https://hdl.handle.net/1814/7088 EUI theses are published under EUI imprint and are available in Open Access or in Embargoed Access Wed, 02 Sep 2020 23:42:10 GMT 2020-09-02T23:42:10Z http://cadmus.eui.eu:80/bitstream/id/84223/ https://hdl.handle.net/1814/7088 https://hdl.handle.net/1814/67955 Contested states : the struggle for survival and recognition in the post-1945 international order KURSANI, Shpend One of the most fundamental principles underpinning the post-World War II order, on which there is a broad and long-held consensus, is that once admitted into the club of universally recognized states, a political entity’s territory and borders become sacred. The phenomenon of the “contested state,” however, stubbornly challenges this sacred consensus, by suggesting that the current membership in and territorial configuration of the international society may not be entirely fixed. With three standalone substantive chapters, this thesis investigates three different aspects of contested states’ relationship with the existing society of states. In Chapter 1, I attempt to make sense of the existence of these entities alongside other actors in the international system. By employing an ontological approach, I argue that a constellation of four dimensions constitutes a contested state as an independent non-UN member state, over which another State lays claim. My approach not only establishes these entities more clearly as a separate analytical category in world politics, worthy of detailed study, but also specifies these entities’ distinct behavior when compared to other actors populating the same international system. Departing from the empirical reality that more than half of the thirty contested states have already died, Chapter 2 investigates the conditions under which contested states survive in the post-1945 international order. By employing an original time-series dataset and applying a comparative configurational analysis of the universe of cases of contested states, I show that three pathways to survival sufficiently capture the patterns underlying the persistence of these entities. The Chapter shows that, while external support is not a necessary condition for contested state survival, what happens outside a contested state’s own “domestic” realm, nevertheless, plays a crucial role in keeping these entities alive. The findings of this Chapter unearth a contradiction that exists between the prerogatives of territorial integrity and the aims for peace and stability of the post-WWII international legal and normative order. Chapter 3 conducts a critical analysis of the nature and effect of contested states’ struggle for recognition by focusing on Palestine and Kosovo. While seeking recognition and maintaining the hope of eventual membership in the society of states is an understandable objective, I argue that for contested states, recognition has a price. The post-WWII international legal and normative order has presented contested states with a trade-off. In seeking to achieve universal international recognition, contested states must curb their claims to self-determination and sacrifice some of the elements of empirical statehood they have managed to establish. Taken together, these chapters make a set of empirical, methodological, and theoretical contributions, not only for the study of contested states but also for the general discipline of IR. Defence date: 23 July 2020 (Online); Examining Board: Professor Jennifer Welsh (EUI, Supervisor); Professor Dorothee Bohle (EUI); Professor Nina Caspersen (University of York); Professor Eiki Berg (University of Tartu) Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/1814/67955 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/1814/67780 The hour of the citizens : the political consequences of mass Euroscepticism MALET, Giorgio In the last decades mass domestic opposition has progressively challenged the institutions of international cooperation. In Europe, skepticism towards European integration has increased in all countries and recently led to the first withdrawal of a member state. While we know a great deal about the sources of Eurosceptic attitudes, researchers have devoted less attention to their consequences. The goal of this thesis is to better understand under what conditions these preferences matter, to what extent they affect political behavior, how they are activated, and how they spread. The core argument is that, as a consequence of the increasing politicization of European integration, people’s EU attitudes have come to affect the dynamics of democratic representation in Europe. I analyze three crucial consequences of citizens’ integration attitudes: their impact on voting behavior; their impact on the political discourse of mainstream parties; and their impact on the opinions of other citizens abroad. Thus, the papers of this dissertation investigate three different conditions under which mass Euroscepticism has political consequences: (1) during election campaigns, when challenger parties’ discourse provides information to voters that increases the impact of EU attitudes on vote choices; (2) between elections, when competition from rival parties pushes mainstream parties to adapt their political discourse to the ups and (mainly) downs of public support for the EU; (3) in occasion of momentous EU referendums, when public preferences, in the form of election results, provide a signal to citizens in other countries and set in motion a process of contagion. The findings of this thesis suggest that the politicization of conflicts over national sovereignty may be at the same time a threat to the survival of the European project and a necessary step to reinvigorate the channels of political representation in our dissatisfied democracies. Defence date: 20 July 2020 (Online); Examining Board: Prof. Hanspeter Kriesi (EUI, Supervisor); Prof. Elias Dinas (EUI); Prof. Sara B. Hobolt (London School of Economics and Political Science); Prof. Laura Stoker (University of California, Berkeley) Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/1814/67780 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/1814/67770 The politics of central bank reform : post­financial crisis institutional reform in the USA  and UK HUNGIN, Harpal The prudential role of central banks has been greatly strengthened since the 2008 financial crisis. Yet domestic institutional dynamics have produced significant divergence in institutional reform. This thesis examines central bank institutional reforms in the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK). These cases were selected due to variation in the institutional outcomes. The thesis controls for a variety of potential sources of institutional variation, such as the size of the financial sector, the impact of the crisis, changes of government, and central bank independence. Five propositions are suggested to explain how the institutional reforms are facilitated: by institutional constraints; by bureaucratic politics; thorough the self-interest of politicians concerned with electoral reward; in response to lobbying by the financial industry lobby; or in response to proposals from an epistemic community of regulatory experts. The case studies find that the number of political institutional constraints and the structure of bureaucratic power produce distinct modes of institutional change and explain the variation in institutional outcomes. The framework is applied to a comparative analysis of central bank reform in the US and UK. Prior to the 2008 US and 2010 UK general elections, the mains candidates and political parties attempted to deflect blame for the crisis by putting forward competing visions of institutional reform. This thesis argues that high veto possibilities and diffuse bureaucratic power in the US forced the Obama Administration to leave the existing architecture in largely place, while circumventing opposition by creating new institutional structures (institutional layering). In contrast, low veto possibilities in the UK facilitated institutional displacement; but by concentrating bureaucratic power, it also enabled the central bank to reshape reform in line with its own interests (institutional subversion). The findings provide new insights into the endogenous political and bureaucratic drivers of post-crisis administrative reform. Defence date: 23 June 2020 (Online); Examining Board: Professor Pepper Culpepper (Supervisor, formerly EUI/University of Oxford);  Professor Dorothee Bohle (EUI);  Professor David Coen (University College London);  Dr Manuela Moschella (Scuola Naormale Superiore) Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/1814/67770 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/1814/67692 Hegel and the representative constitution BUCHETMANN, Elias This thesis makes the case for reading G.W.F. Hegel’s Philosophy of Right from 1820 as a pertinent contribution to the public debate on the constitutional question in post-Napoleonic Germany. Its title is inspired by a term used by contemporaries to express their demand for constitutionalisation and some form of popular participation in government. While attempts at precise definition were undertaken, these constituted no more than bids for the prerogative of interpretation, and the exploration of that struggle lies at the heart of this work. Hegel undoubtedly embraced the single greatest political demand of the age and, in idiosyncratic fashion, accommodated it in the Philosophy of Right, thus making a characteristic contribution to the discourse on the representative constitution. By placing Hegel’s political thought in the context of contemporary discussions, this history of thinking about the state in the early nineteenth century humanises a thinker with a notorious reputation for obscurity and unearths the ideas of many lesser-known contemporaries. Sharpening our sense of possibility through a confrontation with the past and alternative ways of thinking, it encourages critical reflection on the nature of representation, the virtues required to perform it successfully, and the constitutional arrangements best suited to facilitate it. Defence date: 10 July 2020 (Online); Examining Board: Prof. Ann Thomson (EUI, Supervisor); Prof. Richard Bellamy (University College London); Prof. David Leopold (University of Oxford); Prof. Iwan-Michelangelo D'Aprile (University of Potsdam) Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/1814/67692 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z