This study addresses the behavior of regionalist parties in Spain as supporters of minority state governments. Focusing on three parties, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, EH Bildu and the Basque...Show moreThis study addresses the behavior of regionalist parties in Spain as supporters of minority state governments. Focusing on three parties, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, EH Bildu and the Basque Nationalist Party, this paper compares and analyzes their behavior in seven votes of the 2019-2023 legislature, looking closely at the exchanges of support and political concessions between the central government and these three parties. From this observation it can be concluded that the pay-offs preferred by the regionalist parties are territorial policy concessions, such as transfers of powers or state investments in these autonomous communities. However, it cannot be concluded that regionalist parties prefer multi-level goods, nor is there a relationship between the degree of regionalist extremism of the parties and their preferred type of territorial concession.Show less
A master thesis on the factors that contributed to the ongoing Rohingya crisis in Myanmar and the ineffectiveness of the international human rights framework and United Nation Institutions.
In analyzing the relationship between religious diversity and democratic support in Sub-Saharan Africa, existing research has very much focused upon cross-national analyses. This thesis aims to...Show moreIn analyzing the relationship between religious diversity and democratic support in Sub-Saharan Africa, existing research has very much focused upon cross-national analyses. This thesis aims to challenge this by conducting a research on religious diversity and democratic support in Ghana on sub-national level. It analyses the following question: To what extent does religious diversity influence democratic support among religious people in Ghana? This thesis builds upon Robert Dowd’s (2015) theory, which suggests that religious diversity is a stimulus for accepting democracy among Muslims and Christians in Sub-Saharan Africa. I use the clustered version of Afrobarometer Round 5 Ghana in order to assess the relationship between religious diversity on micro-level and democratic support in Ghana. By conducting a multilevel logistic regression analysis, this paper finds that there is no significant relationship between religious diversity and democracy when analyzing for the religious groups Christianity, Islam, Pentecostalism and ‘Other’. Also, religious diversity does not significantly impact interreligious tolerance and political activism. When testing diversity for only Islam and Christianity, there is a significant relationship between religious diversity and democratic support in Ghana.Show less
Since the rise of Black Lives Matter and Rhodes Must Fall, both had the same goal: putting an end to racism and white supremacy. Although it would be logical that both movements follow a similar...Show moreSince the rise of Black Lives Matter and Rhodes Must Fall, both had the same goal: putting an end to racism and white supremacy. Although it would be logical that both movements follow a similar path, Black Lives Matter seems to be more popular and Rhodes Must Fall protests seem to be more violent. This research is about analyzing the differences in success between the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States and the Rhodes must Fall movement from South Africa. Success can be measured in a way of looking at accomplishments, but this literature study will compare successes in mobilization strategies. Grievances from institutionalized racism created comparable grievances in The United States and South Africa. Other factors that will be analyzed in this study are resource mobilization, mobilization strategies, networking strategies and media representation. This research will argue that the Black Lives Matter movement adapted better mobilization strategies overall.Show less
For too long women and gender issues have been overlooked in security studies scholarship, which tends to preserve a “genderless” and male-dominated perspective. However, more recently, scholars...Show moreFor too long women and gender issues have been overlooked in security studies scholarship, which tends to preserve a “genderless” and male-dominated perspective. However, more recently, scholars have been investigating the question of gender related to conflicts, and if working towards gender equality could be a solution to many of the challenges faced today. Some researchers assert that the more gender-equal a state is, the less violence, between or within states, there is. Scholars differ in how they define and conceptualise gender equality, varying between political, educational, economic and social factors. Taking these scholarships into consideration, I investigate how political gender equality can influence the occurrence of intrastate conflict events. I use sex quotas in parliaments as a proxy of gender equality and hypothesise that their adoption lowers the occurrence of intrastate conflict events. I use a multiple linear regression analysis to test my hypothesis and conclude that legislating sex quotas reduces the occurrence of intrastate conflict events. However, the reduction of violence does not seem to be due to the increasing number of women in parliament, but may be emerging from gender equality norm acquisition at the elite level, or from international pressures, which may also explain the adoption of sex quotas.Show less
Het buitenlandbeleid van president Donald Trump is de afgelopen vier jaren bijzonder grillig geweest. Zijn beleidskeuzes weerspraken niet alleen het werk van vorige administrations, maar soms ook...Show moreHet buitenlandbeleid van president Donald Trump is de afgelopen vier jaren bijzonder grillig geweest. Zijn beleidskeuzes weerspraken niet alleen het werk van vorige administrations, maar soms ook dat van zijn eigen. Niet zelden wordt hij in de wetenschappelijke literatuur in het licht van het Jacksonianisme geplaatst (Cha, 2016; Clarke & Ricketts, 2017; Hamilton, 2017; Mead, 2017; Neumann, 2020). Echter, hoe zit het met het buitenlandbeleid van Trump? Walter Mead benadrukte recent nog dat Jacksonianisten zich niet bezig houden met politiek en zeker niet met buitenlandbeleid (2017, p. 4). Met dit onderzoek zal ik beargumenteren dat president Trump de normen en waarden van het Jacksonianisme bijna heeft vertaald in een buitenlandbeleid. De gemiddelde Jacksonianist heeft wellicht geen belangstelling voor buitenlandse politiek, maar Trump draagt de ideeën van het Jacksonianisme consequent uit op het wereldtoneel. De beleidskeuzes zijn niet alleen typisch Jacksoniaans, maar worden in speeches en interviews ook met een Jacksoniaans narratief door de president verdedigd. Jacksonianisme is dus niet alleen een ‘force to be reckoned with’, maar tot een echte beleidsstroming verworden in foreign policyShow less
