Digital Commons Network^™

Oil Vs Democracy: Oil Rent, Social Groups, And Democratization In Middle East Monarchies, Garrett Arwa

Master's Theses and Capstones

Considerable research in political science has been done concerning democracy and the effects of oil rent. Prevailing literature suggests that dependence on oil and rentier behavior by states can heighten the dependence of social groups on the state through political and economic effects. Yet in the case of Kuwait, we find that oil rent has helped build human capital, institutional capacity, and autonomy for social groups. This autonomy allows social groups to better bargain with the state and advance democratization. This will be contrasted to the case of Morocco, where social groups remain dependent on the state despite cycles of …

Independent Or Undeclared? The Role Of The Undeclared Voter In The New Hampshire Presidential Primary, Jennifer E S Gupta

Master's Theses and Capstones

This thesis examines whether New Hampshire's undeclared voters vote in a similar manner to registered partisans or whether New Hampshire's voting laws allow undeclared voters to act more independently. Two main hypotheses focus on how New Hampshire's undeclared voters act and whether they are more volatile than partisans. Data from pre-primary tracking polls and Election Day exit polls were used to assess actions and volatility. Two variable cross-tabulation was the primary means of data analysis.

The author concludes that New Hampshire's undeclared voters are more independent but as involved and interested in politics as their partisan counterparts. Additionally, while undeclared …

An Examination Of The Nursing Home Industry, Craig Labore

Master's Theses and Capstones

Quality of care remains an issue plaguing the nursing home industry. Over the next twenty years, nursing homes will become inundated with members of the "baby boomer" generation. The goal of this research project was to examine approaches to improving the quality of care in nursing homes in The United States. Three reforms were identified. First, there needs to be improved communication between CMS, regional offices and state agencies. Second, create a training program which trains surveyors and nursing home administrators in a nursing home setting. Finally; there must be collaboration between CMS and nursing home industry leaders in policy-making …

A Case Study In Natural Resource Policy: Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus Clarki Bouvieri) In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Brad Johnson

Master's Theses and Capstones

The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is hailed as one of the most intact temperate ecosystems in the world. Within the ecosystem the Yellowstone cutthroat trout has been noted as both a keystone species and an indicator of ecosystem health. As anthropogenic induced stress and its effects on natural systems have become more readily apparent, a call has risen for a new holistic form of natural resource policy development and implementation. The Ecosystem Approach, based on the principles of sustainability, is a multidisciplinary, cross-sectoral policy paradigm, which serves that function for this study.

This research analyzed the extent to which natural resource …

The Family In Tocqueville's "Democracy In America": Understanding Difference In The Age Of Equality, Nicholas R. Noloboff

Master's Theses and Capstones

The American family in Tocqueville's Democracy in America presents a novel association to humankind; at its heart are natural bonds between generations, spouses and siblings that offer, through public recognition, new opportunities for both individual and civic improvement. Through an exposition of Democracy's American family, this paper addresses how the association helps remediate the greatest dangers of the age of equality: a tyrannical majority, materialism, individualism and ultimately, democratic despotism. It finds that the chief virtue of the American family comes from the natural, complementary gender differences that define marriage in American public opinion; in particular, the social recognition that …

Good Press, Bad Press: A 25-Year Comparison Of Arguments And Trends In American News Coverage Of Climate Change And The Ozone Hole, David Howland

Doctoral Dissertations

This study uses an original content analysis categorical system to seek out and compare the substance of arguments in a quarter century of American news coverage about the ozone hole and climate change. Findings from an examination of more than 1,000 news articles written by The Associated Press, United Press International and The New York Times are combined with interviews with members of key stakeholder groups in both cases including scientists, politicians, industry officials, environmentalists and news reporters. The analysis illuminates the social and political processes at work---that is, those captured by the press---in the evolution of the Montreal ozone …

Can Less Mean More In International Aid: Public Opinion Of International Assistance In Ghana, Michael Bena

Master's Theses and Capstones

This study examines public opinion of international aid in Ghana with a focus on a multivariate ordinary least squares regression model. It first examines the country of Ghana and the events that led to involvement with the International Monetary Fund under the Economic Recovery Program. After analyzing existing literature on satisfaction with government and economic programs, the study goes on to suggest what might drive citizen satisfaction with these programs. Using information from the Afrobarometer survey, this thesis proposes that public opinion of international aid programs is related to the tangible benefits they provide and the publics' perceptions of inequality …

Media, Race, And Attitudes Toward People On Welfare, Stephanie Bramlett

Master's Theses and Capstones

This research gives insight to why some Americans have negative attitudes toward people on welfare. This study begins by exploring how the construct of race has manifested itself throughout televised news broadcasts and the welfare system in the United States.

This research uses a combination of content analysis, secondary research and American National Election Survey Data analysis to explain the relationship between the media and support for welfare programs. The study investigates three main hypotheses: H1: Blacks are overrepresented as perpetrators of crime in televised news broadcasts compared to the actual number of crimes committed by Blacks, H2: As trust …

Elite Perceptions And The Adoption Of An Extremist Policy Of Genocide: A Comparative Case Study Of Armenia And Rwanda, Nicole Powell

Master's Theses and Capstones

The events leading up to the genocide that occurred in Rwanda in 1994 are similar to the events that led to the genocide that occurred in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. Economic and political crises plagued both states, international pressures to democratize weighed on both states, and both states were subject to ethnic polarization. This project examines those common factors preceding the Rwandan and Armenian genocides; and looks at elite's perception of a threat to their power because of the existence of those factors. Furthermore, the paper examines the relationship between the perception of a threat to elite power and …

Television Exposure, Feelings Of Fear And Confidence In The United States Government: Is The Government Using Media To Create A Culture Of Fear?, Janine Marie Soule

Master's Theses and Capstones

This study examines the relation between television media and fear as it pertains to the trust or confidence in the United States government. Using the fundamental hypothesis of cultivation theory (i.e., heavy viewers of television are more likely to believe that the world is a "mean and scary" place), the relation between the amount of television one watches, one's corresponding level of fear, and one's level of confidence in each branch of the United States federal government is examined. It is hypothesized that fear will have a mediating effect on the relation between heavy television consumption and respondents' confidence in …

Swing Voters? Roman Catholics From 1992 To 2004, Lori Gula Wright

Master's Theses and Capstones

This thesis evaluates whether Catholics are swing voters, how their voting behavior has changed from 1992 to 2004, and what issues are influencing their voting behavior. National Election Survey datasets from 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 are used. Two models are evaluated, the ethnoreligious model and the culture wars thesis. In addition, this thesis looks at whether Catholics tend to be single-issue voters.

The research and analysis of this thesis support the conclusion that Catholics are not swing voters and that their voting patterns are more similar to the general electorate than ever before. Although religious, class and cultural issues …

Exploring Table Talk: Does Dialogue Or Debate Correspond To Success And Satisfaction In Teacher Collective Bargaining?, Michael R. Jette

Doctoral Dissertations

The purposes of this study were: (1) to see if there is a difference in the way representatives from labor and management report the use of dialogue and debate while sitting together around the teacher contract bargaining table, and (2) to determine if individuals who approach the table and engage in dialogue have a greater satisfaction with bargaining than those who engage in debate. The research survey collected background information about the negotiators, the outcome of their bargaining, and their perceptions of success. It also contained 19 diametrically opposed statements related to dialogue or debate, and respondents used a Likert-type …

Playing The Man: Masculinity, Performance, And United States Foreign Policy, 1901--1920, Kim Brinck-Johnsen

Doctoral Dissertations

"Playing the Man": Masculinity Performance, and US Foreign Policy, 1901--1920 argues that early twentieth century conceptions of masculinity played a significant role in constructing US foreign policy and in creating a new sense of national identity. It focuses on five public figures (Jane Addams, W. E. B. Du Bois, John Reed, Theodore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson). Although their conceptions of masculinity varied, each of these central historical figures based his or her US foreign policy position on the idea that in the conduct of US foreign relations, the United States needed to "play the man." Similarly, even when their policy …

Connections Between New Hampshire Superintendents' Leadership Orientations And Their Perceptions Of Selected Issues Associated With Politics In Education, Althea E. Sheaff

Doctoral Dissertations

Many Americans, including educational professionals, eschew politics in classrooms, administrative offices, or any interaction with the educational system. The apolitical myth has it roots in the struggle for public schooling by common school crusaders like Horace Mann and Henry Barnard and continuing in the twentieth century with adoption of Frederick Taylor's scientific management principles. Despite commonly held notions of the separateness and distance between politics and education, this study concludes that politics in education is inevitable.

The purpose of the study is to uncover connections between superintendents' leadership orientations and their political behaviors and beliefs using a multiple perspectives approach. …

"Everybody Get Together": The Sixties Counterculture And Public Space, 1964--1967, Jill Katherine Silos

Doctoral Dissertations

Historians and cultural analysts have traditionally considered the sixties counterculture an apolitical phenomenon by historians and other analysts. Yet concentrated examination of the public activities of the counterculture in San Francisco from 1963 to 1967 reveals that they were engaged in the creation of a public political culture that challenged the power of civil authorities to regulate the uses of parks, streets and sidewalks. In doing so, the counterculture constituted a distinct community with a political agenda.

This thesis is demonstrated through an analysis of the development of an ethos toward public space in the Beat movement and Merry Prankster …

"In Passion And In Hope:" The Pilgrimage Of An American Radical, Martha Dodd Stern And Family, 1933--1990, John Francis Fox Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the literary/political pilgrimage of Martha Dodd Stern (1908--1990), an unusually promising writer. Using Martha's writings, government intelligence files like the Venona Transcripts, I develop a narrative and analytic family biography to analyze the faith of this leftist and develop a typology of the fellow traveler that shows its roots in the Progressive Era and their radicalization under the Great Depression and growth of fascism.

Martha's father, historian William E. Dodd (1869 to 1940), imparted to Martha his Wilsonian progressivism and resentment of social distinctions. Martha's experience in Nazi Germany (1933 to 1937) radicalized these roots. She placed …

Ordinary Women: Government And Custom In The Lives Of New Hampshire Women, 1690-1770, Marcia Schmidt Blaine

Doctoral Dissertations

The prominence of patriarchy and common law has caused many historians to concentrate on the limitations placed on eighteenth-century Anglo-American women. The results often present women as objects, rather than subjects, of study. Using four major primary sources: Governor, Council and Assembly records, petitions, licensing materials, and treasury records, this study examines the relationship between ordinary women and the provincial government of New Hampshire in order to explain the customary options available to women in proceedings with the government. Even with a spouse still living, Anglo-American women acted as family agents and representatives when captured by the Native Americans and …

Analysis Of Impact And Value Of Neasc High School Accreditation Procedures On School Accountability And School Improvement From 1987-1997, George Allan Cushing

Doctoral Dissertations

From a 1983 federal study which concluded, as its title suggests, that America had become A Nation at Risk because of a failing public school system, the modern standards movement was born. This educational reform movement beginning in the 1980's and continuing through the 1990's brought about the development and establishment of many accountability and improvement initiatives aimed at public schools. Also during this time, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), through its Commission on Public Secondary Schools along with five other regional accrediting agencies across the country, was continuously engaged in the practice of evaluating and …

Confronting The War Machine: Draft Resistance During The Vietnam War, Michael Stewart Foley

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation recovers the history of the draft resistance movement in Boston during the Vietnam War. It is a blend of social, political, and cultural history that seeks not merely to assert the importance of draft resistance to our understanding of the antiwar movement and the Vietnam War era, but also to capture the experience of draft resisters and their supporters.

It is an actor-oriented history. The sources used include the personal private manuscript collections of participants, court records, underground newspapers, a 1997 survey administered to 310 former resisters and draft resistance activists (185 responded), and interviews with more than …

The Effects Of Medicaid And Maternal Depression On Prenatal Care And Infant Health, Lisa C. Defelice

Doctoral Dissertations

While in recent years, the infant health production function literature has expanded to incorporate behavioral inputs into the production of infant health current research fails to incorporate the Medicaid-private insurance choice into the mother's decision making process. This dissertation seeks to address this by treating private insurance and Medicaid as endogenous while considering the effects that the Medicaid eligibility rules have on both kinds of coverage. Medicaid and private insurance are entered directly into the health production function so that quality effects may be captured. In addition, a woman's state of mental health is also incorporated into the health production …

Petitions, Protests, And Policy: The Influence Of The American Colonies On Quebec, 1760-1776, Mary Ann Fenton

Doctoral Dissertations

The beginning years of British rule in Quebec are examined from a new perspective: the influence of the American colonies on Quebec. Three major issues were selected as the basis of the study: the impact of the American immigrant merchants on the internal life of the province; the role of the American colonies on British policy as it affected Quebec; and the failed American invasion of Quebec in 1775-76. Several long-held beliefs with respect to the mercantile community, the American component of that community, and the support of the merchants for the American revolutionaries during the invasion are challenged. The …

International Trade And Investment In Eastern Europe And The Soviet Union, Yassaman Saadatmand

Doctoral Dissertations

How should one analyze the economic relations between advanced capitalist systems and other economic systems? So far the economists have mainly concentrated their efforts on studying the relations between developed capitalist countries (henceforth DCs) and the less developed countries (henceforth LDCs) of the world. There has not, however, been a significant effort in devising a systematic theory of economic relations between DCs and the socialist countries. I intend for my dissertation to be a contribution in that direction. It is concerned with investigating the role of international trade and investment in the countries of Eastern Europe.

In the process of …