Browsing Department of Political Studies Graduate Theses by Title
Now showing items 42-61 of 65
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Re-politicizing State Sovereignty in Global Governance: A Political Economy of Transparency in the Oil Sectors of Gabon and Ghana
(2015-12-14)In the last two decades, the study of transnational corporations (TNCs) and other non-state actors has gained an undisputed momentum in the fields of International Political Economy (IPE) and global governance, thus ... -
Recasting Reform: An Analysis of Electoral Reform Initiatives in Fourteen Parliamentary Democracies
While successful electoral system change has received considerable scholarly attention in recent years, comparatively little is known about the vast majority of cases where reform was unsuccessfully attempted or never ... -
Reconsidering Gender in the Multi-level Governance of Land in East Africa: Governing the “Global Land Grab”?
(2014-10-27)In the twenty-first century, there is a global rush for agricultural land. This rush is extremely profitable and extremely destabilizing, nowhere more so than in low-income countries with large reserves of arable agricultural ... -
Rethinking the Migration-Conflict Nexus: Insights from the Cocoa Regions in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana
(2013-07-29)In recent years, International Relations scholars have begun to consider migration as an explanatory variable, recognizing its potential role in contributing to the outbreak of violent conflict. Despite the theoretical and ... -
The Rise and Demise of the Free Trade Area of the Americas: A Case Study in Counter-Hegemony
(2012-01-24)This dissertation examines the failure to achieve a final agreement for the Free Trade Area of the Americas(FTAA)at the 2005 Mar del Plata Summit of the Americas. The predominant explanation for this outcome highlights the ... -
Rule Egalitarianism: The Egalitarian Tilt of Classical Liberalism
Classical liberalism has wrongly been regarded as an ideology that rejects the welfare state. This study endeavours to replace this far too common reading of the classical liberal tradition with an approach I term “rule ... -
Seeking Stability Amid Deep Division: Consociationalism and Centripetalism in Comparative Perspective
(2009-02-17)For the design of power-sharing practices in deeply divided places, there are two main macro-political strategies: consociationalism, developed and defended by Arend Lijphart, and centripetalism, associated with the work ... -
Selective Solidarity: The Politics of Immigrants' Social Rights in Western Welfare States
(2013-04-25)Recent research has cast doubt on the suggestion that immigration weakens the societal foundation of a redistributive welfare state: there is little evidence of a negative relationship between immigration-induced diversity ... -
Sex Work and Motherhood: Case Studies of Edmonton and Toronto
(2008-01-29)The purpose of this thesis was to examine the complex relationship that exists between lone motherhood and sex work. Utilizing the idea of particularlism, I argue that it is important to understand the environmental context ... -
Soaring Eagle: Prestige and American Empire, 1998-2003
(2014-11-27)What are the causes of the US foreign policy of imperial expansion between 1998 and 2003? US foreign policy in this timeframe is distinctive by its unilateralism and use of force compared to previous instances of American ... -
‘STICKY WORDS’ AND TWISTED TONGUES: Rhetoric, Symbols, and Regime Resilience in Post-Genocide Rwanda
This dissertation examines the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front’s construction and deployment of political rhetoric and symbols as key facets of authoritarian resilience and ethnic ‘control’ in post-genocide Rwanda. It ... -
Strategic Diplomacies: Indigenous Governance, International Politics, and Natural Resources in Canada
International Relations theory would predict that central governments, with their considerable material resources, would be unlikely to face a challenge from a substate government. However, substate governments, and ... -
The Supreme Court of Canada and the Judicial Role: An Historical Institutionalist Account
(2009-11-11)This dissertation describes and analyzes the work of the Supreme Court of Canada, emphasizing its internal environment and processes, while situating the institution in its broader governmental and societal context. In ... -
Territorial Control and Minority Reforms: A Study of the Kurdish Borderlands in Turkey
This study seeks to explain the failure of the Kurdish Opening in Turkey. I theorize that an important, hitherto largely ignored, factor in explaining this failure is the state’s policy of territorial control, which has ... -
Their Images, Our Selves: Canadian Print Media's Construction of Feminism Surrounding the Cuts to the Status of Women Canada
(2007-10-25)Media play an important role in transmitting information for citizens in a country as large as Canada. Much of what Canadians know about the larger country comes to them through the media they view. What then, is the ... -
Tinker, Tory, Wobbler, Why? : the political economy of electricity restructuring in Ontario, 1995-2003
(2007-09-12)The Ontario Tories' 42-year hegemony in government (1943-1985) was wrought through clever policies which often utilized Crown institutions to promote prosperity or to oblige or mollify vying interests. Ousted in 1985, ... -
To the Global Village and Back: International Indigenous Rights and Domestic Change in Nicaragua and Ecuador
(2010-01-26)International indigenous rights represent a special category of human rights, offering a potent tool in the community-based defense of indigenous lands and livelihoods. State sovereignty has, however, historically been ... -
The Unnatural Likeness of Deference: The Supreme Court of Canada and the Democratic Process
(2012-01-04)This dissertation examines the behaviour of the Supreme Court of Canada in cases involving electoral/referendum laws and the alleged violation of freedom of expression and/or the right to vote. In 2007, it declared that ... -
Warriors of choice : the (Re)articulation of militarized masculinities in private and public special forces
(2008-08-15)My thesis is an examination militarized masculinity in Canada's JTF2 Special Forces and the Private Security Firm Blackwater. I employ a gender analysis to highlight how militarized masculinity impedes women's participation ... -
Who is Responsible? Explaining How Contemporary Canadian Newspapers Frame Domestic Violence
Domestic violence is a pressing social issue in Canada. How the news media covers this violence has the potential to generate social responsibility or reinforce misconceptions about its causes, prevalence, and solutions. ...