Michael Mann (1997 [1984], p. 60) wrote, “The state is undeniably a messy concept,” but in the years since he made this observation, little seems to have been done to clean it up. This dissertation seeks to use ontology-based methods to answer three major research questions conc…
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This dissertation investigates the oil crisis in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The theoretical framework is based on the 'weapons of the weak' construct developed by James Scott which is built upon the broader perspective of the State-Society discourse. It argues that the w…
Nationalism has been considered one of the greatest threats to the existing global order, where non-dominant groups create movements that reject the official ideology of state uniformity while demanding autonomy. Baloch history and identity formation is unique due to specific co…
Using the comparative historical method, this project examines the reasons behind the differential policy of the Russian state toward the secessions of the republics of Tatarstan and Chechnya, despite the existence of significant similarities between the cases. The Russian state…
Why would an entrenched authoritarian regime establish an independent constitutional court empowered to perform judicial review? This dissertation seeks to explain this paradoxical development in Egyptian politics and to understand how the Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court e…
This thesis is an historical examination of the most radical antireligious policy in Eastern Europe under Communism. It will document the Albanian government's religious policy during the Communist period between 1944–1991, devoting special attention to the policy initiated duri…
Local firms producing prescription drugs for their domestic markets can be a resource for national health systems, but the range and quality of their products is constrained or encouraged by a complex structure of regulation that operates in different ways at the national and in…
An explanatory Theory must answer an explanation-seeking “why” question concerning a “what”; e.g. why did a State develop in the Nile valley? Acceptable theories covering Egypt or anthropological theories applicable to the area do not exist. A theory consists of a general regula…
The modern problem of “national integration” is the problem of constructing a community—or a `nation'—out of the disparate, constitutive elements contained within the physical borders of a particular state. These elements are often themselves historically bound, culturally defin…
This study examines state-society relations in post-communist Kazakhstan from a civil society perspective. It discusses in detail the historical developments that shaped the growth and decline of civil society development. In contrast to the studies of democratization, which ass…
This study traces the evolution of the Rentier State Theory, quantifies its primary components, and rigorously tests the extent to which the negative impact of economic rent upon the advancement of democracy in the Arab world can be substantiated empirically. Through a series of…
The African state has received numerous analyses in academic literature. The vast majority of these studies focus on the essence of the state rather than how it is experienced and lived by its citizens and therefore sacrifice empirical knowledge of state function in favour of ab…
Hizb ut Tahrir (HT) is a rapidly growing trans-national Islamic movement which aims to revive the classical Islamic Caliphate. Consequently, it has come under increasing international focus as a result of its rapid expansion beyond its traditional heartland of the Middle East in…
More specifically, it seeks to examine the making of sports policy as a field of state activity and as a process involving various projects, agents and transformations, by uncovering the underlying structures and relations in the national sports policy context. The research is i…
The main objective of this thesis was to examine three key questions concerning the political economy of digital broadcasting. First, the concept of digital broadcasting and its regulatory issues were investigated. Following the review of the related theories, I proposed a polit…
This thesis aims to consider the competing visions of Sasanian Iran advanced by Arthur Christensen in ‘L'Iran sous les Sassanides' (1944) and Parvaneh Pourshariati in ‘Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire' (2008), discuss the relevant evidence in relation to their arguments, …
The study examines the politicization of religion in comparative perspective. Its focus is on state actors in three countries where commitments to secular norms were displaced by religious politics: Egypt, India and the United States. In each case, the question is asked: why did…
In certain polities, the nature of the state can best be captured as a contract whereby the central administration delegates taxation in the countryside to provincial elites. More specifically, due to technological necessities, the center relies on delegates to exact taxes, and …