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Hydrogen: A risk to a natural gas phase-out in the Netherlands?
Roest, Douwe ; Ullrichová, Eliška (advisor) ; Oude Nijhuis, Dennie (referee)
1 Natural Gas Lock-in: Does Hydrogen Pose a Risk to a Natural Gas Phase-out in the Netherlands? Submitted By: Douwe C. Roest Charles University Prague A Master Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of The Requirements for A Master in European Politics and Society Master of Arts Submitted to: Dr. Eliška Ullrichová Wordcount: 21.098 2 Abstract Considerable scholarly literature has been dedicated to exploring carbon lock-in, yet limited research exists on the phenomenon of Natural Gas (NG) lock-in and its causes. This study addresses this research gap by conducting an explorative case study of the Netherlands. Specifically, it zooms in on the dynamic interaction between NG and hydrogen, with hydrogen emerging as the leading sustainable molecule to power the energy transition. The study aims to analyze the influence of the established NG regime on the developing hydrogen niche and the subsequent implications of hydrogen's increasing role on NG lock-in. The research combines academic work with grey literature and interview data to support a material and actor analysis through separate techno-economic, political, and socio-technical perspectives. The research finds five significant mechanisms through which existing NG production and consumption shape Dutch production and utilization of hydrogen: 1) the extensive...
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Assessing the impact of the growth of the 'Sharing Economy' in European Cities
Payne, Joshua Alex Marco ; Oude Nijhuis, Dennie (advisor) ; Galent, Marcin (referee)
This thesis looks at this situation in four central European cities - Prague, Krakow, Budapest, and Warsaw - to better understand the motivations behind their respective policy responses to the challenges and opportunities that have emerged due to the rise of the STHR sector. This thesis focuses primarily upon the local government response when discussing regulation - much of the policy implemented concerning the STHR market has been done at a granular level, usually with cities making the call on how best to manage the phenomenon.12 In some instances, this regulation can even be set on a hyper-local district scale, as is the case in central Budapest.13 However, there are now calls for wide-reaching rules to be implemented through national and supranational structures - such as at the European Commission level - to support cities and communities trying to cope with the regulatory challenge of STHRs.14 Very recently, there has also been a noticeable increase in cooperation between city leadership looking to lobby legislative bodies so as to further the scope of their regulatory powers - an interesting development when attempting to better understand and explain the diversity of regulatory responses from European cities. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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Fact-Insensitiveness and Electoral Alignment Across WEIRD Societies
Mandujano Manriquez, Mauricio ; Oude Nijhuis, Dennie (advisor) ; Arregui Moreno, Francisco Javier (referee)
The central claim that justifies this research stems from the existing gap in the comparative politics literature linking the alignment approach and the rising spread of misinformation, conceptualized as fact-insensitiveness. Additionally, three other factors play a significant role in carrying out this specific research project. Firstly, although there are comprehensive datasets on electoral systems and other country-relevant variables for democracy studies, such as Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem), or The Electoral Knowledge Network (ACE), they lack the instrumental variables necessary to measure fact-insensitiveness or electoral alignment. Additionally, these datasets are agnostic to recent scholarship, pointing to the existence of psychological differences across populations derived from their distinct historical trajectories. Secondly, the exceptional nature of the COVID-19 pandemic presents a rare opportunity to assess fact-insensitiveness through proxies of high fidelity that correspond to individual decision-making. Instead of deploying surveys or experimental designs, the nature of the pandemic has left every individual with the individual capacity to make a personal choice around a specific topic: vaccinations and COVID-19 restrictions. Thirdly, the empirical findings derived from this research will...
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Changes in government formation patterns in Western European parliamentary democracies (1970-2018)
Rieder, Gaston ; Oude Nijhuis, Dennie (advisor) ; Váška, Jan (referee)
This thesis aims to understand the reasons behind the increase in the duration of government formation negotiations in Western Europe. It argues that there is a gap in the existing scholarship on this issue. On the one hand, scholars have noted that party systems in the region have undergone profound changes over the last decades, and particularly since the 2008 financial crisis. On the other, the effect this has had on the duration of government formation has not been as thoroughly researched. In order to explain this phenomenon, this thesis expands upon the survival analysis literature, by means of applying recent innovations to the Cox proportional hazards model, such as the Cox with Expected Durations package (Kropko & Harden, 2017, 2020). All in all, the results show that longer government formation processes can be attributed to two main phenomena: the rise in parliamentary fragmentation, and the rise in less stable legislative types as per the typology outlined by Laver and Benoit (2015). The findings of this thesis thus contribute to a better understanding of this crucial development in the Western European political landscape, which has wider implications for the stability of Western European democracies as a whole.
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The Politics of Prague's Metal Scene
Kurki, Alex ; Tomalová, Eliška (advisor) ; Oude Nijhuis, Dennie (referee)
This thesis examines the potential links between political behavior and the Prague metal scene. Many authors have suggested theories on links between music and politics, but there are few empirical studies on the topic. This thesis focuses on one genre of music in one space and cultural context: heavy metal music in Prague, Czech Republic. The literature on metal subcultures claims that they exist to perpetuate rebellion and transgression, and that members of these subcultures reject "politics"; however, metal is seen as political in some cases. Because of this, it is hypothesized that metal subculture members will have negative opinions on the political system and political participation, and will express support for anti-system parties or ideas. These hypotheses are tested through a qualitative thematic analysis of interviews and survey responses from 22 members of Prague's metal subculture. It is found that members of the subculture vote at a similar rate to the rest of the Czech population, and that the majority of participants identify as center-right or right-wing. The participants expressed ideas that were critical of the political system and of society discourses relating to politics. Furthermore, respondents viewed metal in Prague as apolitical, but felt metal could be political in some...
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