The Effect Of Academic Earmarking On The Distribution Of Federal Research Funding, Andrew Beecher Dunsmore

Doctoral Dissertations

This study is about the emergence of academic earmarking and its effect on the distribution of federal research funding. The study examines four basic research questions. First, does receiving earmarks improve the ability of an institution to receive other types of federal funding? Second, how does awarding earmarks affect the geographical distribution of federal research funding? Third, are earmarks additive, or do they come at the expense of peer reviewed funding? Finally, is there much difference between the institutions which garner the most earmarked funding and those which receive the most peer reviewed funding?

There are six major findings of …

The Impact Of Authority And Agendas In The Management Of Public Authorities: Studying The Relationship Between Public Transportation Authority Boards And Executives, Robert August Schneider

Doctoral Dissertations

Public authorities are a popular form of quasi-governmental institutions and have been extensively chronicled in regards to effective public service delivery. Authorities are exceptionally popular within the public transportation industry but have slowly lost their fiscal power due to the strengthening of parent governments. This dissertation examines the authority structure in public transportation to understand the linkage between this loss of fiscal power and executive management of public authorities by studying the governing board-executive manager relationship. In particular, this dissertation examines the structure and relationship by studying factors impacting relationships and connections between deceased fiscal power and the members recruited …

Religion And Political Attitudes In South Korea, Junghyoun Kim

Doctoral Dissertations

In order to shed some light on how religion affects the consolidating democracy in South Korea, this research focuses on the relationship between individual’s religiosity and their political attitudes, particularly: (1) political tolerance, which is considered a prerequisite for democratic consolidation, and (2) political ideology, which enables us to look at the impact of religion on people’s political behavior.

In terms of the research design, this research uses a quasi-experimental design, a survey design for hypothesis testing using statistical procedures (sample size = 994, sample frame = all adults over 20 years old who live in Seoul, the capital of …

Winnie-The-Pooh And Lincoln, Too: Children’S Literature As Civic Education, Marc S. Schwerdt

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe the civic content of children’s literature. A content instrument was prepared to measure the presence of civic and political concepts within a sample of children’s literature consisting of 51 bestsellers and 35 Newbery Award winners from 1960-2001. While manifest political agendas are minimal within children’s literature, this study found a heavy presence of civic content as defined by civic education standards. Children’s literature is permeated with the structure, skills, values and behavior of democracy. Findings show that civic content corresponds with developmental characteristics in children of the relevant age group. Findings also …

The Pressure Model Of Terrorism: A Behavioralist Model For Ethnonational Terrorism In Western Europe, 1945-2000, Ole J. Forsberg

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine which factors affect an ethnonational group's decision to utilize terrorism to obtain their desired outcomes. Current theories have reached an answer, but theoretical underpinnings of those answers are disparate and weak. Thus, in answering this question, a new model of terrorism is necessary - one which spans the four primary levels of analysis. I do this using a weak rational choice model as a cross-level link, and using psychological models as a basis for the individual-level actions.

While the model is not unequivocally and universally supported by the tests, it is able …

Political Sophistication And Partisan Cues: Insight From South Korea’S 2002 Presidential Election, Do-Kyung Kim

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to study the effects of political sophistication on the use of partisan cues in the 2002 South Korean presidential election. Many scholars in recent years have argued that it does not matter so much that many voters are poorly informed about politics because they can use information shortcuts or heuristic cues to overcome the lack of information and still make a reasoned choice. Based on these studies, much of the political sophistication literature in political science assumes that the use of party cues in the voting booth is the hallmark of an unsophisticated voter. …

Federal Funding And The New Regionalism: Blurring The Lines Of Federalism, Lori Adele Riverstone

Doctoral Dissertations

For decades urban planners and political scientists have attempted to deal with the problems associated with urbanization. Rapid population growth and the fragmentation of our metropolitan areas have caused ongoing and ever-increasing problems such as air, water, and land pollution; high crime rates; disparities in quality of education; a persistent racial divide; and traffic congestion, to name only a few. One solution, regionalism, gained grand-scale political support in the mid-twentieth century only to decline in the 1980s with the Reagan administration. In the 20 years leading up to Reagan's policy of devolution, the national government was invested in fostering multi-jurisdictional …

Factors Affecting Uses And Impacts Of Performance Measures In Mid-Sized U.S. Cites, Yeonsoo Chung

Doctoral Dissertations

This research investigates the factors that affect municipal use of and the impacts they experience with performance measures among mid-sizedU.S.cities. The goal of this research project is to advance our knowledge about the adoption, use, and impact of performance measures among mid-sized cities. Several research questions were developed and a mail survey was administered to 670 city officials in cities with populations 25,000 to 250,000 in order to help provide answers to these questions. A total of 280 completed surveys were returned for a response rate of about 42 percent.

Among the chief findings of this study are that larger …

The Political Roles Of Presidential Children: Kennedy Through Clinton, Tabitha Alissa Warters

Doctoral Dissertations

Many facets of the institution of the presidency warrant examination. Individual presidents, cabinets, staffs, and first ladies have all been studied in-depth, but one aspect of the presidency remains fundamentally unexplored: the political activities of presidential children.

Role analysis using case studies was the method of examination used. Role analysis was the method used in early studies on first ladies and is replicated in this study on presidential children. The basic assumption is that all presidential children from Kennedy through Clinton have performed political roles. By examining the repeated political activities of the 24 presidential children, five political roles were …

Cognitive Theory Of War: Why Do Weak States Choose War Against Stronger States?, Sang Hyun Park

Doctoral Dissertations

The key question to be addressed in this paper is why weaker states with a slight chance of winning do not avoid war against stronger states. Even though most war theory does offer a few insights about the conditions under which weak states choose war when there is only a slight possibility of winning, explanations based on either emphasis on rationality or ignorance of “interacting structure” of international relations leave many practical remedies unexplained. This paper explains asymmetric conflict on the combination of Prospect theory and Game theory. The interacting game structure of asymmetric conflicts can be summarized. Under the …

An Analysis Of Crime Control Policies In Knoxville’S Public Housing, John W. Barbrey

Doctoral Dissertations

Between the late 1980s and 2001, the Knoxville Community Development Corporation and the Knoxville Police Department implemented policies intended to reduce crime in Knoxville’s public housing. Beginning with pilot programs in two housing sites in 1989, a cooperative relationship between KCDC and KPD emerged that evolved into the KCDC Security Patrol in 1990. By using Arcview software, I was able to separate the yearly violent crime incidents for 1992-2001 that occurred in two separate geographical regions: 1) the area represented by the KCDC housing sites where the policies were implemented, and 2) the remainder of the City of Knoxville. The …

State, Governance And Environmental Sustainability: A Cross-National Analysis, Han Gyu Lheem

Doctoral Dissertations

Research Questions:

What determines the level of environmental sustainability in national level analyses? How can the quality of governance be defined, measured and applied in the dynamics of political processes? And, how does the quality of governance influence the level of environmental sustainability?

Model proposed and a priori Expectations:

Model Summary

ES = b₀+ QGb₁+ DEMb₂+ EGb₃+ GEIb₄+ PGb₅+ e

a priori Expectation of Relationships

QG

+

DEM

+

EG

-

ES

GEI

-

PG

-

Where ES denotes Environmental Sustainability; QG, Quality of Governance; DEM, Level of …

Toward A Dynamic Model Of State Choice: Gains Pursuit Debate And The World System, Soo-Lyon Yon

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of my dissertation is to challenge the mainstream tradition of discourse in the field of international relations with regard to the world system and gains pursuit which has been framed by two significant theoretical perspectives: realism and neoliberalism.

In my dissertation, I established a theoretical linkage between the gains pursuit debate and the dynamics of the world system. The problem of absolute and relative gains divides two of the most influential approaches to international relations theory: realism and neoliberalism. However, these dichotomized approaches to gains pursuit assume a fixed (or static) view of the world system based on …

Civic Engagement In The Cyberspace Era: A Study Of A Local Cybergroup, Gay Henry Lyons

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the issue of participation and civic engagement through the investigation of cyberspace as public space. The research systematically studied the development, nature, operation, and impact of k2k, a local cybergroup based in Knoxville, Tennessee. While the emergence of cyberspace as public space is no panacea for the ills of democracy in America, it is clearly a potential antidote to counter the more virulent dimensions of civic disengagement in the United States. However, for a cybergroup to serve as an antidote to civic disengagement, the participants must move beyond electronic discourse into the …

African-American Conservatism: A Longitudinal And Comparative Study, Angela K. Lewis

Doctoral Dissertations

The proposed research addresses the following questions: “Have African-Americans become more conservative over the last 25 years?” While numerous commentators have noted the existence of a Black conservative group, heretofore, none have attempted to document this phenomenon empirically. In fact, the question of whether conservatism has substantial support in the Black community remains unanswered (Welch & Combs, 85; Welch & Foster, 87; Randolph, 95). The purpose of this dissertation is to systematically address the preceding question through the use of the National Black Election Study (1984, 1988, & 1996) and the National Election Study.

Anarcho-Capitalist Threads In Modern Libertarianism: The Social Thought Of Murray Rothbard, Larry M. Hall

Doctoral Dissertations

Murray Rothbard's anarcho-capitalism represents an largely unexplored portion of American political thought. Despite an overwhelming array of publications on politics, economics, history, methodology, and other realms of social theory, his writings have received very little attention from the community of social theorists.

A significant reason for the lack of analysis concerns the unique and radical nature of Rothbard's thought. Although this research concludes that his form of anarchism is surely an American phenomenon, he combines the influences upon his writings in ways which ultimately separate him from even his libertarian colleagues. Still, he is an extremely influential figure in the …

Epa, Tva And Pollution Control: A Comparative Analysis Of Intragovernmental Policy Implementation, Robert F. Durant

Doctoral Dissertations

Of late the substance, organization, and context of federal policies have been altered. This study examines one manifestation of these developments: the burgeoning necessity of one federal agency having to hold another accountable to national policy goals. Its analytical focus is the Environmental Protection Agency's experience with the Tennessee Valley Authority during the former's implementation of the Clean Air Act and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. Specifically examined are the EPA's efforts to apply SO₂ and thermal pollution control policies to the TVA power program during the 1970's. Using a comparative case study design, the divergent responses of …

Obscenity Standards In Canada And The United States: A Comparative Study In Constitutional Law, Ronald Edward Dean

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to study the comparative constitutional development of obscenity law in Canada and the United States. The research focuses on analysis of case law with particular emphasis of Supreme Court decisions in the two countries. Obscenity law is not static, but is, rather, an active and on-going area of constitutional law.

The central problem in the legal approach to obscenity has been the development of a definition. The original conceptualization of obscenity for both Canada and the United States came from an English decision in 1868, which dominated the field until the late 1950's. The …

Andrew Johnson And The Patronage, James Lewis Baumgardner

Doctoral Dissertations

The Constitution bestows upon the president the right to make appointments "by and with the advice and consent of the Senate" to federal position at home and abroad. Over the passage of time, through free use of this power and the implied power of removal, the several chief executives constructed a vast patronage system, of which one primary goal was to reward the party faithful for their services. The purpose of this dissertation is to determine how well Andrew Johnson, the unexpected successor of Abraham Lincoln, used the seemingly powerful patronage weapon and the reasons why he used it as …