College of Behavioral & Social Sciences
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item Making Sense of Violence: How the Lebanon War Became Sectarian(2024) Ellsworth, Ted Spencer; Cunningham, Kathleen G; Jones, Calvert W; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation analyzes the rise of sectarian political order in Lebanon during the Civil War. In the Middle East, religious differences are often seen as an intractable problem, and sectarian power-sharing rules, all-encompassing. When we look at the pre-war period in Lebanon, while religious differences played a role at the national level, most sectarian communities did not have robust institutions to maintain order and coordination amongst themselves. Internally, the groups were politically divided, and many political parties were ostensibly secular. Despite serious efforts to abolish sectarianism throughout the war, by the end, the system of sectarian order was more entrenched in all levels of society. At the same time, sectarianism remains just one of many relevant cleavages within Lebanon. How do we explain the trajectory of sectarian order in Lebanon? What does the persistence of sectarian order reveal about the challenges of nation building and political order? Conventional scholarship argues that violence can help construct both identities and order: external violence is thought to reinforce national identities instead of subnational ones, and intra-group violence is thought to reinforce subnational boundaries. By contrast, my argument highlights the role of framing in mediating these relationships. This inductive study is based on analysis of fourteen archives, novel event data, and a close reading of party ephemera and historical newspapers from 1958 to 1982. By combining this data within a micro-comparative framework, this dissertation reconstructs the dynamics of contention leading up to and throughout the early stages of the Lebanon Civil War. Comparing episodes of violence in Lebanon over time, I explore how external violence, inter-group violence, and intra-group violence shaped political order. I show that the relationship between violence and the creation of identity-based order is conditional on framing effects. These frames help decision-makers link specific threats to policies, including new rules and institutions to govern intra- and inter-group behavior. By examining examples of each type of violence over successive junctures, I unsettle the notion that sectarian political order in Lebanon was inevitable, instead showing how elites became trapped by their ideas as they attempted to make sense of problems that arose in the war such as Israeli interference in Lebanese politics, inter-communal massacres, and opportunistic violence. My work has general implications for how violence can shape behavior, the types of political order that emerge from civil conflicts, and the important role of ideational change during periods marked by uncertainty.Item The Demobilized Body: Transgressions of Personal Space and Political Participation(2016) Abdo, Carla Beth; Calvo, Dr. Ernesto F; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Grounded in the intersection between gender politics and electoral studies, this dissertation examines the demobilizing effects of violations of personal space (in the form of domestic violence, control over mobility, emotional abuse, and sexual harassment) on the propensity to vote. Using quantitative methods across four survey datasets concerning Lebanon, the United States, Morocco, and Yemen, this research concludes that cross-regionally, familial control over mobility reduces the propensity to vote among women. Conversely, mechanisms of empowerment such as education and employment increase the propensity to vote.Item Discourse and Dissent in the Diaspora: Civic and Political Lives of Iranian Americans(2013) Zarpour, Mari Tina; Freidenberg, Judith N; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examines the political agency of Iranian immigrants. Through the rhetorical device of "political talk" which encompasses politically- and civically- oriented discourse, action and ideology, this research follows political talk as it presents itself in two locations within the public sphere: in the life course of Iranian Americans, and through online discourse. Methods used included a combination of conventional ethnography (participant observation, informal interviews, life history interviews), and virtual ethnography to develop a typology of political and civic action. Life history interviews provided an understanding of the meanings informants assigned to political and civic action within the larger trajectory of their lives, especially within the context of migration experiences. Virtual ethnography involved the analysis of three different Iranian digital diaspora communities. First, this research found that the civic and political spheres of engagement are linked, and that Iranian immigrants use organizations to learn participatory democracy. It illustrates how ethnic organizations, online and offline, act as both vehicles and activators for immigrant political participation and further civic engagement in the U.S. Additionally, this research uncovers how factors (age at migration, length of time in U.S., particular migration experience) impact notions of belonging and solidarity. It unpacks immigrant political agency to demonstrate the range of behaviors and activities which constitute political and civic participation. It contributes to understanding modes of citizenship and belonging by relating individual, historical, and situational variables in order to understand the relationship between homeland events, immigrant politicization and political behavior. Analysis of the three digital communities evidenced the multiple ways that digital diasporas can be a forum for engaging politically and in creating political community by allowing for a diversity of voices. Finally, merging conventional and virtual ethnography highlighted the dominant discourses about participation in larger society, and demonstrated the formation of a distinctly Iranian-American civil society.Item The New Politics of Patronage: The Arms Trade and Clientelism in the Arab World(2012) Marshall, Shana R.; Telhami, Shibley; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In states without robust democratic institutions, public resources are often allocated on the basis of patronage. This distribution of patronage, along with the manipulation of official institutions (such as electoral systems and the judiciary) and the deployment of the coercive arms of the state provided the formula for authoritarian longevity in the Arab World. However, much regional scholarship continues to focus on the process through which patronage is distributed with little reference to how the underlying resources accrue to Arab regimes in the first place. Such studies fail to interrogate the organizational and financial interests of the external institutions (such as oil markets and aid organizations) that mediate this transfer of resources, and how those interests shape methods and patterns of resource distribution within Arab States. This paper is an attempt to identify some of these institutions and patterns by focusing on the array of patronage resources made available through the arms purchases executed by regional governments. The specific class of resources examined here is reciprocal investment contracts that U.S. defense firms negotiate with procuring country governments in order to facilitate arms sales, known in industry parlance as `defense offsets.' Procuring states design their own offset policies, including the amount of investment that foreign arms manufacturers are required to make and the domestic enterprises where those funds must be allocated. The procuring state's discretion over the process allows us to draw some conclusions about how these governments distribute offset investment to strengthen incumbents' patronage-based support networks. This analysis also reveals how U.S. defense firms are able to influence the negotiation process in order to secure their own financial benefits. By examining how defense firms and their customers in the Middle East collude to structure weapons contracts in order to generate offset agreements that are mutually beneficial, we gain a better understanding of how patronage politics operates in the contemporary regional context. We are likewise alerted to the subtle ways in which influential external actors can insinuate their own interests into the process, and how the interactions between these groups create ever-evolving new opportunities for patronage politics.Item Why Refugees Rebel: Militarization in Jordan and Worldwide(2012) Lebson, Micah; Telhami, Shibley; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Why do some refugee groups militarize while others do not? Existing literature focuses on structural explanations and neglects factors related to refugee groups themselves. While acknowledging the importance of exogenous factors in enabling militarization, I fill this gap by proposing a framework of refugee militarization including factors endogenous to refugee groups, which will help explain the motivation of refugees to militarize and the framing used to mobilize them. In this framework, four conditions are necessary and sufficient to lead to refugee militarization in a particular host country at a particular time: a collective project to redeem the homeland from a clear enemy, socioeconomic marginalization from the host state, militancy entrepreneurs and political opportunity. This framework is applied to in-depth case studies of two refugee groups, Palestinians and Iraqis in Jordan. Why did Palestinians militarize from 1964 to 1970, but not earlier or later? Why have Iraqis not militarized despite fears that they might? What are the implications for the likelihood of militarization by either group in the near future, given the ongoing upheavals of the Arab Spring? From 2010 to 2011 I conducted 174 interviews of Palestinian and Iraqi households and local experts in Jordan. The results of these interviews reveal that from 1948 to 1963 there was a collective project among Palestinians in Jordan, but most refugees were waiting for powerful states to redeem the homeland on their behalf. From 1964 to 1970 all four conditions were met. From 1971 to 2011 militarization has not occurred mainly due to lack of political opportunity. This suggests that Palestinians would likely militarize again if political opportunity arose. Among ordinary Iraqis, however, there is little collective project, despite the presence of militancy entrepreneurs, so it is unlikely that they would militarize even if given the opportunity. To extend the global applicability of this framework, I apply it also to cases of Rwandans and Afghans, using secondary literature. I conclude with suggestions for future research, a projection of refugee militarization in the context of the new Middle East, and recommendations to reduce the risk of militarization.Item UNPACKING INCLUSION, TRACING POLITICAL VIOLENCE: A CASE STUDY OF THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY AND HAMAS`S GOVERNANCE UNDER OCCUPATION(2011) Al-Madbouh, Ghada; Butterworth, Charles E; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation seeks to unpack inclusion and to trace a causal path by which a certain type of inclusion (exclusive inclusion) is linked to the deployment of political violence by incorporated opposition. In doing so, I challenge the assumptions of the inclusion-moderation nexus and its applicability to less institutionalized competitive authoritarianism. I undertake in-depth comparative case studies in two sectors in the Occupied Palestinian Territories: the Civil Security Sector (CSS) and the Palestinian Security Sector (PSS), where evidence shows that the inclusion of Hamas led to political violence rather than moderation. Based on this study I argue that unpacking inclusion into two components, namely open contestation and ostensible power sharing, is essential to account for the complex interactions between authority-incorporated groups and political violence. Open contestation and ostensible power sharing lead to various levels of what I call ―exclusive inclusion‖ in the CSS and the PSS (and in all institutions). Exclusive inclusion captures Fatah incumbents‘ formal and informal practices and manipulations, along with colonial policies and external interferences. Second, I argue that exclusive inclusion triggers two major internal dimensions - the intermixed approach of incorporated opposition and the intra-group divergence – which significantly shape the deployment of political violence. Improved conditions of exclusive inclusion brought some entitlements back to Hamas‘s officials in the CSS over time and left some margin for them to practice their intermixed approach (resistance and accommodation with authorities). This occurred while increasingly exclusive inclusion and denial of Hamas‘s demands in the PSS not only made the continuous exercise of an intermixed approach from within the PA unfeasible, but also led to divergences among currents inside Hamas. Third, intra-Hamas divergences mean the development of various trends within Hamas, despite its unity, each of which had developed different attributions of threats and expected payoffs of exclusive inclusion in the PSS. In conclusion, the continuous exclusive inclusion in the PSS, along with intradivergences and the absence of power arrangement outside the security institution, were fertile opportunities for the deployment of political violence against PSS. However, contingent events under sanctions, led to the extension of violence and takeover of the Strip.Item Confronting Authoritarianism: Order, Dissent, and Everyday Politics in Modern Tunisia(2011) Chomiak, Laryssa; Tismaneanu, Vladimir; Schwedler, Jillian; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation is a study of contestation and resistance under authoritarianism based on field research conducted in Tunisia (2008-2010) and Ukraine (2007 and 2009). The central objective of this study is to shed light on forms of contestation and resistance that exist under closed political systems through a careful analysis of a select sample of individuals engaged in protest politics through extra-institutional channels. My purpose is to explore the understudied case of Tunisia under Zine Abedine Ben Ali before the January 2011 Jasmine Revolution. More specifically, to what extent was the sudden burst of large-scale protest against the authoritarian rule of ex-President Leonid Kuchma culminating in the 2004 Orange Revolution in the Ukraine relevant to an understanding of the sudden reversal of the Tunisian dictatorship? I argue that meaningful forms of contestation and resistance do exist under closed political systems, but they need to be located beyond formal political institutions. With elections in the Middle East and North Africa increasingly being co-opted by the state and civil society severely compromised, oppositional forces have had to turn elsewhere to have their voices heard. In this dissertation, I trace alternative political identities, forms of micro-contestation and attempts at direct resistance against the state. In particular, I examine extra-institutional political spaces, including soccer stadiums, subversion in print-publications and performing arts, internet mobilization campaigns via Facebook and Twitter, as well as loosely-organized street-based protests and strikes. The authoritarian state, I argue, does not always revert to repression of oppositional voices but also engages in a subtle dialogue with regime challengers. Such a dialogue can result in the opening of some areas, such as internet censorship and freedom of press, which are important platforms for the advancement of alternative and oppositional politics. On January 14, 2011, the Jasmine Revolution erupted in Tunisia followed by similar waves of resistance across the Middle East and North Africa. Where applicable, I link pre-Jasmine Revolution contestation to the widespread resistance that followed Ben Ali's resignation.