Showing 1 - 10 of 81 Items
Oil Extraction and Benefit Sharing in an Illiberal Context: The Nenets and Komi-Izhemtsi Indigenous Peoples in the Russian Arctic
Date: 2018-05-04
Creator: Maria Tysiachniouk, Laura A. Henry, Machiel Lamers, Jan P.M. van Tatenhove
Access: Open access
- How can indigenous communities in illiberal regimes benefit from oil production? This paper compares the experience of two indigenous peoples in the Russian Arctic, the Nenets and the Komi-Izhemtsi, in their quest for environmental protection and the development of benefit-sharing arrangements with Lukoil, a Russian oil company. The Nenets people, recognized by the Russian state as indigenous, are marginalized political actors who identified a route to receiving compensation for loss of land and damage to the environment as well as economic benefits under the auspices of Russian law and Lukoil’s corporate policies. In contrast, the Komi-Izhemtsi, despite indigenous status in global institutions including the United Nations and the Arctic Council, are unrecognized as indigenous domestically and initially received no compensation. Their path to benefit sharing was more challenging as they partnered with local nongovernmental organizations and global environmentalists to pressure Lukoil to sign a benefit-sharing agreement. Ultimately, the comparison illustrates how transnational partnerships can empower indigenous people to gain benefits from natural resource exploitation even in illiberal political systems.
Oil and indigenous people in sub-Arctic Russia: Rethinking equity and governance in benefit sharing agreements
Date: 2018-03-01
Creator: Maria Tysiachniouk, Laura A. Henry, Machiel Lamers, Jan P.M. van Tatenhove
Access: Open access
- How can the interests of extractive industries and indigenous communities in the Arctic be balanced through benefit sharing policies? This paper analyses how the international oil consortia of Sakhalin Energy and Exxon Neftegaz Limited (ENL) on Sakhalin Island in Russia have introduced benefit sharing through tripartite partnerships. We demonstrate that the procedural and distributional equity of benefit sharing depend on corporate policies, global standards, pressure from international financial institutions, and local social movements connected in a governance generating network. Sakhalin Energy was profoundly influenced by international financial institutions’ global rules related to environmental and indigenous people's interests. The benefit sharing arrangement that evolved under these influences resulted in enhanced procedural equity for indigenous people, but has not prevented conflict with and within communities. In contrast, ENL was not significantly influenced by international financial institutions. Its more flexible and limited benefit sharing arrangement was shaped predominantly by global corporate policies, pressure from the regional government and the influence of Sakhalin Energy's model. The paper closes with policy recommendations on benefit sharing arrangements between extractive industries and indigenous communities across Arctic states that could be further developed by the Arctic Council Sustainable Development Working Group.
Varieties of digital authoritarianism analyzing Russia’s approach to internet governance
Date: 2021-12-01
Creator: Laura Howells, Laura A. Henry
Access: Open access
- Digital authoritarianism threatens the privacy and rights of Internet users worldwide, yet scholarship on this topic remains limited in analytical power and case selection. In this article, we introduce a comprehensive analytical framework to the field of Internet governance and apply it first, briefly, to the well-known case of China and then, in more depth, to the still-understudied Russian case. We identify the extent and relative centralization of Internet governance as well as proactive versus reactive approaches to governance as notable differences between the cases, highlighting variation among digital authoritarians’ governance strategies. We conclude that Russia’s Internet governance model is less comprehensive and consistent than China’s, but its components may be more easily exported to other political systems. We then consider whether recent changes to Russia’s Internet governance suggest that it could converge with the Chinese model over time.
Torture under the Regime of Bashar al-Assad: Two Decades of Failed Human Rights Campaigns and Foreign Interference in Syria
Date: 2020-01-01
Creator: Olivia Giles
Access: Open access
- This honors thesis analyzes human rights campaigns to end the practice of state-sponsored torture in Syria during the presidency of Bashar al-Assad. It compares the 2000 Damascus Spring and the 2011 Arab Spring using the concept of the “contentious spiral model.” The model is based on the elements of the original “spiral model” introduced in The Power of Human Rights (1999) and the factors of contentious politics discussed in Dynamics of Contention (2001). It suggests that human rights movements that emerge from uprisings need effective mobilization by domestic and international actors. Sustained pressure from both sources should gradually force the state to make concessions until there is an absence of human rights violations. The study uses research on social movements and international politics in Syria, in addition to data on the practice of torture, to suggest that human rights campaigns to end state-sponsored torture in Syria have been unsuccessful because of the interference of Assad’s foreign alliances. These countries have helped the regime backlash against the opposition during uprisings, which has led to the fracturing of the movement. During the Damascus Spring, this interference took the form of shifting the world’s focus to other regional issues, and during the Arab Spring, Syria’s allies directly supported the Assad regime militarily, financially, and legally.
The Mérida Initiative and the Violence of Transnational Criminal Organizations in Mexico
Date: 2021-01-01
Creator: Brianna Madison Canning
Access: Open access
- Organized crime related violence in Mexico remains at unprecedented levels despite decades of effort and billions of dollars spent attempting to weaken Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) through the Mérida Initiative (MI): a bilateral security partnership established in October 2007 between US President George W. Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderón. The MI sought to combat TCOs (often called cartels), their drug trafficking operations, and their networks of corruption. However, since then TCOs have expanded their businesses beyond drug trafficking, and they have adopted violent practices that target civilians. Extortion, torture, murder, and human trafficking have become common as TCOs look to other illicit markets to make up for losses in drug profits, and to signal strength to their opponents. More specifically, the homicide rate in Mexico increased by more than 100% between 2007 and 2008, aligning with the creation of the initiative designed to have the opposite effect. However, case study research into the violence in Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana determined that the MI was not actually implemented until mid-2009 because of bureaucratic delays, meaning it did not impact the initial spike in homicides in Mexico in 2008. Instead, the violence starting in 2008 is a result of changing dynamics between and within TCOs, as they adapted to survive and maintain control of resources. By supporting the Mexican government’s drug war efforts over the next several years, the Mérida Initiative became one of many complex domestic and international factors that ultimately contributed to extreme levels of violence in Mexico.
Can Small Donations Have Big Consequences? Candidate Ideology, Small Donations, and Election Results in the 2016 and 2018 Congressional Cycles
Date: 2021-01-01
Creator: Michael Borecki
Access: Open access
- Small donors have provided an increased share of total campaign contributions in the 2016, 2018, and 2020 U.S. federal election cycles, including about $3 billion of the $14.4 billion raised in 2020. Campaign funding is still dominated by an influential set of large donors, but small donations may be the basis for an effective response to the disproportionate amount of “big money” in politics. This study investigates whether candidates who are more extreme perform better with small donors, and then examines the impact of small donations and overall funding on election results. These analyses were performed using linear sum-of-squares regression models. The results in Chapter 2 show that candidates who are more politically-extreme receive more of their funding from small donations, but perform worse in general elections when fundraising is equal. Chapter 3 shows that small donations do not have an impact on candidate performance in general elections more generally, but candidates who outraise their opponent also outperform relative to the district’s partisan lean. However, that effect disappears when looking only at elections decided by less than 10 percent of the vote. These results suggest that small donors are more likely to support candidates who are more politically polarized, but the effects of small donors on the makeup of Congress is marginal at best, at least as far as general election outcomes are concerned. The project concludes by considering reform proposals that seek to broaden the pool of Americans who donate small sums to political candidates.
Racial Bias within Capital Punishment: Instructional Comprehension
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Marcus Gadsden
Access: Open access
- This dissertation examines the existence of racial bias within capital punishment. Since colonial times discriminatory death sentencing has impacted racial minorities, and despite living in a post-colonial epoch, the United States Justice system continues to produce alarming racial disparities. Consequently, both law reviews and social science journals indicate that race remains a significant factor in criminal trials. So, to what extent does racial bias influence capital punishment trials? Given that it does exist, how can it be alleviated? Through a statistical/qualitative analysis of psychological studies, Supreme Court cases, and jury instructions, this dissertation suggests that implicit cognitive bias continues to produce daunting realities in contemporary criminal punishment processes. Notably among juries, traditional judicial procedures have ostensibly triggered implicit bias and psychological intimidation, i.e. jury instructions. Moreover, do long and complicated jury instructions heighten instances of partial judgment? In Racial Bias within Capital Punishment: Instructional Comprehension, I argue that inaccessible jury instructions provide a space where jurors adhere to subtle racial preferences. Consequently, the swaying capacity of juries in capital punishment trials proceeds to arbitrarily produce discrepancies in sentencing rates.
The citizens united election? or same as it ever was?
Date: 2010-12-01
Creator: Michael M. Franz
Access: Open access
- In January 2010, the Supreme Court in Citizens United v. FEC overturned long-standing regulations governing the role of unions and corporations in sponsoring pro-candidate advocacy. Many predicted a deleterious effect on the electoral process. In the aftermath of the midterm elections, a number of questions deserve consideration. Was the observed level of outside spending abnormally high in 2010? What can we say about the potential effect of outside spending on the outcomes of House and Senate races? Moreover, what has the decision done to the power of parties and, most especially, their ability to compete with special interests in backing federal candidates? This paper investigates these questions using data from the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracked political ads in 2010. The initial evidence suggests that while interest groups were aggressive players in the air war, their impact may not have been as negative or as large as initially predicted. © 2011 Berkeley Electronic Press.
Interest groups in electoral politics: 2012 in context
Date: 2012-12-01
Creator: Michael M. Franz
Access: Open access
- This paper compares the levels of ad spending from outside groups and traditional party organizations across seven federal election cycles. The data show clearly that outside groups advertised at historic levels in 2012. Such intense efforts send two important signals to students of American campaign finance. The first involves a crisis in the system of limited donations to candidates and party committees moving forward. The second resurrects an old debate in political science about whether parties or candidates should be the center of our electoral process. The paper concludes with a consideration of possible reforms that might help restore parties and candidates to the center of issue debates in competitive federal elections.