Politics
Politics @ Otago
Politics involves the operation of power in society: physical power, economic power, legal power, and power over opinion. Power is used to pursue the interests of human beings. These interests are often aggregated into alliances, both within countries and across national borders. Politics is the academic discipline that tries to establish how power operates, how people use it to pursue common ends, and how conflict can arise as a result.
For further information go to the Department of Politics.
Recent Deposits
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The struggle for and against the Employment Contracts Act, 1987-1991
On May 3rd 1991 the legislative framework of industrial relations in New Zealand was revolutionised by the introduction of the Employment Contracts Act. This legislation was opposed by an overwhelming majority of workers. ... -
Election special : New Zealand election campaigns in the newspaper, The New Zealand herald, 1946-2002
This thesis investigates the changing campaign coverage from 1946 to 2002, in The New Zealand Herald (The Herald), New Zealand's most-read newspaper. From tracking the percentage of news coverage devoted to parties and ... -
Eclipse of Courage: Technical Reason and the Limits of Self-Affirming Bravery
Courage is among the most popular and least-understood virtues, with a seemingly endless array of paradigms and descriptions. Does courage relate primarily to physical or to moral struggle? Is courage fortitude, or is it ... -
From Freetown to Kinshasa: Reassessing Nigeria and South Africa’s Foreign Policy Behaviour and Conflict Intervention Roles in Africa
Based on the meta-theoretical approach of eclecticism, and drawing on the insights of structural realism and constructivism, this study comparatively analyses Nigeria and South Africa’s intervention roles in Africa, with ... -
United in Diversity? Immigration and Opposition to European Integration
The forces and processes of globalization have led to regional integration in certain areas around the world. The European Union (EU) presents the most deeply integrated institution with a system of multi-level governance. ... -
The Post-Politics of the 2014 New Zealand General Election: A Symptomatic Discourse Analysis
In this thesis, I submit the 2014 election campaign in Aotearoa to a logics-based discourse analysis in a post-positivist manner tracing the post-political elements of contemporary politics in Aotearoa New Zealand. For ... -
The Strategic Narratives of the BRICS: A Coherent Story?
Strategic narratives play a fundamental role in generating public support for political objectives. The formation of strategic narratives has intensified in the twenty-first century due to the pluralization of state and ... -
The Role of Ideological Conflict within the Australian Asylum Seeker Debate: A Critical Analysis
As the refugee and asylum seeker crisis has grown, arguments about immigration and migration have been at the forefront of Western politics. The policy approaches of nation-states in this climate have garnered a range of ... -
Contemporary Rangatiratanga: Do Treaty settlements enable rangatira to exercise rangatiratanga?
This thesis asks whether Treaty of Waitangi settlements enable or re-establish Māori rangatiratanga guaranteed by Te Tiriti o Waitangi, in a contemporary context. It does so by first establishing the pūtake (foundations) ... -
Democratisation Progress in Turkey Under the Justice and Development Party 2002 to 2014
This thesis examines the democratisation progress of Turkey during the period 2002 to 2014, a period in which the Justice and Development Party (the ‘JDP’) held continuous national office, in order to answer its central ... -
Ethical Norm Promotion in European Union Foreign Policy: Responding to the Arab Uprisings in the Southern Neighbourhood
The European Union (EU) has increasingly used its external policy mechanisms to export the principles that it was founded upon: democracy, rule of law, social justice and, in particular, respect for human rights. This ... -
The Politics of Military Adaptation: The Development of a Theoretical Framework to Explain Military Adaptation's Importance to Politics
This thesis investigates the phenomenon of in-conflict military adaptation and its dependence on political and bureaucratic oversight of military forces. Warfare is co-evolutionary. Armed forces deal with the pressures ... -
The Trials of Rivalry: Sino-Japanese Relations since the 1910s
This dissertation asks a challenging question: how can we explain the origination and, more importantly, the intensification of Sino-Japanese rivalry? It elucidates what led to rivalry between China and Japan in the first ... -
Good Governance, Corruption and Growth: A Political Economy of Post-Socialist Industrial Transformation in Albania and Kosovo, 1998-2015
Since the mid-1990s, the “rediscovery” of institutions in development theory and policy has brought political and bureaucratic corruption to the centre stage of donor interventions in developing countries. The Post-Washington ... -
The balance of vulnerability and the distribution of fear in East Asia
This dissertation examines East Asian reactions to the rise of China. More specifically, it seeks to address the question: ‘how can the distribution of fear in East Asia, which reflects a direct response to China’s rise, ... -
The Dollar-Wall Street Regime and New Zealand: The Political Implications of Financial Market Liberalisation for Macroeconomic Management in New Zealand, 1994 to 2011
This is a study of New Zealand’s retention and entrenchment of a neoliberal policy regime, focusing on the role played by international finance. The study examines the influence that international private financial markets ... -
The Economic Vote in New Zealand. An analysis of how macroeconomic conditions and perceptions of the economy affect voter behaviour
A large body of research suggests the performance of the economy has a significant effect on voter behaviour. However, there has been limited analysis of this issue in relation to New Zealand. This thesis seeks to correct ... -
The Development of Consociational Politics in Lebanon 1825-2015
The aim of this research is to interpret consociational democracy as a political framework for deeply divided societies using Lebanon as a case study. I claim that consociational practices in Lebanon are hampered by three ... -
Democratic Theory an Democratic Education: A New Zealand Case Study
The history of democracy and various theories of democracy indicate that democracy is not a static practice or philosophy, rather it is adapted for those who make use of it and question it. It is not, however, a practice ... -
Justifying RAMSI: Geopolitical reasoning, security and New Zealand’s involvement in the Solomon Islands conflict
This thesis investigates the factors that influenced New Zealand’s decision to intervene in the Solomon Islands Conflict, and will argue that its involvement in the decision to establish the Regional Assistance Mission to ...