Since December 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic is travelling around the world. In the first waves, governments are struggling how to deal with the pandemic. Each government has their own view on the...Show moreSince December 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic is travelling around the world. In the first waves, governments are struggling how to deal with the pandemic. Each government has their own view on the coronavirus and how to battle against it. In whatever way governments fight Covid-19, they have to take into account a number of aspects. One of these aspects is the level of democratic values in a country. In the first part of this thesis, I researched whether or not democratic values, as measured by the V-dem have been shaping the stringency of policy, as measured by the Oxford Stringency Index, in the first periods of the Covid-19 pandemic. It turned out that the democratic values had no statistically significant effect on the peak of stringency in policy. Out of the variables that I controlled for, only the number of Covid-19 deaths had this significant effect. In the second part of this thesis, a small case study was conducted to outlying cases. This case study showed that fear, prevention, a lack of knowledge and the economy interests has driven the initial responses in the Covid-19 pandemic.Show less
By means of this thesis, an attempt has been made to arrive at a deeper understanding of the heterogeneity among EU member states regarding foreign policy response in the context of a rising China....Show moreBy means of this thesis, an attempt has been made to arrive at a deeper understanding of the heterogeneity among EU member states regarding foreign policy response in the context of a rising China. More specifically, the aim of this research project was to examine the relationship between European democracies’ varying perceptions of a rising China (independent variable) and their foreign policy response (dependent variable). Relying on covariational analysis, this relationship has been examined in France, Greece, and Austria – each of which can be considered to have taken a different position with respect to the BRI. In order to measure the independent variable (i.e., perception), a qualitative framing analysis has been performed on textual publications of French, Greek, and Austrian policy think tanks, whereby the grand theories of IR have been identified as distinct frames – an approach that has only scarcely been applied in the study of IR. Based on the research findings, this thesis concludes that one could indeed speak of an association between European democracies’ varying perceptions of a rising China and their foreign policy response.Show less
Financialization is a multifaceted social phenomenon with a notable degree of transnational heterogeneity. This thesis seeks to approach existing literature gaps that may account for such...Show moreFinancialization is a multifaceted social phenomenon with a notable degree of transnational heterogeneity. This thesis seeks to approach existing literature gaps that may account for such transnational heterogeneity. The first literature gap is the under-exploration of possible connections of democracy to financialization. The second is the lack of a multidimensional analysis exploring the possible relationship between financialization and institutional characteristics. These institutional characteristics are centred around the type of democracy and capitalism regimes which is based on a majoritarian versus consensus-based democracy whereas the economic side is approached through varieties of capitalism and demand regime theory that are respectively dichotomized into liberal market economy versus coordinated market economy and export-led versus debt-led regimes. Financialization is based on three different approaches: the emergence of a new regime of accumulation, the ascendency of shareholder orientation, and the financialization of everyday life. The thesis is hypothesis generating, based on a possible relationship between democracy and capitalism with financialization. The research design employs a crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis based on 23 countries. The findings of this thesis are largely inconclusive, requiring further research through different or more refined approaches. In the emergence of a new regime of accumulation and the financialization of everyday life, a general pattern divided the financialization and no-financialization outcomes on a largely geographic basis with a East-West Europe divide. The ascendency of shareholder orientation, meanwhile, saw a large number of necessary or quasi-necessary conditions that may help account for the financialization outcome and only occurred in cases where the emergence of a new regime of accumulation and financialization of everyday life also occurs indicating a possibility that those are necessary conditions.Show less
