There are very few states in the world, if any, that are in full compliance with human rights norms. Instead, states tend to comply with some articles of a human rights treaty extensively, only up... Show moreThere are very few states in the world, if any, that are in full compliance with human rights norms. Instead, states tend to comply with some articles of a human rights treaty extensively, only up to certain extent with some, and openly violate others. Up to now, we have not been able to unravel these patchworks of compliance. This study presents a political dialogue model to start this process of unraveling. It shows how political decision-makers create patchworks of compliance, as they need to mediate between the mismatching norms of different national and international communities. When successful, such dialogues allow decision-makers to make small improvements in human rights compliance. However, when communities are not sufficiently represented in the dialogue or their norms are being violated, harmful backlash effects against human rights can develop. This study has a mixed-methods approach. It analyzes the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in a global quantitative study and two in-depth case studies of Jordan. Show less
The Ecuadorian party, Movimiento Unidad Plurinacional Pachakutik (MUPP or Pachakutik), is a 24-year-old party with low levels of electoral support and scarce resources. Conventional theories of... Show moreThe Ecuadorian party, Movimiento Unidad Plurinacional Pachakutik (MUPP or Pachakutik), is a 24-year-old party with low levels of electoral support and scarce resources. Conventional theories of party survival cannot explain this party’s persistence. Common wisdom predicts parties with both consistently low levels of electoral support and lack of resources will disband, but Pachakutik does not. Why do parties with low electoral support and few resources persist? This dissertation addresses that question and introduces a theory of party survival that focuses on why parties may choose to survive, change, or disband. Parties can persist if they achieve their primary goal, and this may happen even when a party has scarce resources and low (or fluctuating) levels of electoral support. Parties pursue different primary goals – policy, office, or value-infusion – and, as such, evaluate goal achievement differently (in terms of their own aspiration levels based on prior performance). The case of Pachakutik illustrates this theory and its mechanisms. This dissertation combines qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis and rests on archival data, interviews, and quantitative data collected during over 11 months of fieldwork in Ecuador. Show less
This thesis investigated the extent to which types of civil service appointments shape the attitudes and behaviour of civil servants in neo-patrimonial settings, with a focus on the Ghanaian... Show moreThis thesis investigated the extent to which types of civil service appointments shape the attitudes and behaviour of civil servants in neo-patrimonial settings, with a focus on the Ghanaian experience. Despite the theoretical view in public administration literature about the consequences of the type of a civil servants’ appointment on his/her attitude and behaviour, the empirical data is marginal in emerging democracies such as Ghana. Regarding the attitudes and behaviour of concern, the study focused on the level of bureaucrats’ autonomy, loyalty and responsiveness. To investigate this phenomenon, the study adopted a mixed-method approach to understand why civil servants, despite their apolitical cloak, demonstrate varied attitudes and behaviour in contravention with their professionalism and, in particular, determine how their type of appointment influenced such attitudes and behaviour. The findings confirmed the study’s hypothesis that the type of a bureaucrats’ appointment into the bureaucracy indeed influenced his/her attitudes and behaviour. However, further analysis of this finding impugned mainstream discourses regarding the expected impact of types of appointment. For example, the study found that regardless of how merit-based the process of appointing a bureaucrat is, his/her autonomy is limited in Ghana. Secondly, whilst the general theoretical predictions concerning patronage and hybrid appointments’ impact on loyalty and responsiveness were confirmed respectively, the findings also suggest that such loyalties and responsiveness are not absolute, due to regulatory mechanisms and competing interests. Furthermore, this study’s findings support the class of scholars who call into question the orthodox view in bureaucratic politics that patronage is damaging because this study finds otherwise. It therefore adds to discussions on the need to move beyond the monistic conception of patronage as negative to encompass its beneficial outcomes. The study also proposes legal-constitutional and policy reforms that go beyond the merit-principle to embrace patronage and hybrid considerations where necessary. Show less
More and more anti-establishment parties succeed in elections at the expense of their established competitors in contemporary European democracies. However, a large proportion of these parties fall... Show moreMore and more anti-establishment parties succeed in elections at the expense of their established competitors in contemporary European democracies. However, a large proportion of these parties fall apart and disappear as quickly as they appear. What is the relationship between the way these parties organize and their electoral performance? This dissertation proposes a framework to explain the role of organizational features such as local party branches, party membership and party elites in this process. It argues that these features facilitate party stability, cohesion and legitimacy and, as a consequence, parties do better at elections. A single case study explores these relationships in the case of the Czech party ANO, and is then complemented by a comparative analysis of three other anti-establishment parties. The dissertation argues that party organization matters for the electoral success of anti-establishment parties. The control of local branches´ autonomy, restrictions on party membership and professional links between party elites help new anti-establishment parties to present themselves as cohesive and legitimate entities. In the case of ANO, this effect is further strengthened by the infiltration of its party organization by the structures of the business-firm owned by the party leader. Show less
