Leiden University Student Repository

Michaelides, Mihalis (2026)

Bureaucratic Barbed-Wire: Crisis Governance, Path Dependence and Barriers to Citizenship in Cyprus

Master thesis | Public Administration (MSc)

This thesis examines whether contemporary exclusionary citizenship practices in the Republic of Cyprus can be explained by institutional adaptations made during the inter-communal crisis of 1963–64. While existing accounts often emphasize the events of 1974 as the primary origin of exclusion, this study adopts a historical institutionalist approach to trace how crisis-era legal and administrative responses were normalized and embedded in ordinary governance over time. Using within-case process tracing, the analysis examines judicial reasoning, administrative practices, and policy developments, with particular attention to citizenship decisions affecting children of mixed marriages. Overall, the thesis demonstrates how crisis-era adaptations can produce long-lasting effects on citizenship governance, contributing to broader debates on institutional persistence and crisis governance in divided societies.

Path Dependence

crisis governance

cyprus

post-colonial

citizenship

sovereignty

Author

Michaelides, Mihalis

Faculty

Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs

Specialisation

International and European Governance

Supervisors

Carroll, B.J.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en