abstract: Why and when do political actors use violence? This project answers these questions by exploring the dynamics of the interactions between state authorities and political dissidents. Both the state and the dissidents face the dilemma of using violence to achieve their political goals. While structural factors influence state violence and dissident violence, I contend that we need to examine how the dynamics of the state-dissident interactions shape these actors’ political behavior. This project first asks if nonviolent methods of resistance are effective--and perhaps even more successful than violent methods--why do opposition movements ever resort to violence? I argue that the efficacy of nonviolent resistance changes over time. When the likelihood of demobilization increases, dissident movements doubt the effectiveness of nonviolent resistance and weigh violence as an alternative tactic. The first chapter of this dissertation shows that the failure in expanding the size of a movement over several periods provides increases the risk of demobilization, and so dissident violence. I also argue while the expansion of the movement decreases the risk of dissident violence, a sudden and large expansion in the size of the movement overburdens its monitoring and sanctioning capacities, which raises the risk of dissident violence. These arguments are supported empirically using two different datasets. In the second theoretical part of this project, I examine the effects of foreign interventions on the dynamics of state repression and dissident violence. I find that the diplomatic statements and efforts such as disapproving state behavior, asking for political reform, and threatening to impose economic sanctions and to deploy military forces either did not have a significant effect, or increased state repression and decreased state concession during the Arab Spring. Finally, the last part of this project contributes to the literature on the formal modeling of dissent-repression by developing a recursive model of political violence dynamics. In addition to addressing several drawbacks in the literature, this model endogenizes the mobilization and demobilization of the movement and explains how these changes affect dissident violence. Due to the complexity of the developed mathematical model, I use a computational model to find the optimal outcomes. This computational model also can be used for simulating the state’s and the dissidents’ behavior under different scenarios. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Political Science 2018

<p dir="ltr">New technologies are often developed to address pressing social problems such as climate change and world hunger, and social movements are often strong backers of these technological solutions. Yet political conflict can occur when those threatened by the new technology seek government action to block or delay its adoption. I analyze forces behind the development of such technologies and factors affecting the outcomes of ensuing political conflicts through an in-depth study of alternative or “alt-proteins,” plant-based and cell-cultured alternatives to traditional meat and dairy products. Developed to address the environmental and animal welfare problems of animal agriculture, alt-proteins have generated political conflict as livestock and dairy interests have sought regulations to limit producers’ ability to market alt-proteins as substitutes for meat and dairy products. </p><p dir="ltr">My research uncovers a network of organizations founded by animal welfare interest groups and activists that provide direct and coordinated support for alt-protein technology development and industry growth. Besides government lobbying, activities include founding and financing start-ups, supporting basic research, and providing various business supports to the industry. Early successes by some alt-protein companies have led dairy and livestock farmers to lobby the U.S. and state governments for protectionist labeling policies. While one might expect other businesses involved in the production and distribution of meat and dairy products to join in these efforts, I found this was often not the case. To explain this finding, I propose that the formation of a strong coalition to seek government support in opposing a new technology depends not only on businesses’ reliance on the old technology, but also on the cost to the businesses of diversifying into the new technology and on the speed with which the new technology is displacing the old. My research also shows how a social movement’s embrace of technological solutions to problems may fundamentally alter its strategies and coalition partners in both political and market spheres. In their quest to attract investment capital, organizations founded by animal welfare groups worked with large food companies to invest in alt-proteins but alienated some in other social movements. The latter fear that expensive technologies will further control of the food system by large corporations, illustrating the potential divisiveness of technological solutions to problems. I assess the effects of coalition building on outcomes of policy conflicts over alt-proteins and consider the applicability of this case to other situations.</p>

La presente ricerca mira ad approfondire la natura strategica e gli effetti del ragionamento controfattuale utilizzato in discorsi di natura conflittuale tra avversari politici, con l'obiettivo implicito di persuadere un pubblico di ascoltatori. A questo scopo, sono stati condotti due studi. La prima ricerca quantitativa mira a comprendere quanto un attacco controfattuale possa minare l'immagine dei politici nei confronti dei cittadini, a dispetto dell’importanza dell’orientamento ideologico del pubblico stesso. Nella seconda ricerca quantitativa si sono approfonditi gli effetti di diverse tipologie di attacchi controfattuali sull’immagine dei leader politici; gli attacchi controfattuali sono mossi a diversi livelli di astrazione e sottendono la violazione di una norma di competenza o di integrità da parte del leader target. / This study aims at deepening the strategic nature and the effects of counterfactual reasoning used in dialectical discourses among politicians, whose implicit goal consists in persuading receivers. For this purpose, two studies have been realized. The first quantitative research aims at understanding if the use of counterfactual attacks can harm politicians' image, in spite of the importance of political attitudes of citizens. The second quantitative research studies the effects of different counterfactuals on politicians’ image; these counterfactual attacks (at different levels of abstraction) can evoke the violation of a norm of agency or communion by the leader.

En adoptant un point de vue socio-sémio-discursif, cette recherche analyse la couverture de presse du mouvement des indiens Mapuches au Chili entre 1996 et 2004. Les résultats de cette analyse sont rapportés aux dynamiques sémiostratégiques des acteurs sociaux visant l’espace public médiatisé. Conformément à cet objectif, on propose un cadre théorique et méthodologique capable d’aborder les relations complexes entre les dynamiques sémio-stratégiques des acteurs sociaux visant l’espace public médiatisé et les textes d’information en tant que résultat d’opérations de transformation sémiotique propres aux médias. Trois démarches analytiques complémentaires on été menées sur un corpus documentaire composé par 2 144 informations publiés dans deux journaux de référence : l’analyse des représentations médiatiques du conflit et de ces acteurs, l’analyse des formes discursives choisies par la presse afin de construire l’événement, et la reconstruction, à partir du témoignage des journalistes et du discours public des organisations Mapuches, des dynamiques sémio-stratégiques déployées par les acteurs sociaux dans l’espace public médiatisé. Considérant ce qui se réfère au contenu des représentations médiatiques, il est possible d’observer un travail de stéréotypage généralisé, autant des événements du conflit que des acteurs engagés. Ces résultats sont en cohérence avec des recherches préalables à ce sujet. Cette représentation du conflit est associée à des formes discursives particulières telles que la mise en chronique, la condensation événementielle ou l’utilisation des stratégies de titrage visant la mise en suspens et l’activation des imaginaires catastrophistes. La couverture développe des cycles d’attention médiatique qui relèvent de la logique du champ médiatique autant que de la logique des agencements sémio-stratégiques des mouvements sociaux. En confrontant ces résultats avec l’information provenant de recherches préalables sur les correspondants des médias dans la zone du conflit, on a pu constater une coordination instable entre l’instance médiatique et les acteurs engagés dans la « lutte » symbolique du conflit. / By adopting a socio-semiotic approach, this research seeks to understand the role played by the media in ethno-identity conflicts. Different aspects of media coverage of Mapuche conflict in Chile were analyzed from a discourse analysis perspective with the aim of clarifying the relationship between media and the actor’s semio-strategic behavior. A theoretical and methodological framework was proposed to precise the complex relationship existing between the press discursive structures and the socio-political context referred by them. In particular; 2.144 news articles were analyzed in order to descrive: a] the representations that the reference press in Chile produces about the conflict and his actors; b] the discursive aspects that express in a direct manner the semiostrategic moves of the conflict actors and, and c] the reconstruction of semiostrategic dynamics of social actors on the mediated public sphere. Concerning the content of media representations of the conflict, we observed a generalized work of stereotyping of conflict events as well as conflict actors. These results are coherent with previous research on the subject. Particular discursive forms are associated with the established representations: the chronicle as the dominant genre of news reporting, phenomena of events condensation, or the use of headlines strategies to achieve suspense effects and activate catastrophic imaginaries. Cycles of media attention seem to depend simultaneously on the media logic and the semio-strategic agency of social actors and movements. When these results were compared with previous researches on media correspondents, it was observed an unstable coordination between media and social actors’ goals.

More and more attention is paid in the academic debate to the issue of sub-state entities, represented by regional governments, as partially independent actors of international politics. This phenomenon, referred to as paradiplomacy, is particularly visible in the European Union, where since 1980s regional governments have been mobilising to gain direct influence on the shape of European politics. A regional government that acts as an agent of European politics may or may not be actively supported by its central government. This thesis tries to investigate the relationship between the direct representations of the Visegrád Group regions in Brussels and their respective national Permanent Representations. In the first chapter, I discuss the theoretical issues related to regional mobilisation in Brussels by referring to the work of researchers who deal with multi- level governance in the context of the European Union. In the second chapter, I present and justify the choice of research design, case studies, and semi-structured interviews as the main source of obtaining data necessary to answer the research question. In the third chapter, I included the analysis of the obtained information, and in the fourth chapter, the conclusions drawn from it. This research shows that direct regional...

The accession process of Albania into the European Union is defined by the gradual fulfilling of the Copenhagen criteria. With the aim of promoting democratization reforms in candidate countries and improvement in the Copenhagen political criteria, the European Union has exerted pressure into domestic political structures in Albania through a series of Europeanization Mechanisms. This dissertation uses qualitative analysis to examine the impact of the Europeanization Mechanisms in the democratization process of Albania after the signing of the Stabilization and Association agreement. The theoretical domain of the research falls within Europeanization and Quality Democracy theory. The data gathered in the form of document analysis and interviews serve to test the hypothesis of the direct relationship of Europeanization an input in democratization in the case of Albania. The results suggest that both the conception and practical application of the Europeanization mechanisms with regards to the democratization process are faced with a series of challenges. Democratization is a process that combines structures, policies, and norms. In their current formulation, Europeanization mechanisms are able to affect only the first two. In terms of practical application, extreme polarization of Albania's...

Cette étude porte sur les films qui traitent du conflit politique nord-irlandais de 1968 à 1998 et elle entend mettre en lumière les relations entre le cinéma et l’évolution de ce conflit. Le cinéma, dans sa construction discursive, à sa travers sa voix indépendante et sa portée populaire, offre un véhicule unique pour l’exploration des Troubles et du processus de paix. Les films sur les Troubles, réalisés pendant cette période, abordent principalement l’IRA dans ses rapports avec l’Angleterre, tandis que les films sortis pendant le processus de paix reflètent la remise en question identitaire, avec entre autres, des membres de l’IRA qui, dans leur quête d’identité, se détournent de la violence politique. Les comédies qui datent du processus de paix dénoncent, de manière ironique, la violence politique des Troubles et illustrent l’espoir que génère ce processus en libérant progressivement l’Irlande du Nord de la violence. Ces films, réalisés pour la plupart pendant le processus de paix - qui repense les rapports anglo-irlandais et les relations entre les deux communautés en Irlande du Nord - se focalisent sur l’un des acteurs du conflit : la communauté catholique (les nationalistes et les républicains) et ses liens avec les Britanniques. Les rapports intercommunautaires sont peu abordés et la communauté protestante, relativement absente de l’image, n’est évoquée qu’à travers les loyalistes. Si ces films explorent principalement la perspective catholique, certains d’entre eux se concentrent sur les victimes catholiques d’événements particuliers des Troubles et ces films proposent une version alternative à l’histoire officielle, conférant au cinéma la fonction de source historique mais aussi de lieu de mémoire des victimes. Ainsi, le cinéma ne retranscrit pas seulement l’histoire de façon figée mais s’intègre dans l’évolution de la situation en Irlande du Nord. / This study centres on films dealing with the political conflict in Northern Ireland from 1968 to 1998 and attempts to trace the relationship between cinema and this ongoing conflict. Through its discursive construction, its independent voice and its popular reach, cinema provides a unique vehicle for the exploration of the Troubles and the peace process. The films about the Troubles, shot during this period, look mainly at the IRA and its relationship with England. The films made during the peace process reflect the question of identity - a central facet of the peace process - by representing, for example, some members of the IRA engaged in the search for their identity turning away from political violence. The comedies - also made during the peace process - use irony to denounce the political violence of the Troubles and depict the hope that the peace process generates. These films, mostly shot during the peace process which reconsiders t! he East-West relations and the internal relations in Northern Ireland between the two communities, focus primarily on the catholic community [nationalists and republicans] in its relationship with the British. Intercommunal relations appear rarely in films and the protestant community, relatively absent from the screen, is represented almost exclusively by loyalist paramilitaries. Therefore these films display a certain interest for the catholic point of view and some of them concentrate on catholic victims of specific events of the Troubles and offer an alternative to the official version of history endowing cinema with a role as historical source and also as a space for the memory of the victims. Thus, cinema does not only retranscribe history in a static way but takes part in the changes going on in Northern Ireland.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T18:26:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maicon Jose Fortunato.pdf: 765268 bytes, checksum: aa21bf7f9eaf22920f32c800a0398654 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-12-14 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The aim of this paper is to investigate the concept of history in Machiavellian`s thought. It is, specifically, an analysis of the eighteen first chapters of his book Discorsi on the First Decade of Livy, which we believe to emerge a solution to the original problem of the constitution of forms of govern in the time. For this, we start with an examination of the historical and intellectual Quattrocento Italian. The intention is to demonstrate the conceptual framework that has influenced and Machiavellian political theory with which the thinker dialogues in his writings. Moreover, we highlight the return that the author makes the theory of circularity presented by the Greek historian Polybius. From Polybius, we expose his conception of historical temporality marked by circular movement of the forms of government, as well as the paradoxical problem that involves the formulation of mixed government. In this regard, we noted how Machiavelli takes this theory with the intention of recovering the discussion on the establishment of political regimes. Regarding the resumption seek to affirm that overcoming the Machiavellian thought to not accept the circularity as a determining factor of historical time. From this analysis comes the hypothesis that the temporal history as an expression of the movement of forms of government cannot be understood by natural law or by any other determinant a priori. Following these assumptions, we find the theory of conflict a vital component to understanding the dynamics involving both the political organization of state such as the movement elaborated by history. So, being the political element essential for the promotion of political organization, as well as for the realization of liberty in republics, also conclude that it is their responsibility to the mobilization of historical processes. The conflict in synthesis can be understood as the space of political action performed within the company, as this space has the constant possibility predominant trait of "creation." This sphere of action not only mobilizes the story (in order to raise their movement), but acts as a characteristic of "doing" history. In other words, the story has as one of its core components forming the field of human creation. Added to this the issue of corruption that marks the limits of human action in time. Machiavelli sees the degeneration process of the political as a condition of nature in all political body thus historical process is limited by that element which marks again, the field of contingency that the universe is subjected political. Finally, a search for the conception of history in Machiavelli reveals, in our view, the secularization of its elements, the identification of political conflicts as its mobilizer and the possibility of coming-into-being as a dimension of their process. / O objetivo desta dissertação consiste na investigação da concepção de história no pensamento maquiaveliano. Trata-se, especificamente, de uma análise sobre os dezoito primeiros capítulos de sua obra Discursos sobre a Primeira Década de Tito Lívio, da qual acreditamos emergir uma solução originária para o problema da constituição das formas de govero no tempo. Para isso, partimos de um exame sobre o panorama histórico e intelectual do Quattrocento italiano. A intenção está em demonstrar o quadro conceitual que influenciou a teoria política maquiaveliana e com o qual o pensador dialóga em seus escritos. Além disso, destacamos o retorno que o autor faz da teoria da circularidade apresentada pelo historiador grego Políbio. Deste último, expomos sua concepção de temporalidade histórica marcada pelo movimento circular das formas de governo, bem como, a problemática paradoxal que envolve sua formulação do governo misto. A esse respeito, evidenciamos a forma como Maquiavel retoma tal teoria com a intenção de recuperar a discussão sobre a constituição dos regimes políticos. No que tange a essa retamada procuramos afirmar a superação do pensamento maquiaveliano ao não aceitar a circularidade como uma condição determinante do tempo histórico. Desta análise nasce a hipótese de que a temporalidade da história, enquanto expressão do movimento das formas de governo, não pode ser compreendida por uma lei natural ou por qualquer outro determinante apriorístico. Seguindo essas premissas, encontramos na teoria dos humores um componente vital para a compreensão da dinâmica que envolve tanto a organização política dos regimes, como o movimento engendrado pela história. Assim, sendo o conflito político o elemento primordial para a promoção das ordenações políticas, bem como, para a efetivação da liberdade nas repúblicas, concluimos que também cabe a ele a responsabilidade para a mobilização dos processos históricos. O conflito, em síntese, pode ser entendido como o espaço da ação política realizado no interior da sociedade, espaço esse que possui como marca predominante a constante possibilidade de criação . Essa esfera do agir não somente mobiliza a história (no sentido de impulsionar o seu movimento), mas atua como uma característica do fazer histórico. Em outras palavras, a história possui como um dos componentes formadores de sua essência o campo da criação humana. Soma-se a isso o tema da corrupção, que demarca os limites da ação humana no tempo. Maquiavel vê o processo de degeneração dos regimes políticos como uma condição inerente a todo corpo político. Dessa forma, o processo histórico encontra-se limitado por esse elemento, o que marca, mais uma vez, o campo de contingência a que está submetido o universo político. Enfim, uma busca pela concepção da história em Maquiavel revela, a nosso ver, a secularização de seus elementos, a identificação dos conflitos políticos como seu mobilizador e a possibilidade do vir-a-ser como uma dimensão de seu processo.

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Text in English / This dissertation investigates the problem of significance conflict resolution as a meaningful ministry of the Church in ecclesial, social and political conflict. Recognising the fact that conflict has been an experience of humankind since the beginning of time the research focuses on the Church's role in socio-political conflict during the years of the National Party rule in South Africa. A number of theological and practical questions arise from the problem of conflict and its resolution in relation to the Church. The question is raised: does conflict resolution as a concept and strategy have a credible theological content. In order to explore this problem the dissertation first develops a theology of conflict. The theology of conflict forms the basis for a theology of conflict resolution. The thesis is that conflict, inherent in all human experience, is not good or evil. Rather it has the potential for destruction and transformation. It is the transformatory possibility that needs to be promoted. The thesis examines conflict resolution strategies of leading theorists and practitioners and tests them as viable approaches to be adopted by the Church. However it finds that conflict resolution will be accepted as a role of the Church if it can be formulated in convincing theological principles. An analysis of reconciliation and conflict resolution focuses on the way reconciliation is perceived in the political context. It then probes the theological relationship between reconciliation and conflict resolution. Reconciliation is more than conflict resolution. The scope of reconciliation includes (a) the initiative of God, (b) addressing the predicament of alienation, brokenness and distress ( c) through the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ the Mediator (d) who reconciles the universe to God. However, conflict resolution has an indispensable role in the reconciliation process. Through the ministry of conflict resolution the Church facilitates confrontation between individuals or groups and contributes towards transformation in relationships where there is conflict. The thesis then probes the possibilities for conflict resolution to be an integral part of of on-going pastoral ministry in the belief that pro-active conflict resolution is a source of social and ecclesial transformation. / Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Practical Theology)