Deconstructed Decentralization and Ethnic Conflict
| dc.contributor.advisor | Kennedy, Ryan | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Bagashka, Tanya G. | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Shea, Patrick E. | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Bakke, Kristin M. | |
| dc.creator | Pineda, Paula Cecilia | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2018-07-13T20:46:20Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2018-07-13T20:46:20Z | |
| dc.date.created | May 2016 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2016-05 | |
| dc.date.submitted | May 2016 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2018-07-13T20:46:20Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | Decentralization, particularly federalism, is often presented as an institutional solution for ethnic conflict. Yet, the literature on decentralization and conflict is inconclusive; some scholars argue that decentralization contains conflict, others argue that it exacerbates conflict, and more recent studies shed light on decentralization’s varying impact on ethnic conflict. After identifying conceptual inconsistencies throughout this research, this dissertation presents the Deconstructed Decentralization Model (DDM), a comprehensive framework for assessing decentralization. This framework disaggregates decentralization into three dimensions: political, fiscal, and administrative decentralization. Additionally, the DDM incorporates two subregional levels of decentralization: the subregional state level and the local, municipal level. Using the DDM and a time-series cross-national dataset spanning 52 countries, a statistical analysis of the relationship between deconstructed decentralization and ethnic conflict is presented. This analysis yields a nuanced set of findings regarding the relationships between regional and local levels of political, fiscal, and administrative decentralization and disaggregated ethnic conflict. Importantly, this study sheds light on the potential of local-level administrative decentralization for containing violent ethnic conflict for countries of varying democracy levels, a timely finding in light of the increasing global appeal of administrative decentralization. This study concludes with a qualitative analysis of deconstructed decentralization in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which reveals challenges to the authentic implementation of decentralization. These findings shed light on possible factors to consider in order to continue refining the conceptualization, measure, and impact of decentralization. | |
| dc.description.department | Political Science, Department of | |
| dc.format.digitalOrigin | born digital | |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Portions of this document appear in: Pineda, Paula C. “The Kurdish Issue on the USA Foreign Policy Agenda.” In Alex Danilovich (ed.), Iraqi Kurdistan in Middle Eastern Politics (2016): 158-176. London: Routledge. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10657/3256 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.rights | The author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. UH Libraries has secured permission to reproduce any and all previously published materials contained in the work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s). | |
| dc.subject | Decentralization | |
| dc.subject | Federalism | |
| dc.subject | Ethnic conflict | |
| dc.title | Deconstructed Decentralization and Ethnic Conflict | |
| dc.type.dcmi | Text | |
| dc.type.genre | Thesis | |
| thesis.degree.college | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences | |
| thesis.degree.department | Political Science, Department of | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Political Science | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Houston | |
| thesis.degree.level | Doctoral | |
| thesis.degree.name | Doctor of Philosophy |