CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Dzebo, Semir |
|---|---|
| Title | The Separation Equation: Individual Preferences Toward Territorial Politics in the Modern State |
| Summary | This dissertation examines the underlying motivational structures shaping territorial preferences across distinct sociopolitical and territorial configurations. Through three independent empirical investigations, the analysis explores the psychological foundations of boundary reconfiguration politics, making significant contributions to understanding secessionist and irredentist phenomena beyond conventional ethno-nationalist paradigms and well-studied Western cases. Despite contextual differences across cases, the research finds that territorial preferences are predominantly shaped by two interconnected factors: a foundational identity dimension enabling populations to perceive themselves as distinct from outgroups, thereby generating desires for self-governance, and economic grievances, manifesting as immediate consequences of perceived alien governance. Building upon these insights, the second study explores the relationship between populism and secessionism in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where leader Milorad Dodik employs populist-secessionist rhetoric. Contrary to theoretical expectations, individuals with stronger populist attitudes—particularly anti-elitism—demonstrate lower support for both secession and Dodik's party. This counterintuitive finding likely reflects Dodik's long-standing position of power, where his administration is regarded as the established elite despite its anti-elite rhetoric. Traditional factors, including ethnic identification, ingroup bias, and economic grievances, prove substantially stronger predictors of secessionist attitudes than populist sentiments, revealing that populist-secessionist discourse functions primarily as an elite-level strategy without the corresponding public resonance. The third study ventures beyond secession to examine irredentism, analyzing preference formation from the perspective of citizens in a potential irredentist state rather than a separatist region. Through a survey experiment with 1,050 Serbian adults, the research examines how domestic budgetary costs and nationalist primes affect support across multiple kin-state policy domains. While cost priming significantly reduces support for economic and cultural assistance programs, it shows minimal impact on attitudes toward territorial revision. Similarly, nationalist appeals boost support for general assistance but can even backfire for border changes, possibly reflecting historical learning from past territorial conflicts. Importantly, the findings demonstrate that citizens respond differently to information environments when evaluating general assistance policies versus territorial revision, challenging frameworks that conceptualize kin-state preferences as unified constructs. Collectively, these investigations advance scholarship by connecting macro-level theories with micro-foundational evidence, illuminating the psychological mechanisms underlying territorial preferences. These findings acquire heightened salience amid contemporary territorial reconfigurations worldwide. By revealing the psychological underpinnings of separatist impulses, this research enables the identification of latent separatism before its manifestation as conflict, thereby facilitating preemptive interventions addressing fundamental grievances before their escalation into destructive mobilization. |
| Supervisor | Erin K. Jenne |
| Department | Political Science PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/dzebo_semir.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2025, Central European University