Digital Commons Network^™

U.S. Government And Politics In Principle And Practice: Democracy, Rights, Freedoms And Empire, Samuel Finesurrey, Gary Greaves

Open Educational Resources

This book is written for students early in college to provide a guide to the founding documents and structures of governance that form the United States political system. This book is called American Government and Politics in Principle and Practice because you will notice that what has been inscribed in law has not always been applied in practice-particularly for indigenous peoples, enslaved peoples, people of color, women, LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, those formerly incarcerated, immigrants and the working class within U.S. society. In designing this book, we have two goals. First, we want you to know what the founding documents …

Pandemic Response As Border Politics, Michael R. Kenwick, Beth A. Simmons

All Faculty Scholarship

Pandemics are imbued with the politics of bordering. For centuries, border closures and restrictions on foreign travelers have been the most persistent and pervasive means by which states have responded to global health crises. The ubiquity of these policies is not driven by any clear scientific consensus about their utility in the face of myriad pandemic threats. Instead, we show they are influenced by public opinion and preexisting commitments to invest in the symbols and structures of state efforts to control their borders, a concept we call border orientation. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, border orientation was already generally …

Living In Gang-Controlled Neighborhoods: Impacts On Electoral And Nonelectoral Participation In El Salvador, Abby Córdova

Political Science Faculty Publications

Gangs’ territorial control affects the lives of residents in thousands of neighborhoods across Latin America, particularly in northern Central American countries. I argue that gang dominance constrains the ability of neighborhood residents to mobilize politically and consequently resist gang violence through institutionalized channels. Living in gang-controlled neighborhoods results in fewer incentives and opportunities to make political elites accountable for one’s personal safety. Even residents who have already experienced crime firsthand are discouraged from turning to politics as a strategy to change the status quo. My theoretical insights identify mechanisms through which gangs’ neighborhood control affects nonelectoral and electoral participation. To …

Usa: Afghanistan Exit Options, Lishan Desta

Faculty Publications and Presentations

After sixteen years of military and political engagement in Afghanistan, the U.S. is not any closer to its goal of achieving a stable democratic Afghanistan. Efforts to stabilize Afghanistan have been thwarted by the insurgency led by the Taliban, the group the U.S. has toppled sixteen years ago. Today, even U.S. senior generals do not see victory in Afghanistan, but a stalemate.

This paper maintains that what the U.S. basically has in Afghanistan is not a Taliban or a Pakistan problem, but a conceptual error problem. Because of this error, the U.S. is in a vicious cycle that keeps conflating …

Partisanship And Foreign Policy, Sauran Mussin

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Throughout the Cold War era matters of US foreign policy have been met with increasing bipartisanship as a result of the looming threat of a possible military confrontation with the USSR. Divergence between the two parties was sidelined due to the necessity for unity on account of the military and economical threat that rivaled US interests. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, more recently post 9/11 era and the launch of the Global War on Terror there has been an increasing partisanship disagreement within the US government towards foreign policy. This research paper will attempt to explain the relationship …

American Perceptions Of Iran, Avery Bissett

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

American foreign policy in regards to Iran has been among the most visible stories in recent years and will certainly continue to be as negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program continue. Although many factors influence how Americans view other countries, one of the most important factors is the media and how it covers Iran. In addition to investigating how specific media outlets shape our views of Iran, it will also investigate how the medium (print, TV, online, radio) influences our perception. It will use data from the 2012 American National Election Study, which asked participants whether they believe Iran is pursuing …

Was Feinstein’S Response To Netanyahu’S Speech Too Blunt?, Debra Johanyak

The Actual

No abstract provided.

Andres Quintero Interview, Andres Taborda, Jennifer Giffels

2014 Cleary Lecture: Prospects for Peace in Colombia by Virginia M. Bouvier

Andres Taborda ’15 and Jennifer Giffels ’14 of the Model OAS course in the Department of Political Science interviewed Andres Quintero, who is an expert in peace and conflict resolution. A native of Bogotá, Colombia, Quintero is currently pursuing a second graduate degree at Columbia University in New York and has many years of experience in the field of conflict resolution in Colombia and Ecuador. This document contains a summary of the interview.

Government And Politics Newsletter, Issue 9, Sacred Heart University

Government and Politics Newsletter

No abstract provided.

The Past, Present And Future Of Transnational Conflict In Jordan: A Study Of Syrian Refugees In The Hashemite Kingdom, David F. Becker

Capstone Projects – Politics and Government

In this paper I am considering the numerous effects that hosting refugees can have on a host country. These effects can be seen when examining a host country’s health, economic, educational, and security sectors. In addition, many cases of refugee flows are associated with conflict contagion, which may cause a refugee population to become militarized. After reviewing the relevant literature on these topics, I study how these possible effects unfold in the context of the Syrian refugees currently escaping to Jordan from their civil war. The Kingdom of Jordan and its people are significantly affected by the increased stresses that …

Liberalism And Postliberalism In Bolivarian Venezuela, Tony Petros Spanakos

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In the last half-decade, the “rise of the left” in Latin America has been studied extensively by many scholars. Whether framed as one, two, or many lefts, its various party leaders have been vocal in opposition to neoliberalism, although the orientation of their policies and governments toward neoliberalism has been mixed (Panizza 2009). The most influential and visible case of an anti-neoliberal government is that of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez Frías.

The five books reviewed here, drawing on research on Venezuela, share a common scholarly interest in liberalism, pluralism, and account- ability, although some defend liberalism (Brewer-Carías, Corrales and Penfold), …

Unsigning The Rome Statute: Examining The Relationship Between The United States And The International Criminal Court, Allison Naylor

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

Presently, 120 states are parties to the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC). A state that one will not find on the list, however, would be the United States. This project examines the relationship between the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the United States. The United States took part in the negotiating process, signing the Rome Statute under President Bill Clinton, but was not fully satisfied with the agreement reached. Under President Bush, however, the Rome Statute was unsigned. Presently, the United States remains unsigned on the Rome Statute. The relationship between the Court and the United States …

Reconstructing World Politics: Norms, Discourse, And Community, Sungjoon Cho

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article argues that the conventional (rationalist) approach to world politics characterized by political bargain cannot fully capture the new social reality under the contemporary global ambience where ideational factors such as ideas, values, culture, and norms have become more salient and influential not only in explaining but also in prescribing state behaviors. After bringing rationalism’s paradigmatic limitations into relief, the Article offers a sociological framework that highlights a reflective, intersubjective communication among states and consequent norm-building process. Under this new paradigm, one can understand an international organization as a “community” (Gemeinschaft), not as a mere contractual instrument of its …

Use Of Social Media In Presidential Campaigns: Do Social Media Have An Effect On The Political Behavior Of Voters Aged 18-24?, Samantha Hamilton

Honors Theses

Today, the idea of social media is radically different from the media of a decade ago. While a decade ago the Internet was considered new media, our society now turns to Facebook, Twitter, and blogs as sources of information. In the United States during election cycles, the use of social media by presidential candidates has become a way for many voters to find out about candidates. As a result, presidential candidates have had to adapt their campaign strategies to work with these media in a way that will effectively target these audiences. This study examines whether campaigns that are more …

From Rapists To Superpredators: What The Practice Of Capital Punishment Says About Race, Rights And The American Child, Robyn Linde

Faculty Publications

At the turn of the 20^th century, the United States was widely considered to be a world leader in matters of child protection and welfare, a reputation lost by the century’s end. This paper suggests that the United States’ loss of international esteem concerning child welfare was directly related to its practice of executing juvenile offenders. The paper analyzes why the United States continued to carry out the juvenile death penalty after the establishment of juvenile courts and other protections for child criminals. Two factors allowed the United States to continue the juvenile death penalty after most states in …

The Final Fight: The 2008 Battle Of Sadr City, Geoffrey Ensby

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

Iraq following the US invasion in March of 2003 was a dangerous place, and one in which the national government struggled to maintain control while unsanctioned and unauthorized strongmen and their militias controlled wide swaths of territory. This analysis will thus look at the 2008 Battle of Sadr City between the militia of radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and the military forces of Iraq and the US conducting the operation in concert. Utilizing a number of newspaper accounts and editorials, journal articles, recent books, and freelance journalists’ writings, several key aspects will be considered regarding how Iraq was changed for …

Hungary, Slovakia, And Romania: International Relations Examined Through Minority Language Education, Julianna Connelly Stockton

Mathematics Faculty Publications

The Hungarians in Romania and Slovakia are not just ethnic minorities but also linguistic minorities whose language has almost no linguistic similarity to their host nations’ language. One aspect of life in which linguistic minority issues arise most frequently is that of education. Should minority linguistic groups be forced to learn the national language in order to attend school or participate in official functions or should the government provide or allow for education in their native language?

The ethnic Hungarian minorities did not, for the most part, emigrate from Hungary to these other countries by choice the way most immigrants …

The Convenient Alliance: President Reagan And Pope John Paul Ii, Cold Warriors, Tighe P. Flatley

Senior Honors Projects

Historians and non-scholars alike have long regarded the work of President Reagan and Pope John Paul II to be a tremendous force in helping to end the Cold War. In 1992, Time Magazine cited the relationship as a “Holy Alliance”, a political partnering of two men who, after surviving separate assassination attempts merely six weeks apart, saw their role in global politics as a divine signal to promote the free world and take down communism internationally. By the time the President and the Pope first met at the Vatican in 1982, the two were privately discussing Cold War politics. They …

Reviewed Work: Understanding Institutional Diversity By Elinor Ostrom, Jonathan G.S. Koppell

Publications from President Jonathan G.S. Koppell

No abstract provided.

Traces Of The Stillborn? , Richard R. Weiner

Faculty Publications

The architect Daniel Libeskind has written a noted lecture, "Traces of the Unborn." We might add, "Traces of the Stillborn." There is a tendency in historical institutionalism (HI) to concentrate on the retrieval of traces of paths taken rather than (1) to consider the processes involved in the selection of paths; and (2) to reflect upon the conditions of institutional emergence and sedimentation of paths, whether taken or untaken. Contrary to the path-dependency obsessed historical institutionalism of a Paul Pierson, this paper stresses the significance of historical case studies of institutional emergence in the earlier 20th century and …

Atypical Pneumonia And Ambivalent Law And Politics: Sars And The Response To Sars In China, Jacques Delisle

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

China's Conception Of Law For Hong Kong, And Its Implications For The Sar And Us-Prc Relations, Jacques Delisle

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Disquiet On The Eastern Front: Liberal Agendas, Domestic Legal Orders, And The Role Of International Law After The Cold War And Amid Resurgent Cultural Identities, Jacques Delisle

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Agenda: Boundaries And Water: Allocation And Use Of A Shared Resource, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Boundaries and Water: Allocation and Use of a Shared Resource (Summer Conference, June 5-7)

Conference organizers and/or faculty included University of Colorado School of Law professors David H. Getches, Lawrence J. MacDonnell and Charles F. Wilkinson.

Boundaries and Water: Allocation and Use of a Shared Resource is the topic of the Center's annual summer program on water this June. Most of the major rivers in the western United States are shared between two or more states. Often tribal governments play an important role in water allocation and use decisions. International considerations also may be involved in some cases. These interjurisdictional issues extend to groundwater as well as surface water.

This conference will provide the …

The British And French In Newport (First Prize Lippitt Prize Essay), Mary W. Dimock

Student and Lippitt Prize essays

An essay documenting the positive influences the French had over the town of Newport following hostilities between England and the U.S. colonies.