Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
Spring 5-1-2013
Capstone Advisor
Miriam Elman, Professor of Political Science
Honors Reader
Mehrzad Boroujerdi, Professor of Political Science
Capstone Major
Political Science
Capstone College
Arts and Science
Audio/Visual Component
no
Capstone Prize Winner
yes
Won Capstone Funding
yes
Honors Categories
Social Sciences
Subject Categories
Comparative Politics | International Relations | Political Science
Abstract
Mahmoud Abbas’s 2011 attempt to obtain Palestinian statehood through the United Nations challenged the status quo “Middle East peace process” by offering an alternative solution to the system of bilateral negotiations that has otherwise been stagnant for much of the last decade. Since Salam Fayyad became prime minister in 2007, the Palestinian Authority has been actively working towards building institutions that would serve as the foundation for the future State of Palestine. International accolades for Fayyad’s initiative garnered far-reaching support to facilitate the state-building program.
In the six years since then, the Palestinian Authority has developed the institutions that are necessary for Palestine to become a state of its own. In reality, however, the Palestinian Authority has not evolved into the de facto state that Fayyad’s program had intended it to. This is largely due to the fact that Israel has not sufficiently minimized its occupation of the West Bank, inadvertently placing a glass ceiling on the Palestinian Authority’s ability to further develop its institutions.
The purpose of this research is to provide a better understanding of post-intifada, post-Arafat Palestine by analyzing the capacity of its institutions to function on a level comparable to other states. This research identifies specific criteria attributed to statehood, utilizing the cases of Israel and Kosovo to illustrate the role that institution building and support from the international community plays in obtaining recognition as a sovereign state. It also identifies the state-building programs enacted by the Palestinian Authority to demonstrate how the institutional capacity of the Palestinian Authority has evolved since the conclusion of the second intifada.
This research argues that the most accurate to measure a state is by assessing the existence of institutional infrastructure and the ability of state institutions to carry out the functions of a state. This research concludes that if Israel lifted its draconian restrictions in the West Bank and the U.S. also began to actively support the state-building programs, Palestine could sufficiently exist and a sovereign and independent state.
Recommended Citation
Claypool, Amanda Lynna, "State 194: Assessing the Institutional Capacity of the Palestinian Authority as the Foundation for an Independent State" (2013). Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All. 34.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/34
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
