Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

5-2019

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

Political Science

Degree Program

Political Science, MA

Committee Chair

Gainous, Jason

Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)

Grady, Kristopher

Committee Member

Grady, Kristopher

Committee Member

Menze, Michael

Abstract

This study seeks to understand the relationships between democracy, ethnic-linguistic-religious (ELR) fractionalizations and state-building. The speed of a country’s economic recovery from war is used as proxy to determine the state-building process. Using Cox PH model, I conducted a large sample hazard analysis of 107 conflicts, having polity and ELR as explanatory variables. I found that competitiveness of political participation and executive constraints are associated with state-recovery while ethno-linguistic fractionalizations have the reverse effect. I propose that the institutional feedback process is equal to the product of negative executive power centralization and representation minus fractionalization; as in F = – e (r – f). Positive feedback, as a result of higher fractionalization than representation or due to high degree of centralization, leads to a dynamic equilibrium that causes state weakness in the long run.

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