Testing the impact of state-society relations on human security
Committee members: Schraufnagel, Scot; Thurber, Ches.||Advisor: Un, Kheang.||Includes bibliographical references.
Abstract
The aim of this dissertation is to provide explanations for why prosperity, peace and development are achieved in some countries but not in others. To do so, this research analyzes how civil society and state capacity effect human security; using an explanatory mixed-method approach. The statistical analysis used in this research is a time series cross-sectional data analysis covering over 160 countries from 1984 to 2014. The statistical findings are further tested by comparative case studies of Slovenia, Lithuania, Russia and Singapore. The results suggest that civil society and state capacity are significant factors for explaining how different levels of human security emerge in various socio-political settings. Here, particular combinations of state and society strengths define whether prosperity, development and peace are achieved in a given country. Hence, this dissertation suggests that countries with strong state capacity and civil society are the ones with the highest level of human security.
