Current Search: Tezcur, Gunes Murat (x)
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- Title
- Exogenous Shocks and Political Unrest.
- Creator
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Nurmanova, Didara, Tezcur, Gunes Murat, Ash, Konstantin, Wilson, Bruce, Alpanda, Sami, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This dissertation explores the role of exogenous shocks such as economic shocks and natural disasters in producing political unrest in the form of anti-government protests and ethnic riots. It is integrated by three articles, each covering a different topic. The first article argues that economic shocks play a crucial role in protest mobilization in rentier states conditional on weaker repressive capacity or higher taxation. Empirically, it conducts a cross-national study of high-resource...
Show moreThis dissertation explores the role of exogenous shocks such as economic shocks and natural disasters in producing political unrest in the form of anti-government protests and ethnic riots. It is integrated by three articles, each covering a different topic. The first article argues that economic shocks play a crucial role in protest mobilization in rentier states conditional on weaker repressive capacity or higher taxation. Empirically, it conducts a cross-national study of high-resource dependent states in the period of 1995-2014. The second article contends that there is a variation in a degree to which a country's regions are exposed to economic shocks. A higher regional exposure to economic shocks is argued to increase the likelihood of regional anti-government protest at in competitive autocracies. The argument is tested in a subnational analysis of Russia using original dataset of regional anti-government protest and regional economic data in the period of 2007-2015. The third article develops a theory of natural disasters and ethnic riots. It argues that climate-induced meteorological disasters increase chances of ethnic riots because of declined state capacity that creates uncertainty about enforcement of existing ethnic contracts, and feelings of uncertainty result in strong group categorization, stereotyping and polarization. The argument is tested in a subnational study of Hindu-Muslim riots in Indian states in the period of 1951-2015. The results of the studies in this dissertation offer three key findings: (1) higher resource rents lower protest likelihood in autocratic rentier states with higher repressive capacity; (2) regional unemployment is a strong predictor of anti-government protest; (3) natural disasters in the form of precipitation and temperature anomalies increase chances of ethnic riots. The findings suggest a conclusion that exogenous shocks are important predictors of anti-government protest and ethnic riots.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007510, ucf:52644
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007510
- Title
- Altruistic Punishment Theory and Inter-Group Violence.
- Creator
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Besaw, Clayton, Tezcur, Gunes Murat, Dolan, Thomas, Kang, Kyungkook, Smirnov, Oleg, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This dissertation explores the role of altruistic punishment, the act of punishing outsiders perceivedto harm members of one's group at a personal cost, in explaining individual motivations toparticipate in inter-group violence. It first develops a social theory of this type punishment. Thistheory argues that an egalitarian social logic may be key to understanding motivations of parochialaltruism, and that one's social environment may influence thresholds of anger needed to inducepunishment...
Show moreThis dissertation explores the role of altruistic punishment, the act of punishing outsiders perceivedto harm members of one's group at a personal cost, in explaining individual motivations toparticipate in inter-group violence. It first develops a social theory of this type punishment. Thistheory argues that an egalitarian social logic may be key to understanding motivations of parochialaltruism, and that one's social environment may influence thresholds of anger needed to inducepunishment behavior. Empirically, it conducts two survey-experimental studies. The first experimentutilizes subject partisan identity in the context of American politics and hypothetical acts ofviolence to study altruistic punishment behaviors among two different populations in the US. Thesecond experiment utilizes a comparative sample of American, German, and Kurdish participantsto assess whether priming for anger tied to acts of political violence by outsiders against theirrespective in-group increases support for a hypothetical in-group (")punisher(") of these outsiders.The results of these studies offer two key findings: (1) anger induced costly punishment of outgroupperpetrators may be conditional on egalitarian attitudes; (2) this relationship is contextualand varies across population. The findings cautiously suggest two conclusions. First, there may beevolutionary and neurological mechanisms that promote participation in inter-group conflict andthat superficial characteristics such as ethnicity, religion, and ideology may work in tandem withbiological factors. Second, it suggests that social and political environments may be useful formodulating, or exacerbating, the role of anger in the decision to participate in inter-group conflictactivities.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0007156, ucf:52307
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007156
- Title
- The Causes, Dynamics, and Implications of Child Soldiering.
- Creator
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Faulkner, Christopher, Tezcur, Gunes Murat, Powell, Jonathan, Dolan, Thomas, Whitaker, Beth, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Child soldiers continue to be regular participants in modern conflicts in many different parts of the world. This dissertation addresses several interrelated questions about child soldiering employing large-N statistical analyses, process-tracing, and in-depth interviews. First, it asks how foreign state support and the characteristics of these donors influence rebels' recruitment of child soldiers. An important finding is that rebels supported by democratic states are less likely to employ...
Show moreChild soldiers continue to be regular participants in modern conflicts in many different parts of the world. This dissertation addresses several interrelated questions about child soldiering employing large-N statistical analyses, process-tracing, and in-depth interviews. First, it asks how foreign state support and the characteristics of these donors influence rebels' recruitment of child soldiers. An important finding is that rebels supported by democratic states are less likely to employ child soldiers. It then investigates the factors and conditions that lead some groups to diversify their demographics in the types of recruits and others to not. Specifically, it considers why a rebel group would recruit children, but refrain from recruiting women. It examines theoretical arguments that contend group ideology, desires for patriarchal preservation, societal gender inequalities, and the location/type of rebellion (rural vs. urban) can each significantly contribute to groups' recruitment behavior. Third, it considers a question that speaks directly to the first two questions. What factors lead to the initial recruitment of children and how conflict conditions may impact the dynamics of rebel recruitment over time? An in-depth analysis of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) and the employment of a unique dataset on deceased Kurdish militants allows for an exploration of the temporal variation in the group's recruitment patterns over four decades. It illustrates that inter-rebel rivalries, conflict intensity, and the evolution of human rights norms shape rebels' recruitment behavior. The final section reorients the focus of the dissertation from rebel child soldiering to government child soldiering. It surveys the conditions under which the United States holds foreign governments accountable for their child soldiering practices through the restriction of certain forms of security assistance. In depth analyses of four norm-violating states and interviews with policy experts show that the strategic importance of a state and the systemic nature of child recruitment are strong predictors of when security assistance waivers will be granted. Together, this dissertation advances scholarly understanding of the causes, dynamics, and implications of child soldiering.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFE0007629, ucf:52541
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007629