UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
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Item Identity Processes, Social Context, and the Formation of Social Solidarity in Groups(2015) Posard, Marek Nathan; Lucas, Jeffrey W; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)A proposed theory explains how actors rely on subtle features of social context when deciding whether to contribute resources to the group and punish their partners after they behave selfishly. The theory incorporates elements of identity control theory with social exchange theory. It proposes that features of social context shape the perceptions of actors in groups. These perceptions, in turn, affect their behaviors and the formation of social solidarity between group members. Three experiments test elements of the proposed theory by varying the context in which actors viewed themselves, their partners, and the overall goals of their groups. The instructions for study 1 told groups of actors that they either had cooperative or competitive personality types. Study 2 referred to the partners of actors as either collaborators or competitors. Study 3 told actors the goals of their groups were either defined by cooperation or competition. Each study assigned actors to the same group structure in which individuals completed a public goods game with opportunities to anonymously punish their partners. Results show that actors contributed more resources to their group, and spent fewer resources punishing their partners, when they viewed themselves or their partners as more cooperative than competitive. These behaviors, in turn, affected levels of trust, commitment, and cohesion that formed between group members. The context in which actors viewed the goals of their groups affected their contributions to these groups, but it did not significantly affect their punishment of partners. These patterns of behaviors also had negligible effects on social solidarity in groups. Thus, results from these experiments show that subtle features of the relational context (i.e. perceptions of self and partners) affect the means by which actors promote collective action in groups, shaping the formation of social solidarity between group members.Item Ethnic Politics and Urban Voting Behavior in India: Explaining Variation in Electoral Support for the Bharatiya Janata Party, 1999-2009(2013) Berland Kaul, Allison; Pearson, Margaret M.; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation focuses on urban voting behavior in India, and explores the factors affecting voter support for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), one of two major parties in India, and the only ethnic party that competes at the national level. How do we understand the rise of this ethnic party to become the second most electorally successful party in India? Why do voters vote for this ethnic party, which has been linked in the past with episodes of ethnic violence? Existing explanations have focused on ethnic factors or programmatic factors to explain voter support for the BJP. I argue that there is a need to understand the way in which both ethnic interests and programmatic interests explain voter support for the BJP. This dissertation puts forward a theory of voting behavior, Ethnically Mediated Retrospective Voting (ERV), which posits the conditions under which ethnic interests and programmatic interests influence voters' political choices, as a means of explaining the nature of voter support for an ethnic party. ERV theorizes the way in which changes in the level of ethnic conflict influences the political salience of ethnic interests, and changes resulting from economic growth and economic reforms influences programmatic demands by voters. The mechanisms of ERV together posit different generalized scenarios of voting behavior to explain voter support for an ethnic party in different socio-economic conditions. The theory is tested through an investigation of urban voting behavior in two locations, Delhi and Gujarat, across three national elections (1999, 2004 and 2009), and includes over 70 interviews of voters in the cities of Ahmedabad and New Delhi. This study finds that ethnic interests and retrospective programmatic interests are both important factors in explaining voter support for the BJP over space and time. Under conditions of a high level of perceived ethnic conflict, ethnic interests increase in salience in voters' political choices. Second, under conditions of strong economic growth, programmatic demands increase in salience in voters' political choices. As a result, different socio-economic conditions impact the relative influence of ethnic and programmatic interests in explaining overall voter support for an ethnic party. Through an examination of the way in which both ethnic interests and programmatic interests influence voter support for the Bharatiya Janata party, this dissertation broadens our understanding of voting behavior and the factors influencing voter support for an ethnic party in a rapidly developing country context.