Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Should Voters Decide? Exploring Successes, Failures And Effects Of Electoral Reform, Nicholas J. Caruana

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Are Citizens’ Assemblies useful tools for reforming democratic institutions and addressing the democratic deficit? Evaluating the utility of using mini-publics to deliberate issues like electoral reform based only on their record of success does not recommend this approach. But this sort of assessment is weakened by a lacuna in the study of Citizens’ Assemblies: we do not know whether such deliberative bodies, thanks to their inherent high levels of democratic participation, might have added democracy-enhancing value over and above traditional elite-centric reforms. This dissertation establishes a theoretical model for evaluating whether a particular path to electoral reform has independent effects …

Building Canadian National Identity Within The State And Through Ice Hockey: A Political Analysis Of The Donation Of The Stanley Cup, 1888-1893, Jordan Goldstein

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Stanley Cup elicits strong emotions related to Canadian national identity despite its association as a professional ice hockey trophy. This strong link between the Cup and Canadian national identity emerged in its creation and donation. Lord Stanley, in addition to his love of ice hockey, donated the Cup partly as a political action. The cup stood as a physical symbol to unite the disparate Canadian population around a new national sport. Given Lord Stanley’s position as Governor General (1888-1893) this donation carried political authority. The purpose of this study is to investigate the donation of the Stanley Cup as …

"Last On The Warpath": The Spirit And Intent Of Action Anthropology, Joshua J. Smith

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Led by anthropologist Sol Tax, action anthropologists endeavoured, between the 1940s and 1970s, to challenge the liberal imperialist and settler colonial paradigm of Post-WWII applied anthropology, the termination policy of the 1950s, and the neo-evolutionary theories, such as Julian Steward’s multilinear evolution, that bolstered racist-colonial myths of assimilation. Several projects of emphasis include The Fort Berthold Removal Project, The American Indian Chicago Centre, A mapping project called The North American Indians: 1950 Distribution of Descendants of the Aboriginal Population of Alaska, Canada and the United States, and the American Indian Chicago Conference . In addition to Sol Tax, …

A Languid Canadian Election Turns Into A Competitive Race, Cris De Clercy

Political Science Publications

Canadians go to the polls on Monday after an unusually long election campaign. Cristine de Clercy writes that since the election was called on August 2^nd, the polls have shifted markedly, with the Liberal Party – which has been out of power for a decade – approaching the 40 percent support mark which may allow it to form a majority government. Despite the poll numbers, she cautions that recent boundary changes and the potential for shifts in public opinion and for polling errors mean that the election’s outcome is still anyone’s guess.

Read more on the London School …

Municipal Associations, Membership Composition, And Interest Representation In Local-Provincial Relations, Alison Katherine Shott

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Municipal associations carry out two core functions – advocacy and providing member services. How associations prioritize and perform these functions is largely unclear. This dissertation explores how membership composition affects their activities. Canada’s 18 provincial level municipal associations all provide advocacy and services for their members, but there are considerable differences within their memberships. Some associations represent all municipalities within a province while others are divided along linguistic, regional, or rural/urban lines. In addition, the municipalities they represent can vary by size, legal type, region, ethnicity/language, and rural/urban character. Two measures of membership composition are employed: rural/urban dominance and population …

Steering In Rough Waters, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

No abstract provided.

Beyond Survey Self-Reports: Using Physiology To Tap Political Orientations, Michael W. Wagner, Kristen D. Deppe, Carly M. Jacobs, Amanda Friesen, Kevin B. Smith, John R. Hibbing

Political Science Publications

Some aspects of our attitudes are composed of things outside of our consciousness. However, traditional survey research does not use measurements that are able to tap into these aspects of public opinion. We describe, recommend, and demonstrate a procedure by which non-self-reported responses can be measured in order to test whether these responses have independent effects on individuals’ preferences. We use one of the better-known physiological measures—electrodermal activity or skin conductance—and illustrate its potential by reporting our own study of attitudes toward President Barack Obama. We find that both self-reported emotional responses and physiological responses to Obama’s image independently correlate …

Sexual Violence At Nyarubuye: History, Justice, Memory. A Case Study Of The 1994 Rwandan Genocide, Nicole M. Ephgrave

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation raises complex questions about historical truth, the pursuit of justice, and processes of memorialization vis-à-vis one case study of the Rwandan genocide: the Nyarubuye Church massacre, where members of the Interahamwe militia and their accomplices murdered tens of thousands of (mainly) Tutsi men, women and children, April 15^th-17^th, 1994. As a microcosm of larger patterns of the genocide and its aftermath, I analyze official discourses to uncover how this specific event is framed and understood, with a focus on the widespread perpetration of sexual violence. Specifically, I provide a chronological reconstruction of the massacre, …

Our Response To Refugee Crisis Could Define Us, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

No abstract provided.

Explaining The Evolution Of The Arctic Council, Andrew Chater

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Arctic Council is an international institution made up of the eight states that have territory in the Arctic, namely Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States, as well as six indigenous peoples’ organizations. When states created the Council in 1996, it was a research institution that addressed environmental issues and a loosely defined version of sustainable development. It was a weak institution, without a permanent secretariat. By 2014, it had become a policy-making body, as well as a research body, that addressed a wide range of issues, with the aid of a permanent secretariat. New …

The Canadian Truth And Reconciliation Commission: Healing, Reconciliation, Resolution?, Jessica K. Howsam

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis assesses the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which was created to redress the legacy of the Indian Residential Schools system. Using discourse analysis, it examines the commission’s success in promoting holistic healing within Aboriginal communities and reconciliation as decolonization of settler society and government. This thesis argues that the TRC promoted individual, communal, and cultural healing despite government rhetoric supporting premature termination of healing processes. Although it remains too soon to evaluate the Canadian TRC’s effect on decolonization, this thesis contends that the commission has not yet advanced reconciliation. As of the publication of this thesis in …

Keeping Abreast Of Breastfeeding, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

No abstract provided.

Elusive Peace, Security, And Justice In Post-Conflict Guatemala: An Exploration Of Transitional Justice And The International Commission Against Impunity In Guatemala (Cicig), Daniel W. Schloss

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Guatemala has, until today, struggled to achieve security and justice following the end of nearly half a century of civil war in 1996. One specific institution, the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), has been implemented to rectify many of the Guatemalan state’s difficulties in establishing and maintaining the rule of law. In this thesis, I look to better explain CICIG’s role in Guatemala relative to security and justice in a post-conflict setting: I define CICIG as an institution potentially capable of building societal trust, and I explain how the inclusion of procedural justice within transitional justice can help …

Mining, Resistance And Livelihood In Rural Bangladesh, Md Rashedul Alam

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In 2006, over fifty thousand people in the Phulbari Sub-District of Bangladesh mobilized against an open-pit coal mining-project that posed serious environmental and social risks. The state authorities negotiated with the protesters intensively over four days to reach an agreement. However, the state failed to fulfill the agreement, and the protest movement continued. The agrarian communities successfully halted the mining project for the last nine years. My research aims to understand how the protesters resisted this project. My objectives have been to explore the practices of a grassroots movement, attendant transformations in the sociopolitical landscape and role of the state …

Goals Worth Sharing, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

No abstract provided.

The Origins And Evolution Of De Facto States: Implications For Iraqi Kurdistan, Zheger Hassan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

De facto states, defined as entities that possess control over a defined territory, population, and government, but without recognition from other states, have become increasingly important over the past three decades. Although the universe of cases is small (there have been 24 de facto states since the 1960s), de facto states play an important role in regional security and stability. Despite this relevance, we still know little about why de facto states emerge, how their preferences are formed, and what shapes their behaviour and decision-making. Shedding light on these overlooked issues will allow us to better understand the role of …

Theorizing An Online Politics: How The Internet Is Reconfiguring Political Space, Subjectivity, Participation, And Conflict, Trevor G. Smith

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This work considers how politics can be reinvigorated through the use of the internet. The argument consists of two parts, the first of which develops a theoretical understanding of politics, meant to differentiate it from the anti-political status quo, which draws on the theories of participatory and agonistic democracy. It then precedes to develop and adapt this understanding of politics to the context of the internet. This is done by breaking politics up into four terrains of contestation which can be configured to be more or less political.

Politics requires, first of all, a common place to gather. Drawing on …

What Comes From The Crypt, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

No abstract provided.

Interning In Disaster, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

No abstract provided.

The Social Costs Of Industrial Growth In The Sub-Arctic Regions Of "Canada", Caylee T. Cody

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Colonialism in the land that is now called “Canada” is rooted in the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous people’s way of existing and interacting with the world. The present study identifies that the social costs of industrial growth are part of an ongoing process of colonialism which continues to annex Indigenous lands to feed the capitalist economy and reify the power of the state. Through a comparative analysis of literature written about the Attawapiskat First Nation and the Innu Nation, the study reveals that the financial rewards of industrial growth are few, while the cultural, human, and environmental costs are many. …

Could Iran Be Just The Start?, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

No abstract provided.

Diplomatic Disservice, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

No abstract provided.

Explaining The Establishment Of The Independent Prosecutor Of The International Criminal Court, Laszlo Sarkany

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The aim of this dissertation is to discern and explain why states established the International Criminal Court (ICC) with an independent Prosecutor with the aid of theories of international relations. The theories utilized were neorealism, neoliberal institutionalism, historical institutionalism, constructivism and liberal-pluralism. In order to complete the above-stated task, two supplemental questions were asked: first, how may one able to explain policy formulation in regards to the ICC; and second, what accounts for the victory of the supporters. The comparative case study method of the ‘method of agreement’ was employed. Canada and the United Kingdom – from among the supporters …

Nothing Monotonous About Drones Now, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

No abstract provided.

La Dialectique Du Bourreau : Étude Du Bourreau Nazi Dans La Littérature Contemporaine Française, Désirée Lamoureux

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

La parole du bourreau nazi est absente de la majorité des documents historiques. Pour contrer cette carence, certains auteurs ont choisi de donner une place narrative à ce personage sybillin à l’intérieur de leur diégèse. Cette étude a pour but d’analyser la manière dont trois auteurs, soit Robert Merle, Jonathan Littell et Laurent Binet, octroient une place narrative au bourreau nazi. Nous cherchons aussi à élucider les raisons pour lesquelles il existe un intérêt dans la perspective du bourreau au début de ce nouveau millénaire.

North Korea’S Attack On Sony Pictures Gets The Headlines, But Many Countries Are Engaged In This New War Front, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

No abstract provided.

The Impersonal Is Personal: Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women Through The Lens Of Roberto Esposito’S Third Person, Claire Windsor

2015 Undergraduate Awards

This essay explores the issue of Missing and Murdered Women (MMIW) in Canada from a perspective that problematizes not only the racializing and gendering of indigenous women, but the normative conception of the human ascribed to settler Canadians as well. By examining these processes as part of a greater juridical-biological constitution of ‘the human,’ the ways in which this differentiation works to valorize the lives of some humans whilst simultaneously devaluing the lives of ‘others’ are revealed. This hierarchy is explored through the lens of Roberto Esposito’s book Third Person in order to illustrate how the subject-formations that have occurred …

The Technologization Of Politics: The Internet And The Electronic Citizen, Charlotte Yun

2015 Undergraduate Awards

Dramatic shifts in technology have transformed the structures of civic participation and communication in the latter half of the 20th century, and optimistic presumptions purporting the global establishment of “e-democracy” has become a commonly understood concept. But reality has failed to demonstrate this ideal and has instead proven otherwise: whether online or offline, it is politics as usual. This paper explores the ramifications of online platforms for political engagement from a critical perspective. The author argues that sustaining political activity online in “user-powered,” democratized digital spaces is ultimately fruitless without offline mobilization. While contemporary Web 2.0 platforms for political activity …

Economic Survival And Borderland Rebellion: The Case Of The Allied Demoocratic Forces On The Uganda-Congo Border, Lindsay Scorgie-Porter

Faculty Publications

One of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s oldest, most organized, and traditionally best-trained—but, arguably, least known—rebel groups is the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). Its resiliency and particularly its economic survival skills have largely been understood through the prism of Islamic extremism. Yet this narrative has proven to have serious inaccuracies and flaws. Explanations focused on terrorism, for example, do not take into consideration the ADF’s pivotal business ventures, such as cross-border trade, agriculture, and the taxing of timber forests. They not only ignore these activities but are unable to explain how the ADF was able to practice, and become successful …

State Borders In Africa, Lindsay Scorgie-Porter

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.