Why do party systems in some new democracies feature starker divides regarding questions of national and religious identity than those of economic policy? Why do parties in these countries sometimes appear to offer such small or unclear differences regarding economic policy? Wha…
Poland made impressive gains during its democratization phrase between 1989 and 2015. Its economy became significantly more open; formal institutions underwent dramatic changes in checks and balances. Yet the task of sustaining the impressive performance of democratic institutio…
This research intended to understand regime juxtaposition within the third wave of autocratization (1990– ) or, more specifically, to explain why the survival of democracy is achieved in some regions and not in others, at the same time that central governments seek to expand the…
The following thesis analyzes the Kwangju Uprising through the lens of the foreigners living in and around Kwangju who became intimately involved in the crisis, and attempts to analyze both why they became involved and their impact on the crisis. While previous histories on the …
States are path dependent entities that deviate solely in the face of catastrophic failures in the pursuit of axiomatic ends by conventional means. The inertia of bureaucratic institutions, a foreign policy consensus within a self-reproducing elite of experts, the self-interest …
Most of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa achieved their independence after protracted liberation struggles. What explains the variances in their ultimate political development? Why, for example, did some post-conflict states evolve into democracies, while many others failed t…
This doctoral thesis examines the impact of moderate Islamist parties on party system institutionalization in Turkey. Its focus is on the political emergence of ‘Muslim-Democrat’ parties. This term was coined by the scholar Vali Nasr and refers to a new sub-type of party actor i…
This thesis offers a qualitative analysis of the condition of women's social and political roles in Egyptian society prior to and during their current transition to a legitimate democracy. It argues that without mitigation of the patriarchal structures shaping the ideological fr…
As goes the military, so goes the revolution. It has been stated in many ways, but it has never been clearer than in the uprisings of the Arab Spring. Whether the military backed the regime or broke from it, or whether the military itself broke in two, the behavior of the milita…
The education system in Egypt is widely regarded as corrupt and ineffective, and calls for drastic reform are long-standing. Education reform has taken on a heightened importance due to the political developments that began in 2011. This study attempts to contribute to an unders…
The international community has devoted significant attention to Arab democratization in the last decade. Public discourse on the topic rose dramatically during the George W. Bush administration and then receded in 2007 due to faltering progress in Iraq and Arab electoral outcom…
10 Years on from the Arab Spring, Tunisia is positioned to show how democracy can be successful in the Arab World. Tunisia had significant international influence on this possible success from various actors with their own agendas. This paper examine show international actors in…
The main objective of this dissertation is to analyze the cooperation potential and institutional feasibility of a regional integration scheme in the Mediterranean region that would follow a similar pattern as the one proposed by the Schuman Declaration on May 9th 1950, establis…
The Iranian regime has repeatedly demonstrated a singular institutional resiliency that has been absent in other countries where "colored revolutions" have succeeded in overturning incumbents, such as Ukraine, Georgia, Serbia, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova, or where popular uprisings l…
Military interventions in the post-Cold War era—including both multilateral humanitarian interventions during the 1990s and American actions in Afghanistan and Iraq—have brought to the forefront of public debate and political analysis questions of "nation-building." These interv…
The revolutions that began in Tunisia in late 2010 spread across the region and toppled many seemingly durable authoritarian regimes in the Arab world. These revolutions in the name of democracy drew many comparisons to the popular color revolutions of the early 2000s that ouste…
What contributes to democracy's survival after initial elections? Scholarship on democratization and regime change suggests several factors conducive to democracy's survival, including higher levels of socioeconomic development, stronger parliaments and weaker presidents, and a …
In my dissertation, I examine two main research questions: 1. Can we regard democracy as the new standard of civilization and the new wave expansion of international society in the post-Cold War era and in the 21st century? and 2. Should we think that each path toward democracy …
Less democratic countries conduct elections under the majoritarian electoral formula more often than under proportional representation by a wide margin. Yet, robust democratic systems utilize both majoritarian and PR electoral formulas with great success. This dissertation appro…