Shared rule as a signal of central state commitment to regional self-rule

Regional governments, particularly those representing distinct communities, are typically thought to pursue power of self-rule, or the ability to self-govern within their own regional jurisdiction. In contrast, limited attention has been paid to the importance of granting substantial influence via shared rule, or the ability to co-exercise authority over the state as a whole. Yet, central governments who fail to provide some form of guarantee regarding the authority to self-rule may face ongoing challenges to their legitimacy, authority, and ability to govern. As a result, granting shared control over modifications to their legal status may help to pacify demands from restive regions and those geographically separated from the state’s centre. Analyzing the relationship between self- and shared rule across regional governments in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, I examine how the horizontal dimension of multi-level governance can serve as an accommodation strategy by central governments

Electoral Reform, Party System Evolution and Democracy in Contemporary Indonesia

This dissertation examines the links between electoral reform and political party system development in new democracies where iterated reforms are increasingly common, requiring an understanding of their causes and short-term consequences. It examines this relationship in detail in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim democracy. It finds that, although the rules of the game may appear to be in flux during iterated electoral reforms, those reforms often follow a predictable dynamic and consistently demonstrate evidence of seat-maximization. Assessing how a combination of strategic and alternative motivations may affect decision-making, as well as how prior reforms constrain future reform options, is key to understanding how reforms affect the composition and shape of the ensuing party system. The dissertation employs a multi-methods approach, conducting both a large-N quantitative analysis with an original dataset of cross-national electoral reform and a case study of Indonesia. The large-N analysis includes 34 cases of electoral reform from 1950 to 2010; for the case study I draw on in-depth interviews with key reform actors, archival research, and an analysis of election outcomes from 1999-2009 to assess the relationship between electoral reform, party system change and the process of democratization in Indonesia.Doctor of Philosoph

Assessing the Causes and Effects of Electoral Volatility: Party System Fragmentation, Time, and Executive Turnover

What effect do political parties and the system in which they function have on the amount of electoral instability generated during election periods? This study confirms that party system fragmentation, disaggregated into twin components of party system size and discontinuity, plays a deterministic role on volatility levels and that conceptual disaggregation improves the fit of this model over alternate models. Additionally, the inclusion of a time-sensitive control variable reveals the significant impact of interelection period length which had not been controlled for in earlier analyses. The results of this analysis do not uphold prior findings of region- or time-specific data with respect to alternative explanations of economic voting, institutional characteristics, or class cleavage structures. Finally, examination of the relationship between electoral volatility and executive turnover reveals that party system size and discontinuity, as well as time, can mitigate the negative effect of electoral volatility on executive policy tenure

Decentralisation, intergovernmental coordination, and response to extreme events in Southeast Asia

Despite common lessons learned during the SARS pandemic in 2003, country responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Southeast Asia have been very diverse, with many lacking coordination among government bodies. I consider how government structure and political decentralisation shape emergency response to extreme events, focusing on two of Southeast Asia’s largest decentralised countries, Indonesia and the Philippines. I explore variation in provincial-level responses and outcomes, showing that intergovernmental coordination can augment the beneficial aspects of decentralisation in world regions where human and economic costs associated with extreme events are high

Record fledging count from a seven-egg clutch in the Cooper’s Hawk (\u3ci\u3eAccipiter cooperii\u3c/i\u3e)

Cooper’s Hawks (Accipiter cooperii) typically lay 3–5 eggs per clutch, rarely 6 eggs, and there are 2 accounts of 7-egg clutches and 1 record of a maximum 8-egg clutch for the species. Brood sizes of 3–5 young are common and the previous maximum brood count is 6 young. However, in 2019, we found an urban nest in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, with 7 eggs that resulted in a record high of 7 fledglings. We genetically confirmed that the attending male sired all the offspring and the attending female laid all 7 eggs. Larger body size of the tending adults may have been a factor in the exceptional reproduction reported here. El gavila´n Accipiter cooperii t´ıpicamente pone 3–5 huevos por puesta, rara vez 6. Hay 2 reportes de puestas de 7 huevos y 1 registro ma´ximo de una puesta de 8 huevos para esta especie. Los tama˜nos de nidada de 3–5 polluelos son comunes y la nidada ma´xima es de 6 polluelos. Sin embargo, en 2019 encontramos un nido urbano en Stevens Point, Wisconsin, con 7 huevos que result ´o en un r´ecord ma´ximo de 7 polluelos emancipados. Confirmamos gen´eticamente que el macho que los cuidaba era el padre de todos los polluelos y que la hembra que los cuidaba puso los 7 huevos. El tama˜no corporal de los adultos a cargo podr´ıa ser un factor en el evento de reproducci´on extraordinario que reportamos aqu´ı

Governing Well after War: How Improving Female Representation Prolongs Post-conflict Peace

Previous studies suggest that women’s access to political power often increases following the termination of civil conflicts, particularly those ending in negotiated settlement. However, the effect of these changes has received limited attention. We argue that the proportion of female representatives in a national legislature prolongs peace following a negotiated settlement. Moreover, we highlight two mechanisms through which greater female representation reduces the risk of conflict recurrence: (1) by prioritizing social welfare spending over military spending and (2) by improving public perceptions of good governance and the credibility of political elites. We further argue that legislative independence and authority conditions this relationship, implying that greater female representation is more likely to promote peace in states with nominally democratic political institutions. Our empirical analyses of peace duration following negotiated settlements between 1946 and 2011 provide robust support for our general argument and the underlying mechanisms we believe drive this relationship

To Marry or Not to Marry? Gender and Interethnic Group Trust

While there has been work on whether women are more tolerant of outgroups, the ethnic politics literature has generally overlooked the role of gender in explaining interethnic trust. Whatever attention exists often focuses on the gender of the subject—that is, who is doing the trusting—with mixed results. One reason is that the object being entrusted is either not specified or assumed genderless. In this paper, we call attention to the gender of an important entrusted object in interethnic relations: children. We argue people are less willing to have their daughters—compared to their sons—marry an ethnic outgroup. Additionally, this willingness declines as the cultural distance widens. We test this using a survey experiment in Romania where we leverage the diversity in ethnicity and a gendered language structure. Our results highlight the importance of accounting for gender-based differences in studying interethnic trust

Autonomy in the Pursuit of Peace: Negotiating Territorial Accommodation in Indonesia and the Philippines

Scholarship on the advisability of territorial accommodation in conflict-torn societies prioritises attention to the political and identity-based factors that fuel societal divisions and often complicate the success of such forms of accommodation. Yet these divisions are themselves shaped by the boundaries that delineate who lives within the territory being accommodated. Here we focus on the critical question of whether the borders of the territorial unit to potentially receive autonomy are clearly demarcated when peace is established or, instead, form an essential and continued part of the post-conflict space. Where demarcation remains unsettled, elites will encourage perceptions of societal differences – among identity groups, insurgent factions, and political networks – that subsequently lead to conflict continuation or re-emergence. To evaluate this argument, we leverage two similar cases – Aceh in Indonesia and Mindanao in the Philippines – where much of the conventional wisdom fails to explain divergent outcomes in trajectories of peace and conflict