The power of ideas : a political social-psychological theory of democracy, political development, and political communication

Date of Award

1-1-2009

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

College/School/Department

Department of Political Science

Content Description

1 online resource (vi, 305 pages)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

DAVID G WAGNER

Committee Members

DAVID L ROUSSEAU, DAVID LEVY

Keywords

CULTURE, DEMOCRACY, INTERNET, SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM, SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, THEORY, Political sociology, Political psychology, Internet, Democracy

Subject Categories

International Law | Mass Communication | Social Psychology

Abstract

In this dissertation, I propose a new social psychological theoretical framework to describe, analyze and explicate under what conditions and though what processes successful democratic stabilization can occur in the developing world. This theoretical framework attempts to add new intellectual knowledge to the academic study of democracy beyond the intellectual and practical limitations of research and policies built upon mainstream structural-functional and institutionally-focused theories of democracy, namely the procedural-minimalist approach. The intellectual focus of this study is to determine what impact, if any, the Internet has on countering the negative cultural effects of repressive authoritarian rule and improving the likelihood of successful democratic stabilization in the developing world. I comparatively examine three cases in Latin America-Argentina, Brazil and Chile-who all liberalized their information and telecommunication infrastructure (with particular attention paid to the Internet) and share a common brutal history of bureaucratic-authoritarianism (to varying degrees). I hope to accomplish four primary goals: 1. to finally advance a solid research project that positively links the Internet and democracy; 2. to explicate my social psychological theory of democracy; 3. to demonstrate the usefulness of social constructivist ideology within political science research; and 4. to reintroduce the discipline of political science to sociology and demonstrate the importance and need for more interdisciplinary and holistically-focused research projects in comparative politics and international relations that are not analytically and conceptually limited to units of analysis that lend themselves to quantification.

Comments

Requested ProQuest takedown; no end date

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