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Groupthink Theory And The Great Crash Of 1929, Paige E. Nichols Apr 2010

Groupthink Theory And The Great Crash Of 1929, Paige E. Nichols

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


The Interface Between Politics And Higher Education, Alyson Neel Jan 2010

The Interface Between Politics And Higher Education, Alyson Neel

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


White College Student’S Attitudes Toward The Use Of Torture, Abigail Omojola Jan 2010

White College Student’S Attitudes Toward The Use Of Torture, Abigail Omojola

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Athens And Byzantium: Platonic Political Philosophy In Religious Empire, Jeremiah Heath Russell Jan 2010

Athens And Byzantium: Platonic Political Philosophy In Religious Empire, Jeremiah Heath Russell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

It is traditionally understood that there is a gap, which spans well over one thousand years, between Plato’s own political philosophy and its successor in medieval Islamic philosophy. A most likely bridge between Plato and these later philosophers is Neoplatonism. However, scholars argue that this philosophic school abandoned its predecessor’s emphasis on political philosophy. This dissertation challenges the traditional interpretation by reconstructing a political philosophy based on a Neoplatonic commentary on Plato’s Gorgias. The first two chapters place this commentary within its historical context, as well as its place within the larger Neoplatonic pedagogy. The remainder of the dissertation reconstructs …


Ethnic Composition And The Dynamics Of Civil War: A Subnational Analysis Of India And Pakistan, Caroline Lee Payne Jan 2010

Ethnic Composition And The Dynamics Of Civil War: A Subnational Analysis Of India And Pakistan, Caroline Lee Payne

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Scholars, policymakers, and the media present a conflicting picture of the relationship between ethnicity and civil conflict. In order to clear up the confusion and better establish this relationship, I argue that it is necessary to: (1) distinguish between different types of ethnic composition; (2) conceptualize and measure ethnic composition as not only a static phenomenon but a dynamic one in which population changes alter group security calculations and therefore their decision making; (3) consider the unique mobilization capacity of ethnic groups; and (4) examine the effect of ethnic composition at the subnational level of analysis. In doing so, this …


Institutional Design And The Economy: Disentangling The Effects Of Judicial Independence And Judicial Review On Economic Development, Kaitlyn Louise Sill Jan 2010

Institutional Design And The Economy: Disentangling The Effects Of Judicial Independence And Judicial Review On Economic Development, Kaitlyn Louise Sill

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Scholars, politicians, and economic leaders widely believe that an independent, efficient judiciary facilitates economic growth. However, relatively few empirical studies have been conducted to evaluate the relationship between the judiciary and the economy. As a result, we have a limited and an ambiguous understanding of the effect of courts. In this dissertation, I provide insight into the relationship between the judiciary and economic growth by disentangling judicial independence and judicial review and evaluating their effects using a large-n, comparative research design. I empirically demonstrate that judicial independence and judicial review are conceptually distinct and have independent and varying effects on …


Experiential Learning Of U.S. Presidents In The Foreign Policy Decision-Making Context, Samuel Berwyn Robison Jan 2010

Experiential Learning Of U.S. Presidents In The Foreign Policy Decision-Making Context, Samuel Berwyn Robison

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines U.S. presidential learning—defined as a change in presidential operational code beliefs due to their experiences in office—in the foreign policy decision-making context. These beliefs are teased out from presidents’ representations of power relationships via verb usage in their speeches. A database of more than 4,000 foreign policy-related speeches obtained by the author was employed for this project, and with this data, I examine several potential dynamics of and influences on learning.

I look at trends in belief change over time, and examine the relative stability and interconnectedness of “core” versus “peripheral” beliefs. I then test the influence …


Commonality, Competition, And Stereotypes: Can Whites, Blacks, And Latinos Play Politics Together In The United States, Betina Cutaia Wilkinson Jan 2010

Commonality, Competition, And Stereotypes: Can Whites, Blacks, And Latinos Play Politics Together In The United States, Betina Cutaia Wilkinson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The literature on racial attitudes and coalition formation has focused on Latinos and African Americans in the U.S. In this project, I present a theoretical framework exploring what whites, blacks and Latinos think of each other specifically examining perceptions of commonality, competition and stereotypes. The two major theories that I test are contact theory and the racial threat hypothesis. This project is unique in its comprehensive analysis of the precursors of coalition formation regarding African Americans, Latinos and whites and its adoption of quantitative and qualitative approaches to answer the main research questions. Moreover, very little research has explored the …


Pliny's Defense Of Empire, Thomas Raymond Laehn Jan 2010

Pliny's Defense Of Empire, Thomas Raymond Laehn

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Despite perennial interest in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History as a record of the prodigious, the quotidian, and the useful in Rome in the first century AD, for over half of a millennium Pliny has been considered little more than an inept compiler of facts and marvels intellectually incapable of formulating a cogent argument supported through the selective marshalling of his materials. It is my contention that Pliny’s encyclopedic text is in fact a first-rate work of political philosophy constituting an apology for Roman imperial expansion grounded in a sophisticated conception of man as the only being capable of passing …


Probing The Finance Gap Theory: Does Gender Affect Campaign Contributions?, Rhonda Wrzenski Jan 2010

Probing The Finance Gap Theory: Does Gender Affect Campaign Contributions?, Rhonda Wrzenski

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In our field, scholarly literature contends that women win a similar percentage of the vote and raise a similar amount of money as their male opponents when they campaign (Newman 1994; Burrell 1994; Seltzer et al. 1997; Dolan 2006; Darcy et al. 1994; Wilhite and Theilmann 1986; Burrell 1985; Uhlaner and Schlozman 1986; Welch et al. 1985). However, women are still underrepresented at all levels of government and this may be a function of biases in the campaign finance network that have gone largely undetected. Differences may be more readily apparent at the sub-national level and among particular classes of …


Maladies Of Modernity: Scientism In Politics, David Nathan Whitney Jan 2010

Maladies Of Modernity: Scientism In Politics, David Nathan Whitney

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the complex relationship between science and politics. More specifically, it focuses on the problem of scientism. Features of scientism include the dogmatic faith in the methods of the natural sciences (and the accompanying assumption that those methods can be successfully imported into the social sciences), a materialistic worldview, the rejection of the bios theoretikos, the prohibition of philosophical questions, and an emphasis on immanent fulfillment through the power of science. I seek to demonstrate that scientism is intellectually impoverishing and politically dangerous. Given the lack of full-length studies on the subject, I trace the development of scientism …


The Impact Of Structural Adjustment Loans On Civil Conflict, Lue Anda Francis Jan 2010

The Impact Of Structural Adjustment Loans On Civil Conflict, Lue Anda Francis

LSU Master's Theses

This paper examines the impact of structural adjustment loans of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on Civil Conflict. The paper argues that there are three major shortcomings to previous research on this topic. Previous research has focused more on grievances with little focus on the opportunities that may influence rebel behavior. In addition, previous research has placed little focus on the role of state capacity can play in affecting rebel behavior. As such previous research has not fully explained how both opportunities and willingness (Most & Starr 1989) are necessary conditions needed for civil conflict to occur …


Agenda Preference Deliberations, David Pulliam Jan 2010

Agenda Preference Deliberations, David Pulliam

LSU Master's Theses

Currently the public is relegated to the electoral process, surveys and polls, and group participation in order to voice their agenda preferences. Various literatures describe the decreasing influence of the general public within the agenda setting portion of the policymaking process. This thesis assesses the agenda setting and public policy literatures in order to determine how issues become part of the policy agenda, looks to the public opinion literature to determine how capable the public is in being part of the policymaking process, and utilizes the deliberative democracy literature to construct deliberations that make it possible to get the public …


The Role Of Old-Fashioned Racism: Disaggregating Symbolic Racism In The United States, Leslie Curtis Cox Jan 2010

The Role Of Old-Fashioned Racism: Disaggregating Symbolic Racism In The United States, Leslie Curtis Cox

LSU Master's Theses

Old-fashioned, biological, or "Jim Crow" racism is viewed by many in the political science and psychology literature to be largely a relic of the past. In the post-segregation era it has been replaced as a political force by symbolic racism, although its residual effect still operates within symbolic racism as negative racial affect. Symbolic racism is thought of as a coherent belief system that describes whites‘ attitudes not only in the United States, but in some European democracies as well. This conceptualization of symbolic racism ignores the differences in the historical legacy of racism across different regional and demographic contexts. …