Orientador: Reginaldo Mattar Nasser / Banca: Arlene Elizabeth Clemesha / Banca: Carlos Gustavo Poggio Teixeira / O Programa de Pós-Graduação em Relações Internacionais é instituído em parceria com a Unesp/Unicamp/PUC-SP, em projeto subsidiado pela CAPES, intitulado "Programa San Tiago Dantas" / Resumo: O presente trabalho tem como tema a influência do The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) na política externa dos Estados Unidos da América (EUA). Primeiro, sistematizou-se um estado da arte sobre o tema a partir de duas linhas de pensamento principais: uma de John Mearsheimer e Stephen Walt; e outra, de Noam Chomsky, Gilbert Achcar e Norman Finkelstein. Enquanto aqueles primeiros ressaltam o poder do chamado lobby pró-Israel - do qual o AIPAC é a organização mais estruturada e renomada - na política dos EUA, estes salientam que o leme da política externa estadunidense para com Israel é seu próprio interesse nacional, e não o lobby. Segundo, visou-se a um levantamento histórico sobre o AIPAC e uma análise de sua estrutura e de seu modo de atuação. Constatou-se, então, que o AIPAC - como uma organização de lobby, um grupo de interesse -, de acordo com a lei, não pode enviar contribuições financeiras diretamente aos políticos. Apurou-se, no entanto, que essa prática pode ocorrer de maneira indireta, por meio de, pelo menos, duas maneiras: através de seus próprios membros contribuindo individualmente; e/ou por via dos Political Action Committees (PACs) - instituições criadas especificamente para esse fim de levantar fundos para as campanhas políticas no intuito de eleger e derrotar candidatos, ou até mesmo influenciar os que já estão no Governo. E, terceiro, buscou-se sintetizar o estado da arte ao estudo histórico e estrutural sobre o AIPAC. Com base no diálogo entre as duas principais visões teóricas trabalhadas - sob uma ótica de complementaridade ao invés de exclusão -, ao lado do exame da ação do AIPAC na história, esse estudo nos levou a inferir que o AIPAC, fundado em 1959, no contexto da Guerra Fria, continua influente na política dos EUA, mesmo com a mudança no sistema internacional ao final da Guerra Fria. / Abstract: not available / Mestre

Endometrios är en kronisk sjukdom som drabbar personer med livmoder. Endometriosvården ansesav många vara bristfällig. Patienter blir runtslussade och har svårt att få en tidig diagnos.Endometriosföreningen är en ideell förening som förutom att stötta drabbade patienter verkar för attpåverka beslutsfattare.Syftet med denna studie är att kartlägga Endometriosföreningens försök att påverkalandstingspolitiker i Stockholm. Studien, som är en fallstudie, ämnar att åskådliggöra hurEndometriosföreningen tar kontakt med landstingspolitiker och hur kontakten ter sig. Dettaanalyseras utifrån tre tematiker — Endometriosföreningens professionaliseringsgrad, hur kontaktenmellan Endometriosföreningen och landstingspolitiker ter sig samt vilka potentiella utmaningar somfinns för Endometriosföreningen. Resultatet utgår primärt ifrån tre telefonintervjuer och tvåmailintervjuer. En aktör från Endometriosföreningen och fyra politiker inkluderas. Materialet haranalyserats utifrån ”the constant comparative method”.I resultatet kan ses att Endometriosföreningen har vissa problem gällande första tematiken,professionaliseringsgrad. Kontakt mellan parterna finns men är högst sporadisk och kräver specifikafrågeställningar. Enskilda politikers intressen styr hur delaktig föreningen blir i den politiskakontexten. Vidare har flertalet utmaningar för föreningen utrönats, såsom fåtaliga medlemmar,bristfällig forskning om endometrios och att den politiska miljön styr föreningens arbete.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-09-17T15:26:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2015-05-04. Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2015-09-17T15:45:56Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000844270.pdf: 1299163 bytes, checksum: bdf3d08810ae35b28523105b8a7871c0 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O presente trabalho tem como tema a influência do The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) na política externa dos Estados Unidos da América (EUA). Primeiro, sistematizou-se um estado da arte sobre o tema a partir de duas linhas de pensamento principais: uma de John Mearsheimer e Stephen Walt; e outra, de Noam Chomsky, Gilbert Achcar e Norman Finkelstein. Enquanto aqueles primeiros ressaltam o poder do chamado lobby pró-Israel - do qual o AIPAC é a organização mais estruturada e renomada - na política dos EUA, estes salientam que o leme da política externa estadunidense para com Israel é seu próprio interesse nacional, e não o lobby. Segundo, visou-se a um levantamento histórico sobre o AIPAC e uma análise de sua estrutura e de seu modo de atuação. Constatou-se, então, que o AIPAC - como uma organização de lobby, um grupo de interesse -, de acordo com a lei, não pode enviar contribuições financeiras diretamente aos políticos. Apurou-se, no entanto, que essa prática pode ocorrer de maneira indireta, por meio de, pelo menos, duas maneiras: através de seus próprios membros contribuindo individualmente; e/ou por via dos Political Action Committees (PACs) - instituições criadas especificamente para esse fim de levantar fundos para as campanhas políticas no intuito de eleger e derrotar candidatos, ou até mesmo influenciar os que já estão no Governo. E, terceiro, buscou-se sintetizar o estado da arte ao estudo histórico e estrutural sobre o AIPAC. Com base no diálogo entre as duas principais visões teóricas trabalhadas - sob uma ótica de complementaridade ao invés de exclusão -, ao lado do exame da ação do AIPAC na história, esse estudo nos levou a inferir que o AIPAC, fundado em 1959, no contexto da Guerra Fria, continua influente na política dos EUA, mesmo com a mudança no sistema internacional ao final da Guerra Fria.

Chapter 1. In the 1970s, competition policy in the United States banking sector changed from exempting competition to liberalization and deregulation. Competition not only plays an important role in allocational efficiency but it is also essential for long-term economic growth. This chapter develops a model of banking contributions to evaluate to what extent banks affect the level of competition in the banking sector, and tests the model's predictions using a novel detailed dataset which includes all contributions made by banks from 1993 to 2010 in the United States. Controlling for banks' characteristics, the results are consistent with the model's predictions and show show that a higher level of contributions increases the Lerner index (as a measure of competition) or in the other words, decreases the level of competition. Chapter 2. This chapter provides the first empirical evidence that market structure affects the electoral power of firms as special interest groups. Firms not only affect the election outcomes by making contributions to their preferred candidates, they also enforce social norms among their members by encouraging them to vote for the candidate with the most closely-aligned interests. This chapter uses a linear probability model to analyze 574 open-seat races for the House of Representatives in the United States between 1990 and 2014. The results show that, even when controlling for the total value of contributions made to a candidate, political donations made by firms with high market power have a positive effect on the candidates' probability of winning. The findings are consistent with the idea from collective action theory that concentrated industries are more likely to behave as an organized interest group to advance their interests. Chapter 3. Ethnic heterogeneity is an important factor in the formation of human sexual network and the prevalence of STDs. Racial and ethnic ties create closed social networks with rigid in-group boundaries and hampers the intra-group dissemination of information. Slow information flow among groups facilitates the spread of STDs by encouraging individuals to ethnically diversify their sexual partners in order to lower the chance of getting caught cheating. Analyzing a cross-province sample of 39,830 sexually active adults driven from the 2013-2014 Canadian Community Health Survey, we find that individuals who live in a highly ethnically diversified neighbourhood are more susceptible to STDs compared to ones who live in a ethnically homogenous neighbourhood. Evidence from several robustness checks suggests that the relationship is causal.

Ce travail de recherche s'intéresse à l'activité des associations environnementales auprès de l'Union européenne autour de l'atténuation du changement climatique. Par rapport à une littérature essentiellement issue de la science politique et de la sociologie qui traite du " lobbying ", la présente thèse se démarque par une approche explicitement communicationnelle, dans un prolongement habermassien, à travers l'entrée conceptuelle d' " activité communicationnelle stratégique ". Plus exactement, elle pose la question suivante : est-ce que cette activité communicationnelle stratégique des associations environnementales auprès de l'Union européenne n'a pas tendance à affaiblir la protection environnementale qu'elles défendent ? Le cas d'étude concerne la révision du Règlement N°842/2006 sur l'utilisation des gaz fluorés à effet de serre. Ces gaz d'origine synthétique, largement utilisés dans le secteur de la réfrigération et de la climatisation, ont un impact grandissant sur le changement climatique. Dans ce dossier européen des gaz fluorés, un petit groupe d'associations environnementales s'est retrouvé de 2010 à 2014 face à une industrie divisée entre une frange prépondérante définie comme " conservatrice ", qui souhaite maintenir les conditions de production des gaz fluorés, et une autre, qualifiée d' " alternative ", proposant des technologies alternatives à ces " gaz F ". Dans le cadre de leur activité communicationnelle stratégique, les associations environnementales ont établi des relations étroites avec les entreprises de l'industrie alternative, qui sont qualifiées de " coordination " ; le but étant de contrer l'industrie conservatrice et de mieux peser sur les différentes institutions européennes. Les résultats de recherche de ce travail doctoral sont les suivants : le rapport des associations au pouvoir de l'Union européenne est ambivalent car les consultations pilotées par la Commission européenne jouent, dans un premier temps, le rôle de déclencheur de la dynamique civique anti-gaz fluorés puis renforcent son activité civique et la protection environnementale qu'elle défend ; dans un second temps, cette institution jouera un rôle modérateur dans l'ambition environnementale des associations : ces dernières s'adapteront à son positionnement. Plus généralement, les associations environnementales se retrouvent " piégées " par les coordinations qu'elles mettent en place avec l'industrie alternative puisqu'elles défendent un argumentaire commun faisant la promotion des technologies alternatives aux gaz F : le recours à la technique et à la croissance économique, associées à ces technologies alternatives et aux secteurs qui les utilisent, constitue une impasse pour les associations environnementales et affaiblit la protection environnementale qu'elles défendent. / This research focuses on the activity of environmental associations working on climate mitigation policy in relation to the European Union institutions. In comparison to political science and sociological literature's focus on "lobbying", this thesis is an extension of Habermas' work in that it takes an explicitly communicative approach. In doing so, it posits the concept of "strategic communicative activity" and raises the following question : does this strategic communicative activity environmental associations direct toward the European Union's political institutions actually weaken the environmental protection policies they seek to defend? In order to answer this question, this research examines the revision of the Regulation (EC) N°842/2006 which pertains to reducing EU Member States' use of greenhouse fluorinated gases ("F-gases"). F-gases are synthetic gases that are widely used as refrigerants, and their use contributes greatly to global warming. _is research scrutinizes the work of a small group of environmental associations between 2010 and 2014 that has faced a bifurcated industry : a strong "conservative" industry, manufacturing fluorinated gases and their applications like air conditioners, seeks to maintain its global market share, while an "alternative" industry promotes the use of technological alternatives to thoses synthetic gases. Trough strategic communicative activity, these environmental associations lead a "coordination" with the alternative industry to counter-balance the conservative industry and better weigh on EU decision-making. Applying my communicative approach to this case-study, I argue that the relationship between these environmental associations and EU institutions is ambivalent. First, the European Commission's consultations trigger the role of civic dynamics and reinforce it, leading to the enhancement of environmental protection. Second, the European Commission plays the role of moderator in shaping how these associations define environmental protection : they end up adapting to its positioning. Concurrently, the coordination between environmental associations and the alternative industry has the effect of trapping civic dynamics with common arguments by promoting technological alternatives to F-gases. Indeed, by relying on the arguments of economic growth and the use of technique, associated with these technological alternatives and the sectors working with them, the civic dynamics weakens the environmental protection ambition that it hopes to defend.

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This dissertation consists of three papers that are linked through the topic of organizational capabilities. The first paper, entitled "Organizational Core Capabilities, Strategic Intent and Performance: A Study of the Pharmaceutical Industry," looks at the association between capabilities, strategic intent and performance. Employing capabilities theory and the strategic intent literature, I model (i) the association of firm-level capabilities and rigidities on performance, (ii) the association of strategic intent and performance and (iii) the interaction effects of capabilities and strategic intent upon performance. Our sample consists of pharmaceutical firms during the years 1993 to 2003 and I find that both capabilities and strategic intent are negatively associated with firm performance. The interaction of the two main effects is positively related to performance conditional on firms having high strategic intent. The findings point to potential evidence of core rigidities theory as well as strategic intent theory, which has yet to be empirically tested by scholars. The second paper is entitled "The Impact of Political Capabilities on Firm Performance: An Empirical Investigation." In this paper, I integrate capabilities theory with the literature on corporate political activity (CPA). The CPA literature has been robust in addressing the determinants of a firm's choice to engage in political activities but has been less robust in modeling the CPA-performance link. I address this by first integrating capabilities theory and political action and then by testing a number of constructs on a sample of Fortune 500 firms from varying industries. Specifically, I find that political action committee (PAC) intensity and lobbying intensity is associated with higher firm performance. I then interact PAC intensity with lobbying intensity and also find positive association between this interaction and performance, denoting that these two activities are complements and not substitutes. Finally, I moderate these relationships with industry concentration and find that performance increases for politically active firms as industries become more concentrated. The third paper is titled "Political Capabilities and Rigidities: The Case of AT&T's Acquisition Attempt of T-Mobile USA." This paper studies, in an in-depth case study, the political capabilities of American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), focusing on the years 1984-2011. Using capabilities and rigidities theory from management, I provide detailed evidence of (i) AT&T's intent to compete on political capabilities, (ii) the success derived from these political capabilities and (iii) situational failure resulting from an over-reliance on these political capabilities. In the empirical section, I show how the firm failed to assess external information that it needed to adjust its competitive strategy and, as a result, failed to acquire a key competitor. This paper makes contributions to capabilities research, rigidities research and corporate political activity. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

This thesis explores lobbying as an important political economy dimension of policymaking. It exploits theoretical, empirical, and numerical approaches and methods to investigate the possibilities of engaging in costly lobbying and how lobbying by special interests affects the setting of minimum wage and small business tax rates. The theoretical modeling relies on the common agency framework - a situation with multiple principals who are simultaneously and non-cooperatively interacting with a single agent - of public policy lobbying and a simpler principal agent model. Empirical analysis employs panel data regression methods in the context of Canadian provinces to identify causal relationship. Both minimum wage and small business taxation invite a considerable amount of activity from various special interest groups in Canada, which engage in lobbying for a policy stance more favorable to their members. After providing a brief overview of lobbying issues and literature in the first chapter, in the second one I show that initial lobbying cost can be a clear entry barrier, that lobbying competition can have properties of a high-stakes game and that lobbying can take place simply to preserve the status quo and not lose ground. In the pure rivalry sense, to not allow the opponent to gain ground in the policy arena. In the third chapter, I formulate a model of minimum wage determination based on the common agency lobbying framework to evaluate how the competition for political influence between unionized workers and firm owners affects the minimum wage determination. A binding minimum wage is a function of the policymaker's political ideology, the labor demand elasticity and the skill composition of union members. Specifically, when the elasticity of labor demand is large, the benefit of lobbying against (for) an increase in the minimum wage is greater since a potential minimum wage increase has a larger negative (positive) effect on firms' (unionized workers') income. Lobbying is successful in inducing the policymaker to set the minimum wage in accordance with her political preference; a more business (labor) friendly policymaker reduces (increases) the minimum wage. However, lobbying can also induce the policymaker to go against its ideological preference. Empirical analysis on a panel data for ten Canadian provinces over the 1965-2013 period gives considerable support for theoretical predictions. Preferred panel data regression specifications, controlling for unobserved province and year effects, and various province specific, time varying factors, indicate that real minimum wage decreases in skill-adjusted union density and a measure of political ideology, and increases with technological progress. Greater labor demand elasticity reinforces the influence of political ideology in the presence of lobbying. In the fourth chapter, I focus on the issue of small business tax determination and the effect of lowering its rate on income inequality. In Canada, where the small business income tax rate is considerably lower than the top individual rate, higher income individuals are able to reduce their personal taxes by retaining and shifting income via privately owned small businesses. Therefore, because the small business owners benefit from an increasing difference between the small business and top individual tax rates, I show using a principal-agent model that by lobbying as a special interest group they can always `buy' a lower corporate tax rate from the government. However, a lower business income tax, relative to a given personal income tax rate, is not income inequality neutral and unambiguously increases the income share of the highest earning individuals in the economy, specifically those who own small corporations. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)