Cynthia Botteron, Ph.D.

cabott@ship.edu

Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania

Country: United States (Pennsylvania)

About Me:

Received my Ph.D. from the University of Texas-Austin. There I studied the impact of external NGO's on India's efforts to save the Bengal Tiger. From there I did research in Pakistan, initially to look at development policy and its targeting of women's craftwork; however, the topic changed when Pakistan's constitution was changed to require that anyone aspiring for national elected office had to have a bachelor's degree. From there, my work has been focused on comparative requirements for national public office.

Research Interests

Comparative Democratization

Non-Democratic Regimes

Comparative Political Institutions

Comparative Constitutions

Political Representation

Postcolonial Studies

My Research:

The work I have done looks at the relationship/correlation between:1) Requirements for national elected office and corruption.2) Requirements for national elected office and authoritarianism.3) Religious requirements in constitutions and effective governance.4) Requirements for office and sex scandals. My work is now moving to a focus on decolonization; specifically, whether there are correlations between colonial administrative law and continuing obstacles to development faced by former colonial states. For example, there is evidence by other scholars regarding colonial health laws and the inability of the current state to cope with health care planning. My focus will rely on the work done relating to requirements for office and whether the narrative about who the 'types' of people qualified to run government served as an obstacle to overcome when the newly independent country was drafting its first constitution.