Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Political Science

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) host city site selection process. The recent Beijing Olympics brought to the surface the political implications of the host city selection. Have the past IOC site selections been politically influenced? What factors do the IOC members consider to make their decision? I use data provided by Paul Poast from the University of Michigan that includes data from every Olympic candidate city since the 1960 Roman Games. Some of the variables analyzed include: European and North American Bias, Bribes, GDP and GDP Growth. Using both quantitative and qualitative analysis, I find that political consideration is important in selecting a host city; however, there does not appear to be a systematic political cause to explain host city selection.

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