Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Dance Studies

This dissertation examines the dance studio and its built environment, exploring the dynamic relationship between dance and space. The focal point is the concept of the dance studio, analyzed through the urban landscapes and the experimental art practices in the city of Zagreb from the 1950s to the 2010s. The study investigates the dance studio through the histories of spatial structures, dance history, and the history of cinema. Shaped by these processes, dance is specifically entangled with spatial structures and is expanded by their horizons, outcomes, and histories. The dance studio here is a hypothesis built in the process—a space that exists at the intersection of context and time, with dance emerging as an archival record embedded in spatial and societal change. The dissertation argues that this very process constitutes the dance studio's structure: a space, practice, and environment made possible—reimagined, shaped, and hypothesized through the lens of dance and its experimental inquiry. The study approaches the dance studio from the vantage point of the long contemporaneity, extending across both modernism and postmodernism while facilitating the juxtaposition and productive friction of these terms. The city of Zagreb is approached as a dynamic multitude, encompassing a range of developments in the socialist and post-socialist periods that influenced, challenged, and shaped art, dance artists, and their spaces between 1949 and 2010.

Committee: Harmony Bench (Committee Chair); Hannah Kosstrin (Committee Member); Philip Armstrong (Committee Member) Subjects: Architecture; Art History; Dance; East European Studies; European History; European Studies; Film Studies; Modern History; Performing Arts; Philosophy; Slavic Studies; Theater Studies

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2024, Political Science

This thesis investigates the remarkable response of Poland to the Ukrainian refugee crisis following the Russian invasion in 2022, contrasting it with previous refugee reception experiences, particularly the 2015 EU refugee crisis. It illustrates the methods employed by the Polish government and humanitarian actors, which allowed Poland to overcome challenges in reception processes and a lack of experience in hosting refugees. Based on an analysis of secondary sources, literature, and primary interviews, this thesis found that the unique bond between Poles and Ukrainians contributed to an extremely high rate of volunteerism from Polish citizens. These efforts placed pressure on the Polish government to respond to the crisis and led to a collaboration between humanitarian actors and the government for maximum efficiency. This thesis demonstrates that flexible, informal humanitarian systems allow for optimal efficiency and that the states with a strong desire to host refugees will do so, despite having a limited capacity.

Committee: Myra A. Waterbury Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, History

This dissertation examines the rehabilitation and education of Polish Jewish children after the Holocaust. It argues that schools, summer camps, and children's homes in Poland were national and international sites for the rehabilitation of child survivors; therefore, they served as laboratories and arenas for debates regarding Polish Jewry's future. By comparing Zionist and non-Zionist institutions of child care, I illustrate how educators and caregivers engaged with competing ideologies to create normalcy in the best interests of the children. Rehabilitation was not just physical or mental; it required Jewish children to develop skills that would make them independent and good citizens. What did they study? What did they read? Did they learn Yiddish or Hebrew in school? Did they speak Polish in the classroom? The answers to these questions have broader implications regarding the reconstruction of Jewish communities in Poland after the Holocaust. While Jewish communists and Bundists in the Central Committee of Jews in Poland (Centralny Komitet Zydow w Polsce, CKZP) desperately fought to keep Jewish children in Poland, Zionist organizations saw no future for Jews in Poland. Through an analysis of correspondences, meeting minutes, educator conference programs, lesson plans, children's own writing, memoirs, and interviews gathered through multi-sited archival research, this dissertation exposes tension between organizations and traces how the educational and ideological goals of the CKZP Department of Education drastically evolved under the growing influence of Poland's communist government. Ultimately, studying education as a form of rehabilitation and nation-building enhances our understanding of the delicate nature of rebuilding Jewish life after war and genocide.

Committee: Robin Judd (Advisor); Theodora Dragostinova (Committee Member); Birgitte Soland (Committee Member) Subjects: European History; History; Holocaust Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2019, History

The current status of the literature involving radio broadcasts and music from the Cold War delves into either one area of concentration or the other. That is, either historians have little to no mention of radio, or historians explore music without mentioning radio. There are no studies that solely focus on the use of radio and music in combination with one another. This is what the thesis offers to this area of concentration. In addition to examining the use of radio and music in combination with one another, this work delves into radio directly after the conclusion of the Second World War and what its purpose would be as the Cold War progressed. Other areas of concentration are three music genres popular from 1953 to 1968, which helped with subversion against the Soviet Union and the Eastern European states. These three music styles are: jazz, rock and roll, and British pop music with a heavy focus on the Beatles. This thesis will argue that radio and music, in combination with one another, did contribute as a significant factor to the peaceful demise of the Soviet Union in the long term. In addition, both were used as a subversive measure that allowed those behind the Iron Curtain to experience Western culture.

Committee: Jonathan Reed Winkler Ph.D. (Advisor); Susan Carrafiello Ph.D. (Committee Member); Drew Swanson Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Music

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, Political Science

Party switching, or changing one's political party affiliation, is a surprisingly widespread and persistent phenomenon among members of parliament (MPs) in old and new democracies alike. Switching gives voters the impression of a lack of legislator accountability and representation, and may indicate weak parties or government instability. Why do some MPs risk their careers, prestige, and chances of reelection for oftentimes uncertain payoffs? Extant research on party switching frames this behavior as an individual phenomenon, based on rational calculations to further goals of vote, office, or policy-seeking. Yet in the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe, I find that party switching is largely a group phenomenon, which has heretofore received little attention. Building upon established research on political parties, party systems, and legislator behavior, I develop a theory of group-based defection that addresses this gap in the literature. I argue that MPs pursue political ambition in groups in which they share political goals—the pursuit of collective ambition is thus an alternative means to achieving their objectives. These groups are formed around, or defined by, social identities that are common or shared among individual MPs. By switching political parties as part of a group, individual MPs are able to more effectively pursue their political ambition. After presenting the theory and hypotheses of group-based party switching as a function of the pursuit of collective political ambition and the importance of shared social identities in Chapter 2, Chapter 3 lays out the dissertation's multi-methodological approach. I present novel biographical and legislative data used to test the theory and hypotheses, discuss the variables used in statistical analyses, and describe the administration of semi-structured interviews. Chapter 4 presents the quantitative analyses of the patterns of group switching in Poland from 1997 to 2011, and the influence of indivi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Anthony Mughan Ph.D. (Advisor); Goldie Shabad Ph.D. (Committee Member); Thomas Nelson Ph.D. (Committee Member); Sara Watson Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Psychology; Behavioral Sciences; Comparative; East European Studies; European Studies; Political Science; Psychology; Social Psychology; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, Anthropology

This dissertation tested three hypotheses concerning the population structure and social organization of medieval Poland (10th - 16th centuries): 1) medieval Poles were more segregated compared to post-medieval Poles, 2) medieval Poles practiced patrilocal postmarital residence, and 3) high social status was achieved, rather than acquired, in medieval Poland. Population structure and postmarital residence patterns were tested through biological distance, principal components analyses, and cluster analyses. Social status was analyzed with Mantel correlation tests. Cranial variation (craniometrics and cranial nonmetric traits) was compared within and between two medieval Polish cemeteries (Giecz Gz 4 and Gz 10) that date to the 11th through 12th centuries and two post-medieval Polish cemeteries (Plonkowo and Pien 9) that date to the 16th through 18th centuries. A total of 365 skulls were analyzed for the present study, 201 from the medieval period and 164 from the post-medieval period. Test results were mixed. Craniometrically, both medieval females and males showed less variation compared to post-medieval Polish males and females. In terms of the occurrence of nonmetric cranial traits, medieval populations were more heterogeneous when considering the populations as a whole (mixed sex and age). Medieval males exhibited greater variation, but medieval females exhibited less variation compared to post-medieval Poles. In addition, medieval and post-medieval Polish populations were compared to other pre-Polish State, medieval, and post-medieval Eastern Europeans reported in the literature. Craniometrically, medieval females showed similarities to other medieval groups (Hungarians, Moravians, and Bohemians), as well as earlier Slavic groups (Gepedic-Huns and Transitional). Medieval males were closer to medieval Bohemians than they were to each other. In post-medieval populations, the results were also mixed. Post-medieval females were closer to the earl (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Samuel Stout (Advisor); Clark Larsen (Committee Member); Paul Sciulli (Committee Member) Subjects: Archaeology; East European Studies; Medieval History; Physical Anthropology; Slavic Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, Political Science

Once a frontrunner of democratization in post-communist Europe, Hungary is backsliding. The 2010 election left the country with an unstable and polarized party system, and the population is quiescent as the Fidesz government dismantles the institutions of liberal democracy. Indeed, support for the very idea of democracy is weaker today in Hungary than it was at the transition. Democracy, it turns out, is not seen to be the only game in town for many Hungarians. Why would experience with democracy fail to yield support for the ideals and norms of democracy? Why do party systems in the young democracies of East Central Europe (ECE) remain highly volatile? Answering these questions requires attending to voters' experiences with and feelings towards their democratic systems. This dissertation examines the emotional dynamics of political behavior in Hungary, revealing high levels of popular disgust towards politics driving an active rejection of competitive multiparty politics and engendering democratic backsliding. I show that policy constraint from the European Union limits the ability of mainstream political parties in post-communist Europe to differentiate themselves from one another concerning many of the key policy issues most important to voters. This leaves elites with little maneuvering room to make programmatic appeals, increasing the likelihood that they will leverage the power of populist outrage –-- a discourse of alleging real or imagined moral transgressions by political competitors –-- to differentiate themselves from competitors and inspire political action. Where this vitriolic discourse elicits anger it causes participation in the form of protest voting, thus explaining persistent party system volatility. However, this constant stream of vitriol often elicits disgust. This powerful emotion causes a visceral avoidance of politics that undermines the accountability mechanism at the heart of democracy and explains rising disaffection from democrac (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Goldie Shabad PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Irfan Nooruddin PhD (Committee Chair); Anthony Mughan PhD (Committee Member); Kathleen McGraw PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2015, History

This thesis explores nationalist narratives and public memory of Francis Joseph and the Habsburg era in Hungary. In this work, Budapest's Liberty Bridge serves as a lens and reference point of sorts in my examination of nationalist historical narratives and public memory of Francis Joseph and the era of the Dual Monarchy in Hungary. In particular, this paper will trace the way in which ruling governments have attempted to impose their own versions of history onto the public spaces of Budapest and into the minds of their citizens. Beginning with the years following the 1848 revolution, this thesis looks at changes in the memory of Francis Joseph during the Dual Monarchy, the Horthy era, and the Socialist era, ending with a discussion of Francis Joseph in modern Hungarian society. In Budapest, the reason that the Liberty Bridge never regained its pre-Socialist era name is due to a lack of popular positive memory of Francis Joseph, in contrast to several other important Hungarian historical figures. In the contested field of Hungarian national narrative the memory of Francis Joseph never truly found its place; for while he did gain a significant degree of popularity in the later decades of his reign, Hungary's longest-ruling monarch never gained a place in the country's imagination. By turns marginalized, vilified and ignored over the course of the twentieth century, the king who oversaw the creation of modern Budapest is today largely absent from public space and from public discourse.

Committee: Steven Conn PhD (Advisor); Jessie Labov PhD (Committee Member); David Hoffman PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: History

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2010, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Community Planning

Since the 1989 collapse of the socialist system in Bulgaria, the country has experienced changes across the political, economic, social and built environments. Within the built environment of Sofia, Bulgaria, many former public green spaces have been converted into private or semi-public spaces following the implementation of privatization and restitution processes. This research analyzes the loss of green space within Sofia, Bulgaria, over the past 20 years with a case study of Yuzhen (South) Park, highlighting the decharacterization that privatization processes have had on the park.

Committee: Johanna Looye PhD (Committee Chair); Carla Chifos PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Urban Planning

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2006, Arts and Sciences : Political Science

This thesis proposes an alternative governance structure for east central Europe based on the development of a supplementary federal structure capable of controlling factionalism and nationalism utilizing concepts from James Madison's Tenth Federalist. In particular, Madison's approach to mitigating and preventing the formation of dangerous factions is found to be compatible with preexisting notions of federalism in east central Europe and offers a potential regional political solution that merits further study. In reaching the above proposal, the concepts of Wilsonian national self -determination, Pan European federalism, functionalism and historical east central European variants of federalism are explored along with their leading personalities. At the author's request over 100 previously unknown documents were declassified by a variety of intelligence agencies including the CIA, Army Counterintelligence, and FBI. In addition, three lengthy interviews were conducted with former American intelligence agent, William Gowen, who in 1947 and 1948 investigated and worked with several of the organizations and individuals profiled. The tragic history of east central Europe in the 20th Century consisted of bloody ethnic conflict, foreign invasion, and occupation with the lingering effects still evident today. While there is persuasive authority to suggest that the future for east central Europe is one of harmonious relations, liberal democracy and economic prosperity other forecasts predict decades yet of bloody conflict as the Russian Federation and its borderlands resolve rivalries fueled by national self-determination and irredentism. By developing a federal alternative to the European Union, east central Europe might effectively pool its resources and meet the foreign relations and security challenges unique to the region rather than relying upon far away Brussels in the event of a crisis. Regional federation as exemplified by east central Europe's unique heritage may (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Richard Harknett (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2012, Slavic and East European Studies

Two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, contending actors continue to compete for the ability to dictate the approach to and structure of regional development in Eastern Europe. As the European Union persists in its expansion into Southeastern Europe, the Russian Federation pursues policies that attempt to bolster and encourage pro-Russian attitudes and practices across the region. Simultaneously, domestic actors battle for the chance to determine economic, political, and social policy. Some campaign for EU membership and the establishment of pluralist democratic institutions modeled after Brussels' design for development. Others uphold national self-determination, calling for state-specific and culturally appropriate designs for economic, political, and social development, and stronger ties to the Kremlin. A third group calls for stronger ties with both the European Union and Russia that are managed by a strong Serbian or Ukrainian state. Through an exploration of the European Union's East European regional policy and Russian foreign policy vis-a-vie the Republic of Serbia and Ukraine, this thesis will examine the interaction of international and domestic interests. The analysis of this interaction of the international and the domestic will focus on the policy goals and concerns of contending external actors, domestic interests, public opinion, and the place of Serbia and Ukraine in the global community. This thesis presents case studies based on the work of respected scholars, policy agendas published by Brussels and the Kremlin, and domestic public opinion presented through political party platforms, public opinion polls, civil society organizations, and media outlets, It attempts to provide a new perspective for understanding the European Union's enlargement strategy, Russian foreign policy goals, and domestic concerns and their influence on the structuring of and carrying out of political, social, and economic devel (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Goldie A. Shabad PhD (Advisor); Trevor L. Brown PhD (Committee Member); Jennifer Suchland PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: European Studies; International Relations; Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2008, Political Science

Through citizenship laws, a state defines its population and identifies who belongs and who does not. This notion is intuitive, but how does a state decide who gets to be a member? Moreover, citizenship requirements vary dramatically around the globe. Thus, the central question of my study is this: why is it easier to become a citizen in some countries than in others?Because the current understanding of citizenship issues is based primarily on analyses of the established democracies of the West, I expand the scope of these studies by investigating these issues in the post-communist Central and Eastern Europe. Many of these states are newly independent, allowing me to capture issues of citizenship at a founding moment for emerging democracies. They are addressing questions of nationhood and constitution-building for the first time in decades. Once limited to places of transit migration, these states are now destinations for immigrants. Ethnic tensions, democratization, economic incentives, and newfound mobility are feeding into migratory patterns. Yet the postcommunist states are simply not accustomed to being terminuses for migration. Given their history and their present political and economic situations, they are poorly equipped to deal with these new demands. I construct an analytical framework that remedies the lack of theoretical agenda in previous works on citizenship policy and law. My framework is composed of two differing perspectives on the central dynamics of naturalization legislating, one focusing on domestic factors and the other on international ones. My analysis of these approaches is informed by normative understandings of what membership should look like in liberal democracies. My research combines cross-national analysis of data from 27 countries in Eastern and Central Europe with in-depth qualitative case studies of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. I single out these two countries for deeper research because they do not always follow the theo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Goldie Shabad Ph.D. (Advisor); Anthony Mughan Ph.D. (Committee Member); Michael Neblo Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, Political Science

In the past 15 years, the post-communist countries have attempted to rebuild state society relations. Central to this process has been the formation of business associations. Existing literature often treats business associations as marginal players. This dissertation demonstrates that they are important organizations that have a profound effect on the political and economic life of post-communist countries. Moreover, while scholars have examined the behavior and influence of interest groups, the actual causes of group formation remain underdeveloped. This dissertation examines the creation of business associations and their subsequent development across countries and economic sectors. Based on a cross-national survey of firms in 25 countries as well as a comparative analysis of business interest representation in Russia, Ukraine, Croatia, and Kazakhstan, it finds that low-level bureaucratic corruption and excessive state regulations facilitate the formation of business associations. It argues that increasing bureaucratic pressure on businesses stimulates collective action to combat corruption. Another empirical finding is that firms in different sectors of the economy are unequally represented by business associations. Contrary to prevailing theoretical arguments, firms in the service sector are most likely to join business associations, while firms in mining and heavy industry are least likely to join. This is consistent with the previous argument because firms in service sectors are more vulnerable to invasive regulations. Analysis suggests that the nature of state regulatory institutions affects business association formation. When corruption and regulations by bureaucrats are rampant, businesses have greater incentives to join associations providing legitimate means to counter bureaucratic pressure. Thus, business associations arise as a defensive mechanism to protect business against corruption and extensive regulation. This contributes to the debates about th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Timothy Frye (Advisor) Subjects: Political Science, General

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2006, Sociology

The main goal of this dissertation is to analyze the role of psychological determinants for individuals' current location in the post-communist social structure. I argue that structurally determined evaluations of the past affect future orientations and, in turn, future orientations affect further structural outcomes. Evaluations of the past are conceptualized in terms of the degree of positive/negative assessment of the socialist system. Rational action theory and cognitive dissonance theory provide a strong framework within which the process of political attitude formation and its apparent inconsistencies can be considered. This is a multi-method study, and I use both primary and secondary data. The Polish panel survey, POLPAN 1988-2003 represents the backbone for the quantitative parts of my analysis. In this survey a representative sample of adult Poles was interviewed in 1988 and re-interviewed in 1993, 1998, and 2003. In addition, I use the POLTEST 2004 – 2005 Polish panel survey to examine whether Markov-type processes have significant explanatory power for long-term change in public opinion about socialism. In a large part of my analyses I treat the data as cross-sectional, using OLS estimates for particular time-points. However, because panel data have hierarchical structure, I also use population-averaged cross-sectional time-series analysis to account for autocorrelation and multicollinearity. In-depth interviews provide additional materials about the mechanism linking social structure, assessment of the past and future orientations. To make this linkage more specific, I structure my analyses along two areas of inquiry. First, I examine the determinants of evaluation of socialism. I identify structural factors, contextual effects and individual-level determinants to be crucial for mass-level political attitude formation. Second, I analyze the mechanism through which positive evaluations of the past affect social-structural location, including the mediatin (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kazimierz Slomczynski (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, History of Art

This dissertation explores the exile period work (1979-1999) of the Czech-born writer and artist Jiri Kolar, with particular focus on his two series Kafkova Praha (Kafka's Prague) and Haskova Praha (Hasek's Prague). These two series are examined in the context of Kolar's role in the development of Czech modernism in the twentieth century, his dual status as a poet and visual artist, the series' connections to the writers for which they are named (Franz Kafka and Jaroslav Hasek), and the artist's complex relationship with his homeland during his absence from it. Both series illustrate aspects of Kolar's struggle with his cultural and national identity, as well as his pursuit of a means of expression that could combine characteristics of poetry and visual art. The motifs of concealment, revelation, displacement, ubiety, language, and identity emerge with powerful clarity in Kolar's work during the two decades around which this dissertation revolves. Although Kolar created Kafka's Prague just after his forced separation from Czechoslovakia and Hasek's Prague just after his return home twenty years later, I argue that these two sets of manipulated photographs are not clear brackets around the artist's exile period. When studied together and with the historical circumstances and events that surround them in mind, they provide important insight into the experience of the displaced east European during and after the Communist period.

Committee: Myroslava Mudrak (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Political Science

The project tests the hypothesis that individuals who see themselves as members of multiple social groups (for example, groups based on profession, class, ideology, gender, or any number of other ties) that “cross-cut” each other—rather than solely as members of mutually exclusive groups (such as those structured along ethnic, religious, or regional lines)—will be more willing to support democratic practices, including cooperation with erstwhile opponents, tolerance of dissent, and willingness to compromise. As a result, countries where more individuals perceive identities as cross-cutting will be more successful as democracies and implement policies that benefit their citizens. This theory has much in common with early theories about the importance to democracy of “cross-cutting ties” in society, but the emphasis is less on the objective ties, and more on the ways in which different individuals perceive identities based on those ties. A quantitative study focuses on the first hypothesis in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Ethnic and regional identities and support for democratic behaviors are measured through secondary analysis of social surveys, including the New Democracy Barometers and a number of other polls from 1988 to the present. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze the interaction of demographic variables, identity, democratic attitudes, and voting behavior. A qualitative study focuses on the second hypothesis by examining two policy areas in Latvia, Poland, and Ukraine. I conducted interviews with activists in women's and environmental NGO's. If the hypothesis is correct, women's and environmental issues—issues that by their very nature invoke identities that cross-cut ethnic and regional identities—should find more sympathy in countries where identities are not viewed as mutually exclusive. The two parts of the project provide considerable support for the hypotheses. If these hypotheses are indeed correct, an (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Goldie Shabad (Advisor) Subjects: Political Science, General

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2003, Environmental Studies (Arts and Sciences)

After the collapse of socialist economies in Central and Eastern Europe economic hardships forced agricultural producers to radically change their patterns of production. The most important indicators, such as consumption of mineral fertilizers and number of livestock have significantly dropped just after the political changes occurred in early 1990th, but in some countries a reverse tendency was observed soon after that. Agriculture of others continues to function in extensive mode. It is logical to expect that the decrease of inputs in agriculture should lead to a significant decline of crops, but it is not the case. This might be explained by fertile soils in the area but such a practice may lead to soil exhaustion. It is speculated that the decrease of inputs in Eastern European Agriculture as well as decline of livestock numbers should cause improvements in environmental quality. However, there is not enough data to prove this claim.

Committee: Brad Jokisch (Advisor) Subjects: Environmental Science

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2007, History (Arts and Sciences)

This thesis examines the relationship between foreign policy autonomy and domestic repression in Romania from 1965 to 1989. This time period coincides with the rule of Romanian communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu. The thesis argues that Czechoslovakia's 1968 Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact invasion that spelled its end had a significant impact not only on Romanian foreign policy, but also on Romanian domestic policy, until the December 1989 Revolution. The legacy of the Prague Spring shaped the prism through which Romania's communist government evaluated threats domestic and foreign; in fact, it led the leadership to conflate the two, to the point where foreign interference was a necessary condition for domestic opposition in the official conception. Approaching the study of Romanian communism within this autonomy/repression dialectical framework, the thesis examines the relationship between ideological fanaticism and public policy in the Ceausescu regime. It discusses the ways in which the regime used tactics of manipulation, persuasion, and repression to cope with threats it saw as simultaneously domestic and foreign. The theory behind this approach, therefore, could be applied to other cases of repressive, autarchic dictatorship. The thesis offers new perspectives, arguments, and evidence, as it includes substantial original archival research as well as discussion of recent Romanian language literature. It is divided into four chapters. Chapter I reviews the literature on Romania's autonomous foreign policy as well as the literature discussing the relationship between the autonomy policy and Romania's domestic affairs. Chapter II discusses Romania's political "thaw" in the 1960s, Romanian interpretations of the Czechoslovak Prague Spring, as well as Romanian evaluations of the Soviet threat it faced, or did not face, in the late 1960s and beyond. Chapter III discusses the "re-Stalinization" of Romanian politics and society in the years following the Prague Sprin (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: T. Curp (Advisor) Subjects: History, European

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2003, International Studies - International Development Studies

Depositary Receipts (DR) are negotiable certificates that represent a foreign company's publicly traded equity. There is a growing development of DR programs in Eastern Europe in the last decade. The major research question addresses the issue of how capital injection as a result of DRs influences the performance of firms in Eastern Europe. We compare financial performance measures of asset management efficiency, profitability and market value of companies before and after DR program affiliation. Further, the Chow test for equality between sets of coefficients in two linear regressions is applied. There has been a slight influence on the companies' assets and profitability in the short-run and there has been no influence on companies' asset performance and sales in the long-run after the DR program announcement. DR program announcement makes a positive effect on the CEE companies' market value and stock performance the short-run and the negative effect in the long-run.

Committee: Roger Shelor (Advisor) Subjects: Economics, Finance

BA, Oberlin College, 1996, Economics

An empirical analysis is used to determine whether the factors that normally explain FDI flows to developing countries are also suitable to explain FDI flows to the developing countries of Eastern Europe for the years 1988-1992. It was found that a typical set of explanatory variables which explain FDI flows to non Eastern Europe developing countries very well, is not a useful set of determinants for FDI flows to Eastern Europe. Conclusions are drawn concerning the extent to which these results reflect the current state of political and economic transition taking place in Eastern Europe.

Committee: James Zinser (Advisor) Subjects: Economic Theory; Economics; Finance