Powersharing and Democratic Survival

Democracy is often fragile, especially in states that have recently experienced civil conflict. To protect emerging democracies, many scholars and practitioners recommend political powersharing institutions. Yet there is little empirical research on whether powersharing promotes democratic survival, and some concern that it can limit electoral accountability. To fill this gap, we differentiate between inclusive, dispersive, and constraining powersharing and analyze their effects on democratic survival using a new global dataset. We find sharp distinctions across types of powersharing and political context. Inclusive powersharing, such as ethnic quotas, promotes democratic survival only in post-conflict settings. In contrast, dispersive institutions such as federalism destabilize post-conflict democracies. Only constraining powersharing consistently facilitates democratic survival in societies both with and without recent conflict. Our results suggest that institution-builders and international organizations should prioritize institutions that constrain leaders, including independent judiciaries, civilian control of the armed forces, and constitutional protections of individual and group rights

Oxidation of 3-Chloroindole and Biodegradation of Dialkoxybenzenes with Cytochrome P450cam (CYP101A1)

Cytochrome P450cam (a camphor hydroxylase) isolated from soil bacterium Pseudomonas putida shows potent importance in environmental applications such as the degradation of chlorinated organic pollutants and insect control agents. Introducing such chemicals can be hazardous to the environment due to their lack of biodegradation. In this thesis, I have studied the role of several P450cam mutants in the oxidation of 3-chloroindole to isatin and the role of wild type P450cam in the dealkylation of 1,4-dibutoxybenzene, a potent feeding-deterrent against stored product pests. Mutant (E156G/V247F/V253G/F256S) was the most active in the conversion of 3-chloroindole by P450cam. We propose two mechanisms for the dechlorination of 3-chloroindole by P450cam. To investigate structure-activity patterns of 1,4-dialkoxybenzenes against beetles, the octanol-water partition coefficients of selected dialkoxybenzenes were investigated. Furthermore, P. putida strain ATCC17453 was able to metabolize 1,4-dibutoxybenzene. Results revealed that cytochrome P450cam catalyzed the first and second dealkylation steps in the biodegradation mechanism