Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Outside Spending In The 2014 Midterm Elections: The Lasting Effects Of Citizens United, Lucas Fortier

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

The purpose of this study was to shed light on the controversial area of independent expenditures in the post-Citizens United world of campaign finance. The study focuses on three questions: who are the main players participating in this area of campaign finance, how are these outside groups being funded, and how do these groups spend their money to influence elections? Some findings of the study were that, while there was a large number of registered SuperPACs and political nonprofits in the 2014 midterm elections, only a relatively small group of 70 major organizations accounted for over 90 percent of total …

Land Reform And The Use Of Violence: Creating A Set Of Conditions Using The Case Of Zimbabwe, Dylan Ciccarelli

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

The purpose of this paper is to develop a set of conditions under which land reform becomes violent, looking specifically at the fast-track land reform policy implemented in Zimbabwe from 1998-2003. The roots and use of violence in the context of land reform is a topic that has not been widely researched in previous land reform literature, however it is important as the issue of land inequality has been, and is, an ongoing issue in many sub-Saharan African countries, including Zimbabwe. This paper will argue that land reform will become violent when certain economic, political, and social conditions are present. …

South African Survivor: The National Party’S Survival In The Context Of The Cold War, John Hartigan

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

Apartheid continued in the Republic of South Africa until 1993, far longer than any other minority dominated government on the continent of Africa. In this paper, I analyze the reasons why Afrikaners were able to perpetuate their grip on political power far longer than any of their white colleagues around the continent. This paper is comparative; I place the South African experience in context with other minority ruled statesKenya and Mozambiquethat experienced the break down of minority rule far sooner than the South Africans. I argue that there are three main factors that ensured the that the National PartySouth Africas …

State-Building And Intrastate Conflict In Africa, Lillian Holland

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

In my poster I will be examining under what conditions does state building measures turn into intrastate violence in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and Kenya.

The Causes Of The Civil Wars In Côte D'Ivoire, Matthew Ayers

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

No abstract provided.

Post-Conflict Child Soldier Networks In Africa, Andrew Currier

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

No abstract provided.

Finding Aid To The Collection Of Richard Cutts Shannon Materials., Richard Cutts Shannon, Colby College Special Collections

Finding Aids

The Richard Cutts Shannon collection contains diaries, correspondence, printed materials, photographs, artifacts, and clippings by and about Richard Cutts Shannon, Colby Class of 1862. Of note are many diaries Shannon kept throughout his life between 1862-1920, including his time as an aide-de-camp in the Civil War, a prisoner in Libby Prison, his voyage to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, his service as Secretary of the U.S. Legation in Brazil, as a U.S. Congressman, and an account of his tour around the world. This collection also contains photographs, artifacts (Shannon's riding gloves and saddlebag from the Civil War era), Shannon's accounts of …

Inequality And Involvement: Participatory Trends In The Politics Of A Rural Maine Town, Shelby O'Neill

Honors Theses

Interdisciplinary research suggests that participation in most forms of political activity in the United States is stratified by socioeconomic status. People with higher socioeconomic statuses are more able and willing to participate in politics than people with lower socioeconomic statuses. This participatory inequality amplifies the political voice of the upper class relative to the lower class. However, little academic attention has been paid to analyzing the impact of socioeconomic inequality on participation in local politics. By analyzing participatory trends in the politics of the rural town of Belgrade, ME, this honors thesis fills a gap in the academic literature on …

Demographics As Destiny: Modeling Population Change And Party Strategies On The Electoral Map, 2016-2040, Sam Parker

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the ways demographic change will affect presidential elections over the next 25 years. It utilizes a detailed, interactive model to project the electoral effects of demographic growth in every presidential election from 2016 to 2040; the model allows me to simulate how voting rates by demographic groups might be altered by changes in party strategies. The two alternative Republican strategies this model simulates are a "doubling down" on white voters and a "diversified coalition" approach, where Republicans would reach out to minorities to build a coalition better suited to America's growing diversity.

The model's results indicate that, …

Willingness-To-Pay For Renewable Wind Energy: Differences In Preferences Between Demographic Groups, Carlton D. Reed, William H. Scott

Journal of Environmental and Resource Economics at Colby

Many surveys have shown that public acceptance of wind energy is high in general; however there always seems to be concerns at the local level during the siting and permitting process. This shows that people understand that clean wind energy is an essential need, however people do not normally want to have turbines in their own community. This choice experiment determines which benefits people prefer and which trade-offs people are willing to make in order to host a wind farm in their community. The effectiveness of several attributes, and their respective ability to rid apathy and concerns about local wind …

Watch Closely And Pay Attention, Kevin Cool

Colby Magazine

Stuart Rothenberg '70 has what Washington wants- information and lots of it.

In The Loop, Outside The Beltway: When The National Press Wants Perspective And Insight, It Turns To Colby's Political Pundits, Gerry Boyle

Colby Magazine

It was the opening night of the Democratic Convention and Anthony Corrado, headphones in place, was seated in a soundproof cubbyhole on the fourth floor of the Eustis Building at Colby awaiting a call from National Public Radio's Scott Simon. The NPR host was at the convention in Los Angeles. The interview was to be broadcast live. When Simon came on the line, his first question was whether the entertainment industry is more likely to give to the Democratic Party than to Republicans. "They certainly are," Corrado said, without missing a beat. "In fact, one of the groups that the …

Decentralization And Ethnic Violence, Joseph Long

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

Analyzes the effects of three forms of decentralization on the incidence and intensity of ethnic violence in African states.

It’S Our Money And We Want It Now:Secession In Resource Rich Countries And The Role Of The International Community, Kiernan Somers

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

Tensions between the right to self-determination and existing states have caused many conflicts around the globe. Resource rich regions such as Katanga, Biafra, South Sudan, East Timor, Cabinda, and Aceh all had to go through the international community to gain statehood and were either granted or declined the right to self-determination. Secessionist movements frequently challenge existing state borderlines; however, few reach the ultimate goal of statehood. Secession attempts in resource rich regions, whether carried out by unorganized rebels, or a fully functioning autonomous government, are dependent on the international community for success. Through textual analyses of academic journals, monographs, and …

An Analysis Of Municipality-Level Election Results Of The 2012 Presidential Election In New York, Pennsylvania, And Ohio, And Comparison Of These Results To Those From The 2008 Presidential Election, Gregory Naigles

CLAS: Colby Liberal Arts Symposium

The 2008 and 2012 Presidential elections were both similar and different in many ways. On one hand, the Democratic candidate was the same in both elections, and similar strategies were employed by both sides in the two elections. On the other hand, the candidates formed slightly different coalitions, turnout rates were different, and there were some differences in which states the campaigns chose to focus on. I have analyzed the results of these two elections, particularly the 2012 presidential election, in the three states of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, in order to try to determine where the election results …

A New Balance: National Security And Privacy In A Post 9-11 World, Russell B. Wilson

Honors Theses

The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 shocked the American security apparatus, placing greater pressure on the security actions of the U.S. government, particularly regarding information gathering. Laying out a framework that examines different notions of national security and privacy, this paper examine three case studies to illustrate the role of the government and the inherent friction between privacy and security that increased information gathering inherently creates. The shifting balance between the two variables forces us to reexamine how we want our government to protect us and what we will sacrifice in order to ensure our own well being. With …

Making Of A President: Candidates Lean On Colbians In Bids For The White House, Allen Lessels

Colby Magazine

Candidates lean on Colbians in bids for the White House; alumni who are staffers and aides ride the roller coaster of a presidential campaign.

The Diplomat: Ambassador Patrick Duddy Looks For Common Ground With Venezuela's President, Hugo Chávez, David Mckay Wilson

Colby Magazine

Newly appointed Ambassador Patrick Duddy ’72, a career diplomat, looks for common ground with Venezuela’s outspoken president, Hugo Chávez.

The Last Page: Lonely On The Right?, Joseph Reisert

Colby Magazine

Joseph Reisert on the place of a conservative on campus.

The Last Page: Being A Liberal, Douglas Archibald

Colby Magazine

I retired in August 2004, with two presentations at literature meetings in Liverpool providing a satisfying punctuation, then returned to volunteer for the MoveOn.org effort to change the administration in Washington. The effort worked in Maine but not well enough across the country, and I descended into depression and alienation, the intensity of which startled me. What had happened to my country?

What's At Stake: Colby Political Analysts Provide Perspective On The 2004 Presidential Election, Ranging From Foreign Policy To The Economy To The Environment, G. Calvin Mackenzie, L. Sandy Maisel, Kenneth Rodman, Robert Weisbrot, Amy Walter, Stuart Rothenberg, Joseph Reisert, Patrice Franko, Thomas Tietenberg, Lilliana Botcheva-Andonova

Colby Magazine

The Election, by G. Calvin Mackenzie, Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of American Government

The Great Divide, by L. Sandy Maisel, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Government

The Direction of Foreign Policy, by Kenneth Rodman, William R. Cotter Distinguished Teaching Professor of Government

Historic Parallels, by Robert Weisbrot, Christian A. Johnson Distinguished Teaching Professor of History

Inside View, by Amy Walter '91, House Editor, The Cook Political Report

Clinton Consequences, by Stuart Rothenberg '73, Editor, The Rothenberg Political Report

The Supreme Court, by Joseph Reisert, Harriet S. Wiswell and George C. Wiswell Jr. Associate Professor of American Constitutional Law

A …

The Last Page: Debating Preventive War: An Arena Of Law Of Power?, Kenneth Rodman

Colby Magazine

By the time you read this essay, we will almost certainly be at war, probably without the authorization of the United Nations. A group of students asked me whether such a war would be legal under international law. A second question is, “Do such considerations matter?”

A Political Remix, John Fleming

Colby Magazine

Political scientist Kendra King ’94 considers the hip-hop generation and the Obama future. A professor at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, King eschews stereotypes and keeps her students—and her colleagues—guessing.

Point Of View: To Bring Peace To Afghanistan, The International Community Must Understand Pashtuns, Ayaz Khan Achakzai

Colby Magazine

Ayaz Khan Achakzai ’09 on understanding the Pashtun plight.

Obama's Right Hand: Behind The Scenes, White House Chief Of Staff Pete Rouse Is Invaluable To The President, David Mckay Wilson

Colby Magazine

As White House chief of staff, Pete Rouse ’68 is President Obama’s go-to aide. Unlike his predecessor, Rahm Emanuel, Rouse works quietly behind the scenes, eschewing the spotlight in the complex world of Washington and global politics.

Who Was Elizabeth Hanson? Book Reveals The Secret Circumstances Surrounding The Death Of The Cia's Rising Star, Gerry Boyle

Colby Magazine

Book by Washington Post reporter reveals the secret circumstances surrounding the death of rising CIA star Elizabeth Hanson ’02.

Should She Run? The Decision For Female Congressíenal Candidates, Laura . J. Maloney

Honors Theses

This study, “Should She Run? The decision for female congressional candidates,” explores Why Women decide to or not to run for Congress. lt focuses on the influence of state political Culture with a case study on the emergence of female candidates in the primaries for U.S. House of Representative races New England districts from 2002-2010. After running a series of general linear models, the study Ends that certain aspects of a state’s political culture do impact female candidate emergence in New England. Looking forward, it suggests that the key to shrinking the gender gap in the U.S. Congress is to …

Human Rights Law And Military Aid Delivery: A Case Study Of The Leahy Law, Winifred Tate

Faculty Scholarship

Explicitly prohibiting US military counternarcotics assistance to foreign military units facing credible allegations of abuses, Leahy Law creation and implementation illuminates the epistemological challenges of knowledge production about violence in the policy process. First passed in 1997, the law emerged from strategic alliances between elite NGO advocates, grassroots activists and critically located Congressional aides in response to the perceived inability of Congress to act on human rights information. I explore the resulting transformation of aid delivery: rather than suspend aid when no “clean” units could be found, US officials convinced their Colombian allies to create new units consisting of vetted …

Keeping Nuclear Programs From Becoming Nuclear Weapons: A Game Theoretic And Econometric Analysis, Benjamin Guy Ogden

Honors Theses

There are currently only nine countries which possess nuclear weapons, but twenty-four countries have pursued the requisite technology. The question remains as to why nations ceased their programs, and whether the policies of the international community had anything to do with that decision. This paper uses both a game theoretic and a probit model with limited assumptions to attempt to uncover: a) what are the determinants of a country shuttering their nuclear weapon program, b) when "sticks and carrots" can be credible (subgame perfect), and c) how large of a role they play in the potential nuclear country's decision-making. I …

Economic Development Under Dominant-Party Regimes, Christopher J. Gorud

Honors Theses

Case studies of economic development in Japan, Mexico, India, and Kenya examine the relationship between dominant-party regimes and developmental outcomes. This paper studies the variables of bureaucratic coherence and cohesion, corporatism, labor relations, and national developmentism as contributing factors to developmental success or failure in these states.