Bachelor's Thesis
Beyond the Water’s Edge: Cleavage Theory and Foreign Policy in Latin American Democracies
This thesis examines how social cleavages shape foreign policy preferences through party politics in Mexico and Colombia. It asks whether foreign policy positions are better explained by domestic political structures than by purely leader-centered or insulated models of decision-making.
Using a mixed-method comparative design, the project combines public opinion data and expert-coded party-level data to explore how class, ethnicity, territoriality, and ideological positioning are reflected in attitudes toward relations with the United States, China, and the European Union.
The central argument is that foreign policy is not detached from domestic politics. In the cases examined, it appears as a continuation of internal political conflict in another arena.