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Progress or Decline: International Political Economy and Basic Human Rights

Description: This dissertation is a cross-national, empirical study of human rights conditions in a dynamic international political economy. The scope of the examination covers 176 developed and developing countries from 1980 through 1993. Through evaluating the numerous theoretical aspects of human rights conceptualization, I draw upon Shue's framework and consider whether there are indeed "basic rights" and which rights should fit into this category. Further, I address the debate between those who claim t… more
Date: May 1999
Creator: Milner, Wesley T.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Fractional Integration and Political Modeling

Description: This dissertation investigates the consequences of fractional dynamics for political modeling. Using Monte Carlo analyses, Chapters II and III investigate the threats to statistical inference posed by including fractionally integrated variables in bivariate and multivariate regressions. Fractional differencing is the most appropriate tool to guard against spurious regressions and other threats to inference. Using fractional differencing, multivariate models of British politics are developed in … more
Date: August 1999
Creator: Lebo, Matthew Jonathan
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Law and Human Rights: Is the Law a Mere Parchment Barrier to Human Rights Abuse?

Description: This study is the first systematic global analysis of the impact of law on human rights, analyzing the impact of twenty-three constitution provisions and an international covenant on three measures of human rights behavior, over the period of 1976-1996. Three sets of constitutional provisions are analyzed, including 1) ten provisions for individual freedoms and due process rights, 2) nine provisions for elements of judicial independence and 3) four provisions that outline procedures for states … more
Date: December 1999
Creator: Keith, Linda Camp
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Human Rights & U.S. Foreign Aid, 1984-1995: The Cold War and Beyond...

Description: This study attempts to cast empirical light on the traditionalist-revisionist debate regarding the impact of the Soviet Union's collapse on U.S. foreign policy decision-making. To accomplish this goal, the relationship between human rights and U.S. foreign aid decision-making is examined before and after the Cold War. In doing so, the author attempts to determine if "soft" approaches, such as the use of a country's human rights records when allocating aid, have garnered increasing attention sin… more
Date: December 1999
Creator: Miller, Brian Lawrence
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Resource Evaluation and Presidential Decision-making: Predicting the Use of Force by U.S. Presidents, 1976 - 1988

Description: In order to explain presidential decisions to use force, a model is developed that incorporates three distinct decision-making environments. The results indicate the president is responsive not only to domestic and international environments, but also to the resource evaluation environment. The evidence here demonstrates that while these two environments are important the president can't use force arbitrarily; rather, his evaluation of resources available for the use of force can limit his abil… more
Date: May 1997
Creator: Waterman, Peter A. (Peter Alan)
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Political Economy of Industrial Keiretsu Groups in Japan and their Impact on Foreign Trade with the United States

Description: The postwar transformation of the international environment has caused economic issues to become a main source of contention among industrial states. The trade imbalance between Japan and its trading partners became a major source of conflict. Reciprocity of access and opening the market of Japan became the main point of debate and the major issue affecting relations between Japan and the United States. While the distinction between the domain of domestic and international politics increasingly… more
Date: August 1993
Creator: Nukumi, Tetsuro
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Party-Military Relations in the PRC After Mao, 1976-1990

Description: The importance of party-military relations in the People's Republic of China was succinctly stated by Mao in his dictum that "political power comes from the gun" and "the Party should command the gun." Party-military relations in the PRC have never fully conformed to Mao's warning. This study seeks to analyze the nature and types of party-military relations in the PRC during the post-Mao period and the factors affecting change in these relations.
Date: December 1991
Creator: Hung, Lu-hsun Theodore
Partner: UNT Libraries
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A Spatial Analysis of Right-wing Radical Parties: The Case of the Republikaner Party Programs Since 1983

Description: Right-wing parties in European states have improved electorally in recent years. The small German Republikaner party is representative of these successes. This study examines outcomes for the Republikaner that may be attributable to movements on a number of policy issues.
Date: August 1994
Creator: Cordes, Niels G. (Niels Guether)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Intelligent Discontent, Agitation, and Progress: A Time-Series Analysis of National Revolts in Central America 1960-1982

Description: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua have all experienced significant social, economic, and political changes during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua experienced violent national revolts, while Costa Rica and Honduras did not. I tested a process theory that endeavored to account for the origins and intensity of national revolts in Central America. The analysis was formulated in a most-similar-systems (MSS) design. Pooled cross-sectional t… more
Date: August 1997
Creator: David, J. Sky
Partner: UNT Libraries
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A Role Modification Model: the Foreign Policy of the Palestine Liberation Organization, 1964-1981

Description: This study is a Comparative Foreign Policy (CFP) analysis of the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) foreign policy behavior from 1964 through 1981. This study develops and tests a role modification model that accounts for evolutionary changes in foreign policy behavior. One of the major premises of this research is that what often appears as dramatic restructuring in foreign policy is actually the culmination of a series of modifications that transpired over an extended period of time. T… more
Date: December 1993
Creator: DiGeorgio-Lutz, JoAnn A. (JoAnn Angela)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Pull to the Right in Western Europe: an Analysis of Electoral Support for the Extreme-Right

Description: This study develops a model explaining support for contemporary extreme-right parties. The history and political setting of relevant countries are examined. The research explores necessary state-level conditions, which are postindustrialism, convergence to the center by major parties, and proportional representation. Individual support is probed using survey data with bivariate and probit analyses. Being male and younger proved to be significant variables, while socio-economic status did not. C… more
Date: December 1998
Creator: Fletcher, Jody D. (Jody Daniel)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Structural Adjustment, Civil Society, and Democratization in Sub Saharan Africa

Description: Two recent developments dominate the political economy of Sub Saharan Africa -- the adoption of economic structural adjustment reforms and the emergence of pressures for the democratization of the political process. Economic reform measures have spawned civil society, made up of anti-authoritarian, anti-statist, non-governmental organizations, that demand political liberalization. This study is an attempt to analyze, theoretically and quantitatively, the unanticipated association between these … more
Date: December 1995
Creator: Iheduru, Obioma M.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Structural Causes of Transnational Terrorism: a Cross-National Longitudinal Analysis

Description: This study provides a first attempt at building a multivariate model to explain terrorist activity by including six national factors proposed to have a relationship to the number of terrorist events occurring in a given nation and the number of terrorist incidents attributed to groups primarily identified with a given nation. These factors include rate of population growth, level of economic development, economic growth rate, level of democracy, presence of leftist regime type, and level of rep… more
Date: August 1994
Creator: Wendel, Dierdre L. (Dierdre Lynelle)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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To Negotiate or Not to Negotiate: an Evaluation of Governments' Response to Hostage Events, 1967-1987 and the Determinants of Hostage Event Frequency

Description: Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis is applied to a cross-national data set to test two hypotheses concerning governments' hard-line response against terrorism: do hard-line responses cause more damage vis a vis event outcome and is the hard-line approach a deterrent? Six national factors are included in this analysis: economic development, economic growth rate, democratic development, leftist regime type, military regime type and British colonial legacy. Only the level of economic… more
Date: December 1997
Creator: Woodard, Paul B. (Paul Bonham)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Cost of Issuing Debt: An Analysis of the Factors Affecting the Net Interest Cost of State Bonds

Description: The major purpose of this dissertation is to explore the determinants of interest cost for state bonds. Various kinds of variables pertaining to issue characteristics, market characteristics, economic conditions, and political variables were statistically tested to assess their impact on the interest cost of state bonds. This research examines the variables found to be significant for local bonds, as well as some factors unique to state bonds, e.g., the types state agencies issuing debt and th… more
Date: December 1995
Creator: Chen, Li-Kanz
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Dealignment Decades on: Partisanship and Party Support in Great Britain, 1979-1996

Description: This dissertation surveys electoral change in Great Britain during the period between 1979 and 1996. It analyzes the long-term factors and the short-term dynamics underlying the evolution of three aspects of the electorate: party identification, voting intentions and party support in inter-election periods. Drawing on cross-sectional and panel data from the British Election Studies and public opinion polls, I investigate the impacts of long-term socialization and short-term perceptions on voter… more
Date: December 1996
Creator: Ho, Karl Ka-yiu
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Dangerous Changes? The Effect of Political Regime Changes on Life Integrity Violations, 1977-1993

Description: This study develops a model of different types of political regime changes and their effect on life integrity violations. The data covers 147 countries from 1977-1993. Basic bivariate analyses and multivariate pooled cross-sectional time series analyses employing Ordinary Least Squares regression with panel-corrected standard errors are used. The results show that political regime change in general has no effect on state-sponsored violence. Looking at different types of regime changes, the regr… more
Date: August 1998
Creator: Zanger, Sabine C. (Sabine Carmen)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Republic of China's Foreign Policy 1949-1988: Factors Affecting Change in Foreign Policy Behavior

Description: The Republic of China (ROC) has faced severe foreign policy challenges since its relocation from mainland China to Taiwan, and it has had to modify its position several times as its environment has changed. Its foreign policy since 1949 has gone through three distinct phases of development. A series of diplomatic adversities befell the ROC following its defeat in the United Nations in 1971, which presented the nation with an unprecedented challenge to its survival. These calamitous events for t… more
Date: May 1993
Creator: Wang, Chian, 1955-
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Linkages between the Texas Supreme Court and Public Opinion

Description: This investigation sought to identify linkages between the Texas Supreme Court and public opinion through 1) a matching of written decisions with scientifically conducted public opinion polls; 2) direct mention of public opinion and its synonyms in Texas justices' decisions; 3) comparison of these mentions over time; and 4) comparison of 10 personal attributes of justices with matched decisions. The study moved the unit of analysis from the U.S. Supreme Court to the state court level by using c… more
Date: May 1995
Creator: Ragland, Ruth Ann Vaughan
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Socioeconomic Development and Military Policy Consequences of Third World Military and Civilian Regimes, 1965-1985

Description: This study attempts to address the performance of military and civilian regimes in promoting socioeconomic development and providing military policy resources in the Third World. Using pooled cross-sectional time series analysis, three models of socioeconomic and military policy performance are estimated for 66 countries in the Third World for the period 1965-1985. These models include the progressive, corporate self-interest, and conditional. The results indicate that socioeconomic and militar… more
Date: May 1992
Creator: Madani, Hamed
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Presidential Support and the Political Use of Presidential Capital

Description: This research incorporates a decision-making theory which defines the linkage between the public, the media, the president and the Congress. Specifically, I argue that the public holds widely shared domestic and international goals and responds to a number of external cues provided by the president and the media in its evaluation of presidential policies. Although most studies examine overall presidential popularity, there are important differences in the public's evaluations of the president's… more
Date: December 1998
Creator: Ault, Michael E.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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