Department of Political Science Works
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Item What now for Greece and the euro?(The Conversation US, Inc., 2015-07-09) McCormick, John; Political Science, School of Liberal ArtsItem Introducing the Turkey Protest, Repression, and Pro-Government Rally Dataset (TPRPGRD)(Taylor & Francis, 2022-08-28) Kahvecioğlu, Anıl; Demirel-Pegg, Tijen; Aytürk, İ̇lker; Political Science, School of Liberal ArtsThe repression-protest nexus in authoritarian regimes has attracted scholarly attention of contention scholars for a long time. However, studies have generally overlooked pro-government actors’ role in contentious dynamics. This article introduces an original event dataset on protests, repression, and pro-government rallies in Turkey under the rule of the Justice and Development Party during a period in which authoritarianism has increased in intensity. Using protest event analysis, this dataset includes actions of governments, pro-government actors, and dissidents hand-coded from two newspapers between 1 January 2013, and 31 December 2016. The dataset enables researchers to study pro-government rallies (PGRs), anti-government protests, and state actions during a heightened period of contention in Turkey.Item Would Somaliland’s Citizens Benefit from State Capacity Libertarianism?(2022) Scott, Pegg; Political Science, School of Liberal ArtsTyler Cowen's concept of "state capacity libertarianism" was not devised with Somaliland in mind. Somaliland falls short of his ideals on both state capacity and libertarianism. Yet, Somaliland has made progress in developing state capacity. Although it faces significant obstacles as an unrecognized de facto state in the Horn of Africa, it must further develop state capacity if it is ever going to improve the lives of its citizens and address pressing challenges like high rates of infant and maternal mortality, widespread abject poverty, and minimal public infrastructure. In doing so, however, Somaliland needs to leverage the libertarian sympathies of its people to expand personal and economic freedom. Somaliland will never approximate fully fledged state capacity libertarianism but improving state capacity while increasing freedom is essential for advancing human welfare. Its people would benefit from something approximating "state capacity libertarianism with Somali characteristics".Item Book Review: When There Was No Aid: War and Peace in Somaliland(Sage, 2021) Pegg, Scott; Political Science, School of Liberal ArtsItem Partisanship Versus Democracy: Voting in Turkey’s Competitive Authoritarian Elections(SAGE, 2021-07-25) Demirel-Pegg, Tijen; Dusso, Aaron; Political Science, School of Liberal ArtsDo voters care about anti-democratic behavior by their leaders? While political pundits and academics often hope that they do, there has been little research that tests the effects that specific anti-democratic actions have on voters during elections. This is because there are few clear instances where violations of democratic norms are so visible to the average voter that one would expect it to have an effect, above and beyond traditional predictors of the vote. However, the recent elections in Turkey offer a unique opportunity to test the effect that nullifying an entire election (an unequivocal violation of democratic norms) has on voters. We do exactly that with a survey of voters following the election re-do. We find that even in such an extraordinary circumstance, voters rely on standard voting drivers like partisanship, rather than concern for the functioning of democracy itself. Ultimately, our findings have important implications for voting in competitive authoritarian regimes, as they fail to show that anti-democratic behavior is punished.Item Minerals are a shared inheritance: Accounting for the resource curse(Elsevier, 2020-11-01) Basu, Rahul; Pegg, Scott; Political Science, School of Liberal ArtsMany countries badly mismanage their natural resource endowments. We argue that a fundamental change in paradigm is needed. Specifically, we advocate treating non-renewable natural resources as a finite shared inheritance asset, and extraction as the sale of the inherited wealth. We identify several proposals that logically derive from treating mineral sale proceeds as intergenerational wealth rather than as revenues that can be spent. Wealth portfolio management suggests that mineral owners must strive for zero-loss when selling minerals, establish a passively invested future generations fund from the proceeds and distribute dividends from that fund to citizens as the rightful owners of the shared inheritance. The current dominant metaphor of proceeds from the exploitation of non-renewable mineral resources as being “windfall revenues” is underpinned by government accounting standards. The “windfall revenue” metaphor is not only inaccurate but also produces several pernicious effects that help explain the poor management of natural resource endowments in so many countries. We do not anticipate that our ideas will quickly overturn centuries of established practice. We do, however, believe that the case needs to be made.Item ‘You can’t repeal regret’: targeting men for mobilisation in Ireland’s abortion debate(Bristol University Press, 2021-02) Hunt, Kate; Friesen, Amanda; Political Science, School of Liberal ArtsThis study explores how social movement organisations involved in the abortion debate in the Republic of Ireland attempted to appeal to men in their campaign messages before the 2018 referendum on the Eighth Amendment concerning abortion. We scrape social movement organisations’ Twitter accounts to conduct quantitative and qualitative content analyses of images and videos the organisations posted, and find evidence that social movement organisations sometimes extended their frames to men as voters. Social movement organisations evoked themes of hegemonic masculinity in their imagery and messaging, though these themes were not a large portion of overall campaign tweets and there were distinct differences in how this was done by the two organisations we study. Previous research suggests anti-abortion organisations extend their frames to incorporate ‘pro-woman’ messaging. Our research contributes by exploring the ways that frames may be extended by both anti- and pro-abortion actors to target men and mobilise masculinity in public debates over women’s rights.Item Terrorism, Counterterrorism and “The Rule of Law”: State Repression and “Shoot-to-Kill” in Northern Ireland(2019) White, Robert W.; Demirel-Pegg, Tijen; Lulla, VijayAuthors have argued that counterterrorism must be consistent with “the rule of law.” Often associated with this approach is the assumption that plural political structures limit the state’s response to terrorism and that state agents will be held accountable if their response is excessive. Scholars who focus on social movements reject this assumption.. We examine the state’s response to anti-state violence in Northern Ireland between 1969 and 1994. In 1982, Sinn Féin did much better than expected in an election to the Northern Ireland Assembly. Following the election, it is alleged that state agents followed a “shoot-to-kill” policy and shot dead Irish republican paramilitaries instead of arresting them. We find evidence suggesting such a policy and consider the implications.Item “Populism” versus “Popular”: A Response to Ziarek’s “Populism—A Crux or Crisis of Politics?”(Project Muse, 2019) Demirel-Pegg, Tijen; Political Science, School of Liberal ArtsThis article discusses two main issues Ziarek highlights regarding populist social movements. The first one is the exclusionary stance populist movements take when contending for power in a democratic society. The second one is the repressive response to contenders when populist movements are in power. The underlying characteristic in both issues is that populists movements assume an anti-pluralist stance against other contending alternatives. Therefore, the distinction between “popular” and “populist” is an important one.Item Socially distanced school-based nutrition program under COVID 19 in the rural Niger Delta(Elsevier, 2020) Francis, Nabie Nubari; Pegg, Scott; Political Science, School of Liberal ArtsThe Niger Delta region of Nigeria is widely recognized as a complex and contentious space for oil exploration and production. Over the past few decades, the Niger Delta has witnessed large-scale mass peaceful mobilizations and rebellion-like conditions from violent militia groups. Oil companies have been implicated in violence perpetrated by Nigerian security forces. Local host communities have suffered greatly from corruption, political instability, violence and the environmental devastation of their farmlands and fishing grounds. Oil companies have increasingly turned to corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives to attempt to build or repair relations with oil-producing communities. There are also governmental and non-governmental humanitarian actors supporting various initiatives in the oil-producing areas. This article highlights the challenges that one long running micro-scale development project has faced due to the COVID 19 disease outbreak and the closure of all schools in Rivers State, Nigeria in March 2020. The school closures have halted some initiatives, but our weekly nutritional program has continued in new, socially distanced forms.