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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Practicing Representation : The Impact Of Electoral Competition On The Home Styles Of U.S. Representatives, Michael A. Armato Jan 2016

Practicing Representation : The Impact Of Electoral Competition On The Home Styles Of U.S. Representatives, Michael A. Armato

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

A great deal of political science literature has illustrated that U.S. Representatives respond to different electoral competition scenarios through modifying voting behaviors, floor statements, and bill sponsorship activities. However, scholarship has yet to significantly assess if and how political competition impacts the ways members of Congress present themselves to their voters and explain policy positions to their constituents. This dissertation longitudinally explores if and compares how members of Congress in different and changing electoral circumstances alter their home style behaviors, or not, due to the presence or lack of robust political competition.


Treaty Commitment And The Reconstruction Of Social Relations Among States, Youcheer Kim Jan 2016

Treaty Commitment And The Reconstruction Of Social Relations Among States, Youcheer Kim

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Does states’ treaty commitment promote the inter-state socialization? A gap exists in the existing constructivist International Relations literature as to which agents could promote the internalization of constitutive beliefs through which process. This project seeks to illuminate whether states’ treaty commitments have promoted the inter-state socialization in three dimensions: (1) the convergence of voting patterns in the UN General Assembly (2) the convergence of state practices in territorial disputes (3) the emergence of rules-oriented domestic governance. I draw on classical sociology, public law theory, the English School theory, and the Transnational Legal Process theory to develop the Social Theory of …


The Grammar Of Politicization And Depoliticization : Arendt's Republicanism And The Translation Of Revolutionary Politics And Judgment Into Political Institutions, Daniel Kuchler Jan 2016

The Grammar Of Politicization And Depoliticization : Arendt's Republicanism And The Translation Of Revolutionary Politics And Judgment Into Political Institutions, Daniel Kuchler

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

For Arendt, political freedom is both a spontaneous rejection of rule and the foundation of institutions. In my dissertation, I argue that both aspects are linked together by her concept of political judgment. This reading of Arendt contrasts with a strand of political theory that seems to argue that public-participatory politics, as found in revolutions, cannot be translated into lasting institutions: Wolin and Rancière argue that any attempt at establishing institutions undermines the participatory character of politics. Habermas and Pettit on the other hand argue for establishing lasting institutions, but they do so at the expense of a rich concept …


Modalities And Citizen Bribe Offers : The Case Of Post-Soviet Corruption, Turkhan Sadigov Jan 2016

Modalities And Citizen Bribe Offers : The Case Of Post-Soviet Corruption, Turkhan Sadigov

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This work analyzes relatively neglected side of corruption ‒ population bribe offers (as opposed to bureaucrats' bribe demand). The regional focus of the work is on the post-Soviet space, with Azerbaijan, Estonia and Russia as case studies. Drawing on all relevant theories and variables of corruption research, the manuscript emphasizes the importance of ideational factors of corruption in addition to material variables. To analyze ideational factors, the research introduces methodological innovation ‒ the concept of archetypal Modalities. The main argument of the work is that traditionalist value orientations (Local, Symbol and Passive modalities) are statistically significant in predicting the incidence …


Gender : Impacts On Participation In Elected Local Government, Kathleen Kt Tobin Jan 2016

Gender : Impacts On Participation In Elected Local Government, Kathleen Kt Tobin

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The purpose of this research is to analyze women’s underrepresentation in elected local government and to explore the particular constraints associated with this type of political participation. Understanding why there is a dearth of women in elected office, with a focus on actual barriers to entry at the local level, is critical because the lack of gender balanced representation has serious implications for the way our democracy functions and has significant consequences for citizens because of the resultant effects on governance and quality of life. Theorists have identified cultural, political, and social impediments to women's participation in politics, and this …


Organizing For Collective Impact In A Cradle-To-Career Network, Sarah Jane Zuckerman Jan 2016

Organizing For Collective Impact In A Cradle-To-Career Network, Sarah Jane Zuckerman

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This case study provides a thick description and conceptual analysis of the organization of community members for collective impact in a rural cradle-to-career network. This study focused on three intersecting areas: mobilization of network members; the development of shared issue frames, or common understandings of local needs; and the emergent theory of change held by network members.


Dynamic Politics : Necessity, Founding, And (Re)Founding In Machiavelli's Discourses On Livy, Vincent John Commisso Jan 2016

Dynamic Politics : Necessity, Founding, And (Re)Founding In Machiavelli's Discourses On Livy, Vincent John Commisso

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation is an attempt to recast the political thought of Niccolò Machiavelli in his Discourses on Livy in a far more radical light than it has been previously understood. Rather than trying to overcome fortune, I argue that Machiavelli was encouraging political actors to embrace it by embracing the force which fortune generates: necessity. Along with this orientation towards fortune and necessity, Machiavelli also was engaging in an additional subversive project: the systematic undermining of the conventional republican wisdom of his predecessors and his contemporaries. On a practical level, the necessity central to Machiavelli’s thought is that of “founding,” …


The Creation Of The Self And The Birth Of Inequality : Locke And Rousseau On Natural Rights And Private Property, Michael Sokoler Jan 2016

The Creation Of The Self And The Birth Of Inequality : Locke And Rousseau On Natural Rights And Private Property, Michael Sokoler

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The formation of civil societies marked one of the most monumental shifts