Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Virginia Annexations As Metropolitan Reform Movements : Are They Obsolete?, Demetra Yeapanis Kontos

Master's Theses

The proliferation of local governments and single-purpose regional governmental districts has given local and state government administrators throughout the country many problems. The multiplicity of governments exacerbates conflicts of authority, duplication of services, inadequate service levels, and many other problems. Three basic metropolitan reforms have been implemented to solve these problems: consolidation, disintegration and regional organization. Each of these types of reform has been implemented in Virginia. The most controversial of these reforms is annexation, a form of consolidation where an independent city annexes county land. What contributes to the controversy of annexation movements is that unlike most states, Virginia's …

Churches, Church Development Agencies And American Foreign Policy In Nicaragua : A Case Study, Michael Thomas Kuchinsky

Master's Theses

Churches and church agencies have always been involved in American public and political life. These involvements exhibited cooperation and common interest. An example of this includes the combined efforts to help European refugees following World War II.

Since then, churches have challenged their partnership with government. Sensitivity to Third World issues, theologies of liberation, ideologies of oppression, and the values malaise brought on by the Vietnam War separated some interests of American churches and their government. What would churches do when confronted with an American foreign policy they considered immoral and oppressive?

The hypotheses of Robert Sullivan and Jorgen Lissner …

Chinese Foreign Policy In Changing Perspective--A Case Study Of The Three World Doctrine, Guojun Xu

Master's Theses

China has in recent years embarked on a fresh policy of close cooperation with her former antagonists, the Western countries, not only in economic areas, but also on social, military and political issues. Does this mean that China has given up her highly publicized third world position? Or did China ever genuinely belong with the third world in the past? These questions are explored in the thesis through careful analyses of the origins of China's foreign policies as well as comparative observations of their applications to different countries at different stages. Rather than isolating individual variables, as some writers do, …

[Introduction To] The Speaker And The Budget: Leadership In The Post-Reform House Of Representatives, Daniel Palazzolo

Bookshelf

One of the most important changes in Congress in decades was the extensive congressional reforms of the 1970s, which moved the congressional budget process into the focus of congressional policy-making and shifted decision-making away from committees. This overwhelming attention to the federal budget allowed party leaders to emerge as central decision makers. Palazzolo traces the changing nature of the Speaker of the House's role in the congressional budget process from the passage of the Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to the 100th Congress in 1988. In the early 1970s, the Speaker attended to primarily supportive and managerial tasks …

From Decentralization To Centralization: Members' Changing Expectations For House Leaders, Daniel J. Palazzolo

Political Science Faculty Publications

Before the reforms of the 1970s, at least since the revolt against Speaker Joseph G. Cannon in 1910, party leaders of the House of Representatives performed tasks designed to mediate party interests both within and outside of the House. Within the House, their most important functions included organizing the party, scheduling bills, building coalitions, distributing and collecting information, and maintaining party harmony (Ripley 1967). Meanwhile, committee chairs exercised the most discretion over specific policy issues. Outside of the House, the Speaker acted as a mediator between the majority party and the, president, especially if the president was of the same …

The Limits Of Natural Law: Thomas Rutherforth And The American Legal Tradition, Gary L. Mcdowell

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The history of American constitutional jurisprudence has been marked by a persistent fascination with the idea of natural law. This springs first and foremost from the fact that we understand as our constitutional foundation those “laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” to which Thomas Jefferson made such eloquent appeal in the Declaration of Independence. Further, American politics since the founding of the republic has been characterized by a commitment, with more or less success, to the simple truth James Madison posited in The Federalist. “Justice,” Madison declared, “is the end of government. It is the end of civil …