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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Political Science

William & Mary

Theses/Dissertations

2022

Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Journey Of Unlearning: A Close Reading Of Civil War Pedagogy In Alabama And Virginia, Michaela Hill May 2022

The Journey Of Unlearning: A Close Reading Of Civil War Pedagogy In Alabama And Virginia, Michaela Hill

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis is a close reading of Civil War pedagogy in Alabama and Virginia with special attention given to Black history during the Civil War era. Through an examination of Civil War history, it is evident that slavery was the main cause of the War. The development of the Lost Cause narrative, a reaction to Blacks gaining Civil Rights that aimed to prove the Confederate war effort was honorable, is still promoted in southern schools. Alabama and Virginia both provide state standards, outlines of the minimum required knowledge to be obtained on a given subject by the end of the …


State Political Entrepreneurs In The Age Of Modi: Opposition Politics In Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, And West Bengal From 2019-2021, Maxwell Markel May 2022

State Political Entrepreneurs In The Age Of Modi: Opposition Politics In Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, And West Bengal From 2019-2021, Maxwell Markel

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research paper will discuss the contemporary limitations of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Hindutva ideology. The key research question will be examining 5 states and union territories to examine why the BJP has been unable to win or maintain power in the state. The states in question will be Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and the Union Territory of Delhi. Each state was chosen for their high population (more than 10 million), the recentness of its state election (from 2019 through 2021), their geographical variety, and having extant political systems that were upended by the …


Showing Off And Going Out: China’S Vanity Project Phenomenon, Caroline Morin May 2022

Showing Off And Going Out: China’S Vanity Project Phenomenon, Caroline Morin

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In September 2018, Xi Jinping announced that BRI financing will not be spent on vanity projects. Despite and prior to this proclamation, using the AidData data set, I uncovered a vanity project phenomenon in Chinese development financing. Chinese financed vanity projects, or development projects that do not aid a country’s development needs, are present in 79 countries across the world, ranging from sports stadiums in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to community centers in the Pacific islands. In this thesis, I find that vanity projects are most likely to occur in fragile states with strong international political cooperation with …


The Rails That Bind: America's Freedom Trains As Reflections Of Efforts To Form Cultural Consensus And Indicators Of The Weakness Of Cold War Memory, Daniel Speer May 2022

The Rails That Bind: America's Freedom Trains As Reflections Of Efforts To Form Cultural Consensus And Indicators Of The Weakness Of Cold War Memory, Daniel Speer

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper assesses why two projects with the same name, concept and intent of forming cultural consensus, the Freedom Trains, took such different forms between the postwar "consensus" (1947-1963) and detente (1963-1979) phases of the Cold War. It argues that organizers Attorney General Tom C. Clark (1947), Ross Rowland (1975), and their corporate backers articulated histories based on perceived common values of limited rights (1947), cultural pluralism (1975) and consumption (both) that attempted unity, but resulted in silences. The reception to each train, and the organizers' responses to those reactions, showed the limitations of a unifying consensus, but varied between …


Reset The Boundary: State Activism In Juvenile Transfer Reform, Yuchen Tang May 2022

Reset The Boundary: State Activism In Juvenile Transfer Reform, Yuchen Tang

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Law and policy are deeply intertwined. States themselves are the main venues to deliberate and implement policies that alter the status quo of juvenile transfer. The policymaking process in some states can increase our ability to understand and predict how others will similarly react. This learning model has been the foundation for juvenile justice reform where lessons are drawn from past successes or failures to keep more youths from incarceration. Legislative and judicial capacity to influence criminal justice reforms are complementary, and there is an ongoing debate on the designated function of the judiciary, whether it should be more active …


Psychological Peacebuilding: When The Time Is Ripe For An Election, Kaiming Chen May 2022

Psychological Peacebuilding: When The Time Is Ripe For An Election, Kaiming Chen

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Elections play a key role in post-conflict peace-building operations since the end of Cold War. Its conflictual nature and conflicting purposes may lead to another war. This thesis proposes three psychological factors that may predict peace after an election: parity of esteem, integrative complexity, and vocal rejection of violence. Drawing on the successful transition to peace in Mozambique 1994 and the failure of the 1992 Angolan election, this thesis argues that a high respect for the opponents, a complex thinking process, and a vocal rejection of violence would lead to peace after elections in post-conflict settings.


Communism And The Politics Of Cultural Labeling: Patriotism And Piety In American Life, Mark Smith May 2022

Communism And The Politics Of Cultural Labeling: Patriotism And Piety In American Life, Mark Smith

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The goal of this paper is to analyze the history of Marxism and its emergent opponents in American political, religious, and cultural spheres. Examining Karl Marx and his influences reveals that, contrary to popular belief, Marxist thought has deep roots in ancient philosophy and literature. Marx drew upon these influences to highlight industrial and economic problems and propose a dialectically-based prescription for these ailments that sought to eradicate class divides and abolish private property. Marx’s reception in the United States came long after his death and was coupled with the rise of the Soviet Union and the end of World …