An assessment of the costs and benefits of antiterrorism policies has a number of challenges. Canada’s situation is particularly complex because of its asymmetric and integrative economic and geographic relationship with the United States. Few theoretical models of international antiterrorism policy exist and none fit well this asymmetric relationship. This thesis attempts to fill this void by understanding the motives behind Canadian antiterrorism policies and the related spending, and how these are affected by the relationship with the United States. We explore a two country theoretical model with strategic interactions, focusing on relative spending. What is found is that the economics and geography of the two countries play a large role in motivating spending and can drastically alter antiterrorism spending beyond that needed solely for public safety in Canada. / Graduate / 0511 / 0501 / 0616 / kyleburak@gmail.com

An assessment of the costs and benefits of antiterrorism policies has a number of challenges. Canada’s situation is particularly complex because of its asymmetric and integrative economic and geographic relationship with the United States. Few theoretical models of international antiterrorism policy exist and none fit well this asymmetric relationship. This thesis attempts to fill this void by understanding the motives behind Canadian antiterrorism policies and the related spending, and how these are affected by the relationship with the United States. We explore a two country theoretical model with strategic interactions, focusing on relative spending. What is found is that the economics and geography of the two countries play a large role in motivating spending and can drastically alter antiterrorism spending beyond that needed solely for public safety in Canada. / Graduate / 0511 / 0501 / 0616 / kyleburak@gmail.com

This thesis examines the Kurdish political mobilization in the 1960s through focusing on the case of the Eastern Meetings. These meetings were organized by the Easterners group of the Turkish Workers Party in the various provinces in the autumn 1967 in the East and Southeast Anatolia with the aim of voicing the demands, claims and the grievances of these regions and the Kurdish population. Using the theoretical framework and the analytical tools presented by the social movements and collective action theory, this thesis examines the identity formation and mobilization processes of the Eastern Meetings and situates them within the socio-political context of the 1960s. Through this analysis, the thesis aims to draw a dynamic and relational picture of a particular moment in the history of Kurdish political activism.

This thesis aims at developing a conceptual framework for advancing basic research on questions about coercive diplomacy and the management of intrastate conflicts by relying on hegemonic stability theory and its most fundamental concept: public good. In the light of the failure of international community in developing a unified response to the most cases of intrastate conflicts, the study investigates the role of leadership in international attempts to manage such conflicts. I argue that in the absence of a direct threat to the interests of each individual member, there will be a need for a leader that is capable to provide public goods associated with efforts to bring a solution to the conflict. Findings from several phases of Kosovo crisis which support this proposition is used to illustrate and evaluate the accuracy of this assumption. Thus, the study is not only concerned with coercive diplomacy as a form of intervention but also the process that finally culminates into that instrument as evidence of the necessity for a leader.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The thesis investigates the motivations behind, the methods used in, and the results of the overseas students’ collective action contesting the measures, which the Australian government introduced from 1983 to 1996. As a group of temporary residents located outside the boundaries of domestic political systems, yet within the core of Australia’s revenue earnings, overseas students independently mobilised in an attempt to influence the Australian Government policy on education from a position of limited political, social and legal rights. As temporary residents on short-term permits fully regulated under prescribed immigration rules, overseas students employed conventional repertoires of contention— they established formal structures, adopted action tools, framed their claims, internationalised their protest, formed alliances — in an attempt to mobilise resources and access existing avenues to influence government’s export of education services policy. Their mobilisation response and campaign strategy achieved modest success in securing some policy concessions, particularly during the early stages of education aid reform. Their strategy, however had to evolve as the fledgling export of education services expanded and eventually they shifted their position to fully embrace and reinterpret the government’s own ‘language of liberalisation’, which they used to greater effectiveness in making subsequent claims. Overseas students ability to procure concessions is derived not from their political or universal rights to education, but from their ability to influence policy changes based on their importance and strategic location in the Australian economy. In other words, government, universities and industry stakeholders have increasingly become dependent on substantial revenue earnings derived from overseas students and have become susceptible to potential chaos that may be precipitated if current students withdrew from the economy, or potential students choosing alternative education service destinations.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The thesis investigates the motivations behind, the methods used in, and the results of the overseas students’ collective action contesting the measures, which the Australian government introduced from 1983 to 1996. As a group of temporary residents located outside the boundaries of domestic political systems, yet within the core of Australia’s revenue earnings, overseas students independently mobilised in an attempt to influence the Australian Government policy on education from a position of limited political, social and legal rights. As temporary residents on short-term permits fully regulated under prescribed immigration rules, overseas students employed conventional repertoires of contention— they established formal structures, adopted action tools, framed their claims, internationalised their protest, formed alliances — in an attempt to mobilise resources and access existing avenues to influence government’s export of education services policy. Their mobilisation response and campaign strategy achieved modest success in securing some policy concessions, particularly during the early stages of education aid reform. Their strategy, however had to evolve as the fledgling export of education services expanded and eventually they shifted their position to fully embrace and reinterpret the government’s own ‘language of liberalisation’, which they used to greater effectiveness in making subsequent claims. Overseas students ability to procure concessions is derived not from their political or universal rights to education, but from their ability to influence policy changes based on their importance and strategic location in the Australian economy. In other words, government, universities and industry stakeholders have increasingly become dependent on substantial revenue earnings derived from overseas students and have become susceptible to potential chaos that may be precipitated if current students withdrew from the economy, or potential students choosing alternative education service destinations.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-26T13:33:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 texto completo.pdf: 815996 bytes, checksum: 2056b2917de066f385800f617cd27b04 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-07-11 / This dissertation presents an analysis on the process of participation of rural producers in agricultural cooperatives, taking as reference the existent heterogeneity in the social picture of those organizations that supposedly take to the appearance of problems of collective action, as suggested by the Theory of the Rational Choice. Therefore it was looked for to identify and to understand strategies of collective action in cooperatives and to analyze the behavior of different existent groups in those organizations and how to work with the complex administration form and control, given the difficulties imposed more and more by the market demanding and competitive. Through a discussion based in the literature on participation and cooperativism, it can associate it to the concerning discussions to the collective action and institutions as well as to the studies about trust, cooperation and valorization of social capital, shown as potential instruments for solution of the dilemmas of collective action. / Esta dissertação apresenta uma análise sobre o processo de participação de produtores rurais em cooperativas agropecuárias, tomando como referência a heterogeneidade existente no quadro social dessas organizações, que supostamente levam ao surgimento de problemas de ação coletiva, como sugerido pela Teoria da Escolha Racional. Portanto buscou-se identificar e compreender estratégias de ação coletiva em cooperativas e analisar o comportamento de diferentes grupos existentes nessas organizações e como lidar com a complexa forma de gestão e controle, dadas as dificuldades impostas pelo mercado cada vez mais exigente e competitivo. Por meio de uma discussão fundamentada na literatura sobre participação e cooperativismo, pode-se associá-la às discussões concernentes à ação coletiva e instituições bem como aos estudos sobre confiança, cooperação e valorização de capital social, mostradas como instrumentos potenciais para solução dos dilemas de ação coletiva.

This thesis investigates in what way democracy affect climate change policy output. The aim of the study is to test the positive correlation between democracy and climate change policy output that Bättig and Bernauer (2009) found. A contribution is made in the form of a new database including 193 countries and a newly constructed climate change policy index. The method of regression analysis using ordinary least squares is utilized. The results confirm a significant and substantial positive relation between democracy and climate change policy output. Furthermore, the effect of civil liberties on climate change policy output seem to be stronger than the effect of political rights. The results underline the instrumental value of democracy for sustainable development. To protect and enforce democratic institutions in high emission countries is important to avoid interruption of social and economic development all over the world, due to the consequences of climate change. Additionally, the results speak in favour of democratization aid to avoid development of carbon dependent economies. Finally, they underline the importance of analysing the possible environmental impact of different kinds of aid. In sum the thesis shows that democracy can affect the likelihood of collective action and increase the provision of public goods in the form of ambitious climate change policies.

This thesis examines a new form of agency for change that has surfaced in rural areas of post-war Guatemala around the defence of territory and natural resources. I argue that this new form of agency emerges in the shadow of a state co-opted by elite factions and manifests distinct qualities from previous expressions of revolutionary and democratic activism. It is localised and characterised by varied aspects of what I call ‘difference’, an antagonistic stance based on locally embedded political, economic and cultural meanings which challenges the elite-promoted reordering of relationships and spaces. This ‘difference’ is enacted through the ‘defence of territory’, which expresses a socio-political and cultural attachment to particular physical spaces and has instigated collective resistances to the implementation of projects linked to the exploitation of natural resources. The thesis analyses this form of agency through two case studies, one among indigenous communities in the Northern Quiché, the second among primarily non-indigenous communities in the municipalities of San José del Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc. As this research demonstrates, given the firm integration of conventional channels of democratic participation into the patterns of state co-option, the primary aim of these struggles is the re-appropriation of decision-making processes and the carving out of spaces, in which their ‘difference’ can evolve. In the context of a co-opted state, these local expressions of agency create spaces in which fragile, embryonic forms of collective interaction and deliberation that represent a condition for democratic processes, are kept alive. However, their non-linear articulations and specific local character are also a testament to the complexity of the construction of democratic processes in countries like Guatemala.

The social brain hypothesis predicts that larger group size and greater social complexity select for increased brain size. In ants, social complexity is associated with large colony size, emergent collective action, and division of labor among workers. The great diversity of social organization in ants offers numerous systems to test social brain theory and examine the neurobiology of social behavior. My studies focused on the Australasian weaver ant, Oecophylla smaragdina, a polymorphic species, as a model of advanced social organization. I critically analyzed how biogenic amines modulate social behavior in ants and examined their role in worker subcaste-related territorial aggression. Major workers that naturally engage in territorial defense showed higher levels of brain octopamine in comparison to more docile, smaller minor workers, whose social role is nursing. Through pharmacological manipulations of octopaminergic action in both subcastes, octopamine was found to be both necessary and sufficient for aggression, suggesting subcaste-related task specialization results from neuromodulation. Additionally, I tested social brain theory by contrasting the neurobiological correlates of social organization in a phylogenetically closely related ant species, Formica subsericea, which is more basic in social structure. Specifically, I compared brain neuroanatomy and neurometabolism in respect to the neuroecology and degree of social complexity of O. smaragdina major and minor workers and F. subsericea monomorphic workers. Increased brain production costs were found in both O. smaragdina subcastes, and the collective action of O. smaragdina majors appeared to compensate for these elevated costs through decreased ATP usage, measured from cytochrome oxidase activity, an endogenous marker of neurometabolism. Macroscopic and cellular neuroanatomical analyses of brain development showed that higher-order sensory processing regions in workers of O. smaragdina, but not F. subsericea, had age-related synaptic reorganization and increased volume. Supporting the social brain hypothesis, ecological and social challenges associated with large colony size were found to contribute to increased brain size. I conclude that division of labor and collective action, among other components of social complexity, may drive the evolution of brain structure and function in compensatory ways by generating anatomically and metabolically plastic mosaic brains that adaptively reflect cognitive demands of worker task specialization and colony-level social organization.