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Religious freedoms in the countries which were once part of the Soviet Union have gradually been on the decline since the mid 1990s. Reflective of de-democratisation trends in many states, religious market liberalisation has lost momentum. Governments have increasingly used methods to restrict non-traditional religious organizations similar to those used in protecting national industries. These range from subsidies for traditional churches to regulatory barriers and even outright bans on non-traditional groups. This drift towards a restrictive religious playing field has coincided with traditional dominant churches being more vocal in the debate over religious institutional design. In this thesis I examine the motives of traditionally dominant churches in either advocating legal restrictions on non-traditional religious entities or promoting a religious free market. Variation in attitudes and policies across traditional churches suggests explanatory variables are at play. A multi-methodological approach is used to understand policy formulation within the hierarchical establishments of traditional churches on religious liberties and religious pluralism. In addition to utilising path-dependent modelling to account for churches' Soviet existence, assumptions drawn from recent scholarship in applying rational choice methodology to the study of religion is used to conceptualise present-day market features. Findings from three churches suggest that a church'€™s agenda on religious liberalisation and plurality stems from hierarchical perceptions of the direction of change of their church'€™s relative influence in society. That perception is heavily rooted in the intersection of Soviet experience and transitional market place dynamics. This thesis adds a case-study contribution to the growing academic discourse on institutional change in transitional societies. In particular, it identifies the mechanisms by which institutional transformation and the creation of a vibrant civil society can stagnate in transitional societies.

The period 1917-1921 provides an insight not only into the policies of the new Soviet state but the mindset of its leaders. These four years were a time of intense political struggle and socio-economic disruption, which exposed the tension between ideology and practice in Bolshevik discourse and policy making. Workers, specifically metalworkers, were a focal point of Bolshevik ideology and policies in this period. This thesis will explore how the Soviet state conceptualised metalworkers, through ideology, and how this informed their engagement with workers, through policy. This will be done through an examination of state statistical data and how prominent state polices, cultural policy and treatment of dissent, and discourse changed over this period. It will also focus on a case study of Sormovo Metalworks, a suburb of Nizhnii Novgrorod, and use local sources to investigate how the tension between ideology and practice played out on a local level. It will explore how local Bolsheviks conceptualised and engaged with Sormovo workers and how this was shaped by three things: Bolshevik ideology, the context of the Civil War and the specific local conditions of Sormovo and its workforce. The Civil War period witnessed a change in the discourse and policies of the Soviet state, which became more coercive, interventionist and repressive as the war progressed. Sormovo Metalworks was a large metalworking complex in a largely rural province; it had a skilled workforce with a tradition of labour activism through striking and was dominated by the Socialist Revolutionary Party. The move towards an increasingly centralised state was utilised by local Bolsheviks in Sormovo in an attempt to end the labour activism of its workforce and crush political opposition. However, despite the increasingly assertive discourse about the identity of metalworkers and the state’s drive for economic, political and cultural centralisation, Sormovo workers had the ability to challenge, subvert and negotiate state labels and even policies. This case study reveals that although Sormovo workers suffered repeated challenges to their identity by the state, local government and the economic crises of the Civil War, they continued to utilise self-identification based on their skill and shared socio-economic experience. This in turn shaped their vertical and horizontal social, economic and political relationships with those around them. Although the central state became politically and economically centralised and authoritarian, the identity of the grassroots in Sormovo remained diverse and fluid.

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Thesis (M. P. A.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2009. / "Fall 2009." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-82).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 283-316).

This dissertation examines the emergence of norms and the process through which these influence state behaviour. State identity conceptualized in ethnic or civic terms, shapes state preferences concerning the recognition of new states. Hence, the ethnic or civic identity of Germany, France, Greece and Italy influenced their policy on recognition of the former Yugoslav republics of Slovenia, Croatia, FYROM (Macedonia) and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Nevertheless, the examination of these policies indicates that these preferences were tempered by security concerns and perceptions of threat. Hence, although this thesis supports the constructivist claim on the power of principles such as identity, it also incorporates the realist claims on the significance of geopolitics in foreign policy. Consequently, it does not claim the supremacy of one theory over another instead it attempts to provide a better framework for understanding the sources of foreign policy.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2006. / Title from title screen. Julie L. Hotchkiss, committee chair; Dawn M. Baunach, Erdal Tekin, Jorge L. Martinez-Vazquez, Bruce E. Kaufman, committee members. Electronic text (177 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed June 19, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-176).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 279-298).

This thesis relies on evidence from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to argue that systematic ethnic violence occurred during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina because of the implementation of extreme ideological visions promoted by top political leaders. The first section demonstrates how Serb and Croat nationalist politicians in Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia determined to create expanded monoethnic states as Yugoslavia collapsed in 1991-92. The second section illustrates how institutions dominated by Serbian President Slobodan Milos̆evic and the Croatian government led by Franjo Tudman sponsored the military campaigns conducted by Bosnian Serb and Croat forces, which attempted to realise the visions imagined in 1991-92. The final section reveals how in 1994-95, leaders from Croatia and Serbia shifted their short term strategies towards Bosnia for pragmatic reasons, and while the Croatian leadership succeeded in forcing Bosnian Croat nationalists to abate their separatist campaign, Milos̆evic's efforts to pacify the Bosnian Serb leadership failed and Radovan Karadz̆ic's regime continued to pursue its state-building programme until its defeat in summer 1995. Although both Milos̆evic and Tudman yielded their pre-war ambitions in the face of battlefield outcomes and international pressure, this thesis argues that both leaders regarded the peace agreements they signed as temporary compromises on their long-term ambitions. The words of top political decision-makers reveal the ideas and reasoning that inspired programmes to homogenise multi-ethnic Bosnia and divide it between Serbia and Croatia.