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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Divine Democracy: Examining The Intersection Of Religion And Politics In Civil Religion, José Andrés Serrano Jan 2023

Divine Democracy: Examining The Intersection Of Religion And Politics In Civil Religion, José Andrés Serrano

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This thesis seeks to build upon and provide a new interpretation of civil religion in the United States. In it, the history of civil religion from the 1960s, starting with Bellah, to the 2010s will be analyzed for any themes still used in the 2020s. Similarly, understanding what a religion is within this time frame will be broken apart and examined to see how it paralleled the evolution of political understanding. Building upon its history, the paper will break into four prominent chapters: Is American Democracy Like a Civil Religion?, Religious Characteristics in the American Government, American Democracy as a …


The Impact Of Development Aid On Human Development, Lauren Candia Shaffer Jan 2023

The Impact Of Development Aid On Human Development, Lauren Candia Shaffer

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the relationship between development aid and human development in recipient countries. The primary function of this research is to determine which types of aid are most effective in improving human development. To accomplish this goal, I use a fixed effects regression analysis to examine the following aid types in individual chapters of the dissertation: Total Aid, Donor-specific aid, Sectoral Aid, Conditional Aid, and aid flowing from Multilateral, Bilateral, and Private sources. This analysis produced mixed results, indicating that some types of aid have a positive and significant impact on human development, some have a negative and significant …


Forms Of Amusement: Rousseau’S Lettre À D’Alembert And Julie, Trevor Mark Shunk Jan 2023

Forms Of Amusement: Rousseau’S Lettre À D’Alembert And Julie, Trevor Mark Shunk

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a philosopher who cared about nonphilosophers. He intervened in circumstances where he saw nonphilosophers in danger, such as with the Lettre à d’Alembert , and he wrote enchanting stories for them, such as Julie . His overarching concern in these books was what he perceived as a loss of virtue or virtue undermined by contemporary trends in the theater and in the literary world. His writings were radical in their originality: the Lettre à d’Alembert condemned popular spectacles and Julie departed from the norm for novels. Rousseau denounced other philosophers for irresponsibility among nonphilosophers in relation to …


The Impact Of Education On Reducing Poverty In South Asia, Rooppreet Kaur Sohal-Bagri Jan 2023

The Impact Of Education On Reducing Poverty In South Asia, Rooppreet Kaur Sohal-Bagri

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the relationship between primary, secondary education attainment and poverty in South Asia. The countries of examination include India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan, and Maldives. The primary function of this research is to determine if primary and secondary education attainment of peoples has an impact on being associated with reducing poverty. To accomplish and to test this goal, I have used fixed effects regression analysis to examine the following research questions: Does education expansion (primary, secondary) reduce poverty in South Asia? Does education expansion (primary, secondary) reduce poverty for women in South Asia? This first …


Marginalization Of Fezzan Region In Libya, Amad Abukhzaam Jan 2023

Marginalization Of Fezzan Region In Libya, Amad Abukhzaam

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The Fezzan region of Libya experiences instability, conflict, and reduced quality of life. This qualitative case study aimed to understand and compare the positionality and marginalization of Fezzan relative to the other Libyan regions of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania and how this positionality had shaped Fezzan through the Constitutional Monarchy era (1952 to 1969), Gaddafi era (1969 to 2011), and February Revolution era (2011 to 2021). Data came from elite written interviews with former Libyan government members and secondary data from the academic and professional/international literature about Libya and archival information, such as demographics and budgetary data. The conceptual framework contained …


The Role Of Mediators In The Relationship Between Export Diversification And Economic Development, Hajer Abdulla Basodan Jan 2023

The Role Of Mediators In The Relationship Between Export Diversification And Economic Development, Hajer Abdulla Basodan

CGU Theses & Dissertations

As the global economy has become interconnected, international trade has become a common medium for developing and developed countries to interact. However, there is a gap in the scholarly literature when considering the effects of export diversification. The goal of this dissertation is to study and identify the relationship between export concentration and economic development in developing countries. Data were collected from the International Monetary Fund World Bank for quantitative analysis. Using mediator analysis and these mediators included export volatility (export instability), net barter (terms of trade), and current account balance (competitiveness). The findings from the quantitative analysis revealed that …


Natural Law Theory Under The Sun How Iranian Political Thought Viewed Tyranny As Opposed To The West, Shahram Arshadnejad Jan 2023

Natural Law Theory Under The Sun How Iranian Political Thought Viewed Tyranny As Opposed To The West, Shahram Arshadnejad

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative research aims to explore and unravel the theory of natural law within its Greek context and its influence on political thought, particularly addressing the need to counteract the damages of tyranny and the cyclical succession of regimes, as articulated by Plato. This study reveals that the concept of natural law predates Stoics and it is rooted within the pre-Socratic natural philosophy. The study exposes that Aristotelian ethics and politics are rooted in the concept of natural law, ultimately giving rise to the Aristotelian "mixed form of government" and laying the groundwork for republicanism.In extending this inquiry, I attempt …


Moving In The Underground: The Politics Of Black Joy In Roller-Skating And Funk Music In Chicago, John West Jan 2023

Moving In The Underground: The Politics Of Black Joy In Roller-Skating And Funk Music In Chicago, John West

Pomona Senior Theses

Skating provides a moment of limited protection from the dangers of being Black in the after-life of slavery. Skating provides a way to temporarily escape the pain of the outside that is depicted above. The pain of a modern post-racial colorblind slave society. A society plagued with hyper-surveillance, mass incarceration, and domestic militarism targeted at Black and Brown bodies. Our joy and pleasure are what sustain us. We turn to jubilee to offer a moment of freedom from the burden of racial capitalism. Subversive Black joy, the joy that allows Black folk to restore, recreate, and reinvent themselves is how …


The Russia-Ukraine War: The Second Cold War?, Madeline Levine Jan 2023

The Russia-Ukraine War: The Second Cold War?, Madeline Levine

Scripps Senior Theses

Under the guise of a “special military operation,” Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The immediacy with which the United States rallied support for Ukraine within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (“NATO”), the United Nations (“UN”), and the European Union (“EU”) raised speculation: Is Russia-Ukraine the beginning of a second Cold War? Did the Cold War actually end in the 1990s? Is Ukraine the first proxy war in a series of more to come between the United States and Russia? This thesis will address the first question by identifying and analyzing the characteristics that distinguished the Cold War …


The United States’ Stringent Sovereignty: How Foreign Policy Framing Prioritizes Security Over Human Rights, Kathryn Parker Jan 2023

The United States’ Stringent Sovereignty: How Foreign Policy Framing Prioritizes Security Over Human Rights, Kathryn Parker

Scripps Senior Theses

American policymakers utilize valence framing, purposeful descriptions of outcomes as positive or negative, to influence the opinions of voters while maintaining the moral superiority felt by many citizens in the liberal Western hegemon. This study intended to combine the political theories of Constructivism and Realism to form Constructive Realism, a theory that emphasizes the significance of state power and norms as joint influences on constituents. Constructive realism was then applied to four case studies – the UN Security Council, International Criminal Court, Convention on the Rights of the Child, and Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. This study …


Let Us Be The Fish Who Grow Legs: A Curriculum Guide For Linking Prison Industrial Complex Abolition, Environmental Justice, And State Power, Tess Gibbs Jan 2023

Let Us Be The Fish Who Grow Legs: A Curriculum Guide For Linking Prison Industrial Complex Abolition, Environmental Justice, And State Power, Tess Gibbs

Scripps Senior Theses

This curriculum guide is designed to connect students’ understandings of environmental problems and injustices to their understandings of prison industrial complex (PIC) abolition, with the ultimate intention of cultivating the knowledge and imaginative practices to develop abolitionist-aligned solutions to environmental justice (EJ) problems outside of frameworks that rely upon state sanction. Students will connect the mutual causal forces of environmental injustices and the carceral state; explore intersections of environmental and carceral politics; and finish the course with broadened understandings of humans’ real and unrealized relationships with each other and the more-than-human world. The guide is intended to be worked through …


Factors That Enable Or Hinder The Transition Of Some Gulf Cooperation Council (Gcc) Countries To Green Energy, Verkine Keukpanossian Jan 2023

Factors That Enable Or Hinder The Transition Of Some Gulf Cooperation Council (Gcc) Countries To Green Energy, Verkine Keukpanossian

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries continue to play a strategic role in the global energy system. They account for a fifth of the global oil production and enjoy relatively high GDP per Capita, and their economies heavily rely on oil-producing and exporting at a time when the West is pushing towards net-zero, low-carbon emissions by 2050. This study focuses on the energy sector and takes a transdisciplinary look at Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and tries to understand how these rentier monarchies that have built a solid global comparative advantage in producing and exporting oil and …


Scripps Women And The Shaping Of Anti-Vietnam War Activism: A Comprehensive Archival Study, Leah A. Hurwitz Jan 2023

Scripps Women And The Shaping Of Anti-Vietnam War Activism: A Comprehensive Archival Study, Leah A. Hurwitz

Scripps Senior Theses

Women have actively participated in various social movements across different times and locations, contributing their efforts in diverse capacities. The Long Sixties was a period of social activism, particularly for young, antiwar American college students. Literature shows that women and young students engaged for varying reasons against the Vietnam War. However, there is less research regarding the explicit role women played in the antiwar movement on women’s college campuses, specifically concerning how their relevant identities shaped their activism. Using a case study and network analysis alongside archival research, I perform an analysis of the political opportunity structures, framings, and networks …


Grain-Washing: The Issue With Corn Ethanol As A Sustainable Aviation Fuel, Emily J. Rinn Jan 2023

Grain-Washing: The Issue With Corn Ethanol As A Sustainable Aviation Fuel, Emily J. Rinn

Scripps Senior Theses

Decarbonizing the aviation sector remains one of the most prevalent obstacles in reducing the United States’ significant contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. Launched in 2021, the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge aims to supply enough fuel to meet 100% of demand by 2050 through reducing its production costs and enhancing its sustainable practices. Corn ethanol feedstock has been proposed to make up as much as half of all SAF production in the 2030 benchmark. This thesis explores the assemblage of corn ethanol – from its true environmental impacts, role in the future SAF market, to research claiming corn …


An Empirical Study: Evaluating The Impact Of Economic, Human Resource, And Governance Factors To Foreign Direct Investment, Yuan-Yuan Lee Jan 2023

An Empirical Study: Evaluating The Impact Of Economic, Human Resource, And Governance Factors To Foreign Direct Investment, Yuan-Yuan Lee

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The economic crisis in 2008 prompted the restructuring of the world economic and trade patterns. The global supply chain began to restructure, and international investment presented more diversified features. The COVID-19 Pandemic brings a new global economic crisis. which is likely to negatively impact many businesses that rely heavily on the Chinese market. Quarantine policies have forced people to stay at home, reducing public connectivity and leading to a slowdown in economic growth. The outbreak has also caused companies and factories to pause operations, affecting trade, travel, and consumption. International investors are increasingly concerned about economic uncertainties, which highlights the …


Multidisciplinary Approach To Civil Conflict: Political, Economic, And Social Determinants Of Violence, Zhamilia Klycheva Jan 2023

Multidisciplinary Approach To Civil Conflict: Political, Economic, And Social Determinants Of Violence, Zhamilia Klycheva

CGU Theses & Dissertations

More abundant and less severe than interstate war, civil conflict has filled the news headlines worldwide, especially with nonviolent domestic instability. To this day, no single theoretical framework can fully explain this complex phenomenon. Scholars have often focused on one domain area as a precursor of violence. While such approaches are valuable, they need to grasp the whole picture, as addressing the problem from a single-domain perspective yields weak findings. This dissertation explores specific political, social, and economic factors that impact the onset, severity, and duration of civil conflict and the frequency of nonviolent conflict. It adopts a unified transdisciplinary …


Is Wide-Area Persistent Surveillance By State And Local Governments Constitutional?, Joseph Lake Jan 2023

Is Wide-Area Persistent Surveillance By State And Local Governments Constitutional?, Joseph Lake

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the following question: “Can wide-area persistent surveillance (WAPS) developed by the United States military and employed abroad as a tool in the Global War on Terror be employed domestically as a law enforcement tool without violating the US Constitution’s Fourth Amendment?” The most likely and controversial application of WAPS by state and local governments is for law enforcement. Aircraft will loiter over a city persistently taking high-definition photographs to capture locations of unidentified persons with the intent to identify persons and areas of interest for criminal investigations. Based on the Flyover Cases, aerial surveillance has few constitutional …


The Effect Of Bureaucracy On The Inflow Of Foreign Direct Investment: A Comparative Study Of Libya And The United Arab Emirates, Abdurraouf Abdussalam Elakder Jan 2023

The Effect Of Bureaucracy On The Inflow Of Foreign Direct Investment: A Comparative Study Of Libya And The United Arab Emirates, Abdurraouf Abdussalam Elakder

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) is a determinant factor for developing national economies, and Libya is no exception. However, the bureaucracy in Libya still needs to be improved to help attract foreign direct investment. Therefore, this comparative case study seeks to analyze the effects of bureaucracy on attracting FDI to Libya and the United Arab Emirates, highlighting the bureaucratic barriers embodied mainly in bureaucratic expansion, bureaucratic corruption, and the obstacles of the FDI laws. I argue in favor of eliminating those bureaucratic barriers and improving bureaucratic quality, enhancing the chances of attracting and keeping FDI. The study's standpoint is that …


A Review Examining How The Republican Party Can Win Key Electoral Votes In Georgia And North Carolina, Kyle Ballack Jan 2023

A Review Examining How The Republican Party Can Win Key Electoral Votes In Georgia And North Carolina, Kyle Ballack

CMC Senior Theses

Given the importance of the 2024 presidential election for the Republican Party, it is imperative that they are able to win the 32 combined electoral votes from the states of Georgia and North Carolina. In order to determine the best strategy for the Republican Party to employ, this paper will first examine voting behavior theories that explain recent voting trends among the United States electorate as a whole. Next, it will focus on the political history of the American South in order to explain recent voting trends in the area. The next two sections will focus on the historical and …


Prosecuting Rape As Genocide: An Analysis Of The Legal Framework And Challenges In International Law, Anya Syed Jan 2023

Prosecuting Rape As Genocide: An Analysis Of The Legal Framework And Challenges In International Law, Anya Syed

CMC Senior Theses

Rape can be used to annihilate, control, and humiliate populations. Mass rape can have genocidal intent. Yet, thus far, the legal definition of genocide has failed to codify rape. These severe limitations in the definition of genocide create legal impunity and impede the rehabilitation of rape survivors. This failure also results in legal challenges, including the lack of basis to distinguish between rape during war and genocide. This paper seeks to provide readers with sufficient background to understand the legal challenges currently preventing the prosecution of rape as genocide. After presenting this information, the paper details past courts that have …


Autonomy, Influence, And Impunity: The Failures Of The Western Intelligence Institution, Ava Liao Jan 2023

Autonomy, Influence, And Impunity: The Failures Of The Western Intelligence Institution, Ava Liao

CMC Senior Theses

Intelligence agencies have always suffered from internal inefficiencies. By nature, their opaqueness and deliberate ambiguity in what they bring to the table disincentivizes scrutiny or critique from other government entities and the general public. There is very little accountability to be had for intelligence agencies, even in Western liberal democracies: no amount of voting will change how they are structured or operated, and thus incentive to change usually does not arise from domestic pressures, but rather from large-scale failures. Methods used to obtain intelligence are often presented very objectively, without context or accounting for the ideological values influencing them. It …


A Tale Of Two Cities: The Divergence Of Social Housing In Berlin And Vienna, Ben Eibl Jan 2023

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 …


Positional Advantage: Factors Behind The Uneven Geographic Distribution Of Top Chess Players, Julia C. Schulman Jan 2023

Positional Advantage: Factors Behind The Uneven Geographic Distribution Of Top Chess Players, Julia C. Schulman

CMC Senior Theses

This paper seeks to explore the reason behind the uneven geographic distribution of top chess grandmasters. FIDE rating data, country data, and survey data given to chess grandmasters are gathered to determine the validity of the hypothesis: That the two main influences in whether a country has a higher or lower number (and percentage) of top grandmasters are chess culture and federation/government support. The research tests the correlation between several variables and explores whether or not there is quantitative and qualitative support for this assumption. Individual studies in the latter end of this paper explore the countries on a case-by-case …


The Role Of The Wagner Group In The Russo-Ukrainian War, Erik Herbert Lohmus Jan 2023

The Role Of The Wagner Group In The Russo-Ukrainian War, Erik Herbert Lohmus

CMC Senior Theses

The Wagner Group has emerged as one of the most prominent actors of the on-going Russo-Ukrainian war. Although Private Military Companies are banned by the Russian Constitution and Russian Criminal Code, Wagner has been able and permitted to operate all across the world as a foreign policy tool of the Russian state. However, Wagner’s use and employment in Ukraine has differed drastically compared to Syria, Central African Republic and Libya, as the group is employed in a more conventional capacity. With many of the Russian successes in the east of Ukraine attributable to Wagner, the financier of the group, Yevgeny …


Failing History: How Multinational Institutions Cannot Prevent Cultural Racketeering, Molly Luce Jan 2023

Failing History: How Multinational Institutions Cannot Prevent Cultural Racketeering, Molly Luce

CMC Senior Theses

Cultural racketeering, the looting and trafficking of cultural heritage sites to fund conflict, violence, or terrorism, has become a prevalent issue across the globe in recent years. This paper identifies the main actors, the sellers and buyers, of the looted antiquities and outlines several cases. Sellers, such as ISIS or Al-Qaeda, pillage and traffic sites of cultural, religious, or historic importance as a funding source for their illicit activities. Buyers, which include museums and elite private collectors, purchase these antiquities and inadvertently fund terrorism. The international community has condemned these actors and implemented policies in response. The conventions that multinational …


Unscr 1325 Did Not Help Women, Peace, Or Security In Afghanistan: The Role Of Militarism And Hegemonic Masculinity In International Security, Sawyer Bannister Jan 2023

Unscr 1325 Did Not Help Women, Peace, Or Security In Afghanistan: The Role Of Militarism And Hegemonic Masculinity In International Security, Sawyer Bannister

CMC Senior Theses

This paper argues that UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security exemplifies how the international security system is constructed in a way that not only preserves militarism and hegemonic masculinity, but further perpetuates gendered power disparities and exacerbates human insecurity. In this pursuit, this paper develops a theoretical framework of radical feminism to illustrate how the international arena embodies militarized hegemonic masculinity and how this power paradigm fundamentally inhibits international security organizations from successfully addressing gender issues. Additionally, this paper utilizes a case study of UNSCR 1325 and WPS implementation in Afghanistan to reveal how when international security organizations attempt …


United States Policy To Undermine Iran’S Regional And Global Strategy, William Stewart Jan 2023

United States Policy To Undermine Iran’S Regional And Global Strategy, William Stewart

CMC Senior Theses

This paper aims to understand the way in which Iran uses proxy groups to implement its regional foreign policy strategy while increasing relationships with foreign actors to implement its global foreign policy strategy. I will dive into the intricacies of Iran’s strategy on a country-by-country basis while outlining the goals of the regime. I will analyze the way in which the United States has dealt with Iran and its proxy groups in the past as well as provide suggestions on the steps the Biden administration and the United States as a whole must implement in order to contain Iran’s influence …


The Los Angeles Police Department After The End Of The Consent Decree, Daniela Corona Jan 2023

The Los Angeles Police Department After The End Of The Consent Decree, Daniela Corona

CMC Senior Theses

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) entered into a consent decree with the Department of Justice in 2001. The LAPD was tasked with reforming a range of behaviors and practices including racial profiling, excessive use of force and corruption. Previous studies suggest that after the implementation of the consent decree the LAPD was able to reduce their uses of force and improve public perception of their department while still maintaining an effective level of policing activity and preventing increases in the crime rate. This paper seeks to revisit the LAPD after the end of the consent decree and assess if …


The Controversies Of (Immersion) Piss Christ And The Perfect Moment: An Argument For State Funding Of The Arts As An Extension Of Free Speech Protections, Olivia Fish Jan 2023

The Controversies Of (Immersion) Piss Christ And The Perfect Moment: An Argument For State Funding Of The Arts As An Extension Of Free Speech Protections, Olivia Fish

CMC Senior Theses

In 1989, artists Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). A short few months after the two artists became grant recipients, the funding for each of them was pulled as a result of escalating controversy and anger over the art created by both artists being funded by a federal organization. Those angered by the art and their respective grants tied the messaging of the art to the beliefs and values of the state—Serrano’s photograph being tied to a commentary on the overcommercialization of religion and Mapplethorpe’s exhibition being unabashedly queer and, at …


Cracking Down On Cutting Sleeves: A Historical Analysis Of “Homosexuality” In China As A Comparison To Present Day Lgbtq+ Rights, Thomas Falci Jan 2023

Cracking Down On Cutting Sleeves: A Historical Analysis Of “Homosexuality” In China As A Comparison To Present Day Lgbtq+ Rights, Thomas Falci

CMC Senior Theses

Over the past more than a decade of Xi Jinping’s leadership, the space for civil society in China has shrunk dramatically. One of the main, yet often overlooked, victims of this shift in policy has been China’s LGBTQ+ community. This thesis examines the current crackdown on LGBTQ+ peoples and organizations in China and attempts to place it within a broader context of China’s current state in the world order. The lenses of queer International Relations theory and the long history of “homosexuality” in China will both be applied to help contextualize the current state of Chinese LGBTQ+ rights. This analysis …