Presidentialism, Parliamentarism, and Democracy Reconsidered

The purpose of this dissertation is to add to the understanding of democratic consolidation, and to address a debate within this topic: Is presidentialism harmful to democratic consolidation? I argue that presidentialism induces higher levels of political violence (attitudinally and behaviorally). Unlike parliamentary and semi-presidential systems, which offer mechanisms to alter the incumbent government through legislative responsibility, such as a vote of no confidence or a government reshuffle, when there exist mismatched policy expectations between the public and the government, or when the public dissatisfaction with the government is high, presidential systems do not have this mechanism to change the government composition and the president is empowered to govern until the next election. Even in the case that the public's discontent toward the president is high, there exist almost no mechanisms except for her own resignation and an impeachment to remove her from her office. However, a voluntary resignation and an impeachment are rarely occurred in the history, and thus, the expectation of the public regarding whether their grievances can be resolved and addressed is more difficult to be fulfilled in presidential democracies. Therefore, using and considering violence as a mean to address their political and social problems becomes a more viable option in presidential democracies. But by doing so, political stability will decrease and democratic consolidation will be hindered. I employ the World Value Survey and the Asian Barometer Survey to find support for this argument. To further extend this argument and to address the debate, I argue that democratic breakdown must be considered a two-step process. For a democracy to break down, the presence of a democratic crisis that presents a significant likelihood of overthrowing the current democratic regime is necessary. Specifically, I argue that presidentialism generates political instability through its institutions, which are associated with a greater likelihood of the emergence of a democratic crisis, but political instability does not further contribute from democratic crisis to democratic breakdown. Using data covering all democratic regimes from 1946 to 2008, I demonstrate that presidential democracies are more likely to encounter crises than either parliamentary or semi-presidential systems. However, once a crisis occurs, presidentialism does not lead to a higher likelihood of breakdown. Thus, presidentialism is associated with a higher likelihood of democratic breakdown, but only by affecting half of the process

Presidentialism, Parliamentarism, and Democracy Reconsidered

The purpose of this dissertation is to add to the understanding of democratic consolidation, and to address a debate within this topic: Is presidentialism harmful to democratic consolidation? I argue that presidentialism induces higher levels of political violence (attitudinally and behaviorally). Unlike parliamentary and semi-presidential systems, which offer mechanisms to alter the incumbent government through legislative responsibility, such as a vote of no confidence or a government reshuffle, when there exist mismatched policy expectations between the public and the government, or when the public dissatisfaction with the government is high, presidential systems do not have this mechanism to change the government composition and the president is empowered to govern until the next election. Even in the case that the public's discontent toward the president is high, there exist almost no mechanisms except for her own resignation and an impeachment to remove her from her office. However, a voluntary resignation and an impeachment are rarely occurred in the history, and thus, the expectation of the public regarding whether their grievances can be resolved and addressed is more difficult to be fulfilled in presidential democracies. Therefore, using and considering violence as a mean to address their political and social problems becomes a more viable option in presidential democracies. But by doing so, political stability will decrease and democratic consolidation will be hindered. I employ the World Value Survey and the Asian Barometer Survey to find support for this argument. To further extend this argument and to address the debate, I argue that democratic breakdown must be considered a two-step process. For a democracy to break down, the presence of a democratic crisis that presents a significant likelihood of overthrowing the current democratic regime is necessary. Specifically, I argue that presidentialism generates political instability through its institutions, which are associated with a greater likelihood of the emergence of a democratic crisis, but political instability does not further contribute from democratic crisis to democratic breakdown. Using data covering all democratic regimes from 1946 to 2008, I demonstrate that presidential democracies are more likely to encounter crises than either parliamentary or semi-presidential systems. However, once a crisis occurs, presidentialism does not lead to a higher likelihood of breakdown. Thus, presidentialism is associated with a higher likelihood of democratic breakdown, but only by affecting half of the process

Public Preferences Between Wars of Necessity and Wars of Choice

As a part of the overarching publication “Willingness to Defend Own Country in the Baltic States: Implications for National Security and NATO’s Collective Defence” (2021), the author assesses preferences and attitudes in societies regarding wars of necessity and wars of choice, as well as reasoning of individuals in willing or unwilling to defend own countries. The author underlines that the level of willingness to defend own country depends on the nature of a potential conflict that the society in question is about to face – either one of necessity, or as a choice. The former here relates to self-defence against immediate threats while the latter to more distant threats.This publication is co-sponsored by the North Atlantic Treaty Organizatio

Designing Network Design Strategies Through Gradient Path Analysis

Designing a high-efficiency and high-quality expressive network architecture has always been the most important research topic in the field of deep learning. Most of today's network design strategies focus on how to integrate features extracted from different layers, and how to design computing units to effectively extract these features, thereby enhancing the expressiveness of the network. This paper proposes a new network design strategy, i.e., to design the network architecture based on gradient path analysis. On the whole, most of today's mainstream network design strategies are based on feed forward path, that is, the network architecture is designed based on the data path. In this paper, we hope to enhance the expressive ability of the trained model by improving the network learning ability. Due to the mechanism driving the network parameter learning is the backward propagation algorithm, we design network design strategies based on back propagation path. We propose the gradient path design strategies for the layer-level, the stage-level, and the network-level, and the design strategies are proved to be superior and feasible from theoretical analysis and experiments.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure

Dynamic Finite Element Analysis on Underlay Microstructure of Cu/low-k Wafer during Wirebonding

The aim of present research is to investigate dynamic stress analysis for microstructure of Cu/Low-K wafer subjected to wirebonding predicted by finite element software ANSYS/LS-DYNA. Two major analyses are conducted in the present research. In the first, the characteristic of heat affected zone (HAZ) and free air ball (FAB) on ultra thin Au wire have been carefully experimental measured. Secondary, the dynamic response on Al pad/beneath the pad of Cu/low-K wafer during wirebonding process has been successfully predicted by finite element analysis (FEA). Tensile mechanical properties of ultra thin wire before/after electric flame-off (EFO) process have been investigated by self-design pull test fixture. The experimental obtained hardening value has significantly influence on localize stressed area on Al pad. This would result in Al pad squeezing around the smashed FAB during impact stage and the consequent thermosonic vibration stage. Microstructure of FAB and HAZ are also carefully measured by micro/nano indentation instruments. All the measured data serves as material inputs for the FEA explicit software ANSYS/LS-DYNA. Because the crack of low-k layer and delamination of copper via are observed, dynamic transient analysis is performed to inspect the overall stress/strain distributions on the microstructure of Cu/low-k wafer. Special emphasizes are focused on the copper via layout and optimal design of Cu/low-k microstructure. It is also shown that the Al pad can be replaced by Al-Cu alloy pad or Cu pad to avoid large deformation on pad and cracking beneath the surface. A series of comprehensive experimental works and FEA predictions have been performed to increase bondability and reliability in this study

Effect of Lower Extremity Bypass Surgery on Inflammatory Reaction and Endothelial Dysfunction in Type 2 Diabetic Patients

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia. The abnormalities in nutrient metabolism and elevated inflammatory mediators resulting from DM lead to impairment of wound healing and vulnerability to infection and foot ulcers. Diabetic lower limb ischemia often leads to limb necrosis. Lower extremity bypass surgery (LEBS) is indicated to prevent limb loss in patients with critical leg ischemia. This study investigated the alteration of inflammatory and endothelium dysfunction markers before and after LEBS in DM patients. Twenty one type 2 DM patients with LEBS were included. Blood was drawn before and at 1 day and 7 days after surgery in the patients. Plasma soluble cellular adhesion molecule levels and blood leukocyte integrin expressions were measured. Also, plasma concentrations of endothelin-1 and nitric oxide were analyzed to evaluate the vascular endothelial function. The results showed that there were no significant differences in plasma cellular adhesion molecules, endothelin-1 and nitric oxide levels, nor did any differences in leukocyte integrin expressions before and after the operation. These results suggest that the efficacy of LEBS on alleviating inflammatory reaction and improving endothelial function in DM patients was not obvious

Willingness to Defend Own Country in the Baltic States: Implications for National Security and NATO’s Collective Defence

The publication reflects on one of the core aspects and indicators of societal resilience and national defence – why ordinary people are or are not willing to defend their own countries. Based on a review of conceptual considerations and statistical data, an international team of scientists have explored the situation in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and its implications to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.This publication is co-sponsored by the North Atlantic Treaty Organizatio