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Political Science Theses and Dissertations

Theses/dissertations from 2023 2023.

Prosecutorial Discretion: District Attorneys, Public Opinion,and the Localized Rule of Law , Yu-Hsien Sung

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

Changing Environment. Changing Attitudes? , Lindsey Brooke Hendren

Interstate Rivalry, Domestic Politics, and Economic Coercion , Shaoshuang Wen

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

International Conflict, Political Leaders, and Accountability , William Thomas Christiansen

Liberalization First, Democratization Later: The Linkage Between Income Inequality, Economic Development, and Democratization , Yi-Tzu Lin

Social Trust and Soft Power: The Role of Social Trust in Democratic Countries’ Soft Power Use , Judit Trunkos

Economic Interdependence, Power, and Peace: A Rationalist Study of Commercial Liberalism , Yuleng Zeng

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Essays on the Political Economy of International Trade and Coups , William Akoto

Judicial Legitimacy and the Dearth of State Supreme Court Knowledge , TJ Kimel

Women in the Governor's Mansion: Breaking the Barrier to Competition , Helen Adair King

Causes and Consequences of Police Militarization , Edward Eugene Lawson, Jr.

Dynamic Environments and Judicial Power , Monica Lineberger

The Dynamics of Vote Buying in Developing Democracies: Party Attachment and Party Competition in Southeast Asia , Matthew Louis Wagner

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Deepening Democracy: Inclusion, Deliberation, And Voice In The Grassroots South , Annie L. Boiter-Jolley

Evangelicals, Perceived Marginalization and Expressive Mobilization , Christin E. McMasters

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

The Economic Foundations of Authoritarian Rule , Clay Robert Fuller

Partisan Polarization, Social Identity, and Deliberative Democracy in the United States , Ryan Strickler

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

Being Strategic: Black Legislative Representation In The Republican-Controlled South Carolina House of Representatives , Willie James Black

Leaders in Search of the Bomb: Institutional Incentives for Nuclear Decisions , Paige Price Cone

The Three Dimensionality Model Of State Security And Armed Conflict: Internal And External Dimensions And Lessons From The Middle East , Juri Kim

The Impact of Supreme Court Precedent in a Judicial Hierarchy , Ali Masood

How The European Union’s Criteria For Membership Move Public Opinion , Douglas Page

Information Heterogeneity and Economic Voting: A Cross-National Analysis , Chia-yin Wei

Nothing is the Matter with Kansas: White Southern Exceptionalism in American Politics , Paul White Jr.

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

The Turkish Foreign Policy Under The Justice And Development Party (AKP): A Paradigm Shift? , Ali Demirdas

The Liberal Commercial Peace, Regional Considerations: International Relations of Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the European Union Countries , Chienwu Hsueh

The Political Economy of Property Rights In China: Local Officials, Incentive Structure, And Private Enterprises , Ingrid Yingxia Li

The Domestic Adoption of International Human Rights Law: the Roles of Regional and National High Courts in Latin America , Rebecca Ann Reid

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

TOWARDS COMMON EUROPEAN ENERGY POLICY , Mariam Dekanozishvili

Essays on Battle Clusters in Internal Armed Conflicts and Insurgencies: Concept, Causes and Consequences , Chifeng Liu

The Effects of Political Control and Institutional Structure on State Ethics Commissions , William Jonathan Rauh

Do Americans’ Perceptions of the Prevalence of Prejudice Impact Their Racial Policy Preferences? Investigating Meta-Stereotypes as a Potential Causal Mechanism , Alexandra Reckendorf

How Much Do Groups Still Matter to Politics? An Examination of Group Influences on Public Opinion , Lauren E. Smith

Microfinance and Poverty Reduction: How Risks Associated With Government Policies Affect Whether Microfinance Alleviates Poverty in Latin-America , Brian Warby

Taking Interests and International Conflict More Seriously , Chong-Han Wu

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

Protracted Social Conflict: A Reconceptualization and Case Analysis , Melissa M. C. Beaudoin

Race, Class, Gender, and Linked Fate: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of African American Political Partisanship, 1996 and 2004 , Sherral Yolanda Brown-Guinyard

Holding International Public-Private Partnership Accountable: An Analysis of Sensitivity and Vulnerability Dynamics In Ghana'S Water Sector Reform and Its Impact On the Target Population , Xi Chen

The Impact of Ideology and Attorneys On Precedent Usage: An Analysis of State High Courts , Benjamin Kassow

Environmental Footprints of Violent Conflict , Swapna Pathak

Economic Agreements and Interstate Conflict: A Policy Substitution Model of Coercion , Matthew Daniel-Marion Shaffer

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

Religion, Electoral Rules and Women's Representation: A Cross National Examination , Wafaa Adnan Alaradi

Postcolonial and Constructivist Theoretical Explanations of Women'S Traditional Agency In Sociopolitical Participation and Reproductive Rights In Present Day Mali and the Pilipinas , Jennifer Almeda

South Africa In Southern Africa: A Comparative Analysis of Economic Integration In the Southern African Development Community Using Hegemonic Stability Theory , William Andrew Jennings

The Relationship Between State Dissatisfaction and the Level of Conflict In State Dyads: the Revised Power Transition Theory , Hsiao-chuan Liao

Fighting In Space: Understanding the Opportunity and Willingness to Pursue Space Weapons , Michael James Martindale

Capital offenses, Non-Capital offenses, and Party Capability: Habeas Corpus Litigation in U.S. District Courts , Nicholas A. Mostardo

How Rivalries End: Understanding Dynamics of the Rivalry Termination Process , Soonkun Oh

State Implementation of the Children's Health Insurance Program: Analyses of Variation In Policy Adoption , Rebecca Layne Russ-Sellers

Female Legislators and the Power of the Purse: Does Gender Affect Government Spending? A Cross-National Analysis , Jennifer Suzanne Tison

Theses/Dissertations from 2011 2011

Judging the Bureaucrats: Understanding the Dynamics of Court-Agency Interaction , Michael P. Fix

La Ruta Maya: The Effects of tourism and the State On the Political Behavior Choices of the Maya , Heather Lea Hawn

Presidents and Terminal Logic Behavior: Term Limits and Executive Action In the United States, Brazil, and Argentina , Genevieve M. Kehoe

The Questions of Compliance With the NPT Regime and Complex Multilateral Nuclear Negotiations: A Comparative Analysis of North Korea and Iran As Defector States , Jihyun Kim

The Rule of Law In Times of War: A Comparative Analysis of the Effect of War On High Court Decision-Making , Susanne Schorpp

Between and Beyond Borders: Conflict, International Response, and Forced Migration , Young Hoon Song

Theses/Dissertations from 2010 2010

The War On Terrorism In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. An Academic Analysis of the Growing Phenomenon of Political Violence In the Kingdom. , Faisal M. Al-Madhi

Re-Defining Public Service In An Era of Networked Governance: An Examination of the Influence of Public Service Motivation On Contractors In Homeland Security , Alexa Haddock Bigwarfe

The Power and Authority of the Committee On the Rights of the Child , Aleksandra Chauhan

Does Foreign Direct Investment (Fdi) Affect Conflict? theIntertwined Relationship Between Multinational Corporations (Mncs) and Nation-States , Yi-Hung Chiou

Counterinsurgency Colonels: The Role of the Practitioner In the Evolution of Modern Counterinsurgency , Garrett Scott DeWitt

The Geometry of Racial Politics: The Role of Policy Entrepreneurs In Fostering Triangulation Among U.S. Racial and Ethnic Groups, 1800-1964 , Athena M. King

Passionate Political Talk: Social Networks and the Emotional Impact of Political Discussion , Bryan Michael Parsons

Judges and Their Loyalties: A Comparative Study Focused On the Venezuelan Supreme Court , Raul A. Sanchez Urribarri

International Law In the Supreme Court of the United States: An Empirical Analysis , Alan Michael Tauber

Theses/Dissertations from 2009 2009

Wolves In Chic Clothing: Gender, Media and the Securitization of Female Suicide Bombers , Mekell Mikell

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Home > SBS > POLSCI > Political Science Department Dissertations Collection

Political Science Department Dissertations Collection

Current students, please follow this link to submit your dissertation.

Dissertations from 2023 2023

Alternative Power: The Politics of Denmark's Renewable Energy Transition , Robert Darrow, Political Science

Politics is Conspiracy: Everyday Political Conversations in Afghanistan , Mohsen Jalali, Political Science

The Violence of Nostalgia: Conspiracy Theorism, White Nationalism, and Restoring American Exceptionalism , Candice K. Travis, Political Science

"The Land that Feminism Forgot": Birthzillas, Madwives, and the Politics of Chilbirth , Amber Vayo, Political Science

Dissertations from 2022 2022

Theorizing Black Statecraft , Samantha Davis, Political Science

Another Postcolonialism: Innovating Sovereignty from Below Through the Responsibility to Protect , Gabriel P. Mares, Political Science

THE POLITICIZATION OF THE DEAD AND INVISIBILE VIOLENCE: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF TURKEY AND MEXICO , Bilgesu Sumer, Political Science

Debris of Progress: A Political Ethnography of Critical Infrastructure , Ethan Tupelo, Political Science

Dissertations from 2021 2021

Why do Policy Frames Change? Rhetorical Construction and Contestation of Gay Rights in a Contested Regime , Shih-chan Dai, Political Science

Thinking with Black Lives Matter: Towards a Critical Theory of Racial Capitalism , Siddhant Issar, Political Science

Latino Race Cards: Negative Racial Appeals in Contemporary Campaigns and the Bounds of Racial Priming Theory , Rebecca Lisi, Political Science

Targeting Drones: Framing, Vetting, and Power in Transnational Advocacy Issue Networks , Alexandria J. Nylen, Political Science

GRAMMARS OF IDENTITY: POLITICAL LANGUAGES OF ACTIVISM IN ARGENTINA AND THE UNITED STATES , Ana M. Ospina Pedraza, Political Science

Cyclones, Spectacles, and Citizenship: The Politicization of Natural Disasters in the US and Oman , Tyler Schuenemann, Political Science

Platforms and Power: Transnational Guatemala , Eric Sippert, Political Science

Roadblocks to Access: Perceptions of Law and Socioeconomic Problems in South Africa , Kira Tait, Political Science

UPRISING AND DISPLACEMENT: ETHNOGRAPHIES OF VIOLENCE AND IDENTITY-(RE)FORMATION AMONG SYRIANS , Basileus Zeno, Political Science

Dissertations from 2020 2020

PRECARIOUS PIPES: GOVERNANCE, INFORMALITY, AND THE POLITICS OF ACCESS IN KARACHI , Usmaan M. Farooqui, Political Science

Dissertations from 2019 2019

Partisan Policymaking: Research and Advocacy in an Era of Polarization , Zachary Albert, Political Science

Citizenship in transit: perils and promises of crossing Mexico , Martha Balaguera Cuervo, Political Science

WHITEWASHED: THE RACIALIZATION OF AMERICA’S MIDDLE CLASS IDENTITY , Kaylee Theresa Johnson, Political Science

The Solution is the Problem: An Immanent Critique of Capitalism's Crisis, 2008-2018 , Michael Stein, Political Science

Embodied, Rationed, Precarious: Conceptualizations of Sovereignty in Urban Food Regimes , Candan Turkkan, Political Science

Dissertations from 2018 2018

Communication is a Two Way Street: Race, Gender, and Elite Responsiveness in U.S. Politics , Mia Costa, Political Science

The Promise(s) of Resilience: Governance and Resistance In Complex Times , alix olson, Political Science

Why Education Matters: Political Participation and Interpretive Experiences at High School , Samuel V. Stoddard, Political Science

FREE MARKET AUTHORITARIANISM AND THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP , Sarah Tanzi, Political Science

The Paradox of a Town Meeting: The Influence of Forms of Local Government on Citizen Representation , Wouter Marc van Erve, Political Science

Dissertations from 2017 2017

Voter Turnout Overreports: Measurement, Modeling and Deception , Ivelisse Cuevas-Molina, Political Science

“MY EYES ARE OPEN BUT MY LIPS ARE WHISPERING”: LINGUISTIC AND SYMBOLIC FORMS OF RESISTANCE IN THAILAND DURING 2006-2016 , Khorapin Phuaphansawat, Political Science

LOOKING BEYOND THE RUBBLE TOWARD LOUVERTUREAN STATECRAFT: THE POST-OCCUPATION STATE AND THE HISTORICAL FAULT LINE OF RESPONSIVE GOVERNMENT IN HAITI (1791-2016) , Moise St Louis, Political Science

Dissertations from 2016 2016

Citation Networks, Linguistics-Based Cues, and Logic-Based Approaches to Understanding What Persuades a Judge to Forsake Bias , James ben-Aaron, Political Science

The Social Corporation: Firms, Networks, and Politics , Michael Kowal, Political Science

Examining the Civil-Military Divide Through New (Institutional) Lenses: The Influence of the Supreme Court , Allen Linken, Political Science

American Authoritarianism in Black and White , Matthew C. MacWilliams, Political Science

Managing the Agricultural Biotechnology Revolution: Responses to Transgenic Seeds in Developing Countries , Alper Yagci, Political Science

Dissertations from 2015 2015

Time to Leave Uchronia: Queer Eco-Temporalities for a Livable World , Claire S. Brault, Political Science

The Effects of Using Security Frames on Global Agenda Setting and Policy Making , Sirin Duygulu Elcim, Political Science

The Promise of Mourning , Samantha Rose Hill, Political Science

Tacit Web: Entrepreneurial Discovery, Institutional Complexity and Internet Diffusion , Meelis Kitsing, Political Science

Place, Nature, and Political Economy: The Submerged Politics of Alternative Agri-Food Movements , Matthew Aaron Lepori, Political Science

Undying Protests: On Collective Action and Practices of Resistance against Feminicide in Ciudad Juárez , Elva F. Orozco Mendoza, Political Science

The Economy Effect , Jeremy N. Wolf, Political Science

Dissertations from 2014 2014

ANTIGONE CLAIMED, "I AM A STRANGER": DEMOCRACY, MEMBERSHIP AND UNAUTHORIZED IMMIGRATION , ANDRES FABIAN HENAO CASTRO, Political Science

Still Dirty After All These Years: Political Leadership, Knowledge, and Socialization and Regional Environmental Cooperation in Northeast Asia , Inkyoung Kim, Political Science

Southie versus Roxbury: Crime, Welfare, and the Racialized Gubernatorial Politics of Massachusetts in the Post-Civil Rights Era , Daniel T. Kirsch, Political Science

Imperial Janus: Patterns of Governance in the Western Borderlands of the Tsarist Empire , Nicklaus Laverty, Political Science

A Veteran Welfare State: Veterans' Benefits, Coalition Politics, and Social Policy Change, 1943-1973 , Melinda R. Tarsi, Political Science

Dissertations from 2013 2013

Democratizing the Criminal: Jury Nullification as Exercise of Sovereign Discretion over the Friend-Enemy Distinction , Timothy A. Delaune, Political Science

In Transition: The Politics of Place-based, Prefigurative Social Movements , Emily Hardt, Political Science

Promising Prevention: Greening the Breast Cancer Movement in the United States , Kristen Abatsis McHenry, Political Science

Bringing the Ballot Box to the People: Election Administration and the Origins of Inclusive Voting Practices , Kevin Pallister, Political Science

Resilient Environmental Governance: Protecting Changing Ecosystems Through Multilevel Governance , Casey Stevens, Political Science

The Local Production Of Welfare Humanitarianism In Neoliberal Turkey , F. Gizem Zencirci, Political Science

Dissertations from 2012 2012

Journey From Islamism To Conservative Democracy: The Politics Of Religious Party Moderation In Turkey , Guliz Dinc Belcher, Political Science

Why Sacrifice Sovereignty? A Non-Instrumental Explanation of State Support for Supranational Cooperation in EU Common Foreign and Security Policy , Osman Sabri Kiratli, Political Science

Governing Piety: Islam, Empire and Moderation in Late Modernity , Dunya D Lepori, Political Science

Dissertations from 2011 2011

Beyond Promise: Politics, Institutions And Neoliberal Economic Reforms In Four African Countries , Yakubu M Azindow, Political Science

Transnational Networks and the Promotion of Conservationist Norms in Developing Countries , Kemi D. George, Political Science

Dissertations from 2010 2010

Ideological Endzones: NFL Films and The Countersubversive Tradition in American Politics , Nicholas R. Archer, Political Science

Constituting Representation: The Concept Of Representation In American Political Development , Patrick F Campbell, Political Science

After The Fog Of Reform: Democratic Consolidation In Mexico And Turkey , Evren Celik Wiltse, Political Science

The cross, the fall, and the resurrection: The Social Gospel and the democratic party , Christopher Lee Cronin

The Business Community and the Forging of Political Consensus Against the Clinton Healthcare Security Act of 1994 , Michael Lenz, Political Science

Elemental Challenges: Environmental Troubles beyond the Limits of Democracy , Brad Mapes-Martins, Political Science

The Exclusion of Non-Native Voters from a Final Plebiscite in Puerto Rico: Law and Policy , Ramon Antonio Rodriguez, Political Science

The World Is Plural: Democratic Contributions Of Hannah Arendt , Lena Kay Zuckerwise, Political Science

Dissertations from 2009 2009

The influence of American exceptionalist thought on the role of the United States in the contemporary "War on Terrorism". , Michael Dominic D'Amore, Political Science

Leviathan’S Rage: State Sovereignty And Crimes Against Humanity In The Late Twentieth Century , Cecil Bryant Lawson, Political Science

City Marketing and Gated Communities: A Case Study of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico , Carlos A. Suarez-Carrasquillo, Political Science

Dissertations from 2008 2008

The Europeanization of the social partnership : the future of neo-corporatism in Austria and Germany. , Paul S. Adams, Political Science

A tutelazo limpio : a story of the struggle for identity and rights in Colombia and the demobilizing effect of the law. , Farid Samir Benavides Vanegas, Political Science

Can the states increase religious freedom if they try? : judicial and legislative effects on religious actor success in the state courts. , David, Claborn, Political Science

Designing multilateral environmental agreements. , Christopher M. Marcoux, Political Science

Politics of the parking space: Rights, identity, and property , Sarah K Marusek

Cosmopolitanism and abjection in Montesquieu's Persian letters. , Veronica A. O'Connor, Political Science

Dissertations from 2007 2007

Rethinking theories of transitions in the former Soviet Union. , Luke, Perry, Political Science

The sticking point : human rights and civil-military relations in Latin America. , Rebecca K. Root, Political Science

Disengaging from territory : identity, the politics of contestation and domestic political structures: India & Britain (1929-1935), and Indonesia & East Timor (1975-1999). , Lena, Tan, Political Science

A critical assessment of international relations theories for managing transboundary water resources : the case of the Nile basin. , Yohannes, Woldemariam, Political Science

Dissertations from 2006 2006

Reading the Quaderni del carcere : the political project of Antonio Gramsci. , Manuel S. Almeida Rodriguez, Political Science

Living politics by awakening history : a critical approach to Walter Benjamin through Sigmund Freud. , Alex, Betancourt-Serrano, Political Science

The shield of Achilles and the war on terror : Ekphrasis as critique. , Christopher D. Erickson, Political Science

American pragmatism and democratic faith. , Robert J. Lacey, Political Science

Lyrics and the law : the constitution of law in music. , Aaron R. S., Lorenz, Political Science

Myths and realities of the role of officialdom in economic development in Ukraine : two case studies in small business creation, Kharkiv and Transcarpathia. , Robert J. O'Meara, Political Science

American ideal : Theodore Roosevelt and the redefinition of American individualism. , Paul M. Rego, Political Science

Ideological dissention in the progressive era : uncovering the challengers to direct democracy reforms. , Lonce H. Sandy-Bailey, Political Science

Creating a culture of political giving. , David L. Wiltse, Political Science

Dissertations from 2005 2005

The conservation of crop genetic diversity in Turkey : an analysis of the linkages between local, national and international levels. , Zuhre, Aksoy, Political Science

Cultivating participatory democracy at the grassroots: A case study in Middle Belt Nigeria , Laura Mullen Dobson

American voting : the local character of suffrage in the United States. , Alec C. Ewald, Political Science

Cultivating participatory democracy at the grassroots : a case study in middle belt Nigeria. , Laura, Mullen-Dobson, Political Science

The state, the noncitizen, and the challenge of bilateral legitimacy in the United States, Canada and Australia. , Alicia Marie Rampulla, Political Science

Dissertations from 2004 2004

Contesting constitutional meaning : the political Constitution and the myth of judicial supremacy. , George, Thomas, Political Science

Responsibility and critical theory : responding to suffering after Auschwitz. , Antonio Y. Vázquez Arroyo, Political Science

Violation and immunity: The languages of politics and health in prerevolutionary Massachusetts , Martha Yoder

Poll use and policy-making in the White House : 1993-2000. , Jeanne. Zaino, Political Science

Dissertations from 2003 2003

White noise : the political uses of internet technology by right-wing extremist groups. , Alison D. Dagnes, Political Science

Confronting our enlightenment apprehensions : morally informed action and our capacity for progress in America. , Stephen Terhune Smith, Political Science

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Pluriversal reconciliation: democratic theories, political violence and onto-epistemic dialogue , politics of media circulation: tracing the distribution of digital photographs of and from kashmir , stop the killer robots war humanisers future-proofing the war machine , sex, gender and constitutional attitudes: voting behaviour in the scottish independence referendum , ideas in international trade: the role of programmatic beliefs in the eu and china's approaches to the wto dsm , young farmers regeneration policy in indonesia: a capability approach , 'aquí se ve la fuerza del sme': a political economy analysis of the mexican electrical workers union's path towards self-management , dethroning the sovereign individual: a confucian reconstruction of the theory of right holding , rentier state revisited: the politics of sovereign wealth funds in saudi arabia , knowing better, doing better international development ngos, faith and wellbeing , freedom in and out of work: platforms, precarity, and the democratization of work , personality and us presidential choices: a study of the protracted afghanistan war , reproduction of ignorance in normative political theory: an intersectional methodological critique , speculative leadership: using a radical hegel to reinterpret practice in local government , politics of budget decision-making in south africa , typology of statelessness , lithium overdose: market practices and symptomatology of lithium trade in latin america , taking a ‘leap of faith’ to migrate: exploring uk approaches to anti-human trafficking , inclusion de-moderation hypothesis: egyptian secularists in democratization , bound to lead china's role in climate change governance between perception, conception, and behaviour .

Political Science

Graduate dissertation.

• Graduate Program

The dissertation is a substantial work of original scholarship usually ranging in length from 200 to 450 double-spaced pages.

Once coursework and both preliminary examinations are passed, the student is considered to have Advanced to Candidacy and is officially a Ph.D. candidate.

Before commencing work on the dissertation, the Department requires you to write and defend a dissertation proposal, known as the prospectus. The prospectus is written and defended during the third year in the Ph.D. program. Further information pertaining to the prospectus will be disseminated in the prospectus writing seminar (POLS2050 and POLS2051). Students are required to pass at least one preliminary exam before registering for the prospectus course.  

Selection of the Dissertation Committee

Before beginning work on the prospectus, you should select a principal dissertation advisor to chair your committee. Oftentimes, students begin lining up their principal advisors during their second year in the program; in any event, you should wait no longer than the middle of your fifth semester to have yours in place. Prior to the prospectus defense (see no. 3 below), you must select two additional advisors to serve on your dissertation committee, for a minimum of three committee members. The principal advisor must be tenured and a second committee member must be tenured or tenure-track faculty in the Department of Political Science at Brown unless you obtain an exception from the DGS. One committee member may be from outside the Department of Political Science or outside Brown University.

Drafting of the Prospectus

In consultation with members of the dissertation committee, you must draft a prospectus that is consistent with the spirit if not the letter of the specifications outlined below ("Contents of the Prospectus"). Prospectus drafts (and later dissertation chapters) should be shared with the entire dissertation committee for consistent feedback and communication. The prospectus course (POLS 2050 and POLS2051) is designed to further explain the components of a prospectus and guide students through the creation of a prospectus. Students should be prepared to read and provide constructive feedback on each other's work in the class.

Defense of the Prospectus

Formal approval of the prospectus follows after a successful oral defense of the proposal, which shall be advertised in advance and open to Political Science Department faculty and graduate students.

In consultation with the three committee members and the DGS, you are responsible for scheduling the oral defense well in advance (a minimum of ten days beforehand); please do not forget to inform the DGS well in advance, so that the event can be publicized. Normally, the defense will proceed with the participation of all three committee members. In extraordinary circumstances, the defense may proceed with two examination committee members. If fewer than two committee members are able to attend, the defense must be rescheduled. Prospectus defenses are open to Political Science Department faculty and graduate students only.

The format of a typical oral defense is as follows: (1) introductory remarks by the principal advisor; (2) a brief overview of the proposed thesis project by you; (3) questions from the dissertation committee members; (4) questions from the general public, time permitting. The student will make a 10-15 minute presentation of the prospectus and then will be asked questions by any faculty members first and, time permitting, fellow graduate students in the room.

Immediately following the question session, the dissertation committee shall meet in executive session to determine whether the prospectus should be approved. There are three options available to the committee:

Once the committee has reached a decision in executive session, you will be called back into the room and informed immediately. The principal advisor will also inform the DGS of the committee's decision.

The purpose of what follows is to create a set of shared expectations among both students and faculty about the contents and organization of the prospectus. This statement is not meant to be compulsory, but it should work to the advantage of most students and their advisors.

The prospectus is typically 10-20 pages in length; indeed, the shorter the better, since it is then more easily converted into a formal proposal for external funding. The purpose of the prospectus is to pose a precise question, to set the proposed dissertation topic in an appropriate theoretical context, to allude to the relevant literature, and to describe the proposed research methods. The prospectus is not a legal contract, but a proposal. It is a beginning, the first step in a long journey. As your research progresses, you are almost certain to depart from your prospectus blueprint. Knowledge of this fact should make the exercise a less imposing hurdle. The goal of the prospectus is not to demonstrate that you know all the answers in advance. Rather, it is to establish that the question you intend to address is worth asking, and that your proposed course of action is feasible and potentially valuable in terms of its contribution to knowledge.

A satisfactory prospectus contains four basic components: a question; a statement of theoretical context; a research design; and a working bibliography.

The Question

"What is the dissertation about?" The prospectus should begin by stating the central question or puzzle that is to be addressed in the dissertation. The question should be phrased precisely, since it will determine what is or is not germane to the dissertation. Whether the puzzle is "Does Marx have a political theory?", "Why are some American regulatory agencies more effective than others?", or "What are the effects of the organization of worker training programs in Sweden, Germany, Japan, and the United States?", it should be stated within the first or second paragraph, and as clearly and succinctly as possible. This is also the appropriate place to identify the general approach adopted in the dissertation: historical, interpretive, quantitative, etc. It is also important to qualify the question in terms of geographical, temporal, and/or substantive scope: What country or countries will be examined, and over what time period? What range of an author's works will be evaluated? What kinds of bureaucratic agencies will be studied? What kinds of effects are at issue (social, economic, political)?

Treat this as an opportunity to state with clarity and conviction exactly what the core of the dissertation will be. Do not get carried away with the need to qualify here; there is plenty of time for that in Part C. This section should be no longer than two pages in length. If it feels like writing an abstract, then it's probably coming out right.

Statement of Theoretical Context

This part of the prospectus addresses the frustrating but important question, "so what?" In other words, why should one devote a thesis to the question set out in the preceding section? An effective answer requires two distinct arguments. First, you should provide a well-focused summary of the current debate(s) in your chosen subfield. This will allow your committee to see how you situate your project in the existing theoretical literature. Second, you should outline in precise terms the specific contribution(s) your dissertation will make to the subfield. If you believe you are studying a neglected yet significant subject, specify what of substance has been missed, and how your study will fill the gap. If you are building on an important literature in the field, say what has been achieved, and how your proposal adds to it. If your proposal is a case study or a comparison of multiple cases (countries, policy areas, etc.), this is an appropriate place to justify your selection of cases with reference to theory.

Five or six pages should suffice for this part of the prospectus, although in cases where the resolution of contending interpretations is an especially important part of the thesis, a bit more detail is appropriate. Whatever you do, do not set out to review the literature in depth here. Instead, write this part on the assumption that both you and your committee are familiar with the field.

Research Design

This part answers the question, "How will you answer the question set out in Part A?" Part B showed that the game is worth the candle; Part C must show that you will, in fact, finish the contest with some answers in hand. Depending on the field, this part will cover different elements, but all will need to address the following: What do you intend to do, and what does each step contribute to the project as a whole? In what order do you intend to proceed? If your investigation is empirical, what sort of evidence will you consider? If theoretical, what material will you cover and what will you do with it? Are you planning to do library work, field work, and/or quantitative analysis?

Obviously, you will not know everything you would like about this part at the time you have to defend your prospectus. But you should be able to provide your best, educated guess. In the end, your committee will be looking for evidence that (1) if everything goes according to plan, you will be able to complete a satisfactory dissertation, and (2) there is a reasonable chance that everything will in fact go well.

Six to ten pages should be enough to cover this material. You should try to provide the following sorts of information:

Working Bibliography

This is self-explanatory, but essential.

Extension of Candidacy

It is University policy that the dissertation should be completed within five years of advancing to candidacy. Since students often require more time, candidacy may be extended in cases where the faculty believes the student will finish and accepts the reasons for delay.

Annually the Graduate School will remind active students whose candidacy is about to expire that they must write to the DGS, explain why they are taking so long, and request an extension if they intend to finish. If the DGS, after consulting with the principal dissertation advisor, believes an extension is justified, s/he will make a formal request to the Graduate School. Extensions to seven years may be granted by the Graduate School; extensions longer than seven years require a vote of the Graduate Council.

Dissertation Defense and Submission

Graduate students are eligible to have degrees conferred, and to receive their diploma, at three different times over the course of the academic year. All deadlines are firm. Please review the Graduate School's Dissertation Guidelines for the most up-to-date information.

Students are required to submit a full draft of the dissertation to their dissertation committee four weeks prior to the expected defense date. If you anticipate problems meeting any of these deadlines, consult the Director of Graduate Studies or the Graduate School .

A complete description of the format of the dissertation can be found on the  Graduate School website . All directions from the Graduate School must be followed exactly.

Once your dissertation committee has approved your thesis-in-draft in principle, you should agree on a date for the defense well in advance (a minimum of ten days beforehand) with your committee members and also inform the Graduate Program Coordinator so that the event can be publicized. You are responsible for scheduling the oral defense. You must complete a  Dissertation Defense Information Form  which must be submitted to the Graduate School at least 2 weeks prior to the defense. Normally, the defense will proceed with the participation of all three committee members in the room. In extraordinary circumstances, the defense may proceed with two examination committee members. If fewer than two committee members are able to attend, the defense must be rescheduled.

The defense is open to the public, which typically includes faculty members and other graduate students. The format of a typical oral defense is as follows:

• introductory remarks by the principal advisor;
• a brief overview of the dissertation by you;
• questions from the dissertation committee members;
• questions from the general public, time permitting.

Immediately following the question session, the dissertation committee shall meet in executive session to determine whether the dissertation should be approved. You will be called back in to hear the decision privately, as well as any further recommendations from the dissertation committee. The committee members may address the strengths and weaknesses of your dissertation, your future plans for it, and the direction you expect your work to take in the next few years.

Research Topics & Ideas: Politics

100+ Politics-Related Research Ideas To Fast-Track Your Project

Finding and choosing a strong research topic is the critical first step when it comes to crafting a high-quality dissertation or thesis. If you’ve landed on this post, chances are you’re looking for a politics-related research topic , but aren’t sure where to start. Here, we’ll explore a variety of politically-related research ideas across a range of disciplines, including political theory and philosophy, comparative politics, international relations, public administration and policy.

NB – This is just the start…

The topic ideation and evaluation process has multiple steps . In this post, we’ll kickstart the process by sharing some research topic ideas. This is the starting point, but to develop a well-defined research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , along with a well-justified plan of action to fill that gap.

If you’re new to the oftentimes perplexing world of research, or if this is your first time undertaking a formal academic research project, be sure to check out our free dissertation mini-course. Also, be sure to sign up for our free webinar that explores how to find a high-quality research topic from scratch.

Overview: Politics-Related Topics

• Political theory and philosophy
• Comparative politics
• International relations
• Public administration
• Public policy
• Examples of politics-related dissertations

Topics & Ideas: Political Theory

• An analysis of the impact of feminism on political theory and the concept of citizenship in Saudi Arabia in the context of Vision 2030
• A comparative study of the political philosophies of Marxism and liberalism and their influence on modern politics
• An examination of how the Covid-19 pandemic affected the relationship between individual freedom and collective responsibility in political philosophy
• A study of the impact of race and ethnicity on French political philosophy and the concept of justice
• An exploration of the role of religion in political theory and its impact on secular democracy in the Middle East
• A Review of Social contract theory, comparative analysis of the political philosophies of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau
• A study of the concept of the common good in political philosophy and its relevance to the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe
• An examination of the relationship between political power and the rule of law in developing African countries
• A study of the impact of postmodernism on political theory and the concept of truth, a case study of the US
• An exploration of the role of virtue in political philosophy and its impact on the assessment of moral character in political leaders

Topics & Ideas: Comparative Politics

• A comparative study of different models of federalism and their impact on democratic governance: A case Study of South American federalist states
• The impact of ethnic and religious diversity on political stability and democracy in developing countries, a review of literature from Africa
• An analysis of the role of civil society in promoting democratic change in autocratic regimes: A case study in Sweden
• A comparative examination of the impact of globalization on political institutions and processes in South America and Africa.
• A study of the factors that contribute to successful democratization in authoritarian regimes, a review of the role of Elite-driven democratization
• A comparison of the political and economic systems of China and India and their impact on social development
• The impact of corruption on political institutions and democracy in South East Asia, a critical review
• A comparative examination of the impact of majoritarian representation (winner-take-all) vs proportional representation on political representation and governance
• An exploration of Multi-party systems in democratic countries and their impact on minority representation and policy-making.
• A study of the factors that contribute to successful decentralization and regional autonomy, a case study of Spain

Topics & Ideas: International Relations

• A comparative analysis of the effectiveness of diplomacy and military force in resolving international conflicts in Central Africa.
• The impact of globalization on the sovereignty of nation-states and the changing nature of international politics, a review of the role of Multinational Corporations
• An examination of the role of international aid organizations in promoting peace, security, and development in the Middle East.
• A study of the impact of economic interdependence on the likelihood of conflict in international relations: A critical review of weaponized interdependence
• A comparative analysis of the foreign policies of the EU and the US and their impact on international stability in Africa
• An exploration of the relationship between international human rights and national sovereignty during the Covid 19 pandemic
• A study of the role of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO)s in international politics and their impact on state behaviour
• A comparative analysis of the effectiveness of international regimes in addressing global challenges such as climate change, arms control, and terrorism in Brazil
• An examination of the impact of the rise of BRICS on the international system and global governance
• A study of the role of ideology in shaping the foreign policies of states and the dynamics of international relations in the US

Tops & Ideas: Public Administration

• An analysis of the impact of digital technology on public administration and the delivery of public services in Estonia
• A review of models of public-private partnerships and their impact on the delivery of public services in Ghana
• An examination of the role of civil society organizations in monitoring and accountability of public administration in Papua New Guinea
• A study of the impact of environmentalism as a political ideology on public administration and policy implementation in Germany
• An exploration of the relationship between public administration and citizen engagement in the policy-making process, an exploration of gender identity concerns in schools
• A comparative analysis of the efficiency and effectiveness of public administration, decentralisation and pay and employment reform in developing countries
• A study of the role of collaborative leadership in public administration and its impact on organizational performance
• A systematic review of the challenges and opportunities related to diversity and inclusion in police services
• A study of the impact of corrupt public administration on economic development and regional growth in Eastern Europe
• An exploration of the relationship between public administration and civil rights and liberties, including issues related to privacy and surveillance, a case study in South Korea

Topics & Ideas: Public Policy

• An analysis of the impacts of public policy on income inequality and poverty reduction in South Sudan
• A comparative study of the effectiveness of legal and regulatory, economic and financial, and social and cultural instruments for addressing climate change in South Korea
• An examination of the role of interest groups in shaping public policy and the policy-making process regarding land-use claims
• A study of the impact of globalization on the development of public policies and programs for mitigating climate change in Singapore
• An exploration of the relationship between public policy and social justice in tertiary education in the UAE
• A comparative analysis of the impact of health policies for the management of diabetes on access to healthcare and health outcomes in developing countries
• Exploring the role of evidence-based policymaking in the design and implementation of public policies for the management of invasive invertebrates in Australia
• An examination of the challenges and opportunities of implementing educational dietary public policies in developing multicultural countries
• A study of the impact of public policies on urbanization and urban development in rural Indonesia
• An exploration of the role of media and public opinion in shaping public policy and the policy-making process in the transport industry of Malaysia

Examples: Politics Dissertations & Theses

While the ideas we’ve presented above are a decent starting point for finding a politics-related research topic, they are fairly generic and non-specific. So, it helps to look at actual dissertations and theses to see how this all comes together.

Below, we’ve included a selection of research projects from various politics-related degree programs to help refine your thinking. These are actual dissertations and theses, written as part of Master’s and PhD-level programs, so they can provide some useful insight as to what a research topic looks like in practice.

• We, the Righteous Few: Immoral Actions of Fellow Partisans are Judged as Less Possible (Varnam, 2020)
• Civilizing the State: Civil Society and the Politics of Primary Public Health Care Provision in Urban Brazil (Gibson, 2012)
• Political regimes and minority language policies: evidence from Taiwan and southeast Asia (Wu, 2021)
• The Feminist Third Wave: Social Reproduction, Feminism as Class Struggle, and Contemporary Women’s Movements (Angulo, 2019)
• The Politics of Immigration under Authoritarianism (Joo, 2019)
• The politics of digital platforms: Sour Dictionary, activist subjectivities, and contemporary cultures of resistance (Okten, 2019)
• Vote choice and support for diverse candidates on the Boston City Council At-Large (Dolcimascolo, 2022)
• The city agenda: local governance and national influence in the policy agenda, 1900-2020 (Shannon, 2022)
• Turf wars: who supported measures to criminalize homelessness in Austin, Texas? (Bompiedi, 2021)
• Do BITs Cause Opposition Between Investor Rights and Environmental Protection? (Xiong, 2022)
• Revealed corruption and electoral accountability in Brazil: How politicians anticipate voting behavior (Diaz, 2021)
• Intersectional Solidarity: The Political Consequences of a Consciousness of Race, Gender and Sexuality (Crowder, 2020)
• The Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Coalitional Representation of Latinxs in the U.S. House of Representatives (Munoz, 2019)

Looking at these titles, you can probably pick up that the research topics here are quite specific and narrowly-focused , compared to the generic ones presented earlier. In other words, to create a top-notch research topic, you must be precise and target a specific context with specific variables of interest . In other words, you need to identify a clear, well-justified research gap.

Get 1:1 Help

If you’re still feeling a bit unsure about how to find a research topic for your dissertation or research project, check out our Topic Kickstarter service below.

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Dissertations

The dv410 dissertation is a major component of the msc programme and an important part of the learning and development process involved in postgraduate education., research design and dissertation in international development.

The DV410 dissertation is a major component of the MSc programme and an important part of the learning and development process involved in postgraduate education. The objective of DV410  is to provide students with an overview of the resources available to them to research and write a 10,000 dissertation that is topical, original, scholarly, and substantial. DV410 will provide curated dissertation pathways through LSE LIFE and Methods courses, information sessions, ID-specific disciplinary teaching, topical seminars and dissertation worksops in ST. With this in mind, students will be able to design their own training pathway and set their own learning objectives in relation to their specific needs for their dissertation. From the Autumn Term (AT) through to Summer Term (ST), students will discuss and develop their ideas in consultation with their mentor or other members of the ID department staff and have access to a range of learning resources (via DV410 Moodle page) to support and develop their individual projects from within the department and across the LSE. 

Prizewinning dissertations

The archive of prizewinning dissertations showcases the best MSc dissertations from previous years. These offer a useful guide to current students on how to prepare and write a high calibre dissertation.

2022-OW (PDF) The Politics of Political Conditionality: How theEU Is Failing the Western Balkans Pim W.R.Oudejans Joint winner of Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Management 

2022-GN (PDF) An Empirical Study of the Impact of Kenya’sFree Secondary Education Policy on Women’sEducation Nora Geiszl Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Development Management 

2022-JC  (PDF) Giving with one hand, taking with the other:the contradictory political economy of socialgrants in South Africa Jack Calland Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Studies

2022-GL (PDF) State Versus Market: The Case of Tobacco Consumption in Eastern European and Former Soviet Transition Economies Letizia Gazzaniga Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Health and International Development

2022-ER (PDF) Reproductive injustice across forced migration trajectories: Evidence from female asylum-seekers fleeing Central America’s Northern Triangle Emily Rice Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Health and International Development

2022-LICB  (PDF) The effects of Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) on child nutrition following an adverseweather shock: the case of Indonesia Liliana Itamar Carillo Barba Winner Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Health and International Development 2022-SC (PDF) Fiscal Responses to Conditional Debt Relief:the impact of multilateral debt cancellation on taxation patterns Sara Cucaro  Joint winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2022-RM  (PDF) Navigating humanitarian space(s) to provideprotection and assistance to internally displacedpersons: applying the concept of ahumanitarian ‘micro-space’ to the caseof Rukban in Syria Miranda Russell  Joint winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2021-CC  (PDF) International Remittances and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Investigating Resilient Remittance Flows from Italy during 2020 Carla Curreli Joint winner of Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance and Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Development Management 

2021-NB  (PDF) Reluctant respondents: Early settlement by developing countries during WTO disputes Nicholas Baxtar Joint winner of Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Management (Specialism: Applied Development)

2021-CD  (PDF) One Belt, Many Roads? A Comparison of Power Dynamics in Chinese Infrastructure Financing of Kenya and Angola Conor Dunwoody  Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Development Studies

2021-NN  (PDF) Tool for peace or tool for power? Interrogating Turkish ‘water diplomacy’ in the case of Northern Cyprus Nina Newhouse Winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Studies

2021-CW  (PDF) Exploring Legal Aid Provision for LGBTIQ+Asylum Seekers in the American Southwest from 2012-2021 Claire Wever Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2021-BP  (PDF) Instrumentalising Threat; An Expansion of Biopolitical Control Over Exiles in Calais During the COVID-19 Pandemic Bethany Plant Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2021-HS  (PDF) A New “Green Grab”? A Multi-Scalar Analysis of Exclusion in the Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) Project, Kenya Helen Sticklet Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2021-GM  (PDF) Fuelling policy: The Role of Public Health Policy-Support Tools in Reducing Household Air Pollution as a Risk-Factor for Non-Communicable Diseases in LMICs Georgina Morris Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Health and International Development 

2021-LC  (PDF) How do women garment workers employ practices of everyday resistance to challenge the patriarchal gender order of Sri Lankan society? Lois Cooper Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Health and International Development 

2020-LK  (PDF) Can international remittances mitigate negative effects of economic shocks on education? – The case of Nigeria Lara Kasperkovitz Best Overall Performance Best Dissertation Prize International Development and Humanitarian Emergengies 

“Fallen through the Cracks” The Network for Childhood Pneumonia and Challenges in Global Health Governance  Eva Sigel Best Overall Performance Health and International Development 

2020-AB  (PDF) Fighting the ‘Forgotten’ Disease: LiST-Based Analysis of Pneumonia Prevention Interventions to Reduce Under-Five Mortality in High-Burden Countries Alexandra Bland Best Dissertation Prize  Health and International Development   

2020-TP  (PDF) Techno-optimism and misalignment: Investigating national policy discourses on the impact of ICT in educational settings in Sub-Saharan Africa Tao Platt Best Overall Performance Development Studies 

2020-HS  (PDF)  “We want land, all the rest is humbug”: land inheritance reform and intrahousehold dynamics in India Holly Scott Best Dissertation Prize Development Studies   

2020-PE  (PDF)  Decent Work for All? Waste Pickers’ Collective Action Frames after Formalisation in Bogotá, Colombia  Philip Edge Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management

2020-LC  (PDF)  Variation in Bilateral Investment Treaties: What Leads to More ‘Flexibility for Development’? Lindsey Cox Best Dissertation Prize Development Management

2019-GR (PDF) Political Economy of Industrial Policy: Analysinglongitudinal and crossnationalvariations in industrial policy in Brazil andArgentina Grace Reeve Best Overall Performance Development Studies 

2019-MM (PDF) The Securitisation of Development Projects: The Indian State’s Response to the Maoist Insurgency Monica Moses Best Dissertation Prize Development Studies 

2019-KM (PDF) At the End of Emergency: An Exploration of Factors Influencing Decision-making Surrounding Medical Humanitarian Exit Kaitlyn Macneil Best Overall Performance Prize Health and International Development

2019-KA (PDF) The Haitian Nutritional Paradox: Driving factors of the Double Burden of Malnutrition Khandys Agnant Best Dissertation Prize Health and International Development   

2019-NL (PDF) Women in the Rwandan Parliament: Exploring Descriptive and Substantive Representation Nicole London Best Dissertation Prize Development Management 

2019-CB (PDF) Post-conflict reintegration: the long-termeffects of abduction and displacement on theAcholi population of northern Uganda Charlotte Brown Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management 

2019-NLeo (PDF) Making Fashion Sense: Can InternationalLabour Standards Improve Accountabilityin Globalised Fast Fashion? Nicole Leo Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management 

2019-AS (PDF) Who Controls Whom? Evaluating theinvolvement of Development FinanceInstitutions (DFIs) in Build Own-Operate (BOO)Energy Projects in relation to Market Structures& Accountability Chains: The case of theBujagali Hydropower Project (BHPP) in Uganda Aya Salah Mostafa Ali Best Dissertation Prize African Development 

2019-NG (PDF) Addressing barriers to treatment-seekingbehaviour during the Ebola outbreak in SierraLeone: An International Response Perspective Natasha Glendening India Best Overall Performance Prize African Development 

2019-SYJ (PDF) The Traditional Global Care Chain and the Global Refugee Care Chain: A Comparative Analysis Sana Yasmine Johnson Best Dissertation Prize Best Overall Performance Prize International Development and Humanitarian Emergengies 

2018-JR (PDF) Nudging, Teaching, or Coercing?: A Review of Conditionality Compliance Mechanisms on School Attendance Under Conditional Cash Transfer Programs Jonathan Rothwell Best Dissertation Prize African Development 

2018-LD (PDF) A Feminist Perspective On Burundi's Land Reform Ladd Serwat Best Overall Performance African Development 

2018-KL (PDF) Decentralisation: Road to Development or Bridge to Nowhere? Estimating the Effect of Devolution on Infrastructure Spending in Kenya Kurtis Lockhart  Best Dissertation Prize and Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management 

2018-OS (PDF) From Accountability to Quality: Evaluating the Role of the State in Monitoring Low-Cost Private Schools in Uganda and Kenya Oceane Suquet Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management 

2018-LN (PDF) Water to War: An Analysis of Drought, Water Scarcity and Social Mobilization in Syria Lian Najjar Best Dissertation Prize International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2018-IS  (PDF) “As devastating as any war”?: Discursive trends and policy-making in aid to Central America’s Northern Triangle Isabella Shraiman  Best Overall Performance  International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2017-AR (PDF) Humanitarian Reform and the Localisation Agenda:Insights from Social Movement and Organisational Theory Alice Robinson Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

2017-ACY (PDF) The Hidden Costs of a SuccessfulDevelopmental State:Prosperity and Paucity in Singapore Agnes Chew Yunquian Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Managament 

2017-HK  (PDF) Premature Deindustrialization and Stalled Development, the Fate of Countries Failing Structural Transformation? Helen Kirsch Winner of the Best Dissertation in Programme Development Studies

2017-HZ  (PDF) ‘Bare Sexuality’ and its Effects onUnderstanding and Responding to IntimatePartner Sexual Violence in Goma, DemocraticRepublic of the Congo (DRC) Heather Zimmerman Winner of the Best Dissertation in Programme International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

2017-KT  (PDF) Is Good Governance a Magic Bullet?Examining Good Governance Programmes in Myanmar Khine Thu Winner of the Best Dissertation in Programme Development Managament 

2017-NL  (PDF) Persistent Patronage? The DownstreamElectoral Effects of Administrative Unit Creationin Uganda Nicholas Lyon  Winner of the Best Dissertation in Programme African Development 

2016-MV  (PDF) Contract farming under competition: exploring the drivers of side selling among sugarcane farmers in Mumias             Milou Vanmulken  Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation                                                      Dev elopment Management                

2016-JS  (PDF) Resource Wealth and Democracy: Challenging the  Assumptions of the Redistributive Model              Janosz Schäfer  Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Studies                

2016-LK   (PDF) Shiny Happy People: A study of the effects income relative to a reference group exerts on life satisfaction             Lajos Kossuth Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance                                     Development Studies  

2015-MP (PDF) "Corruption by design" and the management of infrastructure in Brazil: Reflections on the Programa de Aceleração ao Crescimento - PAC.             Maria da Graça Ferraz de Almeida Prado                                                          Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation                                          Development Managment                                                                                  

2015-IE (PDF) Breaking Out Of the Middle-Income Trap: Assessing the Role of Structural Transformation.                                                                               Ipek Ergin                                                                                                   Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Studies

2015-AML (PDF) Labour Migration, Social Movements and Regional Integration: A Comparative Study of the Role of Labour Movements in the Social Transformation of the Economic Community of West African States and the Southern African Development Community.             Anne Marie Engtoft Larsen                                                                                Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation                                   Development Management

2015-MM (PDF) Who Bears the Burden of Bribery? Evidence from Public Service Delivery in Kenya                     Michael Mbate                                                                                                   Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation and Best Overall Performance Development Management

2015-KK (PDF) Export Processing Zones as Productive Policy: Enclave Promotion or Developmental Asset? The Case of Ghana. Kilian Koffi Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation African Development

2015-GM (PDF) Forgive and Forget? Reconciliation and Memory in Post-Biafra Nigeria. Gemma Mehmed Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

2015-AS (PDF) From Sinners to Saviours: How Non-State Armed Groups use service delivery to achieve domestic legitimacy. Anthony Sequeira Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation and Best Overall Performance International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

2014-NS (PDF) Anti-Corruption Agencies: Why Do Some Succeed and Most Fail? A Quantitative Political Settlement Analysis. Nicolai Schulz Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

2014-MP (PDF) International Capital Flows and Sudden Stops: a global or a domestic issue? Momchil Petkov Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

2014-TC (PDF) Democracy to Decline: do democratic changes jeopardize economic growth? Thomas Coleman Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

2014-AK (PDF) Intercultural Bilingual Education: the role of participation in improving the quality of education among indigenous communities in Chiapas, Mexico. Anni Kasari Excellent Dissertation and Best Overall Performance Development Management

2014-EL (PDF) Treaty Shopping in International Investment Arbitration: how often has it occurred and how has it been perceived by tribunals? Eunjung Lee Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Management

2013-SB (PDF) Refining Oil - A Way Out of the Resource Curse? Simon Baur Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

2013-NI (PDF) The Rise of ‘Murky Protectionism’: Changing Patterns of Trade-Related Industrial Policies in Developing Countries: A case study of Indonesia. Nicholas Intscher Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation and Best Overall Performance Development Studies

2013-JF (PDF) Why Settle for Less? An Analysis of Settlement in WTO Disputes. Jillian Feirson Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Studies

2013-LH (PDF) Corporate Social Responsibility in Mining: The effects of external pressures and corporate leadership. Leah Henderson Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Studies

2013-BM (PDF) Estimating incumbency advantages in African politics: Regression discontinuity evidence from Zambian parliamentary and local government elections. Bobbie Macdonald Excellent Dissertation and Best Overall Performance Development Studies

WP145 (PDF) Is History Repeating Itself? A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Representation of Women in Climate Change Campaigns. Catherine Flanagan Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP144 (PDF) Disentangling the fall of a 'Dominant-Hegemonic Party Rule'. The case of Paraguay and its transition to a competitive electoral democracy. Dominica Zavala Zubizarreta Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP143 (PDF) Enabling Productive Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries: Critical issues in policy design. Noor Iqbal Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP142 (PDF) Beyond 'fear of death': Strategies of coping with violence and insecurity - A case study of villages in Afghanistan. Angela Jorns Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Studies

WP141 (PDF) What accounts for opposition party strength? Exploring party-society linkages in Zambia and Ghana. Anna Katharina Wolkenhauer Joint Winner, Best Overall Performance Development Studies

WP140 (PDF) Between Fear and Compassion: How Refugee Concerns Shape Responses to Humanitarian Emergencies - The case of Germany and Kosovo. Sebastian Sahla Joint Winner, Best Overall Performance Development Management

WP139 (PDF) Worlds Apart? Health-seeking behaviour and strategic healthcare planning in Sierra Leone. Thea Tomison Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP138 (PDF) War by Other Means? An Analysis of the Contested Terrain of Transitional Justice Under the 'Victor's Peace' in Sri Lanka. Richard Gowing Best Overall Performance and Best Dissertation International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

WP137 (PDF) Social Welfare Policy - a Panacea for Peace? A Political Economy Analysis of the Role of Social Welfare Policy in Nepal's Conflict and Peace-building Process. Annie Julia Raavad Joint Winner, Best Overall Performance and Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP136 (PDF) Women and the Soft Sell: The Importance of Gender in Health Product Purchasing Decisions. Adam Alagiah Joint Winner, Best Overall Performance Development Management

WP135 (PDF) Human vs. State Security: How can Security Sector Reforms contribute to State-Building? The case of the Afghan Police Reform. Florian Weigand Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP134 (PDF) Evaluating the Impact of Decentralisation on Educational Outcomes: The Peruvian Case. Siegrid Holler-Neyra Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Management

WP133 (PDF) Democracy and Public Good Provision: A Study of Spending Patterns in Health and Rural Development in Selected Indian States. Sreelakshmi Ramachandran Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP132 (PDF) Intellectual Property Rights and Technology Transfer to Developing Countries: a Reassessment of the Current Debate Marco Valenza Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP131 (PDF) Traditional or Transformational Development? A critical assessment of the potential contribution of resilience to water services in post-conflict Sub-Saharan Africa. Christopher Martin Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

WP128  (PDF) The demographic dividend in India: Gift or curse? A State level analysis on differeing age structure and its implications for India's economic growth prospects. Vasundhra Thakurd Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP127  (PDF) When Passion Dries Out, Reason Takes Control: A Temporal Study of Rebels' Motivation in Fighting Civil Wars. Thomas Tranekaer Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP126  (PDF) Micro-credit - More Lifebuoy than Ladder? Understanding the role of micro-credit in coping with risk in the context of the Andhra Pradesh crisis. Anita Kumar Best Overall Performance and Best Dissertation Development Management

WP124 (PDF) Welfare Policies in Latin America: the transformation of workers into poor people. Anna Popova Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP123  (PDF) How Wide a Net? Targeting Volume and Composition in Capital Inflow Controls. Lucas Issacharoff Best Overall Performance and Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP117 (PDF) Shadow Education: Quantitative and Qualitative analysis of the impact of the educational reform (implementation of centralized standardised testing). Nataliya Borodchuk Best Overall Performance and Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP115 (PDF) Can School Decentralization Improve Learning? Autonomy, participation and student achievement in rural Pakistan. Anila Channa Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP114 (PDF) Good Estimation or Good Luck? Growth Accelerations revisited. Guo Xu Best Overall Performance and Best Dissertation Development Studies

WP113 (PDF) Furthering Financial Literacy: Experimental evidence from a financial literacy program for Microfinance Clients in Bhopal, India. Anna Custers Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP112 (PDF) Consumption, Development and the Private Sector: A critical analysis of base of the pyramid (BoP) ventures. David Jackman Winner of the Prize for Best Disseration Development Management

WP106 (PDF) Reading Tea Leaves: The Impacy of Mainstreaming Fair Trade. Lindsey Bornhofft Moore Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP104 (PDF) Institutions Collide: A Study of "Caste-Based" Collective Criminality and Female Infanticide in India, 1789-1871. Maria Brun Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Studies

WP102 (PDF) Democratic Pragmatism or Green Radicalism? A critical review of the relationship between Free, Prior and Informed Consent and Policymaking for Mining. Abbi Buxton Joint Winner of the Prize for Excellent Dissertation Development Management

WP100 (PDF) Market-Led Agrarian Reform: A Beneficiary perspective of Cédula da Terra. Veronika Penciakova Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Studies

WP98 (PDF) No Business like Slum Business? The Political Economy of the Continued Existence of Slums: A case study of Nairobi. Florence Dafe Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Dissertation Development Studies

WP97 (PDF) Power and Choice in International Trade: How power imbalances constrain the South's choices on free trade agreements, with a case study of Uruguay. Lily Ryan-Collins Joint Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Dissertation Development Management

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Politics Dissertation Topics

Published by Carmen Troy at January 9th, 2023 , Revised On August 16, 2023

Introduction

Politics is such a vast phenomenon that several dissertation topics can be selected from political issues. However, that selection must have some strong basis and importance in the practical field. Another fact to be kept in mind when choosing a dissertation topic is that some political issues are highly controversial, and they may not be of much value in terms of research and writing.

It should be noted that it is important that the researcher thoroughly enjoys the dissertation topic they are working on.  A boring and dry topic can later trouble them, and they might feel like regretting their selection. The following description enlists some of the dissertation topics that the researcher can select as their politics dissertation topic.

PhD qualified writers of our team have developed these topics, so you can trust to use these topics for drafting your dissertation.

You may also want to start your dissertation by requesting  a brief research proposal  from our writers on any of these topics, which includes an  introduction  to the problem,  research questions , aim and objectives ,  literature review  along with the proposed  methodology  of research to be conducted.  Let us know  if you need any help in getting started.

Check our  example dissertations  to get an idea of  how to structure your dissertation .

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View our free dissertation topics database.

2022 Politics Dissertation Topics

Topic 1: politics in a digital age- assessing the impact of social media on public participation and political campaigns..

Research Aim: This study aims to find how the public has utilised social media during elections or political campaigns. This study will also focus on the impact of social networking sites on popular participation in the electoral vote and political debate. This research study will also investigate the effects of new technologies and the digital era on media and political party campaigns and media activities during elections.

Topic 2: Investigating the reasons for the Central African Republic's Rebellion.

Research Aim: This study aims to find the reasons for the central African republic conflicts and different historical factors involved in this conflict. Furthermore, it will also focus on the dynamics of the conflict and how it has resulted in violent clashes between different religious parties. This study will conduct an in-depth analysis of this conflict to give a better understanding.

Topic 3: Investigating the influence of politics on Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality.

Research Aim: This study will provide us with a detailed evaluation of the present state of gender equality and women empowerment in developing nations and the influence of politics. It will also provide an understanding of how men, women, politicians, and other powerful individuals view gender equality and women empowerment.

Topic 4: Investigating the Impact of Neo-Fascism on Twentieth-century Europe.

Research Aim: The present study will analyse the impact of neo-fascism on twentieth-century Europe. We will also focus on the history, crisis, various proposals, and methods. We will also analyse how it has helped reproduced their ideologies and formed different legislation in Europe.

Topic 5: Assessing the change in Americans Political perspectives from Trump to Biden Eras.

Research Aim: The election of Joe Biden as a president of the US has resulted in a drastic shift in US’s foreign image. This study aims to investigate the change in the political perspective of people from the Trump to Biden eras. This study will focus on many things, including social, political, and economic factors, to help understand the perspectives of people, and will also look into the country’s situations during these both eras.

Covid-19 Politics Research Topics

Topic 1: impacts of covid-19 on global politics.

Research Aim: This study will highlight the impacts of Coronavirus on international politics.

Topic 2: Politics during Coronavirus pandemic

Research Aim: This study will focus on providing a deep insight into the political agendas during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Topic 3: Indian religious politics during Coronavirus pandemic

Research Aim: The research aims to analyse how the Indian media provoked a religious conflict amid the Coronavirus pandemic and the role of the government in overcoming it.

Topic 4: The role of the UK government or any country of your choice during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Research Aim: This study will identify the contributions of government across the world in combatting COVID-19.

Politics Research Topics 2021

Topic:1: evaluating outcomes of the 2007 procurement act transparency of officers in public service of state (abc).

Research Aim: This research will explore the connection between corporate governance and business efficiency. The dynamic collection of relationships between a business and its Board of Directors, managers, owners, employees, customers, creditors is analysed through analysis processes and how effective corporate management can benefit an organisation.

Topic 2: Management intergovernmental ties on local governance in country ABC

Research Aim: This research aims to analyse corporate governance’s compatibility in the state’s local government tiers.

Topic 3: Financing problems and opportunities in the delta state (a case study of ABC local government areas)

Research Aim: this project aims to explore the challenges and opportunities in the funding of Delta State Local government accounts, cost management, and income problems of local governments.

Topic 4: The effect of corporate governance on the competitiveness of a business of corporate management

Research Aim: This study is intended to examine corporate governance compatibility at the state’s local government levels.

Topic 5: Analysis of youth service corps (NYSC) United States effective leadership and success organisational

Research Aim: The research will assess successful leadership’s influence on organizational success in Nigeria through the Kogi State Office of the National Youth Service Corps.

Topic 6: The introduction of e-governance in country ABC

Research Aim: This research aims to introduce E-governance in not only the pandemic conditions but also in the daily governance operation to ease the system of governance of Country ABC.

Dissertation Topics: Impacts of 9/11 on World Politics

The 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center are an unforgettable phenomenon in the history of politics. It contributed immensely to strengthening relationships between some countries and making bonds weaker between the others.

Dissertation topics can be based on the events related to these attacks because this discussion has always been influential and surely can provide a sound basis for your research. Some of the dissertation topics that can be extracted out of the 9/11 terrorism catastrophe are listed as follows:

• Analysis and significance of the most catastrophic event – The terrorist attacks of 9/11
• In what ways the international relations between the Middle East and the West were affected after 9/11. A critical analysis.
• Lessons learnt on political grounds after the terrorist attacks of 9/11—a debate on the positive and negative impacts.
• 9/11 and its linkages to the world of trade. Critically analyze.
• The actual events that led to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Critical analysis.
• Development of strategies and improvements in the political system after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Review Our Best Dissertation Topics complete list.

Dissertation Topics: Problems Related to Africa

Contradictions in the policies and politics of Africa can be subjected to various dissertation topics. The researcher can find a focus point on which the dissertation can be based. Some dissertation topics related to the politics of Africa are listed below:

• Reasons for Western contradictions with African policies and politics.
• Traditional beliefs and old rituals of African nations cause their problems with other countries—analysis of the past and future trends.
• Colonial rule and political issues in Africa. Critical Analysis.
• Contributions from the rest of the world in resolving problems between African nations.
• Future trends and projections regarding the relationship of Africa with the rest of the world.
• Forces stopping the West to snatch African weapons. Critical analysis.

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China Politics Dissertation Topics

It is a known fact that China’s laws and policies are quite different from the rest of the world. Still, this fact twisted later in the 21st century when China started incorporating Western thoughts and views in technology and other areas related to economic development and increasing urbanization.

Some dissertation topics with regards to the incorporation of Western ideas into Chinese politics are listed as follows:

• Incorporation of Western ideas into the Chinese political system. Critical analysis.
• Reasons why China has opted to “open” its economy, which previously was closed in its own distinctive way. A debate on the major reasons.
• Is China a threat to Western ethics? Critical analysis.
• How is the West being affected by Chinese expeditious economic expansion? A detailed analysis.
• The impact of Chinese political principles on Western Politics. A debate on the positive and negative outcomes.
• Human rights and the complexity in the Chinese and the Western political system.

Also Read: Project Management Dissertation Topics

Relationship between the Arabs and the Israelis: Dissertation Topics

The Arabs and the Israelis have such complexity and problems in their relationship, primarily focused upon the Palestinian state. Their journey over the last sixty years also paved difficulties in relationships with other countries.

So, in this context, a researcher can find various issues to investigate in detail as a research topic. Following is the list of some of the suggestions for dissertation topics regarding this phenomenon of politics.

• Reasons behind making the recognition of the Palestinian state so complex. Discuss
• Relationship between the Arabs and the Israelis in accordance with Western politics.
• Long term rivalry between the Arabs and the Israelis. Discuss the reasons.
• Role of the West in resolving the Arab-Israeli issues. Critical analysis.
• Strategies to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. Critical analysis.
• Considering the events of the past how the UN can be utilized to resolve the Arab-Israeli dispute.

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“British Foreign Policy”: Dissertation Topics

The image of a country in different parts of the world is also dependent on its foreign policy and how efficiently it is maintained. There are many issues from British foreign policy that can make for an interesting topic for your politics dissertation.

• What are the basics of Britain’s foreign policy and how can it be justified. Reasons and critical analysis.
• Is Britain’s foreign policy successful? Reasons, cause and critical analysis.
• In what way Britain’s foreign policy is in close affiliation with the US. Critically analyze.
• Justifications showing the US strong impact on Britain’s foreign policy.
• Britain’s foreign policy in relation to its impact on Europe. Critically analyze.
• In what ways the creation of a “single European Entity” has influenced Britain’s foreign policy principles and goals.
• Britain’s foreign policy goals and principles are usually stern and limited. Give reasons to justify and discuss.
• Is Europe the reason behind Britain’s economic and social disputes? Discuss.

Relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan: Dissertation Topics

Pakistan and Afghanistan share so much in common based on their history, faith, and heritage. In the war against Soviet occupation, Pakistan supported 3.5 million Afghans because it shared certain interests with Afghanistan, but recently the settlement of Afghan refugees in various parts of Pakistan has been considered an undesirable phenomenon due to the increasing threat of terrorism and crime.

In Islamabad, actions are being taken to demolish the illegal Afghan settlements in response to the increasing threat of violence, crime, and terrorism. It is believed that the people involved in various illegal acts settle in these areas and carry out their violent acts from safe heavens. So, this phenomenon has a strong political basis, and certain dissertations can be based on it. Here’s a list of some of the dissertation topics in this regard:

• Strategies are being adopted to demolish the illegal Afghan resettlements in Pakistan. Critical analysis.
• Reasons for the development of hurdles between Pak-Afghan friendly relationships. Discuss.
• To what extent violence and terrorism can be linked to Afghanistan. Discuss and analyze.
• Strategies to resolve Pak-Afghan disputes. Discuss.
• Political history of Pak-Afghan relationships from 1947 till current scenario. Discuss major events and their flaws.
• Demolishing the illegal slums of Islamabad occupied by Afghan refugees. Reasons and justifications.
• “War of independence against Soviet occupation.” Discussion of the major events and the impacts.
• 9/11 terrorist attacks and the Pak-Afghan relationships till then. Discuss
• Pakhtoonistan issue and the challenges faced by Pakistan. Critical analysis.
• Educational opportunities for the Afghan refugees. Discuss the positive and negative impacts.

Politics and Media Dissertation Topics

Modern media is a powerful weapon in communicating what is happening throughout the world to people around the globe. Media has a strong influence on people perceiving different scenarios, which might actually not even be true.

There are certain politics involved in what media has to show and deliver to the people behind the screens. Depending on various external factors, media can either positively or negatively portray different scenarios and facts. Below is the list of some of the suggested dissertation topics if you would like to base your dissertation on media and politics.

• Can media be held responsible for the change in politics? Discuss.
• Politics, media and the ways they affect public opinions and thoughts.Critical analysis.
• The linkage between media and democracy. Discuss.
• Can media be held responsible for the spread of terror among people regarding various threats and crimes? Critical analysis.
• Long term politics is involved behind media impacting youth and children. Critically analyze based on justifications.
• Competition between different news channels and political support behind them. Discuss and critically analyze.
• The US politics behind various features of social media. Critical analysis.
• Politics affecting media in Indonesia. Discuss.
• TV commercials and politics. Critical analysis.
• The role media plays during elections. Discuss.
• Social media and its role in politics. Discuss
• Political debates and social media. Discuss
• Media as a carrier of perceptions. Critical analysis.
• Fundraising by different political parties and support of media.
• Politics and media as a source of exploitation of moral values. Critical analysis.
• Limitations politics impose on media. Critical analysis

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Political Parties Dissertation Topics

Political parties have always been one of the major elements of the development of politics. Any comparison between two or more parties can be worked upon by the researcher, or any other issue in this regard can be studied. Political parties of any country can be selected, and a dissertation can be based on their differences and similarities.

For instance, the two famous political parties of the UK- the Labor Party and the Conservative Party can be compared or individually studied by the researcher. The following are some interesting dissertation topics from this area of politics.

• Which party (Labour Party and the Conservative Party) is working dedicatedly? Critical analysis.
• Reasons that favour the Conservative Party in terms of its dedication towards the betterment of the country. Discuss.
• Which party is better in terms of public acceptance? Discuss
• Role of media in supporting the Labour Party and the Conservative Party. Critical analysis.
• In the future, which of the UK’s political parties will come into power, or which political parties will collapse? Discuss.

US Foreign Policy Dissertation Topics

The US is the most powerful country globally and has a considerable influence on the world’s politics. The following are some of the dissertation topics related to US foreign policy.

• With other nations, are the principles and goals of the US foreign policy justified? Discuss.
• China is developing at a rapid rate in terms of economic growth. Is there any threat to the US regarding Chinese economic development?
• The biggest threat to US foreign policy. Discuss.
• Development of nuclear power in the Middle East with US foreign policy. Discuss.
• US foreign policy aims at policing other parts of the world. Can this approach be termed as “bullying”? Critical analysis.
• Who is the mastermind and behind the control of US foreign policy? Critical analysis.
• What are the current goals of US foreign policy? Are they justified?
• How influential is US foreign policy on various other nations of the world? Discuss.
• What are the similarities and differences between the US foreign policy and the British foreign policy? Discuss and critically analyze.

Also Read: History Dissertation Topics

Politics and Religion: Dissertation Topics

Religion and politics are two separate entities, but they also impact each other, especially in today’s world. Below is a list of the topics related to politics and religion that the researcher can opt to aim his or her dissertation on:

• Religious beliefs and politics must be treated as separate entities. Discuss
• Is religion being used as a weapon on political grounds? Critical analysis
• Terrorism, politics and religion. Discuss the linkage between the three.

Important Notes:

As a student of politics looking to get good grades, it is essential to develop new ideas and experiment on existing politics theories – i.e., to add value and interest in your research topic.

The field of politics is vast and interrelated to so many other academic disciplines like civil engineering ,  construction ,  law , engineering management , healthcare , mental health , artificial intelligence , tourism , physiotherapy , sociology , management , marketing and nursing . That is why it is imperative to create a project management dissertation topic that is articular, sound, and actually solves a practical problem that may be rampant in the field.

We can’t stress how important it is to develop a logical research topic; it is the basis of your entire research. There are several significant downfalls to getting your topic wrong; your supervisor may not be interested in working on it, the topic has no academic creditability, the research may not make logical sense, there is a possibility that the study is not viable.

This impacts your time and efforts in writing your dissertation as you may end up in the cycle of rejection at the very initial stage of the dissertation. That is why we recommend reviewing existing research to develop a topic, taking advice from your supervisor, and even asking for help in this particular stage of your dissertation.

While developing a research topic, keeping our advice in mind will allow you to pick one of the best politics dissertation topics that fulfil your requirement of writing a research paper and add to the body of knowledge.

Therefore, it is recommended that when finalizing your dissertation topic, you read recently published literature to identify gaps in the research that you may help fill.

Remember- dissertation topics need to be unique, solve an identified problem, be logical, and can also be practically implemented. Take a look at some of our sample politics dissertation topics to get an idea for your own dissertation.

How to Structure your Politics Dissertation

A well-structured dissertation can help students to achieve a high overall academic grade.

• A Title Page
• Acknowledgements
• Declaration
• Abstract: A summary of the research completed
• Table of Contents
• Introduction : This chapter includes the project rationale, research background, key research aims and objectives, and the research problems. An outline of the structure of a dissertation can also be added to this chapter.
• Literature Review : This chapter presents relevant theories and frameworks by analyzing published and unpublished literature on the chosen research topic to address research questions . The purpose is to highlight and discuss the selected research area’s relative weaknesses and strengths while identifying any research gaps. Break down the topic and key terms can positively impact your dissertation and your tutor.
• Methodology : The data collection and analysis methods and techniques employed by the researcher are presented in the Methodology chapter, which usually includes research design , research philosophy, research limitations, code of conduct, ethical consideration, data collection methods and data analysis strategy .
• Findings and Analysis : Findings of the research are analyzed in detail under the Findings and Analysis chapter. All key findings/results are outlined in this chapter without interpreting the data or drawing any conclusions. It can be useful to include graphs, charts and tables in this chapter to identify meaningful trends and relationships.
• Discussion and Conclusion : The researcher presents his interpretation of the results in this chapter and states whether the research hypothesis has been verified or not. An essential aspect of this section is establishing the link between the results and evidence from the literature. Recommendations with regards to the implications of the findings and directions for the future may also be provided. Finally, a summary of the overall research, along with final judgments, opinions, and comments, must be included in the form of suggestions for improvement.
• References : Make sure to complete this following your University’s requirements
• Bibliography
• Appendices : Any additional information, diagrams, and graphs used to complete the dissertation but not part of the dissertation should be included in the Appendices chapter. Essentially, the purpose is to expand the information/data.

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Department of Political Science

Public policy dissertations.

Below is a list of dissertations both in progress and completed by our students across various substantive fields of research:

Education Policy

• Celine Mulhern, “Globalization and the Selective Permeability of Public Policy Making: The Case of K-12 Education in Ontario 1990-2003.” September 2007.

Environment, Energy and Public Policy

• Nathan Lemphers, “Beyond the Carbon Curse: a Study of the Governance Foundations of Climate Change Politics in Australia, Canada and Norway.” October 2019.
• David Houle, “Carbon Pricing in Canadian Provinces: from Early Experiments to Adoption (1995-2014).” September 2015.
• Heather Millar, “Managing Uncertainty: Risk Narratives and Learning in Provincial Hydraulic Fracturing Regulation in Canada 2006-2016.” November 2018.
• Julia Bognar, “Powering Policy: The Role of Discourse Coalitions in Renewable Energy Transitions.”
• Eve Bourgeois, “Municipal Climate Change Adaptation in the Province of Quebec.”
• Sarah Hartley, “The Risk Society and Policy Responses to Environmental Risk: A Comparison of Risk Decision-Making for GM Crops in Canada and the United Kingdom 1973-2004.” July 2005.
• Matthieu Mondou “Policy-making Dynamics and Emergent Technology: the Evolution of Biofuel Policy in the United States, Germany, and the European Union.” January 2015.
• Ben Cashore, “Governing forestry, environmental group influence in British Columbia and the US Pacific Northwest.” July 1997.

Indigenous Peoples and Public Policy

• Minh Do, “A Consultation Dance: The Promise of Deliberation, the Reality of Indigenous-Crown Negotiation in B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Process.”
• Adrienne Davidson “Flexibility in the Federal System? Institutional Innovation and Indigenous Nations’ Self-Determination in the US and Canadian Far North.” April, 2018.

Migration Policy

• Nick Fraser, “Shared Heuristics: How Organizational Structure Shapes Asylum Policy.” November, 2019.
• Geoffrey Cameron, “Religion and Refugees: The Evolution of Resettlement in the United States and Canada.” June 2018.
• Busra Hacioglu, “Policy Ambiguity, Municipal Governments, and Syrian Refugee In/exclusion in Turkey.”
• Anika Ganness, “Immigrants’ Encounters with State Child Welfare Systems across Immigrant Integration Regimes.”

Public Policy and the Global South

• Steven Denney, “Does Democracy Matter? Political Change and National Identification in South Korea and Beyond” September 2019.
• Igor Valentovich, “Development & Pluralization of the Media of Security Sensitive Ethnic Minority Groups: The Experience of South Eastern European States.” March 2014.
• Caroline Hossein, “The Politics of Microfinance: A Comparative Study of Jamaica, Guyana and Haiti.” September 2012.
• Irene Poetranto, “Closing the Net? Analyzing States’ Capacity for Information Controls.”
• Carmen Ho, “The Politics of Malnutrition.”

Public Policy in Canada

• Jerald Sabin, “Contested colonialism: The rise of settler politics in Yukon and the Northwest Territories.” April 2016.
• Carey Doberstein, “Governing by Networks: the Policy Implications of Civil Society Participation in Decision Making” June 2014.
• Nicola Hepburn, “Minding the Gap between Promise and Performance: The Ontario Liberal Government’s Research and Innovation Policy, 2003-2011.” September 2014.

Research, Development and Innovation Policy

• Matt Wilder, “Canadian Industrial Policy in Comparative Perspective.” November, 2018.

Social Policy

• Anna Kopec, “Homelessness and Citizenship: Political Consequences of Anti-Poverty Regimes.”
• Alix Jensen “Skills for Whom? Access Bias, Active Labour Market Policies, and Automation in 21st Century Welfare States.”
• Matthew Lesch, “Playing with Fiscal Fire: The Politics of Consumption Tax Reform.” December 2017.
• Dylan Marando, “Tales from the Tax Code: How tax expenditures are confronting, and being confronted by, the ghosts of politics past.”

PEG PhD Dissertations and Job Placements

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Learn about the dissertations of our PhD in Political Economy and Government graduates and their job placements directly following graduation.

2023-present

Kevin deluca (government track).

Dissertation Title: Newspaper Endorsements, Candidate Quality, and Election Outcomes in the United States Advisor:  James M. Snyder Job Placement: Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Yale University

josé Ramón Enríquez (government track)

Dissertation Title: Essays on the Political Economy of Development Advisor: Jeffry Frieden ,  Rema Hanna Job Placement: Post-Doctoral Fellow, Digital Economy Lab & Golub Capital Social Impact Lab, Stanford Graduate School of Business

casey Kearney (government track)

Dissertation Title: Essays in International Finance and the Political Economy of Capital Flows Advisor: Jeffry Frieden Job Placement: Assistant Professor, London School of Economics and Political Science

casey Petroff  (government track)

Dissertation Title: Essays in Political Economy Advisor: Jeffry Frieden Job Placement: Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Rochester

Awa Ambra seck  (economics track)

Dissertation Title: Essays in Economic Development and Political Economy Advisor:  Nathan Nunn , Emily Breza Job Placement: 

• Assistant Professor, BGIE Unit, Harvard Business School
• Post-Doctoral Fellow, Harvard Academy

Sarah Armitage

Dissertation Title: Essays in Environmental Economics Advisor: Joseph Aldy Job Placement: Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Boston University

Kevin Connolly (economics track)

Dissertation Title: The Economic, Social and Health Effects of America's Two-Year Public College Advisor:  Edward Glaeser Job Placement: to be confirmed

alley Edlebi (economics track)

Dissertation Title: Essays in Applied Economics Advisor: Crystal Yang Job Placement: to be confirmed

Michael-David Mangini

Dissertation Title: How Commerce Becomes Compromised: Economic Coercion and Credibility in the Age of the Global Economy Advisor: Jeffry Frieden Job Placement: Post-Doctoral Fellow, Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance

Hillary Stein

Dissertation Title: Essays on International Finance and Political Economy Advisor:  Kenneth Rogoff Job Placement: Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Augustin Bergeron

Dissertation Title: Essays in Development and Public Economics Advisor:  Nathan Nunn Job Placement:

• Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Southern California
• Post-Doctoral Fellow, Stanford King Center on Global Development

Enrico Di Gregorio

Dissertation Title: Essays in Public Finance and Political Economy Advisor:  Stefanie Stantcheva Job Placement: Economist, International Monetary Fund

Felipe Jordán

Dissertation Title: Essays on the Influence of Western Institutions on Indigenous Societies Advisor: Rema Hanna Job Placement: Assistant Professor, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Brian Wheaton

Dissertation Title: Essays on Political Economy and Macroeconomics Advisor: Robert J. Barro Job Placement: 

• Assistant Professor, Anderson School of Management, University of California Los Angeles
• Hoover Fellow 2021-2022, Hoover Institution  

Andrea Passalacqua (economics track)

Dissertation Title:  Essays in Banking and Corporate Finance Advisor: Jeremy Stein Job Placement: Economist, Federal Reserve Board  

Juan Sebastián Galán (government track)

Dissertation Title:  Essays on the Political Economy of Latin American Development Advisors: Melissa Dell ,  Nathan Nunn Job Placement: Assistant Professor of Economics, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia

Siddharth George (economics track)

Dissertation Title:  Essays in Development Economics Advisor: Rohini Pande Job Placement: Assistant Professor of Economics, Dartmouth College

Soeren J. Henn (government track)

Dissertation Title:  Essays on State Building and Economic Development Advisors:  Torben Iversen ,  Nathan Nunn Job Placement: Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Innovations for Poverty Action, University of Chicago  

Pamela Ban (government track)

Dissertation Title:  The Changing Influence of Committees in Congress Advisor:  James M. Snyder, Jr. Job Placement: Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of California San Diego

Laura Blattner (economics track)

Dissertation Title:  Essays on Finance and Economic Policy Advisors:  Gita Gopinath ,  Jeremy Stein Job Placement: Assistant Professor of Finance, Finance Group, Stanford Graduate School of Business

John Coglianese (economics track)

Dissertation Title:  Essays on the Macroeconomics of Labor Markets Advisor: Lawrence Katz Job Placement: Economist, Research Division, Labor Markets Group, Federal Reserve Board

Andrew Garin (economics track)

Dissertation Title:  Essays on the Economics of Labor Demand and Policy Incidence Advisors:  Nathaniel Hendren ,  Lawrence Katz Job Placement: Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

Edoardo Teso (economics track)

Dissertation Title:  Essays in Political Economy Advisor:  Alberto Alesina Job Placement: Assistant Professor, Department of Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences, Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management

Jonathan Weigel (Government track)

Dissertation Title:  Taxation, Corruption, and Engagement With the Formal State: Experimental Evidence From the D.R. Congo Advisor: James Robinson Job Placement: Assistant Professor of International Development, International Development Department, London School of Economics and Political Science  

Marek Hlavac (Government track)

Dissertation Title:  Essays in Political Economy Advisor:  Torben Iversen Job Placement: Economics Teacher, United World Colleges (UWC) Adriatic

Danial Lashkari (Economics track)

Dissertation Title:  Essays on Innovation and Growth Advisors:  Pol Antràs ,  Marc Melitz Job Placement: Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Boston College

Sara Lowes (economics track)

Dissertation Title:  Understanding the Process of Economic Development: Essays on Culture and Institutions Advisor:  Nathan Nunn Job Placement: Assistant Professor, Bocconi University

MaliHeh Paryavi (economics track)

Dissertation Title: Essays on Gender and Decision Marking in Political Economy Advisor: Iris Bohnet Job Placement: Consultant, Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice, The World Bank

Guilherme Lichand

Dissertation Title:  Essays in Development Economics Advisor:  Nathan Nunn Track: Economics

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Economics University of Zurich

Mauricio Fernández Duque

Dissertation Title:  Essays on Social Influence in Political Economy: How Expectations and Identity Affect Pro-Social Leading and Following Advisor:  Michael Hiscox Track: Government

Job Placement: Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Harvard University

Angela Fonseca Galvis

Dissertation Title:  Essays on Political Economy Advisor:  James Robinson Track: Government

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Pontificia Universidad Javeriana 

Sabrina Howell

Dissertation Title:  Essays in Energy Economics and Entrepreneurial Finance Advisors: Josh Lerner ,  David S. Scharfstein Track: Economics

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Finance New York University Stern School of Business

Dissertation Title:  The Clash of Brothers: Wars to Avoid Diffusion in a Contagious World Advisors: James Robinson ,  Andrei Shleifer Track: Government

Job Placement: Economist Core Data Science Division Facebook

James Mahon

Dissertation Title:  Essays in U.S. Fiscal Policy Advisors:  Raj Chetty ,  Edward Glaeser Track: Economics

Job Placement: Manager Transfer Pricing Division Deloitte Tax

Jesse Schreger

Dissertation Title:  Essays in International Finance and Macroeconomics Advisors: Gita Gopinath ,  Kenneth Rogoff Track: Economics

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Harvard Business School (Post-Doc at Princeton University, Department of Economics)

Dissertation Title:  Essays in Economic Geography Advisors:  Edward Glaeser ,  Marc Melitz Track: Economics

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Economics Michigan State University (Post-Doc at Dartmouth College)

Jessica Blankshain

Dissertation Title:  Essays on Interservice Rivalry and American Civil-Military Relations Advisor: Daniel Carpenter Track: Government

Job Placement: Assistant Professor United States Naval College

Joana Naritomi

Dissertation Title:  Essays in Public Finance and Development Economics Advisor:  Raj Chetty , Michael Kremer Track: Economics

Job Placement: Assistant Professor of Economics London School of Economics and Political Science

Arash Nekoei

Dissertation Title:  Essays on Unemployment and Labor Supply Advisor:  Raj Chetty , Lawrence Katz Track: Economics

Job Placement: Assistant Professor of Economics Institute for Economic Studies

Hye Young You

Dissertation Title: Three Essays on Lobbying Advisor:  James M. Snyder, Jr. Track: Government

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Political Science Vanderbilt University

Paul Novosad

Dissertation Title:  Essays on Local Economic Growth in India Advisor:  Asim Khwaja Track: Economics

Job Placement: Assistant Professor of Economics Dartmouth College

Eliana Carranza

Dissertation Title: Economics Sources of Son Preference, Sex-Differential Treatment and Household Fertility Behavior Advisor:  Lawrence Katz Track: Economics

Job Placement: Economist The World Bank

Dissertation Title:  Politics and Policy: Essays in Economics Advisor:  Andrei Shleifer Track: Economics

Job Placement: Associate McKinsey & Company

Supreet Kaur

Dissertation Title:  Essays on Labor Markets in Developing Countries Advisor:  Sendhil Mullainathan Track: Economics

Job Placement: Assistant Professor of Economics and International Affairs Columbia University

Dissertation Title: Essays in Institutional Economics Advisor:  Sendhil Mullainathan Track: Economics

Job Placement: Assistant Professor of Law New York University School of Law

Martin Kanz

Dissertation Title: Essays in Finance and Development Economics Advisor:  Andrei Shleifer Track: Economics

Rodrigo Wagner

Dissertation Title: Macroeconomic Recovery, Export Innovation and the Coordination of Entrepreneurs in the Global Economy Advisor: Dani Rodrik Track: Economics

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Economics Tufts University

Lucy Clare Barnes

Dissertation Title: Essays on the Political Economy of Redistribution Advisor:  Torben Iversen

Job Placement: Prize Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Nuffield College, University of Oxford

Magnus gustav Feldmann

Dissertation Title: Post Communist Capitalism: The Politics of Institutional Development Advisor:  Torben Iversen

Job Placement: Assistant Professor School of Sociology, Politics, and International Relations University of Bristol

Daniel Fetter

Dissertation Title: Federal Policy and the Mid-century Transformation in U.S. Housing Markets Advisor:  Edward Glaeser

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Economics Wellesley College

Dilyan Donchev

Dissertation Title: Essays on Corruption Measurement, Trust, and Investors in Eastern Europe Advisor: Jeffry Frieden

Job Placement: Researcher International Finance Corporation The World Bank

Joseph Mazor

Dissertation Title: A Liberal Theory of Natural Resource Property Rights Advisor: Dennis F. Thompson

Job Placement: Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Center for Human Values Princeton University

Sandip Suktahnkar

Dissertation Title: Essays in Development Economics Advisor:  Sendhil Mullainathan

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Economics Dartmouth College

Alexis J. Diamond

Dissertation Title: Essays on Causal Inference in Observational Studies Advisor: Rubin

Maria Petrova

Dissertation Title: Political Economy of Media Capture Advisor: Kenneth A. Shepsle

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Economics New Economic School, Moscow

Philipp Schnabl

Dissertation Title: Essays on Banking and Corporate Finance Advisor:  Sendhil Mullainathan

Gilles Serra

Dissertation Title: Why and When Do Political Parties Adopt Primary Elections? A Theoretical and Comparative Study Advisor:  Kenneth A. Shepsle

Job Placement: Post-Doctoral Fellow Nuffield College, Oxford University

Katharine Romaine Emans Sims

Dissertation Title: Balancing Land Conservation and Economic Development: Three Essays Advisor: Robert Stavins

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Economics Amherst College

Gernot Wagner

Dissertation Title: Essays on Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Advisor:  Robert Stavins

Job Placement: Consultant Boston Consulting Group

Randall Kekoa Quinones Akee

Dissertation Title: Three Essays in Economic Development: Lessons from Three Small Indigenous Nations Advisor:  Sendhil Mullainathan

Job Placement: Research Associate Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Bonn, Germany

Rebecca Thornton

Dissertation Title: Incentives and Information in Developing Countries Advisor:  Michael Kremer

Job Placement: Post-Doctoral Fellow Population Research Center University of Michigan

Shanna Rose

Dissertation Title: Essays in Institutions and Fiscal Policy in the American States Advisor: James Alt

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Political Science State University of New York at Stony Brook

Alexander Wagner

Dissertation Title: Essays on Organizational Economics Advisor: Richard Zeckhauser

Job Placement: Assistant Professor of Finance and Financial Markets University of Zurich

Shigeo Hirano

Dissertation Title: Party Labels, Institutions and Personal Politics in the United States and Japan Advisor:  James Alt

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Political Science New York University

Dissertation Title: Essays on International Price Co-Movements Advisor: Dale Jorgenson

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Economics Trent University

Martin Sandbu

Dissertation Title: Explorations in Process-Dependent Preference Theory Advisor: Amartya Sen

Job Placement: Post-Doctoral Fellow The Earth Institute Columbia University

Jeremy Weinstein

Dissertation Title: Inside Rebellion: The Political Economy of Rebel Organization Advisor: Robert H. Bates

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Political Science Stanford University

Rachel Deyette Werkema

Dissertation Title: Access, Choice, and Opportunity: Three Studies of Educational Inequality Advisor: Katherine S. Newman

Job Placement: Deputy Research Director MassINC

Etienne Yehoue

Dissertation Title: Currency Blocs and International Risk Sharing Advisor: Jeffrey Frankel

Amanda Friedenberg

Dissertation Title: Epistemic Analysis of Games Advisor: Adam Brandenburger

Job Placement: Assistant Professor of Economics Olin Business School Washington University in St. Louis

Daniel Devroye

Dissertation Title: Essays on Inequality: Causes and Consequences of Income Differences in the American Political Economy Advisor: Richard B. Freeman

Lucy Goodhart

Dissertation Title: Moderating Passions? Coalition Government and Policy Cycles in Advanced, Industrialized Democracies Advisor:  Jeffrey Frankel

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Political Science Columbia University

Anne Joseph

Dissertation Title: Political Appointees and Auditors of Politics: Essays on Oversight of the American Bureaucracy Advisor: Christopher Avery

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Berkeley Law School

Ruben Lubowski

Dissertation Title: Determinant of Land-Use Transitions in the United States: Econometric Analysis of Changes Among the Major Land-Use Categories Advisor: Robert Stavins

Job Placement: Research Economist U.S. Department of Agriculture

Jian-li Yang

Dissertation Title: Strategic Ambiguity in Electoral Politics Advisor:  Richard Zeckhauser

Job Placement:

Mary Kay Gugerty

Dissertation Title: Savings, Sanctions, and Support: Essays on Collective Action and Community Organizations in Kenya Advisor: Merilee Grindle

Job Placement: Assistant Professor of Public Affairs Evans School of Public Affairs University of Washington

Nathaniel owen Keohane

Dissertation Title: Essays in the Economics of Environmental Policy Advisor:  Robert Stavins

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Economics Yale University School of Management

Raja Nazrin

Dissertation Title: Essays on Economic Growth in Malaysia in the Twentieth Century Advisor: C. Peter Timmer

Job Placement: Crown Prince Perak, Malaysia

Miriam Jorgensen

Dissertation Title: Bringing the Background Forward: Evidence from Indian Country on the Social and Cultural Determinants of Economic Development Advisor: Joseph Kalt

Job Placement: Senior Researcher Harvard Project on American Indian Development

Vladimir Klyuev

Dissertation Title: Essays on Monetary and Exchange Rate Policy in Transition Economies Advisor: Dani Rodrik

Job Placement: Economist International Monetary Fund

Kathleen O’Neill

Dissertation Title: Decentralization in the Andes: Power to the People or Party Politics? Advisor:  Robert H. Bates , Jorge I. Dominguez,  Dani Rodrik

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Political Science Cornell University

Dissertation Title: Distributional Trade-offs and Partisan Politics in the Post-Industrial Economy Advisor:  Robert H. Bates ,  Peter A. Hall ,  Torben Iversen ,  Paul Pierson

Sousan Abadian

Dissertation Title: From Wasteland to Homeland: Trauma and the Renewal of Indigenous Peoples and Their Communities Advisor:  Amartya Sen

Job Placement: Consultant Private Company

Alison Alter

Dissertation Title: The Allocation of Legislative Property Rights in Comparative Perspective: The German Bundesrat and the United States Senate Advisor:  Kenneth A. Shepsle

Dissertation Title: Investment Appraisal of Management Strategies for Addressing Uncertainties Advisor: Glenn P. Jenkins

Job Placement: Vice-Chairman Jyoti Group of Companies

Ishtiaq Pasha Mahmood

Dissertation Title: Technological Innovation in East Asia and the Role of Business Groups Advisor: F.M. Scherer

Job Placement: Assistant Professor National University of Singapore

Rosemary Fernholz

Dissertation Title: Sustained Farmer Participation in Social Forestry: Case Study in the Philippines Advisor:  C. Peter Timmer

Job Placement: Visiting Professor College of Business and Economy De La Salle University, Philippines

Scott c. Bradford

Dissertation Title: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Trade Protection in Industrialized Democracies Advisor: Robert Lawrence

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Economics Brigham Young University

Mihir A. Desai

Dissertation Title: Essays in Corporate and Public Finance Advisor: Christopher Avery

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Harvard Business School

Sven e. Feldmann

Dissertation Title: Electoral Competition, Interest Group Influence, and Direct Democracy: Three Essays in Positive Political Economy Advisor:  Kenneth A. Shepsle

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Harris School of Public Policy University of Chicago

David D. Kane

Dissertation Title: Disagreement Advisor:  Richard Zeckhauser

Job Placement: Consultant Private Investment Company

Melissa a. Thomas

Dissertation Title: Building the Rule of Law: Government Design for Legal Implementation Advisor: Robert H. Bates

Fausto Alzati

Dissertation Title: The Political Economy of Growth in Modern Mexico Advisor:  C. Peter Timmer

Job Placement: Private Law Practice

Mark S. Bonchek

Dissertation Title: From Broadcast to Netcast: The Internet and the Flow of Political Information Advisor: Sidney Verba

Job Placement: Consultant Private Software Company

Alan C. Hartford

Dissertation Title: Academic-Industry Relationships in the Biomedical Sciences: Academic Norms and Conflicts of Interest Advisor: David Blumenthal

Job Placement: Academic Researcher Beth Israel Hospital

Steven J. Kafka

Dissertation Title: Delegation and Institutional Design: Bureaucratic Structure and the Political Control of Agencies Advisor:  Kenneth A. Shepsle

Adam S. Posen

Dissertation Title: Monetary Realism: Central Banks and the Political Economy of Disinflation Advisor: Benjamin Friedman

Job Placement: Economist Federal Reserve Bank

Nicholas n. Eberstadt

Dissertation Title: Policy and Economic Performance in Divided Korea, 1945-1995 Advisor:  C. Peter Timmer

Job Placement: Consultant American Enterprise Institute

Lionel R. Ingram

Dissertation Title: Major Factors Influencing Allied Decisions Regarding the Allocation of Resources to Defense Advisor: Richard Neustadt

Lora L. Sabin

Dissertation Title: The Development of Urban Labor Markets in Contemporary China Advisor: Dwight H. Perkins

Job Placement: Researcher College of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Alexander Schuessler

Dissertation Title: Symbols, Intention and Mass Participation: The Political Economy of Non-Rational Motivation Advisor:  Kenneth A. Shepsle

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Politics New York University

Steven A. Block

Dissertation Title: Agricultural Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa Advisor:  C. Peter Timmer

Job Placement: Research Associate Harvard Institute for International Development

Jeffrey R. Franks

Dissertation Title: Collective Action in the Informal Sector of Developing Countries: A Rational Choice Approach Advisor:  Kenneth A. Shepsle

G. Oliver Fratzscher

Dissertation Title: The Political Economy of Trade Integration: Welfare Implications in a Trading Block Model, Political Sustainability in a Pressure Group Model, and Effects of FDI in a Gravity Model Advisor:  Robert Lawrence

Janet C. Gornick

Dissertation Title: Women, Employment, and Part-Time Work: A Comparative Study of the United States, The United Kingdom, Canada and Australia Advisor: William Julius Wilson

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Political Science City University of New York

Robert Lowry

Dissertation Title: The Political Economy of Environmental Citizen Groups Advisor: Joseph Kalt

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Department of Political Science Michigan State University

Kalypso a. Nicolaidis

Dissertation Title: Mutual Recognition Among Nations: The European Communities and Trade in Services Advisor: Robert O. Keohane

Job Placement: Assistant Professor of Public Policy Harvard Kennedy School

Subramanian Rangan

Dissertation Title: The Pricing and Sourcing Responses of United States Multinationals to Exchange Rate Changes Advisor:  Robert Lawrence

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Corporate Strategy and International Management Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires (INSEAD)

Francois DeGeorge

Dissertation Title: Essays on Initial Public Offerings of Stock Advisor:  Richard Zeckhauser

Job Placement: Assistant Professor Hautes Études Commerciales

Catherine A. Rielly

Dissertation Title: Do Households Pool Their Savings? An Empirical Investigation of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (RoSCAs) in Cameroon Advisor:  C. Peter Timmer

Job Placement: Consultant Abt Associates

Gangadhar P. Shukla

Dissertation Title: Taxation of Exhaustible Natural Resources with Stochastic Prices Advisor: Glenn P. Jenkins

Job Placement: Research Associate Institute for International Development Harvard University

Food Literacy and Justice in the United States and Italy

Scholars and activists in the fields of food justice and policy believe that our food system needs changing because it is unjust, unhealthy, and incapable of addressing the needs of consumers, especially poorer and more vulnerable consumers. But policy change has been halting at every level, from local to global. The emerging concept of food literacy is a promising avenue to improve health equity and achieve food justice. Food movements around the world have played a key role in organizing education campaigns for children and adults to improve food-related knowledge and behavior. However, political scientists have yet to fully explore 1) what strategies successful food movements use to get food literacy initiatives adopted, and 2) how adoption strategies and food literacy initiatives vary across countries with different food practices, policy processes, and cultural expectations about food and dining practices. This dissertation seeks to answer these questions through a comparative study of local-level youth food literacy initiatives inspired by Farm to School and Slow Food, leading food movements in the U.S. and Italy. Through qualitative interviews with key actors involved in food education and procurement, I explore the meaning of food literacy and how actors in the U.S. and Italy are using food education to expand knowledge of local food systems and, ultimately, to change those food systems. I find that to actors in both countries, food literacy means the knowledge that can help us understand and judge the complex interdependence between the processes, resources, and actors involved in producing and marketing the food we eat every day. Food literacy also empowers civic engagement: it can transform food consumers who want to see change into citizens who feel entitled to demand institutional change. The forms of governance usually seen in this context consist in voluntary, decentralized, local-level partnerships between local government and schools, civil society, food movement activists/volunteers, and local farmers.

Bilsland Dissertation Fellowship

Ross-lynn research scholar fund, degree type.

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Political Science

Campus location

• West Lafayette

Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair

Additional committee member 2, additional committee member 3, additional committee member 4, usage metrics.

• Public policy

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College Democrats Back Protests and Criticize Biden’s Israel Policy

The student organization of the Democratic Party condemned colleges’ crackdowns on pro-Palestinian protests and called on President Biden to support a permanent cease-fire in Gaza.

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By Maggie Astor

• April 30, 2024

College Democrats of America, the student organization of the Democratic Party, endorsed pro-Palestinian campus protests on Tuesday and called on President Biden to support a permanent cease-fire in Gaza.

In a statement approved by the organization’s executive board by a vote of 8 to 2, the College Democrats praised student protesters for having “the moral clarity to see this war for what it is: destructive, genocidal and unjust,” and condemned college administrators for suspending and calling in the police to arrest them.

The statement came after two tumultuous weeks in which pro-Palestinian protests spread to campuses across the country in the wake of a police crackdown at Columbia University. Students who oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack have set up encampments and, in many cases, kept them going after participants were suspended or arrested.

Overnight from Monday into Tuesday, protesters at Columbia took over a building on campus . Protesters have escalated similarly at two other colleges, Portland State University and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt .

The statement denounced “MAGA Republicans and many other lawmakers for smearing all protesters as hateful.” It condemned rising incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia, saying, “We find all calls for violence, such as those against Jewish and Muslim students, wrong; those spreading hate have no place in the movement for peace.” But it added, “Calling for the freedom of Palestinians is not antisemitic, and neither is opposing the genocidal acts of the far-right radical extremist Israeli government.”

And it criticized Mr. Biden and many other elected Democrats for not uniting behind calls for an immediate, permanent cease-fire — accompanied by the release of all hostages taken by Hamas — and for a rapid push to reach a two-state solution that recognizes an independent Palestinian state.

It was a striking rebuke from an organization that has historically worked in tandem with the Democratic Party and whoever leads it.

“As College Democrats, we are committed to the re-election of President Biden and Democrats across down-ballot races in every corner of our nation,” the statement said. “However, as representatives of youth across the country, we reserve the right to criticize our own party when it fails to represent youth voices.”

It continued: “As young voters, we are well aware that come November, our votes will determine who wins the White House. The White House has taken the mistaken route of a bear-hug strategy for Netanyahu and a cold-shoulder strategy for its own base and all Americans who want to see an end to this war.”

Mr. Biden has called for a temporary cease-fire and said he supports an eventual two-state solution. But while he has been increasingly critical of the Israeli government, he has not made substantive changes to the United States’ policies, and has continued to provide weapons to Israel without conditions.

Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for Mr. Biden’s National Security Council, said: “President Biden continues to work around the clock to secure a deal that would release all the hostages and result in an immediate, sustained cease-fire that enables significantly more aid to reach the people of Gaza. The president has held calls with the leaders of Israel, Egypt and Qatar in the last several days to try to secure an agreement. Israel has accepted the deal and now the onus is on Hamas, which is the only obstacle to immediate relief for civilians in Gaza.”

Mr. Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee did not respond to requests for comment.

Sunjay Muralitharan, the vice president of the College Democrats and a student at the University of California, San Diego, said the decision to release the statement stemmed from a shift in the organization’s understanding of its own role.

“We’re realizing that our duty as College Democrats is to be representatives of college students to the party, rather than vice versa,” Mr. Muralitharan said. “As it stands right now, young people starkly differ on the issue of Palestine/Israel from the Democratic Party apparatus. And throughout the nation, we’re witnessing Joe Biden, Democrats across the ballot, losing scores of young voters over this issue.”

The statement was written largely by the organization’s Muslim Caucus. The caucus’s chairman, Hasan Pyarali, a senior at Wake Forest University, said that the dissatisfaction with Mr. Biden’s Israel policy had been simmering for some time, but that the immediate impetus for making a public statement had been Columbia administrators’ decision to call the police to break up the campus protest and arrest participants.

Mr. Pyarali, 22, said he and his fellow members were dedicated Democrats invested in Mr. Biden winning the election and concerned about the possibility of him losing to former President Donald J. Trump, whom he called “a huge threat.”

But “we thought it would be a disservice, not only to the Democratic Party but also to the country, not to speak out against the president on this particular issue, and we hope that he listens to us,” he said, arguing that the election “won’t be won on the same path the president is on right now.”

The statement had supermajority support from the College Democrats’ 10-member executive board, but two members voted against it.

Joshua Martin, the organization’s political affairs director and a junior at the University of Houston, was one of them. He said that he was unhappy the statement had not condemned Hamas, and that it was inappropriate for it to compare the current protests — which he sees as in large part antisemitic — to the civil rights movement.

“By releasing the statement, you’re effectively saying to the Jewish students within the College Democrats of America that we frankly do not care what you say, and we’re just going to do whatever we please to complete a narrative,” Mr. Martin, 21, said, adding that he did not support putting conditions on aid to Israel and considered Hamas “the full root of the issue.”

In addition to calling for a permanent cease-fire and a two-state solution, the statement — written in consultation with members of the Columbia and Yale chapters of the College Democrats and student activists at New York University and Indiana University — endorsed student protesters’ calls for universities to divest from Israel.

Maggie Astor covers politics for The New York Times, focusing on breaking news, policies, campaigns and how underrepresented or marginalized groups are affected by political systems. More about Maggie Astor

Billionaire ex-PM returns to the stage as Georgian standoff intensifies

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Solomon Islands picks China-friendly Manele as new prime minister

Solomon Islands lawmakers selected a new prime minister on Thursday, choosing foreign minister Jeremiah Manele, who has pledged to continue the Pacific Island nation's foreign policy that drew it closer to China.

Solomon Islands lawmakers selected a new prime minister in a secret ballot on Thursday, choosing foreign minister Jeremiah Manele, who has pledged to continue the Pacific Island nation's foreign policy that saw it grow close to China.

Democrats hope move to reschedule marijuana will help them in November

The proposed change has the potential to set up a contrast between biden and trump, who has shown little interest in engaging with federal marijuana policy.

A half-century after high school kids in California’s Marin County started using “4:20” as code for smoking marijuana, political advisers to the 81-year-old teetotaler president, Joe Biden, began signaling that he was hip to reefer slang.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced at 4:20 p.m. one day last year that it was moving forward with a plan to reschedule the drug. President Biden and Vice President Harris each tweeted at 4:20 p.m. on April 20 of this year that they supported reducing criminal penalties for pot users.

Attorney General Merrick Garland’s announcement Tuesday that he was rescheduling marijuana under federal law was just the latest turn in what Biden’s advisers see as a key political strategy — along with issues such as student loan relief and climate policy — to unlock votes this fall. When Biden’s White House social media account blasted out highlights from his 2024 State of the Union address, the X post quoting his promise to not jail marijuana users got more likes than ones on gun safety , the climate crisis and billionaire taxes .

“The political apparatus around the president are bigger fans of this than anyone else,” said Adam Goers, a Democratic strategist who runs the Coalition for Cannabis Scheduling Reform. “They recognized long ago that this seemingly controversial issue is incredibly popular.”

The proposed change also has the potential to set up a contrast with Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, who has shown little interest in engaging with federal marijuana policy while previously saying he supports medical marijuana and states’ ability to set their own laws. GOP voters remain one of the only demographic groups in the nation who are still sharply split on full legalization.

A 2023 Gallup poll found that 70 percent of the country supported recreational legalization, but that number fell to 55 percent among Republicans and 52 percent among conservatives. The influential House Republican Policy Committee released a briefing in February that declared that “there is nothing ‘recreational’ about the use of marijuana,” while arguing that the drug was associated with violent crime and declines in worker productivity.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Wednesday that the Biden administration’s efforts to reschedule marijuana will separate Biden from Trump on an issue that resonates with voters across the country. During Trump’s term in office, Attorney General Jeff Sessions reestablished legal guidance that allowed federal prosecutors to pursue marijuana crimes in states where the drug is legal.

“Joe Biden has made clear by his record up to now and then with this latest effort that he wants to change marijuana policy to end the unfair and outdated criminalization,” she said. “Donald Trump showed by his record that he heads in exactly the opposite direction, wanting to incarcerate more people under a failed drug policy. That’s about as big a difference between two people as possible.”

Under the Biden administration’s proposed change, marijuana would be moved from a Schedule I drug — on par with heroin and LSD — to the less risky Schedule III — the same category as prescription drugs such as ketamine, anabolic steroids and testosterone.

The move would not legalize marijuana under federal law, but it would allow marijuana businesses to deduct business expenses for taxes and could lead to relaxing other cannabis-related rules for government employment, federal housing and visas.

Garland’s recommendation was technically the result of a rulemaking process based on a scientific analysis that Biden requested in 2022 from the Department of Health and Human Services. But Biden’s top advisers have made no secret of their desire for the outcome that emerged Tuesday.

Harris called for the Justice Department to act swiftly at a White House event in March, where she described marijuana’s Schedule I status as “absurd.”

“I cannot emphasize enough that they need to get to it as quickly as possible,” she said of rescheduling, without explicitly mentioning the upcoming election.

Opponents of rescheduling have argued that Biden is playing politics with American health and safety by chasing the polls. The Health and Human Services Department still warns Americans that marijuana can cause permanent IQ loss and harm fetal development. Marijuana use is also linked to depression, anxiety, suicide planning and psychotic episodes, the department says, though there has been no determination yet about whether the drug causes those conditions or is just more commonly used by those who suffer from them.

“For this administration to lean so much into the marijuana culture and essentially take the industry’s talking points at face value has devastated many in the public health and public safety community,” said Kevin Sabet, a former adviser to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, who opposes rescheduling. “We should not be playing election-year politics with a drug.”

In presidential swing states such as Arizona, Nevada and Michigan, where recreational marijuana is already legal, the loosening of federal restrictions could boost Biden by helping a fledgling cannabis industry that has struggled to expand and turn profits. Thirty-eight states and D.C. have legalized medical marijuana programs, and 24 have approved recreational marijuana.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), one of the biggest champions for relaxing marijuana laws in Congress, said rescheduling the drug could only help Biden in his reelection. He credited a marijuana legalization ballot measure in Arizona in 2020 for attracting enough voters to propel Biden to a narrow victory. He also noted Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) backed marijuana legalization during their successful campaigns in swing states.

“As I have pointed out to people on (Biden’s) campaign team and others in the political establishment, nobody has ever been punished for advocating cannabis reform,” he said. “A majority of Republicans now support full legalization. This is where America is, not where it’s going.”

Cannabis business operators say reclassifying marijuana would drastically reduce their tax burden, allowing them to expand their companies and hire more workers, feeding into classic campaign messaging on economic development and job creation.

“It’s a massive business benefit to the company and industry,” said Luke Flood, a regional executive for Curaleaf, which has a presence in 17 states, including operating 16 dispensaries in Arizona and six in Nevada. The company says that if it had the ability to deduct business expenses this year, it would save roughly $150 million in taxes.

Lilach Mazor Power , president of the Arizona Dispensaries Association, said the move could appeal to business-minded voters. Legal cannabis supports nearly 21,000 jobs in Arizona, according to the most recent report by cannabis employment firm Vangst.

“It will be a boost in our confidence that Biden is supporting businesses and personal decisions,” she said, before adding that she had not yet decided who she will vote for in the fall. “People that live here have seen the sky did not fall when we legalized.”

Florida is the only state so far to approve a recreational marijuana legalization ballot measure this year. New Hampshire lawmakers are weighing whether to expand from medical to recreational legalization, but they disagree over Republican Gov. Chris Sununu’s proposal to set up a state-run monopoly.

The federal moves also could rally state lawmakers in Pennsylvania to legalize adult-use marijuana, said Steven M. Schain, a Pennsylvania attorney who teaches cannabis law at Stockton University in New Jersey. He said Pennsylvania lawmakers are increasingly recognizing that the state is missing out on cannabis tax revenue as residents flock over the border to several neighboring states to buy legal marijuana.

“Marijuana is not abortion as an issue, it’s not education,” said Michael Bronstein, a Democratic strategist in Pennsylvania who has advocated for marijuana legalization and co-founded a cannabis trade organization. “But it is something that indicates to voters that people who are for it are on their side, and I think the Biden administration and President Biden did well here and will get credit.”

Biden, at first glance, makes an unlikely champion for weed culture, having spent much of his career seeking to reduce marijuana and other drug use, particularly among younger populations. He wrote the so-called RAVE Act, which later passed into law in 2003, creating penalties for concert and music festival promoters who “knowingly” put on events for the use of a controlled substance. Biden told enforcement authorities he was displeased when the law was used to pressure a bar in Billings, Mont., to cancel a benefit concert by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana laws.

At a 1998 hearing of the Judiciary Committee, the senior senator from Delaware bemoaned a recent increase of reported marijuana use among high school students, called for more federal drug education under the DARE program and spoke out strongly against any move toward drug legalization.

“In the first drug strategy I released back in ’90, I wrote the trade that legalization offers is an unsavory one at best — greater personal safety for us in our homes, but bought at a price of increased child abuse, crack babies, teens dying from drug abuse,” Biden said. “Even if such trade could be had, I wonder what kind of nation we would be if we legalized. I remain convinced that legalization is absolutely a disaster.”

That rhetoric has since been replaced by an aggressive record of trying to decriminalize marijuana use. He offered a categorical pardon for federal and District of Columbia offenses of simple possession of marijuana. He has also called on governors to offer pardons for similar state offenses. He now supports legalization for medical purposes, consistent with medical and scientific evidence, according to a White House spokesperson.

“No one should be jailed for simply using or have it on their record,” Biden said during the State of the Union address.

Election 2024

Get the latest news on the 2024 election from our reporters on the campaign trail and in Washington.

Who is running? President Biden and Donald Trump secured their parties’ nominations for the presidency , formalizing a general-election rematch.

Key dates and events: From January to June, voters in all states and U.S. territories will pick their party’s nominee for president ahead of the summer conventions. Here are key dates and events on the 2024 election calendar .

Abortion and the election: Voters in about a dozen states could decide the fate of abortion rights with constitutional amendments on the ballot in a pivotal election year. Biden supports legal access to abortion , and he has encouraged Congress to pass a law that would codify abortion rights nationwide. After months of mixed signals about his position, Trump said the issue should be left to states . Here’s how Biden’s and Trump’s abortion stances have shifted over the years.

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