Doctoral Dissertation Research: Residents' Interactions with the State

这项研究项目试图更好地理解权力分享和目标社区对国家的依附感之间的联系。政治学中的传统智慧表明，权力分享机构可以在某些目标群体中培养对国家的忠诚度，比如少数民族公民。然而，现有的研究发现了不确定的证据。此外，现有的研究尚未确定权力分享和对国家的依恋之间的联系机制。这项研究试图解决这些差距。基于家庭调查的原始数据集和对当地居民和公务员的定性采访，该报告审查了地方政府一级的权力分享。它对文献的贡献在于仔细追踪和阐明目标公民通过其代理人(公务员)与国家之间的互动，以及这些互动如何塑造公民对政府的看法和依恋。这项工作将让政策制定者知道，在公民和国家地方机构之间的微观互动中提供公共服务的方式，对一些居民对政府机构的看法产生了相应的影响。这项研究项目试图回答以下问题：(1)是什么形成了少数民族公民的国家依附感？以及(2)为什么国家比其他群体更成功地赢得了一些少数民族成员的依恋？为了回答这些问题，它采取了多种方法，并使用了原始数据集，包括家庭调查数据和少数民族在各级政府中的实际代表性水平。它建议通过回归分析来检验一组假设，并建立在现有的权力分享文献的基础上，但采取了一种新的方法，专注于地方政府层面的权力分享，而不是国家层面的权力分享。从经验上讲，它远远不只是显示利益的因变量和独立变量之间的相关性；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，并解决了为什么和如何发生这种影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.