Most research on Chinese protests’ outcomes focuses on aspects such as the strength, resources, and strategy choices of these protests. Although studies on Chinese contentious politics have taken great consideration of the significant role played by the state in the political process, little attention has been paid to the state itself which is actually the provider of “political opportunity”. With a state-centered perspective, this thesis examines how elite division within the authority shapes the Chinese local governments’ policy responses to popular protests. Based on a case of protest in Shifang, an environmental protest targeting the Shifang local government on its construction of a chemical plant, this study shows an elite division between the Shifang local government and the police force who were dispatched to Shifang to maintain stability by its vertical professional leadership and how this division has contributed to a successful policy outcome of this protest. To further understand the Shifang case in a larger institutional background of China’s modern political climate, this chapter provides a possible explanation that the elite division in the Shifang case is an embodiment of the structural division between Chinese local governments and the stability maintenance system which has grown into a powerful interests group as a result of the policy priority of maintaining rigid social stability in the last decade.

The Egyptian protest movement which brought down the Egyptian regime headed by President Hosni Mubarak, not only gripped the minds and hearts of the Egyptians, but it captured the interest of the national and international media as well.   The research aims at answering questions related to the kind of frames employed in four newspapers; namely, Al-Ahram, Al-Masry Al-Youm, The Telegraph and The Washington Post, in light of the protest paradigm, in addition to the way the same four newspapers tried to explore and identify the characteristics of war and peace journalism, according to Galtung’s dichotomous model, not to mention to trace how the four newspapers in hand depicted the protesters.   To achieve this, two methods were applied in this study; notably, frame analysis, and critical discourse analysis. A sample of 60 news articles and editorial pieces was thoroughly examined and taken from the aforementioned four newspapers. The derived non-random samples were covering the events of the Egyptian Revolution from the eruption on January 25, till February 17, 2011; means one week after toppling the regime and the resignation of the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on February 11, 2011.    The study revealed that the national newspapers; Al-Ahram and Al-Masry Al-Youm, were more prone to accentuate protesters’ acts of violence, albeit Al-Ahram showed a propensity toward using official sources at the expenses of voicing protesters, compared to Al-Masry Al-Youm. However, The Telegraph’s and The Washington Post’s coverage was more shifting away from the protest paradigm.   Similarly, the national newspapers in hand, were leaning more towards war-reporting; resorting to victimizing language in addition to a language of good and bad dichotomous, not to mention to abstain from exposing the untruth of all parties involved. However, The Telegraph and The Washington Post were adhering to peace-reporting; using extensively people sources and exposing the black and whites of all parties in the problem, in addition to taking the side of protesters and depicting them positively. From the findings, the study may reach a conclusion that the more a newspaper’s coverage adheres to the protest paradigm, the more it inclines to war-reporting. On the other hand, the more a newspaper’s coverage shifting away from the protest paradigm, the more it conforms to peace journalism.

<p>Chapter 1: Forcing Consent: Information and Power in Non-Democratic Elections. Why do governments hold elections that lack credibility? What explains variation in repression levels across non-democratic elections? While the literature has suggested many explanations for elections in autocracies, it has not yet provided a theory that would explain both the incidence of non-democratic elections and the variation in their degree of competitiveness. In this paper, we build an informational model of non-democratic elections explaining when elections may stabilize an autocrat's rule and when they may fail to do so. We argue that to achieve stability, elections must yield a sufficiently high vote-share for the incumbent and be optimally repressive. The degree of optimal repression is shown to increase with the incumbent's expected popularity. The model is then applied to explain some stylized facts about non-democratic elections and to derive a set of novel research hypotheses about the effects of non-democratic elections, variation in electoral repression, and fraud technology. We test the chief implication of the model using an original dataset on political arrests in the Soviet Union. We find that even if elections present no choice, they reduce the expression of anti-government sentiments. </p><p>Chapter 2: A Ballot Under the Sword: Political Security and the Quality of Elections in Autocracies. What explains the democratic quality of elections outside established democracies? We argue that when a government does not have to convince the opposition of its wide support in the society, it holds repressive elections. Conversely, when a government needs to send a strong signal about its popularity, it takes a riskier strategy of holding more competitive, and hence more informative elections. Using cross-national panel data, we find that the incumbents facing political insecurity -- measured through the incidence of economic crises and coup threats -- tend to hold higher quality elections than their more secure counterparts. In addition, via structural equation modeling, we find evidence that economic crises affect the quality of elections only indirectly through increased political insecurity. These findings reject the conventional view that autocrats use electoral repression when they are afraid of losing due to low expected support. This analysis has important implications for modernization theory and for understanding the role of political and economic instability in the democratization process.</p><p>Chapter 3: The Calculus of Dissent: Rigged Elections, Information, and Post-Election Stability. Why do some elections result in concession speeches while others spiral into protests, riots, and conflicts? This paper draws attention to the informational content of the electoral process and its outcome. We argue that elections induce stability when they communicate that the winners are truly popular and derive several novel predictions as to when such communication can succeed or fail. First, unfair elections lead to instability only if they are won by slim margins. Second, excessively large victory margins increase instability \emph{irrespective} of the unfairness of elections. The theory is then applied to explain the incidence of post-election protests across the world and the patterns of mandate denial in sub-Saharan Africa. We find that structural conditions (e.g., poverty and ethnic diversity) contribute little to post-election instability. Instead, the quality of elections and their results affect post-election politics in an interactive and non-linear fashion as predicted by the model. </p><p>Chapter 4: An Experimental Study of Fraudulent Elections and the Post-Election Protests. How can a winner of elections marred by fraud and voter intimidation convince the loser that he has large support in the society? Using an experimental setting, this paper studies how the information about election results and the competitiveness of the electoral process affect citizens' beliefs about the true popularity of the government and, subsequently, the success of a protest. We theoretically derive and evaluate the following hypotheses: (1) There will be no information update if elections are sufficiently manipulative and are won with great margins; (2) There will be positive updating in elections with medium levels of manipulation and high vote margin for the government; (3) There will be negative information updating if elections are highly manipulative but do not yield high margin for the government. We find relatively strong support for the first two hypotheses but none for the last one. The study also points to difficulties in studying rigged elections experimentally. The first difficulty has to do with the heterogeneity of the experimental population and the second one with the operationalization of electoral manipulation in a laboratory environment.</p> / Dissertation

Zugl.: Erfurt, Univ., Diss., 2009

Includes bibliographical references (p. 60-62).

Uppsatsen är arbetskritisk till sin ansats och undersöker hur arbete samt arbetslöshet upplevs av arbetslösa, och hur de upplever att de själva och arbete/arbetslöshet framställs i samhället. Den tar upp hur de arbetslösa gör för att bevara självständighet och självaktning samt i vilken mån de reproducerar den rådande normen kring arbete och/eller protesterar mot den. Studien är av kvalitativt slag baserad på fem intervjuer med arbetslösa. Uppsatsen har tre frågeställningar 1. Vad har arbetet för betydelse i dagens samhälle och vad är centralt? Hur upplever arbetslösa att de som grupp, och arbetslöshet framställs? Samt vad har de för syn på sina möjligheter att påverka samhället? 3. Vilka strategier använder man sig som arbetslös för att bevara självständighet och självaktning? Studien har fem övergripande delar. I inledningen ges en introduktion till uppsatsen med syfte, frågeställningar, avgränsningar och begreppsförklaringar. I teoriavsnittet definieras arbete, framväxten av den moderna synen på arbete och mekanismer bakom varför vi förhåller oss till arbete och arbetslöshet som vi gör. I data- och metodavsnittet redogörs för hur datainsamlingen gått till, genomförande av analys, samt vilka tänkbara felkällor som finns. Under rubriken Resultat och analys presenteras fynd från studien, i relation till normen om att arbete är centralt och viktig och att arbetslöshet betraktas som något negativt. De intervjuade både reproducerar denna norm och finner alternativ till den. Som individ kan man hitta lösningar som ger en ett tillfredställande liv, men man blir ofta bemött med en nedlåtande attityd. På ett strukturellt plan är arbetslösa som grupp underordnad andra grupper i samhället. I diskussionen resonerar jag kring de viktigaste resultaten. De arbetslösa ser sig varken som offer, eller villiga att ta ett arbete som upplevs meningslöst. Det är betydelsefullt för hälsan och självaktningen. Moral är viktigt och att fuska med bidrag eller arbeta svart är inte ett alternativ.

<p>How does violence affect political participation and voting behavior? Why does a violent context push some to be politically active, while others decide to stay at home? Our current understanding of political behavior is mostly derived from analyses conducted in a peaceful and democratic context, or in post-conflict periods. However, citizens in many developing countries make their political decisions in the midst of violence.</p><p>The dissertation's central argument is that political participation and voting behavior largely depend on the context surrounding the individual. In particular, the level of criminal violence greatly impacts 1) citizens' decision to participate politically, 2) their forms of participation, and 3) the logic of their vote choice. Faced with violence, voters are generally pushed away from electoral politics. I argue that those that do decide to take part of the electoral process will consider their evaluations of security when deciding to punish or reward the incumbent government. While some may be inclined to take further action and demand peace through non-electoral participation, such a decision carries certain risks that are not easily overcome. I contend that social networks can encourage participation by shaping the understanding of crime, as well as the perception of costs and benefits associated with participation amid violence.</p><p>To evaluate this argument, I draw on a rich array of sources. I designed an original post-electoral survey that took place in Mexico a few days after the 2012 presidential election. I also created a novel newspaper databank of protests against crime in Mexico during the 2006-2012 period. In addition, together with Guillermo Trejo, I developed a unique dataset on criminal violence in Mexico. My statistical evidence is complemented with participant observation in marches for peace and qualitative in-depth interviews with victims and non-victims of crime in four Mexican cities.</p><p>Statistical evidence shows that violent criminal activity depresses electoral turnout. Voters living in violent contexts are less likely to participate in elections. Victims of crime are significantly less likely to participate in elections. However, faced with rising violence, active voters are able to consider both economic and insecurity evaluations in their assessments of government performance and voting decisions. Overall, as a voter's evaluation of national security worsens, her likelihood of supporting the incumbent national party and government diminishes. At the same time, while institutional channels are not attractive to victims of crime, societal accountability mechanisms are also available to citizens affected by insecurity. Victims of crime and those connected to mobilizing networks are more likely to participate in protests against insecurity than non-victims and "socially disconnected" individuals.</p> / Dissertation

Most research on Chinese protests’ outcomes focuses on aspects such as the strength, resources, and strategy choices of these protests. Although studies on Chinese contentious politics have taken great consideration of the significant role played by the state in the political process, little attention has been paid to the state itself which is actually the provider of “political opportunity”. With a state-centered perspective, this thesis examines how elite division within the authority shapes the Chinese local governments’ policy responses to popular protests. Based on a case of protest in Shifang, an environmental protest targeting the Shifang local government on its construction of a chemical plant, this study shows an elite division between the Shifang local government and the police force who were dispatched to Shifang to maintain stability by its vertical professional leadership and how this division has contributed to a successful policy outcome of this protest. To further understand the Shifang case in a larger institutional background of China’s modern political climate, this chapter provides a possible explanation that the elite division in the Shifang case is an embodiment of the structural division between Chinese local governments and the stability maintenance system which has grown into a powerful interests group as a result of the policy priority of maintaining rigid social stability in the last decade.

This dissertation looks at the challenges that deliberative democratic theory encounters when it tries to offer a rich account of inclusion yet refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of external protest. While sympathetic to deliberative democracy’s goals, I challenge this focus upon the deliberative group as the theory tries to satisfy requirements of inclusion and legitimacy. In response I offer a normative account of protest within a larger deliberative framework – one that offers a more comprehensive account of democratic inclusion. I look at critiques of deliberative democracy, particularly in terms of the theory’s ability to account for pluralism, and I argue that in order to meet this challenge we need to offer a normative justification of protest. Moreover, we need to do this not only to achieve full and effective inclusion but also to deal with the lack of efficacy that marginalized deliberants may encounter even when requirements of formal and effective inclusion are met. As I address these challenges I offer a theory of protest-as-deliberation in which I develop a normative justification of protest and set out the conceptual changes that allow this justification to be normatively and practically viable. My account takes protest, as something outside of and in opposition to the deliberative group, seriously and extends the deliberative framework to include protest; importantly, it does this without co-opting protestors. Drawing from previous critiques, I develop the normative and practical links that are necessary in order to facilitate a deliberative dialogue between protestors and the deliberative group. The conceptual changes that are necessary in order to realize protest-as-deliberation require that we re-evaluate the impact that deliberative criteria of reason-giving has upon effective inclusion and people’s efficacy and that we change these criteria accordingly. Additionally, we need to revisit the democratic capacity of the public sphere, reconceptualized as the deliberative polity in which the process of protest-as-deliberation takes place. When we do this we ought to place a greater emphasis upon available public spaces, both physical and conceptual, that deliberants and protestors need in order for effective deliberation and contestation to occur. / Thesis (Ph.D, Political Studies) -- Queen's University, 2008-12-01 14:58:51.95

The Himalayan region of India has a surprisingly fragile ecosystem due in part to its geomorphic characteristics. In recent years the Himalayan ecosystem has been disturbed in various ways by both human and natural processes. Large developments threaten ecosystems in the area modifying local land use and subsistence patterns. This has important implications for the sustainable livelihoods of the local communities. People in these areas are very concerned about the lack of inclusion in development decision-making processes and the negative effects of development on their livelihood. Protest actions are spreading throughout Himachal Pradesh, not only to stop developments but also to re-shape how developments are taking place. The village of Jagatsukh was selected for in-depth study. That is where people started to organize around the Allain Duhangan Hydro Project and also where the protest actions in relation to the Hydro Project actually started. The overall purpose of this research was to understand the role of protests as a vehicle for public participation in relation to decisions about resources and the environment and to consider whether such movements are learning platforms for action on sustainability.