Department of Political Science
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This digital collection includes theses and dissertations from the Department of Political Science.
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Browsing Department of Political Science by Author "Cavdar, Gamze, advisor"
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Item Open Access People power from Liberation Square to Aleppo: a comparative analysis of nonviolent resistance in the Arab Spring(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Olson, Philip Robert, author; Cavdar, Gamze, advisor; McIvor, Dave, advisor; Egenhoff, Sven, committee memberBeginning with Gene Sharpe's seminal work The Politics of Nonviolent Action (19741) strategic nonviolent action has been touted as an alternative to violent insurrection against repressive regimes, and, in its earliest hours, many touted the Arab Spring as a powerful example of nonviolent resistance in the face of longstanding and well-armed bastions of power. However, the epithet "Liberation Square" imprinted on the architectural center of the protests that overthrew Hosni Mubarak has faded, while the architectural centers of Aleppo, Manama, and Misrata no longer exist. However, the Arab Spring should not be forgotten by nonviolent actors. By mapping the methods, both the successes and failures, and the dynamics of resistance as it spread across the region this project forwards three central arguments regarding nonviolent action. First, participants in civil resistance do not maintain uniform agency across cases, and structural conditions play a significant role in determining the success of nonviolent resistance. Second, nonviolence should not be an ultimatum, and integrating violent strategies of resistance can bolster resiliency and strength. Finally, nonviolence is not a panacea, and should be contextualized within the political and economic contexts of resistance.Item Open Access Social media and political participation: the case of the Muslim Council of Britain(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Burford, Allison, author; Cavdar, Gamze, advisor; Betsill, Michele, committee member; Kodrich, Kris, committee memberIt has been suggested by the media and scholars alike that social media might be a potential solution for problems of political participation. To test this hypothesis, this thesis examines the content of political participation by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) as reflected in its Twitter posts for the period of January 1, 2011 - December 31, 2011. Furthermore, I compare traditional sources of political participation in the MCB (i.e. newsletters and press releases) from the years 2005 and 2011, with the political participation through Twitter. The findings indicate that political participation over social media occurs with substantially more frequency, and with a significant change in tone, while traditional participation shows very little change in tone or frequency.