abstract: This study examines the factors that shape the timing of a passage of a piece of controversial gender equality legislation by conducting a case study of the abolition of the family-head system in South Korea. This study draws on the method of process tracing with the data collected from the archives and the interviews. The case study mainly compares the legislative processes for the bills on the abolition of the family-head system in 16th and the 17th National Assemblies, in which the bills resulted to opposite outcomes. This study argues that the institutions of the legislative process mediate the impact of relevant actors for gender equality policymaking. In the bill initiation stage, only a small number of the elected officials are required to introduce a bill, and women representatives serve a vital role as they are more likely to introduce feminist bills than their male colleagues. This study argues that 1) the background of the women influencing their commitment to feminist agendas, 2) strong women’s movements contributing to issue saliency, and thereby the policy priorities of the issue, and 3) the resources and constraints inside the party for feminist policymaking influenced by party ideology, shape how active women representatives will be in advocating controversial gender equality agendas. In the later stages of policymaking, the efforts of a small number of women members are offset by that of political parties. Emphasizing the positive agenda control of the majority party and the negative agenda control of the minority parties, this study suggests that party issue positions are critical for the outcome of the bill. To explain the party issue position (re)shape, this study underlines 1) public opinion, 2) the emergence of new voter groups leading to the decline of the cleavage politics, 3) new party entry, and 4) women in the party and the party leadership. The findings highlight that the major parties’ issue positions shift in the 17th National Assembly greatly contributed to amplifying the bargaining power of the key allies and weakening the institutional leverage of the opponents, leading to the successful legislation of the bill. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Political Science 2019

Submitted by Pedro Accorsi Amaral (pedroaccorsi10@hotmail.com) on 2017-07-05T20:10:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Master Thesis.pdf: 2092692 bytes, checksum: cf0bf23ba85b5e1297c36503f1a0d52a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by ÁUREA CORRÊA DA FONSECA CORRÊA DA FONSECA (aurea.fonseca@fgv.br) on 2017-07-06T20:51:03Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Master Thesis.pdf: 2092692 bytes, checksum: cf0bf23ba85b5e1297c36503f1a0d52a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-20T18:01:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Master Thesis.pdf: 2092692 bytes, checksum: cf0bf23ba85b5e1297c36503f1a0d52a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-05-16 / This work addresses the determinants of the decisions made by small powers to fight alongside great powers in major conflicts. When faced with the request from a great power to participate in wars, some peripheral countries abide and others remain uninvolved. To explain this variation, the case study of the Colombian participation in the Korean War is used, comparing the country to other Latin American cases. Building on rational choice models of leaders’ behavior, I expect that leaders decide to go to war when the rewards for this action increase their likelihood of remaining in power. I use explicit process tracing to investigate the causes for the Colombian decision and organize them into necessary and sufficient conditions. Evidence suggests that the causes for the Colombian participation in Korea were an attempt from the president to improve his relationship with the United States in order to obtain more foreign aid, the Colombian authoritarian regime, and an attempt from the president to please the armed forces, which had the power to keep him in office. I also use synthetic control method to test whether the Colombian decision increased the foreign aid received by the country from the United States. Results show a significant increase in received aid. These findings corroborate the expectation that leaders of small powers will go to war in order to receive more aid and to make policy concessions for those who hold the power to keep them in office, and that they are rewarded from the great power for this decision under certain conditions.

This thesis analyses Germany's commitment to multilateral military operations. Following the research question why Germany participates in some multilateral military operations but not in others, Germany's respective decision-making process regarding troop deployment in the DR Congo in 2006 on one hand and military non-engagement in Libya 2011 on the other hand is traced. By contrasting the concept of strategic culture with a purely rational assessment of the factors of alliance politics, risk-analysis and military feasibility of the operations, the decisiveness of taking into account Germany's strategic culture to explain deployment decisions is stressed. Neither is there a lack of external pressure for German military participation in the case of Libya, nor is the military operation in the DR Congo decisively less risky or militarily more feasible. Rather, Germany's multilateral and anti- militaristic strategic cultural strands affect its decision-making. Next to demanding a thorough justification and legitimization of any military engagement, two red lines for military deployment can be identified. First, Germany refuses to act unilaterally and displays a high reluctance towards military engagement outside the multilateral framework of the UN, NATO or EU. Secondly, Germany rejects to engage in...

This thesis investigates the factors that can sufficiently explain China's policy change on climate change issue. We utilize interest-based theory in environmental politics and constructivism to explore the drivers behind China's climate change policy formulation. The theories are tested by process tracing the historical development of China's policy on climate change. The analysis is further complemented by other explanatory factors based on empirical findings, including domestic policy process and the impact of non-state actors. The study finds out that China's climate change policy has experienced positive changes with growing policy stringency. The result shows that China's climate change policy cannot be sufficiently explained by the interest-based theory, the factor regarding ecological vulnerability can be only partially confirmed. Instead, international norms can provide plausible incentives for policy change through the process of socialization. The final policy outcomes are also connected to the interest of the most influential domestic political actor. The study results help us to better understand the environmental politics in China and provides guidelines to predict China's role in international climate change negotiation after the Conference of Parties in Paris.

The aim of this thesis is to find an explanation of the obstacles to deploying Article 7 TEU measures as we see it today. This explanation will be sought in the events in this field starting from the formation of the provision, all the way up to this writing moment. The explanation will be searched for by using the research question: What in the process offorming and amending Article 7 TEU can explain the hesitancy and hardship to deploy the article today? Four hypotheses for explanations are identified; 1) Article 7 TEU is a political rather than legal provision, and is thus infiltrated with political subjectiveness rather than legal objective- ness, 2) lessons from the Haider affair have caused hesitancy, 3) adding intermediate steps and alternative procedures have weakened the nature of the provision, and 4) the nuclear notion has falsely created hesitancy to take action and oblivion of the softer mechanisms of the provision. This study concludes, that to fully understand the Article 7 TEU struggles as of today, both political implications, intermediate steps, alternative mechanisms and lessons from the Haider affair has to be taken into account. This com- plexity does then confirm the sufficiency of the explanation: Many factors has played a role in forming the hesitancy and hardship to deploy Article 7 TEU, but the intergovernmental and political nature of the provision explains why it still have not been fully implemented. This is although the scope and appli- cation of the provision fully fits the problems of democratic backsliding, that permeates some of the member states of the EU.

This essay aims to find a link between NATO policy in Europe from 2014-2022 to Russia’sdecision to invade Ukraine in February 2022. A process tracing methodology is used in conjunction with an offensive realist framework to demonstrate NATO’s role in influencing Russian defense policy. The investigation finds US global hegemony dictates NATOambitions, leading the Alliance to adopt aggressive policy in Eastern Europe. In turn, Russia identifies NATO as a threat in its military doctrine and proceeds to strengthen its defensive capabilities. Putin outlines Russia’s need for a buffer zone between it and NATO, a prime target for such a place being Ukraine. A failure by both parties to accommodate each others interests leaves Russia with a convincing rationale to seek military force in securing a more favorable defensive position.

The topic of this essay is how countries can successfully democratize in different ways. The aim is to demonstrate how two vastly different countries as Chile and Mozambique were capable of democratizing through what at first glance looks like dissimilar ways, while at the same time trying the robustness of a known democratization theory. In this case study, I use a combination of qualitative, historical and process-tracing methods to get an in-depth understanding as I compare my two cases and measure them against Larry Diamond's theory. His theory is based upon internal- and external factors that play essential parts in democratization. My overall inference is that Chile meets essentially all theoretical expectations while Mozambique barely has more than half of the examined theoretical factors with at least somewhat favorable conditions. I also discovered that they share at least one important factor where they have plenty in common, democracy assistance. In addition to this, I also gained a new insight. Diamond's theory doesn't account for whether a country has a previous history of democracy. This appears to have played at least a significant part in many of his theoretical factors, and it's absolutely something that should be considered for the future. / <p>2022-05-25</p>

The sister city concept has now been around for several decades and yet there remains to be a paucity of literature dealing with the subject. Despite this unfortunate fact, there has been some literature written trying to deal with the progression of what sparked cities to try to establish sister city relationships with one another. However, this is still not enough. Diasporas have been neglected as a potential cause, which I try to remedy by employing the method of explaining outcome process tracing in a case study of the sister city relationship that began to be explored between the cities of Governador Valadares, Brazil and Framingham, United States.Information was collected using materials such as news articles from such sources as the Metrowest Daily News and official websites such as Governador Valadares’ official city webpage, and various histories, ethnographies, and other sources were also considered especially focusing on Framingham and the Greater Boston Area, allowing for the collection of materials of both primary and secondary nature and thus an in-depth analysis.What was found was that indeed, it is true that diaspora had a hand in influencing the negotiation of a sister city relationship between the two cities; First, the context of the Brazilian Diaspora in the United States was explained and analysed and it was found that it could be termed a termed a proletarian labour diaspora.Explaining outcome process tracing was then employed to inductively explain how the spark can be created, which suggested that the causal mechanism between the diaspora and the negotiations for the SCR to begin were that of an enclave forming due to the diaspora which then allowed social capital to be accumulated, allowing for Governador Valadares to grow despite Brazil’s bad economic conditions due to remittances, leading to the mayor of Governador Valadares initiating the talks.

Throughout history, radical individuals have caused violence and tarnished the reputation of many communities and beliefs. Following 9/11, Islamic Terrorism put fear into many individuals. New fronts of the War on Terror began to open as militaries began to engage terrorist groups who sought to take action through radical beliefs. Al Qaeda had opened up a new front and joined the ranks of the Sunni Insurgency to confront the armed forces of the United States as the Invasion of Iraq began to unfold. This new group had radical leaders who were able to incite a stiff and violent campaign against their enemies. The U.S. was able to slow down the group, but not the ideology, tactics, and leadership once it withdrew from the conflict zone. As leaders in the area began to divide their societies by violence and marginalization, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria were able to come into power and create small, quasi-legitimate caliphate. Although the group may be somewhat defeated in the region, the ideology will carry on. By using organizational theory, we can better compare both groups and learn from their strengths and weaknesses. Through analyzing this parallel case study, new doors may be opened up for research to be able to slow down radical ideologies and thwart violent actions. / Master of Arts / Following 9/11, we begin to see the United States devote countless amounts of resources and energy to combat radical Islamic ideologies. In this, we study Al Qaeda and its Iraq branch, AQI, and how its remnants were able to create one of the most successful and notorious Islamic terror organizations. This thesis allows growth to the study of terrorism, primarily by comparing two terror groups and understanding their rise to success and failures. This thesis also helps study how groups can split apart and form new offshoot organizations. Looking into groups' ideologies allows for the researchers to also how they may affect success. As groups rise and fall, there may a continuation of an ideology. New platforms can assist in this, and play large parts of a groups success. Leadership can be a large factor, guiding a group to success or hurting its image. To combat terror organizations, the military can affect how they grow, thus showing the power of settings and where terror organizations can thrive. By comparing and contrasting organizations, it allows for a different approach of research that can help in preventing violent actors to continue on a similar path.

Since the cold war, most countries have moved on from the classical security perception that all threats are external and aiming to invade the sovereignty of the state, thus leading to military armies fighting each other. Instead as Globalization have become more predominant since the beginning of the 1990’s new threats have also emerged that militaries can’t fight as they used to, thus it has become necessary for a wider view on security which also involves human suffering, and the general trend among armies have been to combat these through international peacekeeping and humanitarian operations. This study aims at showing the change in which the Swedish army have undergone since the end of the cold war and into modern days, both in terms of political decisions and also show how the use of language have been changed throughout the course. The thesis covers a time period between 1989 to 2009 and following the process of change from the Swedish political institution that works with military issues, called the Försvarsutskottet or the FöU and the method applied is process tracing with a detailed narrative. Several important conceptions are also explained such as Globalization, Collective security and Human security, which will make the result chapter more understandable. The results showed that the biggest changes in Sweden’s military policy came in three steps, the beginning of the 1990’s was influenced with economic problems for Sweden which also lead to budget downsizings in the military. The mid-1990’s was the time where there existed no real external threat to Sweden, and hence it came to be dominated by several large reforms which also aimed at lowering the costs of the military and adapt it into becoming rapid response forces. After the 9/11 attacks in 2001 the new threats emerged and the Swedish military focused even more on improving their international and humanitarian operations. The thesis ends by discussing these finding and present some changes in the use of languages in-between the 20 years.