Government & Politics Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2775
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Item Reconciling History and International Law: Territorial and Maritime Claims in the South China Sea and East China Sea(2016) Wilson, Kimberly L.; Pearson, Margaret M; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)High-ranking Chinese military officials are often quoted in international media as stating that China cannot afford to lose even an inch of Chinese territory, as this territory has been passed down from Chinese ancestors. Such statements are not new in Chinese politics, but recently this narrative has made an important transition. While previously limited to disputes over land borders, such rhetoric is now routinely applied to disputes involving islands and maritime borders. China is increasingly oriented toward its maritime borders and seems unwilling to compromise on delimitation disputes, a transition mirrored by many states across the globe. In a similar vein, scholarship has found that territorial disputes are particularly intractable and volatile when compared with other types of disputes, and a large body of research has grappled with producing systematic knowledge of territorial conflict. Yet in this wide body of literature, an important question has remained largely unanswered - how do states determine which geographical areas will be included in their territorial and maritime claims? In other words, if nations are willing to fight and die for an inch of national territory, how do governments draw the boundaries of the nation? This dissertation uses in-depth case studies of some of the most prominent territorial and maritime disputes in East Asia to argue that domestic political processes play a dominant and previously under-explored role in both shaping claims and determining the nature of territorial and maritime disputes. China and Taiwan are particularly well suited for this type of investigation, as they are separate claimants in multiple disputes, yet they both draw upon the same historical record when establishing and justifying their claims. Leveraging fieldwork in Taiwan, China, and the US, this dissertation includes in-depth case studies of China’s and Taiwan’s respective claims in both the South China Sea and East China Sea disputes. Evidence from this dissertation indicates that officials in both China and Taiwan have struggled with how to reconcile history and international law when establishing their claims, and that this struggle has introduced ambiguity into China's and Taiwan's claims. Amid this process, domestic political dynamics have played a dominant role in shaping the options available and the potential for claims to change in the future. In Taiwan’s democratic system, where national identity is highly contested through party politics, opinions vary along a broad spectrum as to the proper borders of the nation, and there is considerable evidence that Taiwan’s claims may change in the near future. In contrast, within China’s single-party authoritarian political system, where nationalism is source of regime legitimacy, views on the proper interpretation of China’s boundaries do vary, but along a much more narrow range. In the dissertation’s final chapter, additional cases, such as South Korea’s position on Dokdo and Indonesia’s approach to the defense of Natuna are used as points of comparison to further clarify theoretical findings.Item Brings the Politics Back in:Political Incentive and Policy Distortion in China(2009) Mei, Ciqi; Pearson, Margaret M.; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation explores why some commendable policy goals set by the central government of China have been left unmet at the local levels. Observing the significance of policy behaviors of local officials in producing policy outcomes in their jurisdictions, it attributes the apparent policy distortion to the "incorrect" incentives that local officials face now. Different from those focusing on the new economic incentive offered by the new decentralization arrangement during the reform era, this study looks into the nature of political incentives embedded in the oldtop-down cadre management system to see how local officials are "incentivized" politically to produce distorted policy outcomes. By investigating formal rules governing local chiefs' turnovers and actual past turnovers of the prefectural chiefs in Zhejiang and Hubei provinces during the reform era, this study finds out that the top-down political incentive is unbalanced by nature in that promotion criteria for local chiefs slant heavily to local chiefs' achievements (zhengji) in promoting local economic growth while their performance in other policy issues are neglected at large. It argues that such unbalanced nature of top-down political incentive has induced local officials to divert more efforts to pursue "mindless" economic growth at the cost of other commendable goals; policy distortion therefore emerges as the consequence of unbalanced political incentive. This dissertation continues to explain why the apparent policy distortion has persisted. By investigating five cases illustrating the way the center deals with local policy distortion, it argues that the central government is unwilling, unable and ineffective to sanction policy distortion because of the innate conflict between the indirect management tool the center uses and the multiple governance goals it desires for. The unbalanced nature of current top-down political incentive is therefore predetermined and policy distortion persists. This dissertation contributes to the general discussion on central-local dynamics in China by bringing back the top-down political incentives as the most important institutional cause for policy outcome. Policy implication of this study is clear: the problem of policy distortion could not be solved without reshuffling the top-down political incentive system.Item Instrumental and Induced Cooperation: Environmental Politics in the South China Sea(2005-12-07) Chen, Sulan; Conca, Ken; Schreurs, Miranda; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines the development of environmental cooperation in the South China Sea from the late 1970s when the first modest cooperative activities emerged among the small number of members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Since the 1990s, the membership of the community has broadened and its efforts have become more focused and energetic. Through a study of the interactions among the three main actors engaged in regional seas cooperation, namely the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), ASEAN, and China, this dissertation seeks to explain the evolution of cooperation in the highly contentious South China Sea; the changing motivations, strategies and roles of the main actors; and the level of success with environmental politics in the region. The study is driven by an intriguing puzzle. While the South China Sea remains one of the most volatile, dangerous and intractable areas, environmental cooperation has developed rapidly since 1990s. This is particularly puzzling when the geopolitical context, the large number of littoral states with a history of hostility among them, the domestic priorities these countries place on development, and their diplomatic preferences are taken into account. The key to the puzzle lies in UNEP's strategizing. UNEP utilized the United Nation's potential power of legitimization, independence and knowledge in areas that were not limited to the environment per se to induce cooperation among the littoral countries of this highly contentious region. UNEP has played both inductive and instrumental roles in promoting environmental cooperation in the South China Sea. On the one hand, by framing environmental protection as a neutral, non-political and "low politics issue", UNEP has been able to draw the littoral countries to the negotiating table. This has internationalized environmental protection in the South China Sea, making non-participation in these cooperative efforts problematic since it could reduce the international prominence of a country's territorial claims. In this sense, UNEP has been able to induce cooperation. On the other hand, UNEP has played an instrumental role in promoting regional cooperation by helping countries to address common marine environmental problems and promoting confidence building measures between ASEAN countries and China.Item Double-mobilization: Transnational Advocacy Networks for China's Environment and Public Health(2005-08-05) Wu, Fengshi; Conca, Ken; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation investigates the nature of transnational advocacy networks and the impact of domestic structures on the development and political relations of such networks. Drawing upon the theoretical frameworks built by Margaret Keck, Katherine Sikkink and Sanjeev Khagram, I, though, challenge the conceptual bias embedded in this body of literature emphasizing contentious political relations between advocacy actors and targeted governments. I use the method of in-depth comparative case studies, and focus on two transnational advocacy networks in nature conservation and HIV/AIDS prevention in China to illustrate my three-fold argument: First, it is necessary to relax the theoretical bias in existing transnational advocacy literature, and recognize that the triangular relationship among the state, local society and international NSAs varies both over time and across issue areas. The two cases studied reveals a what I call the "double-mobilization" character of such networks. This Double-mobilization pattern emphasizes that international advocacy actors endeavor to engage, collaborate with, and advocate around the state, even as they establish connections and solidarity with local societal groups. I propose this double-mobilization concept to capture the gradual, consensual, and sustainable aspect of transnational activism. Second, it is not sufficient to use political regime type as the main causal variable to examine the emergence and evolvement of transnational activism and advocacy networks. Evidence from China has shown that the politics generated by international NSAs in a non-democratic country is complex, and despite strict macro-structures, transnational advocacy networks are emerging. Third, I argue that two domestic micro-level structures--decentralization within the state, and interconnections within existing civil society groups--strongly influence the political relations of transnational activism and networks. With decentralized environmental governance, and a strong and connected local environmentalist community, international NGOs have been able to generate, expand, and consolidate their mobilization networks in both governmental and societal domains in nature conservation. While transnational NGO linkages and networks are surfacing in HIV/AIDS preventions in China, both the scope and level of deepening of such networks are still limited.Item China's IT Leadership(2005-08-03) Duan, Qing; Wilson, Ernest J.; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)With the rapid expansion of China's information and communications technology (ICT) sector, there has emerged a strategic group of IT leaders. These IT leaders are characterized by their "amphibiousness". On the one hand, they have become bridges that introduce Western concepts of competition and decentralization to China. On the other, they do not want to challenge the state because they feel comfortable with their personal ties to promote their business interests. They belong to the "non-critical realm" of social elites and have not coalesced into a coherent and organized social force. Even though they may not represent an independently innovative force that would push for political change in China, they have become catalysts and have created part of the necessary conditions for political changes, for example enhancing institutional performance of the state and creating a forum for public debate and political participation of the grassroots. Therefore, they have a subtle political impact on state responsiveness and civic participation. By carefully contrasting the autonomous, parasitic, symbiotic, negotiating, and amphibious actor models, this study of IT leadership in China emphasizes the creative aspect of politics--their visions, craftsmanship, and courage for ICT diffusion in China. In contrast with the top-down or bottom-up paths of Communist transitions in East Central Europe, the Chinese path seems to be grounded in the middle. The conclusion of this dissertation is that in a time of uncertainty, a strategic group of IT leaders starts to inspire and lead this nation in new directions like a spark when China is in desperate need of a systematic and convincing rationale and vision for its progress in an era of great transformation.