Markarian, Tatoul (2009) The dynamics of the domestic-foreign policy relationship in transition studies. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
|
PDF
Download (10MB) | Preview |
Abstract
The thesis demonstrates that viewing transition as a political process of the complex interaction and interplay of different issue policies - economic, political, and security - within the transition state (horizontal) and among three different levels - domestic, state and international (vertical) - can further explain the dynamics and various outcomes we currently witness in the countries of post-communist transition. The thesis adopts an integrative approach by trying to combine functionalist and genetic schools of democratisation theories. The theoretical framework goes beyond existing democratisation theories and includes the core approaches of those international relations theories that tackle the issues of domestic-foreign policy interaction and explain how international norms are transferred and institutionalised in states. It also implies that it is not only the economic situation but also the political and security conditions that matter if transition is to progress. The thesis proposes a new framework to analyse the transition process which takes into account 1) the initial socio-economic, political and security conditions and the changes in those conditions that result from government policies and their interaction, 2) based on those conditions, elite choices and government policies and their interaction, and 3) the initial domestic and external demands and supports, their interplay and the change resulting from government policies. This framework allows one to follow the developments while they are in process, to trace the direction and dynamics of change within each policy area and at each level in the early stages, and their impact on the overall transition process, as well as to predict and explain the subsequent foreign and domestic policy changes. The thesis analyses the transition in the twenty-five post-communist countries, with a specific focus on Moldova and Kyrgyzstan. The analysis proves that (1) There is a strong interconnectedness among economic, political and security policies during transition, and success in one dimension often comes at the expense of success in another. It is hard to achieve progress in all dimensions, unless there is sufficient external support; (2) There is also an essential link and interplay among different levels - domestic, state and international - within the overall transition process. In order for transition to succeed, it is important that the resources and respective costs of transition have been effectively, that is reasonably distributed in a timely manner, among those levels; and (3) deriving from the first two points, there is a substantial link between the domestic and foreign policy dynamics of states in transition.
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Political Science, International Relations |
| Sets: | Collections > ProQuest Etheses Departments > International Relations |
| URI: | http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/2544 |
Actions (login required)
 |
Record administration - authorised staff only |
Download statistics
Download statistics