Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Diffusion of Democratic Norms: Examining How Democracy INGO Strategies Contribute to Hybrid Regimes

作为一种政府制度，民主创造了一种尊重和实现基本自由的环境，促进了和平与繁荣以及个人福祉。为了实现这些目标，民主援助由包括促进民主的国际非政府组织在内的各种行为者提供。此类援助猛增，2008年全球支出接近200亿美元。然而，这一努力的成功与否尚不清楚，因为与此同时，混合政权--政府利用民主制度和政策来掩盖威权做法--正在激增。此外，援助往往是无效的，典型的援助战略可以激励表面上的民主化，同时使非民主统治合法化并加强其合法性。因此，野狗本身可能会对杂交增长做出贡献。然而，野狗的作用及其在混血和民主化方面的战略没有得到充分的探讨。该项目从经验上考察了各国与澳洲野狗的联系如何影响其政策和实践中的民主水平，以及各种类型的野狗援助战略如何提高或降低野狗在促进民主方面的效力。因此，该项目评估了民主援助如何影响混合政权。通过确定与促进民主有关的因素，该项目将帮助非营利组织和政府等各种行为者维护人权，改善世界各地公民的福祉。该项目将统计和计算方法结合起来，在1980年至2015年的五年时间间隔内，审查丁戈人在全国范围内对民主政策和做法的影响。它使用《国际组织年鉴》的内容分析来计算每个选定年份各国的年度野狗数量。然后，它使用随机效应回归来了解这些联系如何在政策上影响民主，并在实践中使用一种新的民主衡量标准在跨国家和纵向上影响民主。通过使用一种自动化的内容分析方法--潜在狄利克雷特应用(LDA)主题建模，分析了30个Dingo的年度报告，进一步研究了这种关系，以量化Dirichlet追求的策略以及追求的程度。最后，利用这些数据，利用随机效应回归分析野狗对民主的影响如何通过野狗战略在全国范围内和随着时间的推移而变化。因此，这一设计使得有可能第一次审查和比较野狗在政策和实践中对民主的直接影响，以及援助战略如何改变这种关系。调查结果将为有关民主促进和比较政府组织的社会学理论提供参考。这一奖项反映了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。

As a governmental system, democracy produces an environment where fundamental freedoms are respected and fulfilled, and promotes both peace and prosperity, as well as individual well-being. In pursuit of these ends, democracy aid is dispensed by various actors including democracy-promoting international non-governmental organizations (DINGOs). Such aid has skyrocketed, with 2008 global expenditures nearing $20 billion. Yet the success of this endeavor remains unclear because at the same time, hybrid regimes – governments that co-opt democratic institutions and policies to mask authoritarian practices – are proliferating. Moreover, aid is often ineffective, and typical aid strategies can incentivize superficial democratization while legitimizing and reinforcing nondemocratic rule. Thus, DINGOs themselves may contribute to hybrid growth. However, the role of DINGOs and their strategies regarding hybrids and democratization is underexplored. This project empirically examines how nations’ ties to DINGOs impact their level of democracy in policy and practice, as well as how various types of DINGO aid strategies improve or reduce DINGO effectiveness in promoting democracy. As such, the project assesses how democracy aid influences hybrid regimes. By identifying factors relevant for democracy promotion, this project will help various actors such as nonprofits and governments safeguard human rights and improve citizen well-being worldwide. This project combines statistical and computational methodologies to examine DINGOs’ impact on democratic policies and practices cross-nationally in five-year intervals from 1980 to 2015. It uses content analysis of the Yearbook of International Organizations to count nations’ annual DINGO ties for each selected year. It then employs random effects regression to understand how those ties impact democracy in policy and in practice cross-nationally and longitudinally, using a novel measure of democracy. It further investigates this relationship by analyzing 30 DINGOs’ annual reports using one type of automated content analysis, Latent Dirichlet Application (LDA) topic modeling, to quantify which strategies DINGOs pursue, and to what degree. Finally, it draws upon these data to analyze how DINGO impact on democracy varies by DINGO strategy cross-nationally and over time using random effects regression. This design thus makes it possible to examine and compare, for the first time, the direct effects of DINGOs on democracy in policy and in practice, and how aid strategy modifies this relationship. Findings will inform sociological theories regarding democracy promotion and comparative governmental organization.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.