Doctoral Dissertation Research: Residents' Interactions with the State

该研究项目旨在更好地理解权力分享与目标社区对国家的依恋感之间的联系。政治科学的传统智慧表明，权力分享制度可以培养某些目标群体（如少数民族公民）对国家的忠诚。然而，现有的研究没有找到确凿的证据。此外，现有的研究尚未确定将权力分享和对国家的依恋联系起来的机制。这项研究旨在解决这些差距。基于家庭调查的原始数据集以及对当地居民和公务员的定性访谈，该研究考察了地方一级政府的权力分享。它对文献的贡献在于仔细追踪和阐明了目标公民与国家通过其代理人（公务员）之间的相互作用，以及这些相互作用如何塑造公民对政府的看法和依恋。这项工作将告知政策制定者，公共服务在公民和地方政府机构之间的微观互动中提供的方式，会对一些居民看待政府机构的方式产生重大影响。本研究项目旨在回答以下问题：(1)是什么塑造了少数民族公民对国家的依恋感？(2)为什么国家在赢得某些少数民族成员的归属感方面比其他少数民族成员更成功？为了回答这些问题，该研究采用了多方法方法，并使用了一个原始数据集，包括住户调查数据和少数民族在各级政府中的实际代表人数。它建议通过回归分析来检验一系列假设，并以现有的权力分享文献为基础，但采用了一种新颖的方法，将重点放在地方——而不是国家——政府层面的权力分享上。从经验上看，它远远超出了显示相关因变量和自变量之间的相关性；它估计了在国家、地区和地方各级政府与少数民族分享权力对他们对国家的依恋的影响，并阐述了这种影响发生的原因和方式。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This research project seeks to better understand the link between power-sharing and target-communities' sense of attachment to the state. Conventional wisdom in political science indicates that power-sharing institutions can foster loyalty to the state among certain target groups, such as ethnic minority citizens. However, existing studies have found inconclusive evidence. Additionally, existing research has yet to identify mechanisms linking power-sharing and attachment to the state. This research seeks to address these gaps. Based on an original dataset of household survey and qualitative interviews with local residents and civil servants, it examines power-sharing at the local level of government. Its contribution to the literature lies in a careful tracing and elucidation of the interactions between the target citizens and the state via its agents (the civil servants) and how these interactions shape citizens' view of and attachment to government. This work will inform policymakers that the way in which public service is delivered in a micro-level interaction between citizens and local agents of the state has consequential implications for the way some residents view government institutions. This research project seeks to answer to the following questions: (1) what shapes ethnic minority citizens' sense of attachment to the state?, and (2) why has the state been more successful in winning over a sense of attachment from members of some ethnic minority groups than other groups? To answer these questions, it takes a multi-method approach and uses an original dataset, consisting of household survey data and ethnic minority groups' actual level of representation at various levels of government. It proposes to test a set of hypotheses through regression analysis, and builds on existing literature on power-sharing, but takes a novel approach that focuses on power-sharing at the local -- rather than national -- level of government. Empirically, it goes well beyond showing correlation between the dependent and independent variables of interest; it estimates the effect of power-sharing with ethnic minorities at the national, regional, and local levels of government on their attachment to the state and addresses why and how the effects occur.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.