Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Discrimination On The Basis Of Nationality Under The Convention On The Elimination Of Racial Discrimination, William Thomas Worster

Pace International Law Review

Following a recent judgment by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a divergence has opened between the Court and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD Committee) over whether the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) covers nationality-based discrimination. The ICJ held that the CERD does not, but the CERD Committee had previously held the opposite. The solution to this difference is to recognize that the CERD excludes discrimination between citizens and aliens, and, in this, the ICJ was correct. However, this discrimination is distinct from discrimination between foreign persons on the basis …

Exploration Into The Relationship Between Governmental Efficiency And Levels Of Individual Rights And Liberties, John M. Caskie

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

There is a relatively common libertarian belief that the United States Madisonian system of government serves the interests of liberties in ways other than the separation of powers or its explicitly enumerated rights and liberties. This belief stands as a rebuttal to efforts geared towards increasing governmental efficiency by arguing that their current failure to produce, enact and enforce a legislative output great enough to please critics actually serves the greater interest of the American people by preventing tyranny.

In this study I will be testing whether governmental efficiency has a negative impact on the levels of individual liberties those …

Third Party Mediation: Comparative Case Study On The Effectiveness Of Foreign Intervention In Intra-State Armed Conflicts In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Libya, And Myanmar., Vanessa Vuji

Dissertations and Theses

The intervention of third-party mediators is often critical in the resolution of intrastate armed conflicts. Their success hinges on such factors as the mediator’s skill and perceived impartiality, the support of the United Nations Security Council and clarity of their mandate, the timing of their interventions (the ‘ripeness’ concept) and the involvement of civil society. The purpose of this research will be to assess the effectiveness of third-party interventions in the Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, Libya, and Myanmar conflicts on the basis of these criteria. The parameters evaluated during the case studies show that third-party mediation may jeopardize the …

Governance From Below: Decentralization, Innovation, And Disaster Management In East Asia, Fatemah Muneer Nawabdin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Research on decentralization has emphasized that the distribution of power between the national and local levels has different effects on various outcomes. This dissertation aims to contribute to this discussion by shedding light on the three types of decentralization (political, fiscal, and administrative) and their effect on two main outcomes: the production of technological and intellectual innovation and COVID-19 management. I argue that decentralization – including its three types – works differently under different conditions, resulting in different outcomes. That is, fiscal and administrative decentralization empower local decision-makers to make autonomous decisions, which can be beneficial for promoting innovation, but …

Governing The Pandemic: A Comprehensive Policy Analysis Of The $4.1t Strategy, Sean D. Jasso

Education Division Scholarship

From January 2020 to March 2021, the U.S. Government implemented five laws to marshal the federal response to the December 2019 outbreak of the Coronavirus. For context, past federal emergency policies include the New Deal $1T, World War II $4T, Hurricane Katrina $120B, AIDS $100B, $2.4T Iraq War, $90B Ukraine War, $44B Climate Change, Covid Vaccines $30B and, the largest emergency spending allocation in U.S. history, Covid-19 $4.1T. An evaluation of the government’s strategy to confront the pandemic is framed into two segments: legislative function – how the Congress mobilizes emergency legislation; and, executive function – how the administration manages …

The Impact Of Countries' Leaders' Responses On Covid-19 Deaths, Kate Rumisek

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented health crisis with consequences felt worldwide. While every country was impacted, each leader had a different response resulting in different consequences per nation. This paper evaluates the responses of three countries' leaders to the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to COVID-19-related deaths. The countries analyzed are New Zealand, Brazil, and the United States. New Zealand's Prime Minister's response was characterized as proactive and strict. Under the leadership of Bolsonaro, Brazil ignored the magnitude of the pandemic, leading to a lack of a cohesive national plan. The United States, led by President Trump, responded with a …

A Comparative Analysis Of Regional Institution Engagement And Development Trajectories In South America And Eastern Asia, Joel S. Guahnich

Senior Projects Fall 2023

This project analyzes the reasons behind South American struggles connected to regional organizations compared to Southeastern Asian economic and political development in the second half of the 20th century. When exploring the unique characteristics and historical context of South American and Eastern Asian regional blocs such as the Union of South American NationsUSAN/ Union de Naciones Suramericanas, UNASUR, Mercado Común del Sur MERCOSUR; Eastern Asian regional blocs such as The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, and The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). This project seeks to understand the factors contributing to their distinct trajectories, highlighting how they have achieved …

The Underrepresentation Of Women In Japanese Politics: Through The Lens Of Sekuhara, Sexism, And Media Rhetoric, Elizabeth L. Whitmer

Honors Theses

Despite being a democratic and economically successful country, women in Japanese politics are extremely underrepresented. Since institutional factors do not explicitly prohibit women from holding office, this project turns to cultural factors to analyze this problem. Issues such as strict gender roles, sexual harassment, and rhetoric surrounding women politicians are some factors contextualizing the lives of Japanese women. In order to better understand these cultural barriers, this project turns to content analysis of news media in Japan to consider the ways in which women politicians are framed to the electorate, which may thus explain the low rates of elected women.

A Tale Of Two Cities: The Divergence Of Social Housing In Berlin And Vienna, Ben Eibl

CMC Senior Theses

The industrialization of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Berlin and Vienna led both cities to initiate a social housing program to create affordable housing for the masses moving into the cities. The cities share many characteristics and developed in similar directions at their early stages. Nevertheless, a century later, their social housing systems look far apart. While Vienna’s system continues to thrive and withstand pressures from the international and federal level, Berlin’s citizens showed their resentment towards housing in their city in a radical referendum demanding the expropriation of several real-estate companies. This thesis argues that we …

Women Leaders In The Baltic States: Untying The Double-Bind, Elena G. Roe

Honors Theses

Across the post-Soviet region, but particularly in the Baltic states, women executives have gained power in greater numbers and at higher rates than many other regions in the world. This defies existing literature, as these states maintain conservative gender stereotypes while also facing a major security threat from Russia close to their borders. This thesis posits that the increase in women within Baltic legislatures across time creates a political pipeline, or a pool of qualified candidates that makes the election of women to executive power more likely. This is not the only factor, however, as the influence of NATO as …

Environmental Policy Implementation And Electoral Institutions In Germany And Japan, Kaia Rendo

Honors Theses

In an era when attention to reconstruction and preservation of the environment is crucial, this thesis looks at the effect that electoral institutions have on attention paid to the environmental policy issue dimension. Specifically, it looks at party manifestos and policies in post-1980 Germany and Japan to determine if specific electoral structures, such as the number of parties in a system, correlates with a greater amount of either attention paid to environmental policy in party platforms or in the actual passing of policy. It finds that though both Germany and Japan employ multi-member proportional systems, the greater number of parties …

Coalition Of The Ending: Why States Withdraw From International Military Coalitions, Weiss Mehrabi

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

This dissertation examines the causes and conditions motivating states to discontinue supporting an ongoing military coalition operation and prematurely abandon their partners. In exploring coalition defection through a three-article dissertation, I advance three separate theoretical arguments focusing on three levels of analysis.

The first article contributes to the literature by investigating the effects of political regime types on coalition abandonment during interstate wars. I argue that anocracies are dependable wartime partners and will not abandon coalition warfare earlier than autocracies and democracies. I advance two arguments for the theory of anocratic reliability. First, leaders of mixed regimes expect severe post-defeat …

Variations In Refugee Acceptance Among Democratic States, Ryan King

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

What factors account for the variation in refugee acceptance? My review of existing literature and subsequent research paper will seek to further develop the understanding of this phenomenon by identifying and investigating factors that account for the differences in rates of migration flow among democratic states. The literature review will discuss the current body of research surrounding the topic, and the research itself will attempt to further the understanding of the impact of the given variables by using currently available data of international trends in migration, as well as a number of specific case studies. First, the paper will outline …

When In Rome, Do As Meloni And Salvini Do: Dissecting The Potentially Extreme Nature Of The Political Communication Of Italy's New Right-Wing Populist Duo, Thomas S. Erie

Honors Theses

The fundamental question that this research project aims to answer is: what are the defining characteristics of the style and rhetoric of the communication practices of Italian right-wing populist leadership and how do they relate to those of fascism? After the Italian elections of 2022, in which a right-wing populist coalition led by Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini came to power, further research is necessary to understand the potential implications of this electoral result. Political communication has developed in recent years to shift towards direct communication from the leader to their base through social media and speeches published on YouTube. …

Arendt And Christianity: On Love And The World, Logan Andrew Daly

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Hannah Arendt criticized the Christian faith for what she saw as an inherent wordlessness or ascetic attitude. She believed this focus on the afterlife was an afront to her political philosophy and kept people from participating in the public sphere. This thesis is a selective exploration of Arendt’s criticisms against the Christian faith and aims to show that there is a way of reconciling the respective belief systems, allowing an Arendtian to benefit from Christian ideas and a Christian to improve themselves with the assistance of Arendtian concepts. The project is split into two chapters. Each chapter focuses on a …

Growing Pains: Toward A Coalition-Based Theory Of State Land Use Policy, Patrick Rochford

Honors Projects

In the decades following World War II, mass suburbanization remade the American landscape. While suburbs accounted for 83% of the nation’s growth between 1950 and 1970, cities bled their populations and natural resources dwindled. Treating the postwar era as a critical juncture, this thesis examines the political history of twentieth-century state land use policy to illuminate how competing interests have shaped policy outcomes across the United States. Specifically, the paper seeks to explain the passage of statewide growth management and smart growth programs. After providing a history of American suburbanization, the paper considers an emergent challenge to the postwar growth …

Citizen Demand For Cultural Censorship: A Mixed Methods Study, Kelly Grenier

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

This dissertation investigates the political causes and consequences of cultural censorship. One of the central arguments of this project is that cultural censorship is often a response to citizen demand. Using a mixed methods approach, this dissertation explores the demand for censorship and benefits a regime receives from censoring citizens in an effort to understand the calculus of cultural censorship. This project focuses on the Americas and looks at censorship in both democracies and autocracies across time. Leveraging high quality archival data, a survey experiment, and regional datasets, this project aims to understand the rationale behind cultural censorship and finds …

Understanding Financial Inclusion: A Comparative Analysis Of Financial Mechanisms In Uganda, Amari Huang

CMC Senior Theses

Financial inclusion is a critical means of empowering individuals to improve their own lives, and Uganda provides an excellent case study for examining various financial mechanisms in a developing country context. This thesis investigates four such mechanisms: formal banks, microfinance institutions, mobile money, and contribution clubs. The analysis is conducted using five criteria to evaluate their level of inclusion: (1) quantitative coverage, (2) standard of living, (3) gender, (4) education, and (5) social capital. The findings of this research suggest that the examined financial institutions can be seen as steppingstones, with each leading to the next, from contribution clubs to …

The Role Of The United States In Advancing Democracy In Developing Countries: The Case Of Bangladesh, 2008-2020, Abdul Halim

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The United States has been working in close collaboration with the government of Bangladesh (GoB) to promote democratic norms and practices in the country. Over the past five decades, various US agencies have provided about $8 billion in foreign aid to Bangladesh (U.S. Department of State, 2022) with a significant percentage of these funds devoted to promoting democratic governance in the recipient nation. This study seeks to investigate the impact of US aid on democratization in Bangladesh from 2008 to 2020. Utilizing bi-variate statistical models, this essay analyzes four distinct measures of US-funded projects that directly promote democracy and their …

The Conceptual "New Cold War": A Comparative Analysis Of Great Power Competition, Annie Goodman

Honors Theses

The Cold War was a decades-long competition between the US and the Soviet Union marked mainly by an existential nuclear arms race, the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction, and the dire opposition of democracy and communism worldwide. Today, however, the concept of a ‘Cold War,’ a frozen conflict, has expanded to include other forms of competition, and perhaps even new conflicts based in a state’s desire for hegemonic power. In this project, I sought to perform a comparative, qualitative analysis of the US/Soviet Cold War and the ongoing competitions between the US and China to determine if the US/China conflict …

Connecting The Dots: Immigration Policy And Access To Higher Education For Refugees In France, Isabella Amaro Varas

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

Since 2016, the increasing number of refugees in Europe accelerated the development of national and regional policies to determine their rights and access to resources. Against this backdrop, the strong politicization of migration, and the recent financial crises, refugees' access to welfare has “become a key area of concern across European democracies” (Lafleur et al. 2020). Considering public education programs as a pillar of social policy agendas in this region, this study examines French policy in order to answer the following questions: How do French immigration and education policies converge to determine refugees’ access to higher education in France? What …

Reply To Comments, Artemy Magun

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

No abstract provided.

Reply To Comments, Greg Yudin

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

No abstract provided.

Comments To Magun’S And Yudin’S Papers, By Paul Apostolidis, Albena Azmanova, Darin Barney, Gal Kirn, Enzo Rossi, Paul Passavant, David Strecker, Albena Azmanova

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

No abstract provided.

Capitalism And The Post-Socialist Road To Hell, Artemy Magun

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

No abstract provided.

The Neoliberal Roots Of Putin’S War, Greg Yudin

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

No abstract provided.

Unwilling Gamblers And Loaded Dice: Considering Recession And Crisis As A Natural Effect Of Financial Capitalism, Darlene N. Moorman

The Downtown Review

Under financial capitalism, ordinary people are increasingly becoming 'unwilling gamblers' of a risky and unstable system. This paper explores the social and institutional change behind the neoliberal movement and considers how the politics and policies of neoliberalism have contributed to a certain environment of financial instability. Looking at the changing nature of the economy, the rapid expansion of the financial sector, and the persisting issue of moral hazard underlying risky and speculative behaviors among other items, reveals a financial system in which recessions and crises can be considered a natural, although not inevitable, effect.

Recommendations For Sustainable Tourism In Patagonia: An Exploratory Analysis Of Sustainable Tourism In Costa Rica, The Nordic Region, And Thailand’S Communities, Julia K. Lowery

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis explores different levels of governance and its role towards actualizing sustainable tourism in Patagonia. With the growing threat of climate change, international destinations such as Patagonia are looking to continue building their tourism industries in a sustainable way. Through analyzing case studies of national governance in Costa Rica, multi-national governance in the Nordic region, and community-based tourism in Thailand, we can better understand how each form of governance has the potential to create a sustainable tourism industry. With this understanding of successful governance in my case studies, as well as understanding the historical and political forces that have …

Feminism And Women's Representation In Argentina, Devyn Murphy

Honors Theses

The theory of feminism has proved essential in the transformation of the patriarchal society in Argentina. Feminism paved the way for the emergence of various women’s movements, such as the Encuentros and Movimiento Nacional de Mujeres. These movements redefined the roles that women could play in society. It was because of this theory, and the movements, which made the theories a practice that advanced the political rights of Argentine women.

The Fall Of The Pakatan Harapan (Ph): Contesting Nationalism In Malaysia, Cheng Kidd Sun

Honors Theses

The collapse of the 22 months-old Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition-government in 2020 was the ultimate manifestation of contestations over nationalism that have continued in Malaysia since the nation’s inception more than six decades ago. The “middle ground” platform — a political moderation strategy to win across ethnic lines to obtain multiethnic support — that helped the PH coalition to win the 14th Malaysian General Election was shattered due to identity tensions. The current political discourse has persistently insisted that the betrayal of politicians and political parties, along with economic insecurity and media fragmentation, had contributed to the downfall of this …