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ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8280-0073

Access Type

Open Access Thesis

Document Type

thesis

Degree Program

Political Science

Degree Type

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Year Degree Awarded

2019

Month Degree Awarded

September

Abstract

The current literature tends to looks at regimes in only two categories; democracy and autocracy. Recognizing that this limits the scope of what is measured, and limited the practical applicability of this research, I chose to combine the current research on war crimes with more modern research on how to measure regime type. I integrate James Morrow and Heyran Jo’s comprehensive dataset on war crimes from 1900 to 1991 with Carston Anckar and Cecilia Fredriksson’s dataset on Political Regimes of the World, and run statistical tests to determine the relationship between these more specific categories of regime type and the types of war crimes they commit. I find that the historical relationship between more specific regime types and certain measurements of war crimes provide few clear answers, but does give us a clear argument against a dichotomous measure of regime type. The relationships seen here provide the basis for more in-depth future research into the characteristics of different regimes, and their behavior in times of war.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/15102286

First Advisor

Meredith Loken

Second Advisor

Charli Carpenter

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