Parsons, CraigTyan, Maxim2024-03-252024-03-252024-03-25https://hdl.handle.net/1794/29276The current dissertation has a dual purpose of developing a theory of majority nationalistmobilization and explaining substantive variation in levels of nationalist mobilization in post- Soviet region during the first two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, particularly in the country cases of Russia and Kazakhstan. The study begins by pointing out at the failure of major theoretical approaches to nationalism such as modernism and perennialism to account for a phenomenon of bottom-up majority nationalist mobilization, a variation in levels of which can be observed in these two countries through the period of 1990s-2000s. It then develops a theory of bottom-up majority nationalist mobilization based on the combination of insights from the cognitive perspective to ethnicity and prospect theory. Further, using qualitative cross-case and within-case analysis, the dissertation tests suggested theory against empirical evidence in cases of Russia and Kazakhstan and demonstrates that this framework provides better explanation to divergent mobilization outcomes in these countries then existing rational-instrumentalist and non-rationalist theoretical alternatives.en-USAll Rights Reserved.Bottom-up nationalismCognitive approachKazakhstanMajority nationalismProspect theoryRussiaElectronic Thesis or Dissertation