Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Elemental Challenges: Environmental Troubles Beyond The Limits Of Democracy, Brad Mapes-Martins

Open Access Dissertations

From an examination of how environmental issues reshape politics, this inquiry focuses on the theoretical grounds of deliberative democratic theory to ask whether such a vision offers the best means of resolving environmental problems. Arguing that the very terms in which environmental politics have been defined retain features better suited to previous historical circumstances, the analysis proceeds from features typical of environmental problems to a more context-specific assessment of the role for democratic participation. Engaging the works of Jürgen Habermas, the author details the way in which deliberative democratic theory is indebted to a concept of communicative action that defines …

The Exclusion Of Non-Native Voters From A Final Plebiscite In Puerto Rico: Law And Policy, Ramon Antonio Rodriguez

Open Access Dissertations

U.S. Puerto Rico relations have always been mystifying to countless U.S. citizens, due to inconsistent policies and judicial decisions from the United States. Puerto Ricans have no control over immigration, yet they can decide the future of the island nation. Puerto Rico is a nation under colonial rule. Paul R. Bras sistains the possibility of corporate recognition for the ethnic group as a separate nationality within an existing state evocative of the United States. The United States has treated Puerto Rico as foreign country nevertheless at times as domestic. Under U.S. law and jurisprudence Puerto Rico is not part of …

Engineering Of Artificial Cellular Circuits Based On The Luxi-Luxr Quorum-Sensing System, Daniel Jon Sayut

Open Access Dissertations

Natural cellular networks are very good at processing diverse inputs, generating complicated responses, and confounding researchers with their complexities. As an alternative to traditional cellular engineering approaches, the field of synthetic biology attempts to avoid the complexities of natural systems by focusing on the bottom-up construction of artificial cellular circuits. By rationally building up circuit complexity, synthetic biologists hope to both create novel systems capable of programming unique cellular responses, and gain insights into the design principles of natural systems. Circuits that allow for the programming of intercellular responses are of particular interest, and researchers have focused on the use …

The Office For Harmonization In The Internal Market: Creating A 21st Century Public Agency, Jane Fountain, Raquel Galindo-Dorado, Jeffrey Rothschild

National Center for Digital Government

(first paragraph) President Wubbo de Boer and his department directors, his top management team, prepared for critical meetings of the Administrative Board and the Budget Committee in the winter of 2010. The European Union’s trademark and design registration agency in Alicante, Spain, grandly named the Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market (Trade Mark and Design) (OHIM), had exceeded all expectations for the establishment of the Community trade mark (CTM) and the Registered Community design (RCD). The new agency also could be proud of impressive achievements in productivity and transparency since it began registering trademarks in 1996. Through productivity gains, …

Ideological Endzones: Nfl Films And The Countersubversive Tradition In American Politics, Nicholas R. Archer

Open Access Dissertations

This study examines the role of propaganda and popular culture in constituting the American political tradition through the study of NFL films by employing a decidedly overlooked theoretical conception of the American political tradition—the countersubversive tradition thesis. Originally put forth by Michael Rogin, the countersubversive tradition is defined as “the creation of monsters as a continuing feature of American politics by the inflation, stigmatization, and dehumanization of political foes.” It is my belief that in looking at what constitutes the individual characteristics of the countersubversive tradition in a text like a sports film it is easier to see how it …

The Business Community And The Forging Of Political Consensus Against The Clinton Healthcare Security Act Of 1994, Michael Lenz

Open Access Dissertations

My research provides an insider's view of how political consensus is formed within the business community. More specifically, my research sheds light on the sociological processes of political mobilization within the business community against the Clinton Health Security Act of 1994. In this study, I build off Jill Quadagno's stakeholder thesis which largely attributes the defeat of the healthcare reform effort to the political mobilization of anti-healthcare business forces. I probe Quadagno's thesis a bit deeper in this study by exploring how conflicting business forces resolved policy disagreements on the merits of healthcare reform in order to arrive at the …

The Institutional Dimension Of E-Government Promotion: A Comparative Study On Making ‘Business Reference Model (Brm)’ In The U.S. And Korea, Seok-Jin Eom

National Center for Digital Government

Why do e-government initiatives which are commonly implemented to achieve similar policy goals produce different outcomes in different nations? To answer this question, this paper examines e-government policy structure, which has been regarded as one of the most important institutional arrangements for e-government promotion (European Commission, 2007; Park, 2006; OECD, 2005; Eifert and Puschel, 2004). Specifically, the legal framework, the managerial tools for coordination and control, and the organizational arrangements of the e-government policy structures of the Bush administration in the U.S. and of Roh administration in Korea are compared. Based on such a comparative analysis, this study demonstrates how …

Oficina De Armonización Del Mercado Interior: La Creación De Un Organismo Público Para El Siglo Xxi, Jane Fountain, Raquel Galindo-Dorado, Jeffrey Rothschild

National Center for Digital Government

(primer párrafo) En el invierno de 2010, el presidente Wubbo de Boer, en compañía de sus directores de departamento y de su equipo de alta dirección, preparaba las cruciales reuniones del Consejo de Administración y del Comité Presupuestario. La oficina de registro de marcas, dibujos y modelos de la Unión Europea, con sede en Alicante, España, pomposamente denominada Oficina de Armonización del Mercado Interior (Marcas, Dibujos y Modelos) (OAMI), había superado todas las expectativas generadas por la creación de la marca comunitaria (MC) y los dibujos o modelos comunitarios registrados (DMCR). El nuevo organismo también podía jactarse de los impresionantes …

Bolivia's Coca Headache: The Agroyungas Program, Inflation, Campesinos, Coca And Capitalism In Bolivia, John D. Roberts

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Bolivia in the 1980s was wracked by monetary inflation approaching levels of the German Weimar Republic. Immediately following this time of great financial crisis in Bolivia, the U.N. founded a project through the U.N.D.P. to encourage peasant farmers in Bolivia to switch from growing coca (the plant used manufacture cocaine) to growing other cash crops for market. This crop substitution and development program, called the Agroyungas Project, lasted from 1985 to 1991 and is the focus of this study. While many U.N. pundits and journalists considered the program’s initial small successes promising, it has been considered since its conclusion to …

Ethics In Science And Engineering: Redefining Tools And Resources, Goncalves Michelle, Jane E. Fountain, Adamick Jessica, Billings Marilyn

Jane E. Fountain

The leaders of the ESENCe beta site project organized

a national workshop, “Ethics in Science and Engineering:

Redefining Tools and Resources,” that was held on

October 22-23, 2009 at UMass Amherst. The workshop

objectives, broadly speaking, were twofold: first, to

explore the potential for leveraging the university’s role

as a locus of education and mentoring for ethics and

RCR in science and engineering and, second, to explore

the potential and limitations of digital tools, including

social media, for supporting such growth. The workshop

initiated a dialogue between university faculty involved in

ethics research and education and library and information

scientists. …