Why and when do political actors use violence? This project answers these questions by exploring the dynamics of the interactions between state authorities and political dissidents. Both the state and the dissidents face the dilemma of using violence to achieve their political goals. While structural factors influence state violence and…
Why and when do political actors use violence? This project answers these questions by exploring the dynamics of the interactions between state authorities and political dissidents. Both the state and the dissidents face the dilemma of using violence to achieve their political goals. While structural factors influence state violence and dissident violence, I contend that we need to examine how the dynamics of the state-dissident interactions shape these actors’ political behavior. This project first asks if nonviolent methods of resistance are effective--and perhaps even more successful than violent methods--why do opposition movements ever resort to violence? I argue that the efficacy of nonviolent resistance changes over time. When the likelihood of demobilization increases, dissident movements doubt the effectiveness of nonviolent resistance and weigh violence as an alternative tactic. The first chapter of this dissertation shows that the failure in expanding the size of a movement over several periods provides increases the risk of demobilization, and so dissident violence. I also argue while the expansion of the movement decreases the risk of dissident violence, a sudden and large expansion in the size of the movement overburdens its monitoring and sanctioning capacities, which raises the risk of dissident violence. These arguments are supported empirically using two different datasets. In the second theoretical part of this project, I examine the effects of foreign interventions on the dynamics of state repression and dissident violence. I find that the diplomatic statements and efforts such as disapproving state behavior, asking for political reform, and threatening to impose economic sanctions and to deploy military forces either did not have a significant effect, or increased state repression and decreased state concession during the Arab Spring. Finally, the last part of this project contributes to the literature on the formal modeling of dissent-repression by developing a recursive model of political violence dynamics. In addition to addressing several drawbacks in the literature, this model endogenizes the mobilization and demobilization of the movement and explains how these changes affect dissident violence. Due to the complexity of the developed mathematical model, I use a computational model to find the optimal outcomes. This computational model also can be used for simulating the state’s and the dissidents’ behavior under different scenarios.
This thesis explores the effect that social media has on political mobilization. Going over the arguments that social media is a an effective tool for political mobilization, and the arguments that social media is not an effective tool for political mobilization. Analyzing different mobilization movements it is shown that social…
This thesis explores the effect that social media has on political mobilization. Going over the arguments that social media is a an effective tool for political mobilization, and the arguments that social media is not an effective tool for political mobilization. Analyzing different mobilization movements it is shown that social media is an effective tool for political mobilization.
Understanding elections now requires an understanding of how Mexican immigrants participate in politics. Mexican immigrants are a growing demographic in the United States. Latinos have started to sway elections. As the largest Latino bloc, Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants have the power to evoke change. Mexican immigrants’ role in politics…
Understanding elections now requires an understanding of how Mexican immigrants participate in politics. Mexican immigrants are a growing demographic in the United States. Latinos have started to sway elections. As the largest Latino bloc, Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants have the power to evoke change. Mexican immigrants’ role in politics continues to grow in importance as the Latino voting bloc continues to grow. This study focuses on Mexican immigrants and their mobilization in the United States. It discusses the motivations of Mexican immigrants to organize and mobilize in the United States, regardless of their status. The researcher discusses Mexican immigrant mobilization in the United States, evaluates prior research on immigrant mobilization, and identifies the research's shortcomings. The literature review indicates that regardless of status in the United States, Mexican immigrants will organize and mobilize to defend, protect, and improve their livelihoods in America.
