This thesis addresses two central questions: How in the long run do Canadian citizens learn about politics? And how does long term experience with politics influence democratic political engagement? The theoretical framework employed in this study makes four basic assumptions about citizens: they are intendedly rational, they use cognitive shortcuts, they are adaptive, and they often face deep uncertainty about the political world. These core assumptions generate a broad set of expectations about how long term experience with politics systematically affects citizen behaviour. This evidence indicates that years of accumulated experience with Canadian politics fundamentally shapes the political outlooks and behaviours of Canadian citizens. Political experience affects whether citizens vote, whether they get the requisite political information that helps them to make reasoned political judgments, and how different considerations enter into their vote choices. Moreover, and despite their different backgrounds, long term experience with Canadian politics influences democratic political engagement among Canadian born citizens and immigrant Canadians in strikingly similar ways.

This thesis addresses two central questions: How in the long run do Canadian citizens learn about politics? And how does long term experience with politics influence democratic political engagement? The theoretical framework employed in this study makes four basic assumptions about citizens: they are intendedly rational, they use cognitive shortcuts, they are adaptive, and they often face deep uncertainty about the political world. These core assumptions generate a broad set of expectations about how long term experience with politics systematically affects citizen behaviour. This evidence indicates that years of accumulated experience with Canadian politics fundamentally shapes the political outlooks and behaviours of Canadian citizens. Political experience affects whether citizens vote, whether they get the requisite political information that helps them to make reasoned political judgments, and how different considerations enter into their vote choices. Moreover, and despite their different backgrounds, long term experience with Canadian politics influences democratic political engagement among Canadian born citizens and immigrant Canadians in strikingly similar ways.

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This study seeks to investigate perceptions on education’s effect on political efficacy among university students at University of Pristhina, Kosovo; as well as how that seems to inform political behavior. Education is believed to have important implications on political behavior, an important factor for this is internal and external political efficacy, which allows research to disentangle educational effects on the individual’s political behavior. In-depth interviews were conducted during a minor field study to examine these perceptions. Three ideal personality types were detected among the respondents in regard to their respective level of internal and external political efficacy, while the perception of how education informed these two components on the contrary was portrayed as uniform regardless of level of perceived political efficacy. It is found, in line with previous research, that education is perceived to increase internal political efficacy, making the individuals more confident in their capacity to understand and participate in politics. External political efficacy seems to be less informed by education and more so by the societal context in which the students find themselves. In a context such as Kosovo, which still struggles with its democratization process, this leads to low levels of external political confidence. Further studies are recommended to increase the understanding of, in particular, the external political efficacy among youths in Kosovo.

Mindre än hälften av svenska väljare uppger att de har stort förtroende för politiker. Kvantitativa data har legat till grund för tidigare forskning som sett samband mellan politikerförtroende och en mängd demografiska variabler. Kvalitativa studier inom ämnet saknas. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka skäl till att deltagare som haft förtroende för politiker tappat förtroendet i den utsträckningen att de inte röstat alternativt röstat blankt i 2018 års riksdagsval. Totalt intervjuades 9 män och 6 kvinnor med varierande ålder (25-63) och utbildningsnivå. Materialet analyserades tematiskt och följande teman identifierades: Politiker har låg trovärdighet, Missnöjd med systemet, Saknar partiidentifikation och En oacceptabel nivå. Deltagare gav ofta specifika exempel på situationer som lett till tappat politikerförtroende. Förtroende har åtminstone delvis tappats då deltagare inte anser att politiker är ärliga och att politiker inte lever upp till deltagarnas förväntningar. Fortsatta studier inom området rekommenderas för att ge en helhetsbild över tappat politikerförtroende.

This PhD thesis develops and tests a model of bargaining between foreign investors and domestic institutions in transition countries. For this purpose this research employs a mixed-methods research methodology combining three studies - two macro-level quantitative and one micro-level qualitative - examining various aspects of the relationships between institutional factors and the quality of inward foreign direct investment (iFDI) flows in transition economies (that is, the impact of iFDI on the host country institutional environment). Specifically, emphasizing the circular nature of the relationship between the applied variables, it attempts, firstly, to identify the impact of the institutional environment in post-Soviet and Central and Eastern European countries on the quality of FDI inflows, and, secondly, to determine whether and how this iFDI affects the quality of the host countries’ institutions. The analysis of the presence, size, and direction of the impact of iFDI is pursued through the study of foreign investors’ (FIs) nonmarket strategies with a special focus on political behavior. Despite the growing role of iFDI and of companies with FDI (especially MNEs) as one of the most important rent-seeking interest groups in many economies, the analysis of the impact of iFDI stocks and flows on the host country’s institutional environment has received much less attention than analysis of the impact of host country institutions on iFDI and has, moreover, produced mostly mixed results. This project is intended to fill this gap and to contribute to theory building on the relationships between iFDI quality, foreign investors’ political behavior, various aspects of institutional environment (including institutional voids), and institutional changes in host countries. It finds evidence for the hypothesis that certain combinations of patterns of quality of iFDI and host-country institutional variables determine foreign investors’ (FIs) political influence and political behavior and may also allow them to pursue their economic goals through manipulation of political regimes and, consequently, reshaping of the host country’s institutions in accordance with their strategic goals. The proposed model was tested quantitatively for a sample of 27 post-Socialist countries and qualitatively for the case of Ukraine. The results of all three studies provide evidence in support of this model. In particular, both quantitative panel studies provide evidence for the existence of ‘blind bargaining’ - a model depicting the cognitive situation of a foreign investor who lacks clarity on the situation he/she is in and, as a result is bound to act in conditions of extreme uncertainty due to the high degree of non-transparancy and instability of the “rules of the game” at any given moment and of their propensity for unpredictable change at any time in the future. ‘Blind bargaining’ originates from the specific state and society relationship that can be formed in neo-patrimonial host states where economic decisions are often not directed towards serving national interests, but towards supporting the personal aims of the officials in power. The first quantitative study shows and explains the attractiveness of such countries to riskier investors, who prefer relatively weak political regimes over stronger ones and who reduce their investment inputs once host states become more assertive. This model of relationships leads to the inflow of mostly ‘malign’ FDI (that is, iFDI that has a destabilizing impact on institutional competencies of recipient countries) into these economies. The second quantitative study examines the quality of iFDI flows in 12 post-Soviet states by determining the impact of attracted iFDI on local institutions, as measured by country risk indicators via a pooled regression model. The latter analysis shows that iFDI has a marginally negative effect on some individual country risk measures and a significantly negative effect on others, implying that there is a strong case for questioning the existing orthodoxy according to which the problems of transition can be overcome via increased iFDI. Given the complexity and context-specificity of foreign investors’ political behavior and its impact on host countries’ institutional capacities, this research acknowledges the need for a more targeted analysis at lower levels of aggregation. The thesis addresses this through a qualitative analysis of the relationships between foreign investors and host states in the context of one country - Ukraine. Interviews with company representatives and various experts were conducted to explore how changes in foreign investors’ bargaining power and, as a result, in their strategic choices regarding their political involvement impact the institutional environment in Ukraine. Based on the combination of empirical and theoretical insights described above, a ‘blind bargaining’ model was developed as a special case of the political bargaining model. It provides a comprehensive framework for explaining foreign investor – host state bargaining relationships in neopatrimonial transition economies and reveals several distinctive characteristics of both parties’ behavior in terms of their goals, resources, constraints, the nature of the bargaining process, strategies and outcomes. However, it is suggested that further country-specific tests are necessary to test its applicability beyond the transition countries, particularly in emerging and developing countries.

Organizational culture and organisational political behaviours are the unavoidable part of a company which has a direct impact on its decision making. The purpose of this paper aims to understand the influence of culture and organisational political behaviour in making a decision on going internationalisation of the Chinese company. Through reviewing the cultural literature, the researcher found the interrelation between culture and political behaviour in an organization. The authors then focus on three factors of political behaviour – investment, alternatives and trust – to study their influence in the decision-making process. We used qualitative research approach under which we made in-depth interview to collect the empirical data. These empirical data were analysed using content analysis method. Our findings show that both organisational culture and organisational political behaviour have a direct influence on the decision making of the company. Specifically, political factors like investment, alternatives and trust influence in the decision making of a company. The firm should consider those factors seriously to have a positive influence in its decision-making process.

Desde el año 2006, se ha dividido el voto indígena entre el movimiento político étnico Pachakutik y el movimiento Alianza País (AP), liderado por Rafael Correa, actual presidente del Ecuador. Este artículo busca una explicación esta división del voto, examinando el comportamiento político de los comuneros de Otavalo y Cotacachi, municipios de la sierra norte de Ecuador, bastiones del movimiento indígena. El escrito sostiene que el respaldo a Correa puede explicarse por tres factores: primero, la antigua relación de los indígenas con el Estado; segundo, un comportamiento electoral que combina confianza en líderes étnicos y pragmatismo político, y tercero, la expectativa de mayor presencia del Estado. Para realizar este estudio se empleó observación participante en los dos cantones para captar las prácticas de la población en el proceso político, encuestas para captar sus percepciones y datos electorales oficiales para ver los resultados. / Since 2006 the indigenous political vote has split between Pachakutik and Alianza País (AP). The latter is a political movement led by Rafael Correa, currently president of Ecuador. The article seeks an explanation for this distribution of the vote, examining the political behavior of the indigenous people of the Otavalo and Cotacachico unties of the northern Ecuadorean highlands. It argues that the support for Correa can be explained by several factors: (1) the historical relationship between indigenous people and the State; (2) an electoral behaviour that combines trust in ethnic leaders and pragmatism; and (3) an expectation of «more state presence». The study is based on two surveys of leaders and local population, participant observation and interviews, as well as a document review.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.