The argument of this thesis is that the early success of building DCMR does not mean real consolidation without active non-governmental actors and a dynamic civil society. Drawing attention to the non-state side of civil-military relations is crucial to improving the quality of DCMR. The thesis claims, that the horizontal dimension of the Hungarian CMR has undergone a long and complex learning process. Nevertheless, the civil society component of the Hungarian CMR received less attention and its development was slow and controversial. This process is shown by the case of three types of NGOs (protest, research and educator, and cultural organizations) in Hungary between the late 1980s and 2002. Today tendencies are promising because these organizations are more diverse than earlier and the improving economy could provide additional resources for them. Nevertheless, the state support for improving this activity remained very important but it calls for considering increasingly democratic values. Furthermore, the current status of the defense- and military-related civil society calls for promotion from NATO and the European Union as well. It would be important increasing the attractiveness this field and as a result the civilian participation in it, which could be the basis of the improvement of the quality of democratic civil-military relations.

This dissertation analyzes moments in which presidents interact with transnational audiences, identifying and explaining their rhetorical strategies for developing a global imaginary. Specifically, I first consider how George H.W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev negotiate geo-political and spatial metaphors leading up to their joint press conference, symbolically ending the Cold War. Second, I discuss how Bill Clinton and George W. Bush universalize the trope of “democracy” in their speeches before the United Nations General Assembly. Third, I explain how Barack Obama figures transnational citizens and himself as a global leader in his transnational town hall meetings. Together, these case studies show the ways contemporary presidents call forth particular understandings of “the global” through speech. Politically, this study is significant because it broadens our understanding of the institution of the presidency from the framework of a national institution to that of a global one. Rhetorically, this study illuminates the relationship between presidential speech, transnational audiences, and the rhetorical imaginary of the global sphere.

Vaccines famously possess positive externalities that make them susceptible to the collective action dilemma: when I get vaccinated, I protect not only myself, but also those who I might otherwise have infected. Thus, some people will have an incentive to free ride on the immunity of others. In a population of rational agents, the critical level of vaccination uptake required for herd immunity will therefore be difficult to attain in the long run, which poses difficulties for disease eradication. In this doctoral dissertation, I explore different implications of the collective action dilemma of vaccination, and different ways of ameliorating it. First: given that coercion or force could solve the dilemma, and democracies may be less likely to engage in policies that violate the physical integrity of citizens, democracies may also be at a disadvantage compared to non-democracies when securing herd immunity. In essay I, I show that this is, empirically, indeed the case. Barring the use of extensive coercion therefore necessitates other solutions. In essay II, I highlight the exception to individual rationality found in other-regarding motivations such as altruism. Our moral psychology has likely evolved to take other's welfare into account, but the extent of our prosocial motivations vary: a wider form of altruism that encompasses not just family or friends, but strangers, is likely to give way to a more narrow form when humans pair-bond and have children. This dynamic is shown to apply to the sentiments underlying vaccination behavior as well: appeals to the welfare of society of getting vaccinated have positive effects on vaccination propensity, but this effect disappears in people with families and children. On this demographic, appeals to the welfare of close loved ones instead appears to have large effects. In essay III, I investigate whether the prosocial motivations underlying vaccination behavior are liable to be affected by motivation crowding - that is, whether they are crowded out when introducing economic incentives to get vaccinated. I find that on average, economic incentives do not have adverse effects, but for a small minority of highly prosocially motivated people, they might.

"A Case Study Regarding Ghana and Zambia’s Democratization". This study investigates why two African states have developed differently, regarding democratization. Ghana and Zambia are two countries, that in many ways had similar starting points. They both have a history as English colonies. They became independent reasonably at the same time and they began the process of democratization in the early 90s. Despite many similarities, Ghana has succeeded better than Zambia. This essay aims to examine whether the Institutional theory can explain why the two nations have developed in different directions regarding democracy. By examining the various criteria that researchers in institutional theory considers important for democratic conditions, the author hopes to find an answer to the question why some nations succeed, while others fail. This essay aims to put an institutional perspective on democratization. By describing and presenting a case study of the two chosen countries, the results show that institutions have a considerable role in a country’s development. Zambia’s problems can be explained by its lack of freedom of the press and violent demonstrations. Ghana’s success can be traced back to independence, where Ghana already had created a stable institutional base and centralized state. Ghana seems to have accepted pluralism and inclusive elements; more than Zambia have done. Overall, the results show that institutions can explain the differences regarding the two nations democratization-process. However, the importance of multiple elections, cannot be confirmed.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / This thesis seeks to demonstrate that such structural explanations as economic underdevelopment, ethnic fragmentation, and political corruption for the collapse of democracy in Nigeria in 1966, are insufficient. This study further demonstrates that the immediate cause of the collapse was the failure of the young democratic government to respond to the challenge posed by military opportunism through adequate civilian control strategies. The thesis argues that democratization is attainable in Nigeria if elected governments devise appropriate control strategies to check military opportunism while strengthening and legitimizing their own rule. It acknowledged that the first government of Nigeria's Fourth Republic, installed on May 29 1999, appears to have learned this lesson. The thesis concludes that constant vigilance on the part of successive governments will be essential as the Fourth Republic passes through the long process of democratic transition and consolidation. / http://hdl.handle.net/10945/1116 / Civilian, Ministry of Defense, Nigeria

Depuis l'adoption de la nouvelle Constitution démocratique du Brésil en 1988, la Cour suprême joue un rôle de plus en plus significatif au sein du système politique brésilien. Constamment sollicitée pour contrôler la constitutionnalité des lois, le renforcement de ses attributions en matière de contentieux constitutionnel fait aujourd'hui de la Haute juridiction un organe législateur partiel participant, aux côtés du chef de l'État et du Congrès, à la formation de la volonté générale. Dans ce cadre, comme dans toutes les démocraties contemporaines comprenant un mécanisme de garantie juridictionnelle de la Constitution, le développement de la justice constitutionnelle au Brésil conduit à une remise en cause de la démocratie classique de type électorale fondée sur une confusion entre la volonté du peuple et celle des gouvernants élus. Partant du postulat que le fonctionnement démocratique s'inscrit désormais dans une perspective réflexive, cette thèse propose d'analyser, à travers l'étude de la jurisprudence de la Cour suprême, les changements opérés au sein du régime démocratique brésilien afin de savoir si les modifications qui en découlent ont entraîné un dépassement du modèle démocratique traditionnel ayant donné lieu à une démocratie dite « réflexive ». / Since the adoption of the new democratic Constitution of Brazil in 1998, the Supreme Court has played an increasingly significant role within the Brazilian political system. Constantly asked to review the constitutionality of laws, the further extension of its jurisdiction in constitutional law, currently renders the High court a partial legislative body involved, along with the Head of State and Congress, in the formation of general will. In this context, as in all contemporary democracies containing a mechanism of judicial review that guarantees the supremacy of the Constitution, the development of the constitutional justice of Brazil has led to a questioning of classical electoral democracy based on a confusion between the will of the people and that of electected officials. Based on the premise that the functioning of democracy must be understood as reflexive, this thesis proposes to analyze, through the study of the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court, the changes made within the Brazilian democratic system in order to determine if the modifications have resulted in an overtaking of the traditional democratic model that has given rise to a democracy called « reflexive ».

The Russian invasion of Chechnya in December 1994 represented the culmination of a crisis that was perceived to threaten the very foundations of federal security. The conflict is intrinsic to an understanding of post-communist Russia and this study identifies the issues behind the evolution of Russia's conflict with Chechnya, investigating why a political crisis was permitted to deteriorate into a full-scale war. Existing studies of the causes of the conflict contain little theoretical interpretation regarding the role of Russia's transitional status. Given that Russia has been undergoing democratisation throughout the duration of its contemporary struggle with Chechnya, it is pertinent to investigate the link between the process and the potential for internal conflict. Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder are the most notable advocates of the proposition that the characteristic instability of a transitional period greatly increases the likelihood of both international and intrastate war. They ascribe the increased risk of conflict to domestic political competition between old and new elites, who exploit nationalistic sentiments in order to mobilise popular support for their faction, facilitated by the weak institutionalisation of the democratising state. The lack of any formal regulatory mechanisms encourages abuse of power within state structures, as officials and members of the ruling elite cannot be held fully accountable to the electorate. Thus, in order to assess the impact of the transition process upon the deterioration of Russian-Chechen relations and provide a more rigorous theoretical framework against which to examine the causes of the war, existing models of transition, particularly the democratisation and war thesis, are analysed and applied to the case-study of Russian decision-making with regards to Chechnya. The persistent crisis is investigated within the context of the Federation's transition away from communist rule, focusing on the extent of any potential correlation between the Russian democratisation project and its violent struggle with a constituent part. The study reveals that the conflict is attributable to both the democratisation project and the wider concept of systemic transformation, and conclusions are drawn on the process of post-communist democratic transition.

This thesis analyses the transition to democracy in Peru and monitors the following development of the country after installing democratic regime. Since the democracy is the fundamental notion of this thesis, first of all it is defined and after is evaluated the current state of democracy in the world and more in detail in Latin America. The thesis shows that the transition to democracy in Peru was in many was similar to the others democratic processes in the region but also that it has certain specialities. In the end, the thesis evaluates the current state of democracy in Peru according to perception of the inhabitants of this country.

Thesis advisor: Christopher J. Kelly / In an effort to shed light on recent doubts about the future of liberal democracy, this dissertation compares the political thought of Montesquieu and Rousseau – two eighteenth-century philosophers who, beginning from strikingly similar premises, diverged radically in their prescriptions. Whereas Montesquieu sought to rationalize political life by nudging religion to the periphery of public consciousness, by attenuating patriotism, and by shifting legislative and judicial power to educated professionals, Rousseau sought to shore up religion’s popular influence, to instigate revivals of patriotism, and to defend popular self-government. I first take up their views of “the state of nature.” My account differs from those of the previous interpreters who have read the state of nature as a hypothetical construct, but it differs also from those of the previous interpreters who have read the state of nature as historical, inasmuch as I show that neither Montesquieu nor Rousseau made implausible assumptions about the naturalness of asociality or peacefulness. Next, I focus on the issue popular enlightenment. Whereas commentators have tended to cast Montesquieu simply as a proponent of the pacifying effects of enlightenment and Rousseau as a critic of its morally corrupting effects, I argue that they were both primarily interested in the relation between the dwindling of religious faith and the maintenance of the psychological qualities that underlie resistance to foreign and domestic threats to liberty. I then turn to the question of cosmopolitanism, suggesting that Montesquieu embraced it not because of any extreme idealism but because of his horror at the repressiveness and belligerence of actual patriotic republics. Likewise, I maintain that Rousseau’s embrace of patriotic “intoxication” was not a product of any romanticism; instead, it was a product of his thoroughly rationalistic inquiry into the phenomena of law and government. Finally, I argue that the divergence between them on the question of popular self-government followed from their divergent understandings of freedom. This divergence cannot be reduced either to “negative liberty” versus “positive liberty” or to “liberty as non-interference” versus “liberty as non-domination,” two paradigms that have long dominated Anglo-American political theorists’ thinking about freedom. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

In some of the most established and supposedly immutable liberal democracies, diverse social groups are losing con fi dence not only in established democratic institutions, but in the idea of liberal representative democracy itself. Meanwhile, an illiberal and anti-egalitarian transformation of democracy evolves at an apparently unstoppable pace. This democratic fatigue syndrome , the present article suggests, is qualitatively di ff erent from the crises of Democracy which have been debated for some considerable time. Focusing on mature democracies underpinned by the ideational tradition of European Enlightenment, the article theorizes this Syndrome and the striking transformation of democracy in terms of a dialectic process in which the very norm that once gave birth to the democratic project - the modernist idea of the autonomous subject - metamorphoses into its gravedigger, or at least into the driver of its radical reformulation. The article further develops aspects of my existing work on second-order emancipation and simulative democracy . Taking a theoretical rather than empirical approach, it aims to provide a conceptual framework for more empirically oriented analyses of changing forms of political articulation and participation.