The banning of religious dress, such as the burqa, has sparked much debate over the last two decades. While secularism is a concept most countries committed to liberal values engage with, at least...Show moreThe banning of religious dress, such as the burqa, has sparked much debate over the last two decades. While secularism is a concept most countries committed to liberal values engage with, at least on the perspective of religious freedom, only some countries have formally applied it. France has been legally bound to secularism since 1905 and strongly maintains this stance, issuing the broadest restrictions on religiosity in public under its laïcité model. Although secularism has historically been associated with the Christian tradition, having come out of Enlightenment thought, its modern use seems to affect other religious communities to a greater extent, which has come with much criticism from the affected communities. This paper examines how the application of secularism interplays with the theory of religious decolonisation, in the context of a single-case study analysis of France. Through the use of qualitative content analysis the French government’s exposition of their secularism, laïcité, this paper has found a negative or non-consequential interplay between both concepts.Show less
Right-wing populist parties have been known for their illiberal positions on gender issues, and their recent critique of the rising “gender ideology”. What is puzzling, however, is an unexpected...Show moreRight-wing populist parties have been known for their illiberal positions on gender issues, and their recent critique of the rising “gender ideology”. What is puzzling, however, is an unexpected emphasis on issues related to gender typically ignored by these right-wing populist parties in their discourses and agendas. To explore the reasons behind these contradicting trends, this thesis aims to examine how right-wing populist parties are integrating gender into their discourse. The typical right-wing populist Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) will be the main research objective and a content analysis has been used to analyse their Tweets. The main finding in this thesis is that the adoption of liberal stances by the PVV demonstrated through a positive commitment to gender equality, looks like a strategic tool for promoting an anti-Islam and anti-migration agenda. Moreover, the conservative stances of the PVV towards the broader concept of gender, including diverse gender identities, the integration of gender in institutions and gender studies, can be explained by the “gender ideology”. The anti-elite element of the right-wing populist ideology is evident in the data, as the PVV consistently attributes the perceived problems with diversity and multicultural policies to elitist actors.Show less
The increasing impacts of climate change particularly affect vulnerable countries, such as many conflict-affected states. This is visible in the increase of conflict-outbreak over natural resources...Show moreThe increasing impacts of climate change particularly affect vulnerable countries, such as many conflict-affected states. This is visible in the increase of conflict-outbreak over natural resources. Environmental peacebuilding approaches, which aim to integrate natural resource management as a peacebuilding strategy, are increasingly used to tackle these new dynamics. However, the effects of environmental peacebuilding approaches, such as on social cohesion, are generally unknown. This is a critical limitation, considering frequent conflict escalation over ethnic identities. Through a mixed methods approach, analyzing an environmental peacebuilding project in the Nigerian states of Nasarawa, Taraba, and Benue, and conducting expert interviews with practitioners, this research explores the effect of environmental peacebuilding on social cohesion. It looks specifically at social cohesion as trust, shared identity, and equality, as these align with the main dimensions environmental peacebuilding approaches aim to address. This research found a significant effect of environmental peacebuilding on inter-group trust and equality, highlighting the necessity for an integrated approachShow less
Right-wing extremism in much of the Western world looks far different than it did even a decade ago. Extremists are getting younger, and radicalization is an increasingly online process. According...Show moreRight-wing extremism in much of the Western world looks far different than it did even a decade ago. Extremists are getting younger, and radicalization is an increasingly online process. According to most contemporary theories of radicalization, personal and political grievances are critical foundations for this process. Despite this, research into the forms these grievances take, especially in this new cohort of younger, more online extremists is rare. This study seeks to address this research gap by asking the question: What kinds of personal and political grievances are most likely to push young people to get involved with right-wing extremist groups online? It answers by performing a process of content analysis on messages sent between users of six large right-wing extremist group chats on the popular instant messaging platform Discord between early 2017 and early 2020 with the goal of identifying individual grievances and larger common themes in this cohort of extremists. Out of an initial dataset of 308,207 messages, over three hundred discrete examples were identified and further classified into 35 different thematic subcategories. Two clusters of especially prevalent interrelated grievances were also identified which tended to appear together, signaling the possibility that more similar clusters exist and reaffirming existing theories about the role of grievances in right-wing extremist radicalization pathways.Show less
Research master thesis | Political Science and Public Administration (research) (MSc)
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The thesis examines European Union (EU) policies to address the gender pay gap (GPG) from 2006-2020. A detailed analysis of legislative and policy documents reveals the EU's active role in...Show moreThe thesis examines European Union (EU) policies to address the gender pay gap (GPG) from 2006-2020. A detailed analysis of legislative and policy documents reveals the EU's active role in promoting equal pay. The policies mainly reflect Human Capital Theory, Discrimination Theory, and Occupational Segregation Theory. The proposed actions aim to maximise women's human capital, address gender discrimination and overcome occupational segregation. However, the study identifies limitations in the conceptual frameworks, universalist approach, and lack of continuous monitoring. The research suggests the need for more specific policies, considering the diversity of women's needs, as well as dynamic monitoring mechanisms to adapt to the changing dynamics of the GPG. The thesis also challenges the limited definition of gender equality and suggests exploring additional factors to understand GPG comprehensively. In conclusion, while acknowledging the EU's commitment, the analysis reveals the need to evolve beyond traditional theories to address GPG more effectively.Show less
This thesis analyses the role of political factors in conflict arising from climate change through a single case study of the farmer-herder conflict in Laikipia, Kenya. A better understanding of...Show moreThis thesis analyses the role of political factors in conflict arising from climate change through a single case study of the farmer-herder conflict in Laikipia, Kenya. A better understanding of climate change and conflict is necessary, as there is no clear consensus among scholars. This thesis uses political ecology that states that political factors, such as politicised ethnicity, access to land tenure, and perception of identity have a direct influence on conflict. It criticises the environmental scarcity theory, which states that resource scarcity due to climate change directly influences conflict. Mixed methods are used to analyse the role of political factors. The process tracing method is used to test whether power relations in politics influence conflict and the qualitative content analysis method is used to support process tracing by providing inside into the political factors presented in three major Kenyan newspapers. The results show that perception of identity, access to land tenure, and politicised ethnicity all contribute to a negative impact on the ability of pastoralists to access and influence the distribution of resources. This causes the competition for resources to become violent. The findings also show there is indirect link between climate change and conflict. These findings are in line with political ecology theory. Therefore, this thesis contributes to the theory and discussion in the literature about climate change and conflict.Show less
International climate finance (ICF) is part of a broader climate justice movement, which is concerned with the tension that while the developed states in the Global North pollute the most, the...Show moreInternational climate finance (ICF) is part of a broader climate justice movement, which is concerned with the tension that while the developed states in the Global North pollute the most, the developing states in the Global South have to bear the consequences. ICF not only aims at reducing emissions, but mostly focuses on reducing the vulnerability of populations in developing states, through financial transfers from the Global North to the Global South. Climate justice movements insist on bottom-up policymaking, whereby power is handed back to non-state actors (NSAs) from the Global South. While the role of NSAs in international climate policies has been researched, their role in the specific finance programmes has been largely overlooked up until now. This paper therefore tries to contribute to the field through researching what role NSAs play in the design, implementation and evaluation of ICF programmes. This is done on the basis of content analysis of four of the United Nation’s climate financing programmes as part of its Green Climate Fund (GCF). This research concludes that the role of communities is only limited in the design and implementation stage, but much more present in the evaluation stage. The projects still have a very top-down focus and the involvement of the communities is hampered because of cultural and practical reasons. Strict objectives help to formalise the involvement of communities. While models of democratic pluralism and functionalism are already in place, a neocorporatist model could help the GCF to overcome difficulties in involving NSAs and to make their policies more effective and legitimate.Show less
Sons of the Soil (SoS) conflict refers to clashes between indigenous and migrant populations from state-sponsored population resettlement schemes (Fearon & Laitin, 2011; Weiner, 1978)....Show moreSons of the Soil (SoS) conflict refers to clashes between indigenous and migrant populations from state-sponsored population resettlement schemes (Fearon & Laitin, 2011; Weiner, 1978). Socioeconomic competition and horizontal inequalities (HIs) play a fundamental role in fomenting grievances between ethnic groups (Cederman et al., 2011). Through the use of theory-testing process tracing, this thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of the role socioeconomic HIs play in the emergence, progression and outcome of SoS conflict. This paper will show how in the case of Myanmar, the politicisation of HIs, precipitants, ethnic riots, rumours, state involvement and pogroms underpin the evolution of the June and October 2012 communal conflict between the Muslim Rohingya and Rakhine Buddhists culminating in the pogroms of August 2017. The paper will perform a qualitative assessment of state policies, human rights reports and media publications to map the politicisation of HIs and the subsequent onset of communal conflict. It concludes that longstanding socioeconomic competition between ethnic groups in the background, amplified by the politicisation of socioeconomic and demographic HIs in the foreground is fundamental to the onset of SoS conflict.Show less
Although the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is described as a universal norm, it has long been contested by postcolonial and decolonial scholarship. Considering the Russian invasion and occupation...Show moreAlthough the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is described as a universal norm, it has long been contested by postcolonial and decolonial scholarship. Considering the Russian invasion and occupation of Ukraine, the conflict provides a rare possibility to compare the use of R2P between states in the Global North and the Global South. This Master thesis consequently conducts a comparative critical discourse analysis between discourse of the UNGA and UNSC on R2P in the cases of the Syrian Civil War and the Russian invasion and occupation of Ukraine. The analysis finds that the UN discourse reflects both colonial and decolonial dynamics. It has institutionalized various narratives to decolonize its approach, whilst still engaging in Eurocentric discourse. Moreover, the results indicate that the geopolitical positioning of both Ukraine and Syria have played a role in the UN’s R2P approach to each case.Show less
After the influx of Central American unaccompanied child migrants to the U.S. southern border in 2014, the Northern Triangle governments of, Honduras, and Guatemala, and El Salvador, partnered with...Show moreAfter the influx of Central American unaccompanied child migrants to the U.S. southern border in 2014, the Northern Triangle governments of, Honduras, and Guatemala, and El Salvador, partnered with the Obama administration to implement the Alliance for Prosperity plan, a development initiative introduced by Northern Triangle governments to stem irregular migration through promoting regional economic growth and security. To support the Plan, the U.S. financed $1 billion in foreign aid assistance and programming. In reality, the Alliance for Prosperity plan was a continuation of the same neoliberal economic model in existence between the U.S. and Northern Triangle region for decades, which has been found to secure national security and business interests over that of inclusive growth among Central American societies. Considering President Biden’s $4 billion commitment to build on this model, the case study that follows seeks to explore through qualitative analysis the hypothesis that the previous Alliance for Prosperity plan was used to perpetuate neocolonial mechanisms of economic dependency, resource extraction, and territorial control, to undermine the Plan’s objective to inspire inclusive growth among the Central American people. The findings reveal that the Plan perpetuates neocolonialism by consistently implementing policies that exacerbate local inequalities and neglecting to enforce measures of transparency and accountability. Maintaining the status quo affords the U.S. favorable economic and security interests while at the same time ensuring the dominance of a Central American elitist class. Both partners lack an incentive to change development approaches, serving as an explanation to why foreign aid to address the Central American migrant crisis has undermined its own efforts.Show less
Procedural environmental justice is mostly studied using the framework provided by the Aarhus Convention. However, both the concept and the framework are of Western origin, which has generated...Show moreProcedural environmental justice is mostly studied using the framework provided by the Aarhus Convention. However, both the concept and the framework are of Western origin, which has generated resistance when it comes to applying it to non-Western contexts. Such is the case of China, where scholars and authorities ascribe environmental injustice to the urban/rural and east/west divides, rather than ethnic and race factors. Many of them thus argue that environmental justice, and its derived concepts, are not applicable to the Chinese context, as they are intrinsically linked to race. The present thesis contends that the applicability of the PEJ model in China can be ensured by incorporating the element of recognition into it. Following this theory, the author develops an improved, four-pillar PEJ model and tests it by applying it to the case of the Tarim Basin Uyghurs. This model adjusts the three original PEJ pillars established in the Aarhus Convention (access to relevant environmental information, participation in environmental decisionmaking, and review procedures to challenge environmental government decisions) to the Chinese context. The application of each of these pillars is accompanied by a comparison of the Convention text and the relevant Chinese legislation to demonstrate a converging trend between the two. A new, fourth pillar is also applied, focused on authority recognition of inequality. The application of the four-pillar model highlights the existence of a gap between the literature and the thesis findings, which highlights the value of using a model that is more sensitive to ethnic factors in non-Western contexts.Show less
The Milk Tea Alliance (MTA), an online pan-Asian movement, generated unprecedented participation in the region through an interplay of benefits and a constructed relative deprivation that was...Show moreThe Milk Tea Alliance (MTA), an online pan-Asian movement, generated unprecedented participation in the region through an interplay of benefits and a constructed relative deprivation that was capable of overcoming different grievances. Literature emerging from the Arab spring has brought about several benefits that applied to the MTA, namely invitation of social movements, sharing of information and tactics, solidarity, social capital, mobilization, and motivation. However, the MTA was not able to initiate social movements contrary to expectations. The other benefits are found to apply. By combining constructivist theory and relative deprivation theory I argue that the MTA experienced this unprecedented participation because a constructed relative deprivation partly created by Hong Kong and adopted by participating countries such as Myanmar which was able to create shared grievances that inform participation. The grievance was with authoritarianism and China which was often equated and thus allowed for a perception of a shared grievance, ideology, and identity. Additionally, the MTA expanded on the benefits by having an internally unifying power in Myanmar and building an alternative to ASEAN. Another reason for participation is a demographic aspect. However, so far, the MTA has not managed to have the desired success.Show less
Foreign aid policies vary greatly in their means and ends. Long-term development policies, aiming to promote development and welfare, distinguish from short-term humanitarian policies that respond...Show moreForeign aid policies vary greatly in their means and ends. Long-term development policies, aiming to promote development and welfare, distinguish from short-term humanitarian policies that respond to humanitarian emergency crises. Politicians seem to differ in their preferences, leading scholars to question how these preferences emerge. Existing literature has been focusing on theories of elite competition in explaining why states construct and implement certain policies. However, these theories seem to ignore the concept of political agency, and grant no primacy to the role of ideas and values. This thesis aims to fill this gap by asking how party ideologies influence foreign aid policy preferences. It employs the discursive legitimation model of Van Leeuwen (2008) to analyze Dutch parliamentary debates. Here, it is found that conservative values affect politicians to refer to authorization and rationalization when legitimizing their preferences, while liberal values work through to moral evaluation and story-telling strategies. This confirms that ideas and ideologies do matter for policy preferences.Show less
Did the Ethiopian general election of 2020 play a role in stopping a three-year violent protest? Why? This research using data from interviews shows that many protestors in the regional state of...Show moreDid the Ethiopian general election of 2020 play a role in stopping a three-year violent protest? Why? This research using data from interviews shows that many protestors in the regional state of Oromia believe the general election played a role, be it to a different level in a different group of people, in their decision to stop protesting. They mention the reform implemented by the new administration, the need to give time to the new administration, and influential individuals joining the mainstream political parties as reasons to prioritize the electoral process, away from protesting, so that they would vote for their candidate in the coming election. The research explains the findings using Horowitz’s (1985, 2010, 2014) expressive theory together with exchange theory (Robert 1969, Nownes and Neely 1996). Horowitz theorizes that mobilization creates ethnic political parties and these parties attract the mobilized who believe their interest is best served by their ethnic political parties. Expressive theory (Robert 1969, Nownes and Neely 1996) explains how much influential individuals or political entrepreneurs matter in mobilization and demobilization.Show less
Establishing power over life is a biopower conduct by the state. In the case of Palestine, where children have been borne, this power has extended as far as to implicitly deny Palestinian prisoners...Show moreEstablishing power over life is a biopower conduct by the state. In the case of Palestine, where children have been borne, this power has extended as far as to implicitly deny Palestinian prisoners in Israel of the possibility to procreate. This research aims uncovers the underlying meaning in the bearing of children that is often framed with language of freedom and victory over the occupier. News articles from prominent Palestinian news outlets have shown how the bearing of children is mainly contributed to the Palestinian prisoner who mostly is male, and thus denies the Palestinian woman of agency in this part of the national struggle. The case study of this research is exemplary to show how politicized Palestinian life has become: mundane parts of life, here childbearing, are hindered. The resistance provided by Palestinian couples in childbearing lays in the framing of the bearing of children as a victory over the power over life that is attempted to be established over Palestinians.Show less
Attempts to identify the causes of democratic transitions have been made by studying electoral procedures, electoral outcomes, political rights, and rule of law. Despite the variety of approaches...Show moreAttempts to identify the causes of democratic transitions have been made by studying electoral procedures, electoral outcomes, political rights, and rule of law. Despite the variety of approaches used, no clear mechanism has emerged. Agreement is additionally impeded by incomplete understanding of hybrid regimes, which are preponderant in the Global South. This article argues that contextualised, historicised approaches may be better placed to capture democratic transitions in sub- Saharan Africa. We employ a logistic regression analysis of four rounds of cross-national Afrobarometer survey data within a single-case study of Zanzibar. By juxtaposing assessments of Zanzibar’s status as a democracy onto a critical analysis of its experience with electoral democracy, we attempt to glean associations between democracy and power-sharing. In light of observed regional divergences in assessments of democratic quality, we argue that the question of political inclusion is central to conceptions of democracy in Zanzibar. Furthermore, we urge subsequent scholarship to articulate conceptions of democracy which align with local experiences.Show less
