This study deals with the issue of democratization in Latin America during the 20th century, and in particular the role of the left in this process. The purpose of this study is to empirically analyze the role of the left as a political actor in the process of democratization toward the deepening of the democratic rule in Latin America. The research questions are: what role did the left have in the transitions to electoral democracies during the 20th century in Latin America? Why did the left have the role it had in the transitions? How does the left’s view of democracy affect the transition to electoral democracy, and the further democratization to deepen democratic rule? What structural constraints affect the left’s ability to deepen democratic rule? A comparative qualitative method and different theoretical concepts of democracy, democratization, elite perspective, mobilization and organizations have been used, and examples from different Latin American cases are given. One empirical conclusion is that the role of the left in the transitions to electoral democracies varies from participation with active left leaders, collective left actions, to not have any significant role at all. A second empirical conclusion is that in cases where left wing governments have tried to enforce a model of participatory democracy, the result has been “ coup d’état” or rebellions conducted by military forces and supported by the economic elite and the United States of America. In other cases when left parties in government instead have remained within the framework of an elite democracy, the result has rather been stabilization of the liberal democratic rule. The main theoretical conclusions are as follows: the theoretical discussion about democratic consolidation and the deepening of democracy have to consider that different actors’ (in this study the left) preferences for various models of democracy differ; the actors’ view of democracy matter in the game of democratic development and democratic consolidation; and the relations between the elite actors’ preferences for different models of democracy determine the outcome of a specific form of democratic model (in this study electoral democracy, liberal democracy or participatory democracy).

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the democratization process in Kurdistan on the basis of consolidation democracy with focus on arenas defined by Linz and Stepan (1997), namely economic, political, legal, civil society and arenas of state bureaucracy. Furthermore, I intend to explain Kurdistan’s road toward democratization in Kurdistan from 1991 until today, with a focus on the years 2003-2012. The main results are that Kurdistan has developed conditions that support a future consolidation of democracy. However, there are weaknesses in the economic situation, rule of law and the arena of bureaucracy. The arena of the political and civil society grew stronger after the US war on Iraq in 2003 and as effect new institutions such as political parties, opposition, election, political governance and alliances arose.

El nacionalcatolicisme franquista, ha sigut substituït per un patriotisme democràtic espanyol? Aquesta tesi explora, mitjançant l'anàlisi del cas espanyol, com els estats establerts promouen i dónen forma a la identitat nacional de llurs ciutadans, i com això es reflecteix al nivell individual. La tesi aprofita la recent transició a la democràcia i les diferències internes del cas com a oportunitats per guanyar possibilitats d'anàlisi de la dinàmica de canvi en la identitat nacional en paral·lel als canvis en el context polític. Al llarg de la tesi s'empra una àmplia varietat de fonts I mètodes de recerca: Anàlisi de fonts documentals i literatura secundària, metodologia Q i anàlisi estadística de dades d'enquesta provinents tant d'enquestes preexistents (ISSP, WVS, CIS) com d'una enquesta pròpia realitzada el gener de 2007. Els resultats mostren com l'evolució dels discursos polítics sobre la nació espanyola han condicionat les actituds dels ciutadans, en un procés de reconstrucció incompleta de la identitat nacional espanyola.

This study examines the effects of civic education (CE) on local level participation among the rural poor. There is little extant knowledge of civic education’s effects among this group, although it represents the majority of citizens in many developing countries. It is important to understand what kinds of effects this little researched tool of democracy promotion has so as to know whether investments in it are worthwhile. Does raising awareness about rights increase citizens’ democratic participation—whether at village meetings, community groups, or in contacting their local representative? Are effects greater on collective or individualized participation? Who benefits the most? Are effects mediated by civic awareness and/or democratic attitudes (efficacy, political interest, and trust in politicians), or are there (also) direct effects on participation? Having gathered novel data of rural masses’ democratic dispositions, the study will be useful for practitioners needing information about the level of civic awareness among this group, and about how civic education may be used to promote this group’s inclusion and empowerment as democratic participants in society. Data consist of semi-structured oral interviews of 280 adult citizens in five villages and one rural town in peripheral areas in Tanzania and Zambia during election year. The study corroborates CE’s positive effects on knowledge—particularly of “first generation” rights and responsibilities—political interest, and some forms of participation. Most affected are contacts with the local elected representative (Ward Councilor) and involvement in community groups—both important for building a democratic (civil) society. Both cognitive and behavioral effects are greatest among women--a reason for optimism for those desiring to enhance women’s public role. Practitioners could thus use civic education to promote communication between citizens and elected representatives and people’s involvement in associations. They could utilize the radio—the most relied upon mass medium in these contexts--and target community leaders, the most sought-after individuals in community related problems. Civic educators should also seek ways to strengthen efficacy and interpersonal trust which were found to significantly promote aggregate participation, with the latter also increasing active involvement at community meetings—likely the first venue of participation for most rural citizens.

This thesis examines the motivations of the Chinese middle class members to run for District-level people’s congress (DPC) elections in Shenzhen and Beijing in 2003. It is interested in exploring why the middle class members wanted to run for the DPC positions that do not have real political power in China, and how their behavior can influence political change in China. By systematically analyzing the candidates’ campaign speeches and activities, this study reveals that the major motivating factors behind the middle class candidates’ decision to run for the elections were to protect their property interests and their increasing desire to defend political rights. This thesis argues that the campaigners’ actions in Shenzhen and Beijing will affect the democratization process in China.

The existing democratization and peacebuilding literature often neglects the important role the domestic realm plays in post-conflict peacebuilding. To explain why some post-conflict peacebuilding operations have a greater likelihood of success than others, some scholars have examined the impact of factors such as international coordination, external donor interest, democratic sequencing, and hostility levels. This analysis focuses on domestic capacities for building peace in the aftermath of civil conflict in order to systematically explore the relationship between the domestic sphere and peacebuilding success. Using Sambanis and Doyle’s (2006) peacebuilding triangle model, new local capacities indexes will be created and tested.

Drawing upon formal modeling, cross-national statistical analysis, and in-depth case studies, this dissertation explores the relationship between patterns of government revenue generation and political regime stability. Considering both tax and non-tax revenue (the latter of which includes foreign aid and revenue from state-owned natural resource enterprises), and building on recent redistributive theories of regime change, I use formal modeling to generate testable hypotheses about the impact of non-tax revenue on regime dynamics in both democratic and authoritarian regimes. <em>The central prediction is that rises (falls) in non-tax resources increase (decrease) the stability of authoritarian and democratic regimes, by reducing (increasing) redistributional conflicts in society.</em> I provide evidence supporting the implications of the theory for both redistribution and regime stability, drawing upon cross-national time-series statistical analysis as well as in-depth examination of three theoretically important cases: Bolivia, Mexico, and Kenya.The research has important implications for three bodies of literature. First, it advances the broad literature on the political economy of redistribution. The existing literature has generally assumed that government revenues are raised solely by taxation, the source of redistributional conflict. I demonstrate that this is not a plausible assumption---non-tax revenue makes up about a quarter of government revenue on average, and in some countries represents the large majority of government revenue---and that in fact non-tax revenue systematically decreases redistribution.Second, building on this insight, I advance the literature on democratization by developing a theory of how government revenues---both their size and their source---factor into regime change. This work builds on and extends recent influential works that have focused on formally modeling the distributional dynamics underlying regime transitions. Finally, the research sheds light on commonalities between literatures studying different areas of the world. In particular, it argues that there are similarities between insights developed in the literature on the <em>"rentier"</em> state---principally regarding how oil revenues affect regime dynamics---and those developed in the literature on foreign aid and political regimes. The reason is that oil revenues and aid are significant examples of a broader set of resources---non-tax revenues---whose importance has been underappreciated. / Dissertation

Abstract The event that the Second People¡¦s Power Revolution (EDSA II) forced President Estrada to resign from his presidency in January, 2001, was the first political violence after 1946, the year of the Independence of the Philippines. EDSA II, however, was neither a social revolution nor a military coup, but the combination of the two. The connotation of the event was actually a wrestle among a group of so-called pursuing democracy elite. The event, although, was probably considered as one of the domestic riots in the Philippines, it still became a controversial one which was specifically related to the issue of ¡§the re-emergence of oligarchy¡¨. The study aimed to find out whether oligarchy re-emerged in the Philippine or not in terms of the context of oligarchy history, the oligarchy style of democracy transition, the source of EDSA II and the argument of EDSA II. The research, firstly, reanalyzed the history of the Philippines in order to trace back oligarchy in the Philippines, and then discussed the phenomena of ¡§church involvement¡¨, ¡§military coup¡¨, ¡§constitutional conflict¡¨ and ¡§people movement¡¨, to show the fragile democracy in post-Marcos era. More than that, this study tried to clarify the myth of EDSA II, in terms of ¡§ the cause and effect of the revolution¡¨, ¡§the argument and examination of the revolution¡¨ and ¡§the myth and discussion of the revolution¡¨. Finally, the issue of ¡§the re-emergence of oligarchy¡¨ was discussed and concluded. To sum up, the oligarchy did appear in the Philippines. With respect to EDSA II, it was by all means a competition game played by elite. Oligarchy, therefore, was still the main stream in this country.

With increasing of economic scale, demography change, and life style improvement enhancement, the importance of civic education has been emphasized based on public issue aspect. It is essential for military training instructor to face the challenge to be more professional or make a transform for better change. The aim of the study is develop solutions for military training instructor to deal with the challenge of renew military class and civic education. Instead of image of authority, military training instructor should also learn how to empower self-concept and role function and obtain concurrence from both the students and society. The study participants were 600 individual who were recruited in the trial. The primary data for this study were obtained from random samples, conducted in three medical management junior colleges in the southwest Taiwan. Total 600 questionnaires were equally divided to three medical management junior colleges The gender was spilt by 134 male (23.7%) and 431 female (76.3%).Valid 565 responses for questionnaires for this program were from 600 students for a response rate of 94.2%. To investigate the issues of civic education and military class, the survey included sociodemographic measures and the concepts of cognition, emotion and affection, and behavior. Statistical analyses were performed by SPSS, Version11.5 statistic software, using frequency distribution, chi-square test, t-test, and crosstable analysis. Significance was accepted at the 0.05 level (two-tailed). Conclusions¡G 1.The investigation of the concept of cognition show that overall 41.6% of students acknowledged the background and history of military class. The majority of students (72.3%) would agree the roles function of military training instructor . 2.The investigation of the concept of emotion and affection showed that the majority of students (66.7%) agreed that military training instructors would assist student for medical assistances and accident management. However, overall 32.2% of students agreed that military training instructors have sufficient affiliations to keep a good relationship with students, because military training instructors were still lake of ability of consulting and stayed in the image of rectifying deviant behaviors. 3.The investigation of the concept of behavior showed that even the image of authority is so strong, only few students obtained strong influence from military training instructors in democracy (35.0%), personality empowerment (38.2%), and patriotism (32.2%) from military class. Suggestions¡G 1.To decrease loading of military training instructor by promoting effectiveness of civic education in the class. 2.The interaction between military training instructor and students should be more involved with expectation, appreciation, and forgiveness. 3.It is essential for military training instructor to empower in specialty of military and civic education to deal with the challenge of new century civic education.

ABSTRACT The trend of expansion of democracy around the globe has been largely increased in the post-Cold War era due to the domestic struggles and dynamics of international system. Not only international conditions, but also democracy promotion activities of international community have influenced this trend. These activities include assistance, guidance and advice provided by the international players. In this regard, this thesis aims to highlight international dimension of democratization. This thesis analyzes the role of the European Union (EU) in the democratization process of Georgia. The EU has become an international actor, promoting democracy and human rights since the 1990s. The EU&rsquo / s contribution to the consolidation of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe through enlargement policy has been regarded valuable in the literature of democratization. In this context, this thesis chooses Georgia as a case study since Georgia / an ex-Soviet country has successfully managed to consolidate its regime change with the Rose Revolution. Besides, the Revolution has trigged the inclusion of the country and South Caucasus to the new Neighborhood Policy of the EU (ENP). This policy has welcomed in Georgia and has overlapped with the EU&rsquo / s increasing interest in the region and European orientation of Georgia. This study seeks to find out the extent to which EU can contribute democratic consolidation in Georgia within the ENP. The basic conclusion of this thesis is that the success of the ENP will depend on the limitations and deficiencies of the ENP together with the peculiarities of the region and the ability of the EU.