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open access

The Politics of F. Scott Fizgerald

Description: F. Scott Fitzgerald is valued for his contribution to literary arts, culture and his discussion of the American Dream. I argue that his discussion of the American Dream was a lens through which he gave readers access to political insights and an education about political philosophy, American politics, virtue, and reasoning. The American Dream, at its greatest, for Fitzgerald is a nation building myth but at its lowest is a dull materialistic construct. Throughout his works Fitzgerald connects p… more
Date: December 2023
Creator: Shiveley, Sara Carson
Partner: UNT Libraries

Promoting Women? Causes and Effects of Gender-Informed Transitional Justice

Description: Quantitative research investigating the causes and subsequent impact of transitional justice practices has further developed thanks to the production of cross-national data on justice practices, namely by the Justice Data Project and the Transitional Justice Research Collaborative. Current work, however, does not consider the role of justice from a feminist perspective. For example, with respect to causes, we know little about whether and how justice processes are gender inclusive, and what the… more
This item is restricted from view until January 1, 2029.
Date: December 2023
Creator: Roark, Polly DeAnne
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Rethinking the Study of Conflict and Peace: Making Causal Inferences in Quantitative Conflict and Peace Research

Description: Most research questions and theory in quantitative peace and conflict research are fundamentally causal. However, a large gap exists in the extant literature between research question and research methodology. Not only does most existing methodology fail to achieve what most quantitative peace scholars attempt, but many researchers do not appear to be aware of these limitations. In this dissertation, I outline five key shortcomings within this literature that, left unaddressed, create results t… more
Date: December 2023
Creator: Lookabaugh Jr., Brian Scott
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

In Search of Audience Costs in International Relations: The Media, Personality, and Public Threats

Description: Audience costs, which are defined as political costs for a leader generated when the leader fails to follow through on international commitments, are an important concept in international relations to understand the causes of war and peace. However, despite its prominence, evidence for audience costs is mixed at best. In this dissertation, by conducting a series of survey experiments in the United States, I examine a variety of causal mechanisms and observable implications of audience cost mode… more
Date: July 2023
Creator: Takei, Makito
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Protesting the "Right" Way: Exploring Respectability Politics and Support for Black Lives Matter

Description: Black Lives Matter gained elevated levels of support following the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department. Despite temporary elevated levels of support, large segments of the populous are still reluctant and critical of the movement. This work aims to assess what role notions of respectability politics play in Black American support of Black Lives Matter. Respectability politics is consistently weaponized against members of oppressed groups including racial mino… more
Date: July 2023
Creator: Goodwin, Alexander Isaac
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

This is What Democracy Looks Like: Racial Identity, Anger, and the Political Behavior of White Women

Description: What are the relationships between strength of racial identification, anger, and the political behavior of white women? Building on the literature on white identity politics and anger in political behavior, I argue that white identity and anger have a conditional relationship that leads to changes in multiple aspects of white women's political behavior. This dissertation uses the 2016 American National Election Survey and the 2016 Comprehensive Multiracial Post-election Survey to explore these … more
Date: May 2023
Creator: Niezgoda, Meredith
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Concerning Millennials: Exploring Generational Cohort Effects on Racial Linked Fate, Religion and Politics, and Support for American Civil Liberities

Description: This research examines the political implications of the Millennial generation on American politics by exploring the interaction of generational cohort with race, social issues, and civil liberties. Relying on the 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey and the 2018 General Social Survey, I examine (1) Millennial attitudes toward race and ethnicity by looking specifically at racial linked fate, (2) how Millennials interact with race and evangelical Christianity and how this interact… more
Date: August 2022
Creator: Molinar, J. Antonio
Partner: UNT Libraries

Ethnic Parties: Their Emergence, Survival, and Impact

Description: This dissertation examines the emergence of ethnic parties, their survival in the political system, and their impact on the governance practices. While scholars have long debated the impact of ethnic parties on state-building and democratization process, few works have empirically examined their behavior in the political system. Empirical research on ethnic parties is limited to single countries or regions -- Latin America, Eastern Europe, or a few countries including India. Firstly, this disse… more
This item is restricted from view until September 1, 2024.
Date: August 2022
Creator: Basnet, Post Bahadur
Partner: UNT Libraries

Politics in Uniforms: Military Influence in Politics and Conflictual State Behavior

Description: This dissertation examines how the state-building process relates to civil-military relations and how political influence of the military affects state's conflict behavior. By doing so, this study aims to introduce a nuanced consideration of the well-known civil-military problematique, which might be summarized as the threat the military can constitute to the polity that it is created to protect. I treat this paradox by addressing the following research questions: Why do some militaries have a … more
Date: August 2022
Creator: Kocaman, Ibrahim
Partner: UNT Libraries

The Politics of Fiscal Federalism and Building the Foundations of the Putin Regime in Russia, 2007-2013

Description: Putin's military forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, sparking a renewed academic interest in Russia's current regime. Several scholars suggested that a critical period in the construction of the current regime occurred between 1999-2013 during Putin's first two presidencies followed by the Medvedev presidency. This is when the basic institutions of the current Russian political system were changed to recentralize state authority and prevent Russian Federation from looming disintegratio… more
This item is restricted from view until September 1, 2027.
Date: August 2022
Creator: Pechenina, Anna
Partner: UNT Libraries

Premigratory Experiences and the Political Effects of Suitcase Socialization

Description: Do the experiences that an immigrant faces in their country of origin affect the political attitudes and behavior when an immigrant is in their country of residence? Although there is a considerable amount of work exploring the political behavior of racial and ethnic minorities, some work on immigrant political behavior, and some work that that connects premigratory experiences with post migration political behavior, there is relatively little work that examines premigratory experiences with au… more
Date: August 2022
Creator: Okundaye, Gabriela Cirenia
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Elite Management Strategies under Dictatorships and Their Determinants

Description: This dissertation attempts to uncover systematic patterns regarding elite management in dictatorships. To do so, it describes how dictators manage their elites and what factors determine the outcomes of their decision. Although considerable literature has examined the various structural features of dictatorships and has identified different elite management strategies to explain the persistence of dictatorships, few, if any, have empirically tested any of the theoretical propositions generated … more
Date: May 2022
Creator: Kim, Taekbin
Partner: UNT Libraries

To Constrain or Tame: Aristotle and Machiavelli on Demagogy

Description: What defines demagogues and what sort of threat do they pose to democracy? Contemporary politics has recently witnessed a rise in demagogic leaders around the globe. Following this trend, many notable scholars have sought to better define the ancient term and to provide politics with advice on how to handle them. However, demagogy is hard to define, and research is divided over what truly makes for a demagogue. Scholars tend to either focus on the intention, the tools, or the effects of leaders… more
This item is restricted from view until June 1, 2024.
Date: May 2022
Creator: Graham, Sebastian R
Partner: UNT Libraries

Third Party Actor Interests, Conflict Management Approaches, and Intrastate Conflict Outcomes

Description: This dissertation examines the role of third parties in civil war mediation and peacekeeping efforts. The dissertation makes two primary contributions to the literature. First, it builds upon existing literature by applying state-level arguments of third party involvement in mediation and peacekeeping efforts to the United Nations Security Council and regional IGOs. Second, it investigates the role of communication and coordination between third parties in their conflict management efforts.
Date: December 2021
Creator: Mintun, Daniel T.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Strategic Use of Religion in a Secular State: The Impact of Religious Organizations on Japanese Politics

Description: How do religions and nationalism interact in secular democracies? With its history of nationalism based on religious ideologies, and the subsequent forced separation of state and religion, Japan provides a valuable case to examine how religion and nationalism interact and affect the politics of a secular state. The purpose of this dissertation is to understand and synthesize the divide within the literature regarding the idea that Shinto is fundamentally nationalist in nature. Due to Shinto's h… more
Date: August 2021
Creator: Dewell Gentry, Hope Ashley
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Collaboration among Conflict Management Practitioners and Human Rights Advocacy Groups

Description: In a civil war, conflict management practitioners are concerned with bringing the conflict to an end and providing security for civilians. Similarly, human rights advocacy groups are also concerned with minimizing civilian harm. Given the similar intentions of these actors in civil war states, this dissertation explores under what circumstances conflict management practitioners and human rights advocacy groups collaborate. First, I compare to what extent mediation and peacekeeping cases differ… more
Date: May 2021
Creator: Akyol, Seyma N.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Foreign Direct Investment and Sustainable Peace During/After Civil Conflicts

Description: This dissertation examines the impact of FDI on peace in civil conflict-experienced states. While economic grievances have often been pointed out as a major cause of civil war within the literature, scholarship on post-conflict peace has focused mainly on political settlements, such as one-sided victories or power sharing, largely ignoring the importance of economic conditions. Thus, this dissertation aims to examine how FDI can affect sustainable peace in conflict-experienced states in terms o… more
Date: May 2021
Creator: Jeong, Bora
Partner: UNT Libraries

Francis Bacon's New Atlantis: The Quiet Revolution of Science, Religion, and Politics

Description: Francis Bacon (1561-1626) is recognized as a founder of the modern scientific project and a forerunner of the modern era of political thought. He advocated the development of an active science that would enable human beings to control nature in order to relieve man's estate. To accomplish this, Bacon argues that we must reconstruct all arts and sciences upon a more solid foundation. In reconstructing the arts and sciences, Bacon subtly changes the meaning of foundational religious, political, a… more
Date: May 2021
Creator: Lowe, Evan M.
Partner: UNT Libraries

The Perils of Poor Community-Police Relations: Exploring the Link Between Race, Police Perceptions, and Public Trust in Government

Description: This research examines the political implications of community-police relations in the United States by exploring the link between race, perceptions of police performance, and trust in government. Relying on survey data, I examine these relationships for Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Whites. In addition to examining the broader relationship between community-police relations and institutional trust, this dissertation examines (1) how police perceptions influence individuals' comfort in contactin… more
Date: May 2021
Creator: Ramirez, Michelle
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Does Gender Representation Matter? Gender, Descriptive and Substantive Representation, and Women-Friendly Districts

Description: This dissertation considers how district-level demographic factors favorable to women congressional candidates facilitate substantive representation of women's interests. I contribute to the existing research by linking the literature on women candidate emergence and electoral success with that on descriptive and substantive representation. Beyond simply asking whether and how women in Congress represent women's interests, I argue that the demographic characteristics of districts in which women… more
Date: December 2020
Creator: Friesenhahn, Amy
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Political Stability in Xenophon's Cyropaedia

Description: While there have been several rich studies that have provided insight into the teachings of Xenophon that emerge from a careful reading of the Cyropaedia, the problem of reconciling the apparent good rule of Cyrus with the ruin of his empire persists. I argue that this problem can be reconciled by focusing on the problem that Xenophon initially informs us he is interested in, political stability.
Date: December 2020
Creator: Zitar, Brandon P
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

This Land is My Land: The Dynamic Relationship between Migration and the Far-Right

Description: This dissertation examines the dynamic intersections of the relationship between migration and the far-right through three empirical, stand-alone chapters. The first substantive chapter re-evaluates existing theories of far-right support using a novel theory and comprehensive dataset to assess how immigration opinion and immigration levels interact to shape individual far-right support. The findings suggest that increases in asylum-based migration are associated with increased far-right voting,… more
Date: December 2020
Creator: Winn, Meredith
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Interstate Influence Strategies in Border Crises: 1918-2015

Description: Within interstate militarized disputes, states use different kinds of influence strategies, like bullying, reciprocating, and trial-and-error. My dissertation examines state influence strategies within border disputes. This context serves as a hard test which could testify if state behaviors in world politics are mainly driven by the salience of contested issues. Or other factors, like leader militarized backgrounds (e.g., participating in rebellions or military service), may also at work. On t… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Yao, Jiong
Partner: UNT Libraries

Risky Business: A Sub-National Analysis of Violent Organized Crime and Foreign Direct Investment in Mexico

Description: This dissertation examines the relationship between violent organized crime and foreign direct investment (FDI) through sub-national analysis focused on the case of Mexico. The results indicate that FDI decisions vary based on the type of violent organized crime.
Date: August 2020
Creator: Bennett, Amanda White
Partner: UNT Libraries
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