Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 2, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dr. A. Cooper Drury, Dissertation Chair. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This study is an attempt to contribute to the emerging theoretical literature on state repression. A time-series model was developed to test the hypothesis that state violence in Argentina and Chile is largely a function of four internal political factors and their interactions: 1) the inertial influence of past restrictive policies on the formulation of current policies, 2) the annual incidence of political protest demonstrations, 3) the perceived effectiveness of repressive measures on unrest, 4) and the institutionalization of military rule.

This study develops a model of different types of political regime changes and their effect on life integrity violations. The data covers 147 countries from 1977-1993. Basic bivariate analyses and multivariate pooled cross-sectional time series analyses employing Ordinary Least Squares regression with panel-corrected standard errors are used. The results show that political regime change in general has no effect on state-sponsored violence. Looking at different types of regime changes, the regression analysis indicates that change from democracy to anocracy is positively correlated with levels of repression at the level of p < .001. A change toward democracy from autocracy is negatively related to human rights violations at the level of p < .01, once relevant control variables are considered.

How do autocrats maintain power? In many cases, autocrats lack the support of a majority of the population. This problem is particularly stark in electoral autocracies, where autocrats must generate millions of favorable votes in order to stay in power. Coercion, or the forcible exclusion of some segments of the population from power, is one tool that many autocrats use to solve this problem. However, creating coercive institutions is also dangerous for autocrats, as the same forces that can be used to coerce citizens can also be used to depose or demand resources from the autocrat himself. In the first paper, I contend that autocracies can use the psychological effects of fear to coerce citizens at a lower cost and at lower personal risk. This psychological theory of autocratic coercion has two core implications that I test. First, I use a lab-in-the-field experiment to show that the emotion of fear reduces participation in pro-democracy action, and that this may work through its effects on perceptions of risk and risk attitudes. Second, I show using correlational evidence that propensity to feel fear predicts variation in participation in dissent. In the second paper, I examine how poverty conditions the way that citizens respond to the threat of coercion. I argue that poverty may make coercion more effective in reducing citizen dissent both by making citizens more prone to fear, and by increasing their physical vulnerability to violence. I test this prediction at the individual and constituency level using data on public opinion and voting in Zimbabwe, drawing on random variation in recent exposure to violence and poverty. The third paper tests whether emotions can also be used by activists to increase dissent among citizens with anti-regime preferences. I partnered with an opposition party that ran an experimental test of angry against enthusiastic campaign messages using video and images sent out via mobile phone chat groups. Analysis of the transcripts of these groups shows that the anger appeals generated significantly more pro-opposition participation in the groups. There is some evidence that anger was most effective in constituencies that had experienced violence in the past.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-123). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:32:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-08-23Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T21:04:14Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 lacerdafilho_m_dr_fran.pdf: 1151882 bytes, checksum: 967a1d0a3a618c913404c8a86916a1f8 (MD5) / O objetivo desta pesquisa é compreender a experiência da clandestinidade através da memória social, em relatos orais de ex-militantes que foram clandestinos entre 1964 e 1979. Pretende-se, também, entender como eram construídas e mantidas as suas redes de sociabilidades ─ uma vez que delas dependiam sua sobrevivência ─ e mapear a tensão permanentemente vivida por eles em função de serem obrigados a se manterem numa situação limítrofe. Importante ressaltar que as vozes desses atores políticos apontam para uma multitonalidade, e, por isso, ambiciona-se buscar um sentido para a pluralidade de verdades que brotam desses relatos. O desafio é recompor trajetórias individuais em uma trajetória coletiva, através da explicitação de valores de referência comuns aos discursos e a um núcleo de sentido. Ademais, esperamos, nesse trabalho, mostrar como a vida subjetiva desses ex-militantes interferiram nas suas decisões políticas. A clandestinidade como vivência traumática também será investigada por esse estudo. As fontes de pesquisa são os relatos de ex-militantes pertencentes a algum tipo de organização clandestina. Estes relatos foram colhidos entre os anos de 2004 a 2010. Para o tratamento metodológico das fontes, sobretudo as de cunho oral, dialogamos com Maurice Halbwachs, Verena Alberti, Elizabeth Ferreira e Marieta de Moraes Ferreira. Para as análises que partem da concepção da experiência clandestina como traumática e catastrófica, utilizaremos nesse trabalho as discussões teóricas propostas por Márcio Seligmann-Silva acerca da relação história e catástrofe. Ainda nessa mesma linha, utilizaremos os pontos de vista de Jeanne Marie Gagnebin. Tendo em vista que o tema da clandestinidade exige uma interpretação polifônica, conceitos psicanalíticos – trauma, sublimação, resistência, dentre... / The aim of this research is to understand the experience of furtiveness by the social memory, in oral histories of former militants who were illegal immigrants between 1964 and 1979. The aim is also to understand how they were constructed and maintained their networks of sociability ─ since their survival depended on them ─ and map the permanently tension experienced by them due to being forced to remain in a border situation. Importantly, the voices of these political actors point to a multi-tonal, and, therefore, aims to get a feel for the plurality of truths that spring from these accounts. The challenge is to reconstruct individual trajectories on a collective journey through the explicitness of reference to the speeches and a common core of meaning. Furthermore, we hope, in this work, to show how the subjective life of exmilitants interferes in their political decisions. The undercover as traumatic experience will also be investigated in this study. The research sources are the accounts of former militants belonging to some kind of underground organization. These reports were collected from 2004 to 2010. For the treatment of methodological sources, especially the nature of the oral ones, we will dialogue with Maurice Halbwachs, Verena Alberti, Elizabeth Ferreira, Marieta de Moraes Ferreira. For the analysis starting from the conception of illegal experience as traumatic and catastrophic, we will use in this work the theoretical discussions proposed by Márcio Seligmann-Silva about the relation between history and catastrophe. Still in this same line, we will use the views of Jeanne Marie Gagnebin. Given that the issue requires an interpretation of hiding polyphonic, psychoanalytic concepts - trauma, sublimation, resistance, among others - will be discussed. Hence, Sigmund Freud and Melanie Klein’s texts have been analyzed... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Orientador: Samuel Alves Soares / Banca: Sandra Mara Dantas / Banca: Paulo Ribeiro Rodrigues Cunha / Banca: Márcia Pereira da Silva / Banca: Eduardo Mei / Resumo: O objetivo desta pesquisa é compreender a experiência da clandestinidade através da memória social, em relatos orais de ex-militantes que foram clandestinos entre 1964 e 1979. Pretende-se, também, entender como eram construídas e mantidas as suas redes de sociabilidades ─ uma vez que delas dependiam sua sobrevivência ─ e mapear a tensão permanentemente vivida por eles em função de serem obrigados a se manterem numa situação limítrofe. Importante ressaltar que as vozes desses atores políticos apontam para uma multitonalidade, e, por isso, ambiciona-se buscar um sentido para a pluralidade de verdades que brotam desses relatos. O desafio é recompor trajetórias individuais em uma trajetória coletiva, através da explicitação de valores de referência comuns aos discursos e a um núcleo de sentido. Ademais, esperamos, nesse trabalho, mostrar como a vida subjetiva desses ex-militantes interferiram nas suas decisões políticas. A clandestinidade como vivência traumática também será investigada por esse estudo. As fontes de pesquisa são os relatos de ex-militantes pertencentes a algum tipo de organização clandestina. Estes relatos foram colhidos entre os anos de 2004 a 2010. Para o tratamento metodológico das fontes, sobretudo as de cunho oral, dialogamos com Maurice Halbwachs, Verena Alberti, Elizabeth Ferreira e Marieta de Moraes Ferreira. Para as análises que partem da concepção da experiência clandestina como traumática e catastrófica, utilizaremos nesse trabalho as discussões teóricas propostas por Márcio Seligmann-Silva acerca da relação história e catástrofe. Ainda nessa mesma linha, utilizaremos os pontos de vista de Jeanne Marie Gagnebin. Tendo em vista que o tema da clandestinidade exige uma interpretação polifônica, conceitos psicanalíticos - trauma, sublimação, resistência, dentre... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The aim of this research is to understand the experience of furtiveness by the social memory, in oral histories of former militants who were illegal immigrants between 1964 and 1979. The aim is also to understand how they were constructed and maintained their networks of sociability ─ since their survival depended on them ─ and map the permanently tension experienced by them due to being forced to remain in a border situation. Importantly, the voices of these political actors point to a multi-tonal, and, therefore, aims to get a feel for the plurality of truths that spring from these accounts. The challenge is to reconstruct individual trajectories on a collective journey through the explicitness of reference to the speeches and a common core of meaning. Furthermore, we hope, in this work, to show how the subjective life of exmilitants interferes in their political decisions. The undercover as traumatic experience will also be investigated in this study. The research sources are the accounts of former militants belonging to some kind of underground organization. These reports were collected from 2004 to 2010. For the treatment of methodological sources, especially the nature of the oral ones, we will dialogue with Maurice Halbwachs, Verena Alberti, Elizabeth Ferreira, Marieta de Moraes Ferreira. For the analysis starting from the conception of illegal experience as traumatic and catastrophic, we will use in this work the theoretical discussions proposed by Márcio Seligmann-Silva about the relation between history and catastrophe. Still in this same line, we will use the views of Jeanne Marie Gagnebin. Given that the issue requires an interpretation of hiding polyphonic, psychoanalytic concepts - trauma, sublimation, resistance, among others - will be discussed. Hence, Sigmund Freud and Melanie Klein's texts have been analyzed... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

Expanding on prior research into the state level causes of terrorism, I argue that state repression and limited state capacity reduces opportunities for non-violent political expression and increases the utility of terrorism. I also argue that economic freedom can is a form of political expression that can dissipate political grievances. While previous authors analyzed some of these variables separately using data on transnational attacks, I created a complete model incorporating the three categories of variables and tested my hypotheses using data that includes both domestic and transnational attacks. I use regression analysis for hypothesis testing and find support for the three primary contentions of this thesis and conclude that limits on political expression increase the likelihood nations will experienced increased levels of terrorism.

Why does civil conflict spread from country to country? Existing research relies primarily on explanations of rebel mobilization tied to geographic proximity to explain this phenomenon. However, this approach is unable to explain why civil conflict appears to spread across great geographic distances, and also neglects the government’s role in conflict. To explain this phenomenon, this dissertation formulates an informational theory in which individuals contemplating rebellion against their government, or “proto-rebels,” observe the success and failure of rebels throughout the international system. In doing so, proto-rebels and governments learn whether rebellion will be fruitful, which is then manifested in the timing of rebellion and repression. The core of the dissertation is composed of three essays. The first exhorts scholars of the international spread of civil violence to directly measure proto-rebel mobilization. I show that such mobilization is associated with conflicts across the entire international system, while the escalation to actual armed conflict is associated with regional conflicts. The second chapter theorizes that proto-rebels learn from successful rebellions across the international system. This relationship applies globally, although it is attenuated by cultural and regime-type similarity. Finally, the third chapter theorizes that governments are aware of this process and engage in repression in order to thwart it. I further argue that this repression is, in part, a function of the threat posed by those regimes founded by rebels.

Although international human rights declarations exist, violations of human rights are still sad but also common facts around the world. But for repressive regimes, it becomes more and more difficult to hide committed human rights violations, since society entered the "Information Revolution." This study argues that the volume of international information exchanged influences a country's human rights record. A pooled cross sectional time series regression model with a lagged endogenous variable and a standard robust error technique is used to test several hypotheses. The findings of this study indicate that the flow of information can be related to a country's human rights index. The study also suggests that more empirical work on this topic will be necessary.