The digitalisation of political expression impacted social movement organisation. The global proliferation of information and communication technology (ICT) digitalised social movements towards...Show moreThe digitalisation of political expression impacted social movement organisation. The global proliferation of information and communication technology (ICT) digitalised social movements towards networked collective action. This fuelled the optimism about ICTs as liberalisation tool. Yet, authoritarian regimes showed increasing sophistication in digital repression which urges to investigate the link between digital repression (DR) and mobilisation. I use complementary insights from connective action theory and disconnective action theory to address the research question: What is the effect of DR on mobilisation? By arguing DR is multi-dimensional, the goal of this analysis is to establish the relationship between DR and mobilisation in authoritarian regimes. To this end, I conduct a systematic, global analysis. With an OLS regression, my large-N study analyses authoritarian regimes from 2000 until 2021. The findings are qualitatively supported with two case studies to address endogeneity concerns. On the one hand, I expect a prevention effect on mobilisation if DR is performed as long-term information manipulation. On the other hand, I hypothesise an escalation effect on mobilisation if DR is executed in form of a short-term information vacuum. Though the results are mixed, I conclude that there is initial support for both prevention and escalation effect of DR. I derive that DR is multi-dimensional and can prevent, but also escalate mobilisation.Show less
The World Bank is the most important global agency involved in international development. This paper looks at the World Bank’s efforts in achieving gender equality in developing countries. Despite...Show moreThe World Bank is the most important global agency involved in international development. This paper looks at the World Bank’s efforts in achieving gender equality in developing countries. Despite the implementation of Gender Mainstreaming policies aimed at bringing a gender perspective into every department of the organisation, the gender gap is still present in many member countries, particularly in non-social sectors like agriculture, energy, finance, and transport. Because international organisations like the World Bank derive much of their authority from their expertise, the aim of this research is to investigate the technocratic approach to gender mainstreaming adopted by experts in the above-mentioned non-social sectors, and how such an approach influences the implementation of gender mainstreaming policies. More specifically, the research argues that the adoption of a technocratic approach stems from the gendered nature of the World Bank and its neoliberal nature. The analysis adopts a Feminist Institutionalist framework to test the hypothesis that informal institutions like the technocratic approach adopted by experts hinders the performance of formal institutions, namely gender mainstreaming practices. After an in-depth qualitative discourse analysis of relevant documents, reporting on the Bank’s gender mainstreaming efforts since the implementation of the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals, this research finds that in those sectors where a technocratic approach to gender mainstreaming is predominant, the adoption of technical solutions is privileged to achieve gender equality. However, these solutions significantly limit the effective implementation of gender mainstreaming policies in developing countries.Show less
This thesis attempts to explain what ethnic Russians in northern Kazakhstan prevented from creating a successful secessionist movement in the 1990s. The first part of the thesis tests five...Show moreThis thesis attempts to explain what ethnic Russians in northern Kazakhstan prevented from creating a successful secessionist movement in the 1990s. The first part of the thesis tests five preconditions of Wood (1981) and shows that favourable conditions in Kazakhstan were present. These conditions would make attempts at secession of the ethnic Russian minority more likely to occur. The second part explains why serious attempts at secession, despite the favourable conditions in Kazakhstan, did not take place. In this part, the analysis is carried out on three levels, as suggested by Siroky (2016): 1) Russian organisations in Kazakhstan, 2) Kazakhstan’s government, 3) Russia’s government. The analysis shows that mobilisation, an important factor explaining attempts at secession, was not possible due to internal problems and inefficient leadership in the Russian organisations, combined with repressive policy of the Kazakhstani authorities and a lack of support from the Russian government.Show less
China is granting billion-dollar loans to African countries to build large development projects, mainly for extracting natural resources and building infrastructure. These loans are different from...Show moreChina is granting billion-dollar loans to African countries to build large development projects, mainly for extracting natural resources and building infrastructure. These loans are different from the loans from the Global North, in a sense that they are unconditional and do not require certain democratic or human rights standards. However, the implications of this unconditionality remain largely unexplored. In this paper, the relationship between human rights scores and the number of projects an African country receives from China is investigated for the period 2001-2007. Furthermore, the effect of voting alignment with China on this association is examined. So far, most research on China-Africa relations, and more specifically, research relating to how China impacts human rights situations in Africa, is done in a qualitative manner. However, this research borrows from several other related works and merges them into one theory that is tested in a quantitative manner. Linear, logistic, and negative binomial regressions are used to test the hypotheses. Furthermore, a mediation analysis is conducted to estimate the impact of voting alignment on the aforementioned association. The results show a negative and significant relationship between human rights score and the number of projects a country receives from China. Thus, it is important for African people and the international community to be aware of the potential risks of these Chinese-funded projects. Furthermore, the functioning of the conditional loans of the Global North might be undermined by the unconditional loans from China. Therefore, a careful re-examination of these loans is necessary to prevent any counterproductive effects.Show less
