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

George Washington University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

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