested through five structured, focused comparisons of American grand strategy towards Europe in the twentieth century: American foreign policy in the period of the Great War (1914-1920); under the interwar Republicans (1921-1932); in the run-up to World War Two (1937-1941); during the origins of the Cold War (1945-1952); and at the strategic transition of America's Cold War strategy (1953-1963). Each case tests for congruence between TLFP's independent variables and its predicted strategic outcomes, as well as searching for process-tracing evidence expected by the theory. The general finding is that TLFP does indeed explain the major variation in American grand strategy during the twentieth century, although other factors do exert an impact. The study makes several contributions. First, it explains an empirical puzzle that has previously resisted a unitary interpretation. In so doing, it suggests that existing realist, liberal, and domestic political theories of American foreign policy are in need of revision. Second, it advances scientific knowledge by synthesizing the best elements of past theorizing into a new theory that generates unique predictions. Third, and novelly, it advances our understanding of liberal ideology by suggesting that variation in liberal approaches to foreign policy is caused by variation in the content of liberalism itself, rather than changes in the international environment. / by Brendan Rittenhouse Green. / Ph.D.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 2011. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 122-129). / The thesis seeks to provide an understanding of reasons for different outcomes of airport ground access projects. Five in-depth case studies (Hongkong, Tokyo-Narita, London- Heathrow, Chicago- O'Hare and Paris-Charles de Gaulle) and eight smaller case studies (Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Shanghai-Pudong, Bangkok, Beijing, Rome- Fiumicino, Istanbul-Atatirk and Munich- Franz Josef Strauss) are conducted. The thesis builds on existing literature that compares airport-rail links by explicitly considering the influence of the institutional environment of an airport on its ground access situation and by paying special attention to recently opened dedicated airport expresses in Asia. It is found that sustained government support and a sense of urgency for better airport access are the main motivating forces that need to be present if a dedicated airport express is to be constructed. For these reasons a number of dedicated airport express systems were constructed in Asia (Hong Kong, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Shanghai, Bangkok), where they were conceived simultaneously with the airports they serve. In cases with less focused objectives (Chicago, Paris, Chicago) lengthy planning periods have not yet led to the construction of an airport-rail link. London was the first airport-rail link in the Western world and exhibited strong government support for rail investments during a period of generally favorable conditions, which jointly led to the construction of the Heathrow Express. Five of eight dedicated systems that are studied exhibit underestimation of ridership and underestimation of delivery time. The finding replicates for Asian examples (Hong Kong, Seoul, Bangkok, Shanghai) Flyvbjerg's (2009) observations on UK and US examples that transportation projects tend to systematically overestimate project benefits. The enduring and systematic overestimates of ridership hint at deliberate strategic misrepresentation rather than psychological optimism bias or technical error as reason for the erroneous estimates. Planners are advised to be aware of incentives for strategic misrepresentation among public and private agencies that prepare technical studies as basis for decision making. In a number of systems that have dedicated rail service to an airport and are generally considered successful, fierce competition from buses has emerged recently (Hong Kong, Tokyo, London). It is recommended to planners of airport-rail links today to consider realization through bus rapid transit on dedicated rights-of-way in addition to airport-rail links because of their lower cost, wider scope in dropoff and pick-up destinations and easier scalability of capacity in times of low demand. / by Julia Nickel. / S.M.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Political Science. Thesis. 1969. M.S. / Bibliography: leaves 252-265. / M.S.

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