Since Independence in 1947, India has been internally reorganized several times, and new states have been carved out of old ones for various reasons. The latest stage of reorganization occurred in 2000 when the states of Uttaranchal (Uttarakhand), Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh came into being from the remodelling of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh respectively. The three new states have their under-development in common as well as their sense of injustice about regional exploitation. This research focuses on the case study of Bihar and Jharkhand, situated in the Eastern part of India's Northern Hindi-speaking belt. Two distinct threads are followed: a top-down approach which asks why the central government decided to split Bihar; and a bottom-up approach wondering how the local population -- specifically the tribal one -- managed, throughout the years, to gain political power and to obtain their long-wanted -- yet truncated -- autonomous state within the Indian federation.

Le pancanadianisme est au coeur des débats politiques au Canada, particulièrement depuis le rapatriement de la Constitution en 1982. Selon un bon nombre de définitions classiques, le nationalisme pancanadien se caractérise par le "centralisme" et l'"anti-américanisme" (voir Bashevkin 1991). En outre, depuis 1947, la citoyenneté -- et plus particulièrement la citoyenneté sociale -- a representé la pierre angulaire du discours officiel pancanadianiste (Bourque et Duchastel 1996). Ces composantes centrales du pancanadanisme semblent toutefois en tension avec le climat institutionnel des dernières années. La Charte canadienne des droits et libertés, la reconfiguration de l'État providence et l'adoption du libre-échange nord-américain remettent en question les fondements du discours pancanadianiste, de la nature de la citoyenneté a la possibilité même d'un discours anti-américain. Quelles ont donc été les incidences de ces transformations institutionnelles sur le discours identitaire pancanadianiste? L'objectif de la thèse est d'analyser le caractère structurant de ces changements sur le discours pancanadianiste d'intellectuels publics et de peser ensuite les implications normatives de ces transformations pour la reconnaissance interne. L'hypothèse est que les transformations de l'État fédéral ont apporté deux principales reconfigurations. Premièrement, les réformes constitutionnelles des gouvernements Trudeau ont favorisé le passage d'un pancanadianisme à priori à un pancanadianisme à posteriori. Deuxièmement, les réformes néolibérales de Mulroney et de Chrétien ont favorisé une transformation à l'intérieur même de la structure des pancanadianismes à priori et à posteriori. Après la revue des écrits et la présentation du cadre théorique et méthodologique de la thèse au chapitre 1, la vérification de l'hypothèse se fera en trois étapes. Le chapitre 2 définit et situe le pancanadianisme au sein de la "conversation canadienne" (Webber 1994). Plutôt que d'être structuré autour de trois principaux récits (Un Canada, Deux Canadas et Mosaïque culturelle), la conversation canadienne révèle la présence d'une multitude de récits nationaux, organisés autours de deux principales idées. D'abord, celle d'une fondation à priori (dans laquelle l'expérience contemporaine est guidée par l'identité canadienne) et ensuite, celle d'une fondation à posteriori (dans laquelle l'expérience contemporaine crée l'identité canadienne). Le chapitre 3 observe l'évolution du discours officiel, d'abord d'un canadianisme anglo-saxon à un pancanadianisme à priori après la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, et ensuite à un pancanadianisme à posteriori sous Trudeau. Depuis Mulroney, le pancanadianisme à posteriori a été profondément remis en question et tend à adopter un visage économique. Le chapitre 4 présente les résultats de l'analyse d'un corpus de textes pancanadianistes et observe que le discours de certains intellectuels publics, comme le discours officiel, passe d'un pancanadianisme à priori a un pancanadianisme à posteriori. Toutefois, la grille de lecture permet de raffiner l'analyse en observant une deuxième transition dans le discours, soit le passage du pancanadianisme à priori au pancanadianisme à posteriori à des pancanadianismes à priori 2 et à posteriori 2. Dans ces pancanadianismes, les institutions et l'anti-américanisme en tant que moyen de fermeture identitaire cèdent le pas à un nouveau moyen de fermeture, à savoir l'idée d'une "complexité interne (point)", dans lequel le "soi complexe (point)" est désormais la principale définition de l'identité pancanadienne. La thèse permet d'attribuer en partie ces transformations au nouveau contexte institutionnel en place. Par conséquent, il semble que la reconnaissance des groupes internes sera de plus en plus difficile, au fur et à mesure que ce brouillage interne se poursuit.

This thesis explores the meaning of effective representation for Official Language Minority groups in Canada. After examining different theories of representation and describing the evolution of Canada's system of representation since Confederation, we turn to the federal court case of Raiche v Canada to better uncover the recent discourse around federal representation for groups identified as "communities of interest" or identity." As the first court case in Canadian history to overturn the redistribution proposed by a Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission based on a community's linguistic rights, Raiche v Canada set a precedent for defining communities of interest and identity to include Official Language Minority groups. In this sense, it set the groundwork for asserting more substantial consideration of these communities' rights in the electoral boundary redistribution process and for ensuring more effective representation for national minorities within federal institutions. While Raiche v Canada demonstrates a significant step forward in realizing meaningful representation for communities of interest and identity, this thesis concludes that achieving effective representation for Official Language Minority groups will require the reimagining and redefinition of representation in Canada.

This thesis explores the changing shape of colonial governmentality in Canada through an examination of the complex relationship between the representation and treatment of Indigenous women in Canada and power relations underlying the creation of "healing prisons" run for Indigenous women offenders. It is hypothesized that there is a mutually constitutive connection between the discursive and literal space of death faced by Indigenous women in Canada, and the deployment of specialized prisons as a gendered and raced political technology of the colonial state. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical perspectives to search for the reciprocal links between these disparate phenomena, this paper analyses dominant discourses to understand the emergence of new responsibilizing forms of colonial governance with particularly gendered effects. It concludes with an examination of the possibilities for utilizing a similar de-colonizing critique to counter emerging forms of colonial governance in the contemporary neo-liberal state.

Cette thèse porte sur le concept de fédéralisme asymétrique. Elle étudie les actions politiques et les discours des gouvernements libéraux de Jean Lesage (1960-1966) et de Jean Charest (2003-2008) dans une perspective normative du fédéralisme. Sur le plan théorique, elle propose deux avenue en précisant la distinction entre fédérations et fédéralismes. D'une part, une typologie novatrice sur les " politiques de diversité et diversités de politiques " souhaite recontextualser l'utilisation tous azimuts de la notion d'asymétrie. Une définition plus circonscrite est par la suite formulée, avec l'appui de la philosophie libérale qui confronte les arguments normatifs à propos du rôle de l'asymétrie dans un État multinational. La réflexion conclut à l'adéquation entre le fédéralisme asymétrique et la reconnaissance des nations internes. L'étude comparative démontre une tension dans le souhait des libéraux québécois de voir reconnaître la dualité culturelle canadienne sans reformer l'ordre constitutionnel. Jean Lesage a découvert la nécessité pour le Québec d'obtenir un statut particulier, sans y parvenir, tout en laissant un héritage fort revendicateur pour les gouvernements subséquents. La position constitutionnelle du gouvernement Charest, avec un discours parfois nationaliste, mais volontairement abstrait, opère une transition, à l'intérieur même des demandes québécoises, vers l'appropriation d'un discours sur l'égalité des dix provinces. Ne demeure que des innovations intergouvernementales où Ottawa dicte ses préférences, dans ses domaines de compétences, tout comme dans ceux des provinces.

This dissertation looks at migrant-background voters in Germany and the Netherlands to explain variations in descriptive representation in these two countries, and to find mechanisms which may explain the broad variations in descriptive representation seen throughout Europe. Open-list, preferential voting systems are examined and shown to provide methods by which migrant-background voters are able to coordinate on candidates from their origin group, increasing their success as candidates being elected to local and national legislatures. Additionally, the effect that initial successful candidates may have on later candidates from the same group is explored. These effects are first examined in this dissertation by comparing across candidates within the Dutch parliamentary elections of 2012, validating earlier survey results suggesting that members of one's own ethnic community can be a strong source of support for migrant-background candidates. Second, a comparison of city councils in Germany operating under different voting rules demonstrates find a significant, independent connection between the presence of preferential voting rules and the representation of immigrant minorities. A final comparison of candidates in two German cities before and after cumulative voting was implemented finds further connections between preferential voting and greater migrant representation, but also shows a number of potential confounding factors, such as the degree to which immigrant groups are formally organized, and finds political parties to be important mediators of these candidates' success.

This dissertation seeks to explain the behavior of one of the most activist high courts in the world, the Colombian Constitutional Court, since its creation in 1991. The standard approach within the field emphasizes political competition or fragmentation as an explanation for judicial independence. This literature tells a standard story about (1) the origins of independent constitutional courts, (2) the durability of those courts, and (3) their behavior. None of those stories accurately explain the Colombian case. Study of the antecedents of the Constitutional Court shows that the Court was not a case of “independence by design.” Instead, designers hoped to create a body that would be closer to the prevailing political regime than the existing Supreme Court. Judicial power in Colombia was built up over very long periods of time, and was based on judicial usefulness to prevailing political regimes, rather than its distance from those regimes. Further, the Court has constructed doctrinal tools to allow it to intervene across a wide range of areas and has used judicial decisions to cultivate the support of academics, civil society, and the middle class. It is the support of these groups, rather than political fragmentation, which has been decisive in shaping the Court and in protecting it from court-curbing and court-packing efforts. The ultimate test of the Court’s power was the aggressive attacks of the Uribe administration: the Court used its alliances to survive the threat posed by a popular and powerful president, and eventually managed to confront this administration by blocking a constitutional amendment that would likely have given President Uribe an unprecedented third term in office. In Colombia and beyond, focusing on the ways in which judiciaries are embedded into historical regime dynamics, and on the choices made by justices to carve out their own political space, can help to provide richer explanations for judicial behavior and more nuanced assessments of the effects of judicial activism.

High levels of political trust and approval are believed to be the basis of a healthy democracy. Attempts to gauge citizens’ political attitudes have flourished in the past decades, but political science has yet to converge on a valid – and cross-nationally comparable – measure of popular political approval. Meanwhile, from New York City’s Zucconi Park to Istanbul’s Gezi Park, from Madrid’s Puerta Del Sol to Cairo’s Tahrir square, popular political discontent is on the rise and historic manifestations of it remain difficult to interpret, reverse, or anticipate. The essays in this manuscript introduce a new measure of political approval and propose a different institutional interpretation of the determinants of political trust. The first essay, “Individual Blank Voting, Mobilized Protest Voting, and Voting Abstention,” compares different forms of electoral dissent – individual blank voting, mobilized null voting, and voting abstention – across Italy and in the Basque Country of Spain. It demonstrates that the least studied of the three – blank voting – expresses the most conscious and educated rejection of political candidates, parties, and electoral systems. The second essay, “Measuring Discontent and Predicting Trouble,” proposes the use of unconventional voting as a powerful alternative metric of popular electoral approval, by showing the existence of a systematic link between blank and null voting, and larger popular protests. I demonstrate that the rate of blank and null voting at the national level is a reliable proxy of larger popular discontent and an effective predictor of future protests. As such, it is comparable to other widely used measures of perceived electoral quality and popular approval, while being much less costly, time consuming, and with greater disaggregation potential. In the last essay, “Corruption and Trust in Institutions, Evidence from Israel,” Noam Gidron and I exploit a natural experiment offered by Israel’s unique immigration law, which expedites naturalization for Jewish immigrants. We find that cultural norms, as shaped by levels of corruption in immigrants’ sending countries, affect only their initial levels of trust, while subsequent exposures to socially inclusive institutions (e.g., the military) shape a mature and more positive political attitude. / Government

This dissertation examines American attitudes about taxation. Surveys and interviews shed new light on how Americans think about four fundamental questions: Should one pay taxes, and if so, how much? Who pays their fair share of taxes in America, and who does not? Where should tax money go? How well do we decide how to spend tax money? In considering these four questions, my respondents talked about their feelings of fellowship with others in the political community; their doubts about the quality of their representation in government, and their beliefs about the extent to which work is fairly rewarded. But they could not always identify the tax policies that would enact their values and ideals. They suffered from certain systematic misperceptions that are reinforced both by media discourses and by the day-to-day experience of taxpaying. As a result, their policy preferences are an imperfect mirror of the interests they hold. Specifically, while they see taxpaying as a moral commitment to the community, they tend to underrate the tax contributions made by the poor—a mistake that is reinforced by the taxpaying process. At the same time, the respondents take income tax filing as an annual reminder that government operates beyond the comprehension of average Americans and for the benefit of the wealthy few. Finally, though most they believe the rich need to pay more in taxes, their experiences of the tax system leave them misinformed about the tax reforms that would achieve this end. / Social Policy

This collection of six essays makes novel methodological contributions to causal inference, time-series cross-sectional forecasting, and supervised text analysis. The first three essays start from the premise that while randomized experiments are the gold standard for causal claims, randomization is not feasible or ethical for many questions in the social sciences. Researchers have thus devised methods that approximate experiments using nonexperimental control units to estimate counterfactuals. However, control units may be costly to obtain, incomparable to the treated units, or completely unavailable when all units are treated. We challenge the commonplace intuition that control units are necessary for causal inference. We propose conditions under which one can use post-treatment variables to estimate causal effects. At its core, we show when one can obtain identification of causal effects by comparing treated units to other treated units, without recourse to control units. The next two essays demonstrate that the U.S. Social Security Administration's (SSA) forecasting errors were approximately unbiased until about 2000, but then began to grow quickly, with increasingly overconfident uncertainty intervals. Moreover, the errors all turn out to be in the same potentially dangerous direction, each making the Social Security Trust Funds look healthier than they actually are. We also discover the cause of these findings with evidence from a large number of interviews we conducted with participants at every level of the forecasting and policy processes. Finally, the last essay develops a new dataset for studying the influence of business on public policy decisions across the American states. Compiling and digitizing nearly 1,000 leaked legislative proposals made by a leading business lobbying group in the states, along with digitized versions of all state legislation introduced or enacted between 1995 and 2013, we use a two-stage supervised classifier to categorize state bills as either sharing the same underlying concepts or specific language as business-drafted model bills. We find these business-backed bills were more likely to be introduced and enacted by legislatures lacking policy resources, such as those without full-time members and with few staffers. / Government