Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Role of Goods Distribution for Authoritarian Stability in Ethnically-Divided Developing Countries

这个项目调查当个人获得法律的权利时会发生什么。 这项工作旨在确定这些人是否表现出对国家的信任增加，从而增加他们的政治参与，或者，发现这些人脱离国家。本研究旨在了解正式承认一项权利-特别是正式承认土地产权-是否会影响个人参与政治的动机。研究者对三个农村土地所有权计划进行了跨国分析。这些所有权政策提供了一个独特的机会，研究往往被边缘化的群体，小农户，如何反应时，国家正式赠款他们法律的财产权。这项研究准备为政治科学和法律的文献做出有意义的贡献，这些文献长期以来一直认识到法律的权利使国家合法化或引发政治动员的潜力，但尚未探讨权利的正式承认与对政治态度和行为的相应影响之间的关系。该项目还将有助于评估拟议的土地正规化工作的有效性，区分有意义的权利延伸和无效的权利延伸。此外，这项研究还可以提供证据，是否承认受害者的权利，可以促进重建和建立对国家机构的信任，在武装冲突后。技术摘要在这个项目中，研究调查是否一个正式的，法律的权利的延伸导致个人信任和/或参与更多的国家。本研究旨在了解正式承认一项权利，特别是正式承认土地产权，是否会改变个人参与政治的动机。尽管法律的权利在规范理论和社会运动理论中处于中心地位，但有两个重要问题仍未得到解决。首先，作为一种主张的象征性正当性，一项法律的权利本身是否对政治行为产生了超越该权利所保护的基本禀赋或权利的影响？第二，权利是否创造了参与政治脱离的激励？ 学者们就基于权利的主张在促进政治动员和促成政治变革方面的力量展开了辩论。事实上，如果获得一项正式的权利增加了权利持有人对某种利益的安全感，那么就没有什么动力去从事“昂贵的”政治活动。然而，另一些人认为，权利是强有力的象征，并质疑为什么它们在某些情况下鼓励动员，但在另一些情况下却抑制参与。 该项目采用了多方法，跨国研究设计，结合定性和统计数据和分析，从三个农村土地所有权方案。这些方案为研究法律的地位的具体变化提供了一个机会，但并没有显著改变土地的基本分配，从而孤立了法律的权利变化的影响。 这笔资金将资助通过重点小组和农村小农户收集实地研究数据。这些新数据将有助于解释关于土地正规化的统计分析结果。 特别是，它们将提供重要的洞察力，以了解与权利承认状况的变化有关的任何影响所依据的因果机制。反过来，这将有助于研究的影响，我们的理论和经验的权利对个人行为的影响的理解。

General AbstractThis project investigates what happens when individuals gain legal rights. The work seeks to determine whether these individuals exhibit increased trust of the state and therefore increase their political participation, or, alternatively, find that these individuals disengage from the state. This study seeks to understand whether the formal recognition of a right -- in particular, a formal property right to land -- affects an individual's incentives to engage in politics. The researcher conducts a cross-national analysis of three rural land-titling programs. These titling policies offer a unique opportunity to study how an often marginalized group, small-holding farmers, react when the state formally grants them a legal property right. This study is poised to make a meaningful contribution to political science and legal literature, which have long recognized the potential of legal rights to legitimize the state or spark political mobilization, but which have not explored the relationship between the formal recognition of rights and the corresponding influence on political attitudes and behavior. This project will also help to evaluate the effectiveness of proposed land formalization efforts, distinguish meaningful extensions of rights from ineffective ones. Additionally, the study can also provide evidence on whether the recognition of victims' rights can promote reconstruction and build trust toward state institutions in the aftermath of armed conflict.Technical AbstractIn this project, the research investigates whether the extension of a formal, legal right causes an individual to trust in and/or engage more with the state. This study seeks to understand whether the formal recognition of a right, in particular, a formal property right to land, changes an individual's incentives to engage in politics. Despite the centrality of legal rights in normative and social movement theories, two significant questions remain unresolved. First, does a legal right itself, as a symbolic justification of a claim, have an effect on political behavior beyond the underlying endowment or entitlement the right protects? Secondly, do rights create an incentive to participate disengage politically? Scholars debate the power of rights-based claims to promote political mobilization and to engender political change. Indeed, if receiving a formal right increases the right-bearer's feeling of security over an interest, there may be little incentive to engage in 'costly' political activities. However, others argue that rights are powerful symbols, and question why they incentivize mobilization in some instances, but dampen participation in others. This project uses a multi-method, cross-national research design that combines qualitative and statistical data and analyses from three rural land-titling programs. These programs provide an opportunity to study a specific change in legal status, yet does not significantly alter the underlying distribution of land, thereby isolating the impact of the change in legal rights. This funding will sponsor the field research data collection through focus groups and small-holding farmers in rural villages. These new data will help to interpret the results from statistical analyses on land formalization. Notably they will provide important insight into the causal mechanisms that underlie any effect associated with changes in the status of rights recognition. In turn, this will contribute to the study's impact on our theoretical and empirical understanding of the influence of rights on individual behavior.