Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Interest Group Influence On U.S. Congressional Committees: A Case Study Of The United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement, Laurel L. Hoffman

Masters Theses

The impact of special interests on Congress has long been a matter for concern. A content analysis of testimony presented at 14 Congressional committee hearings on the United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement revealed that three broad categories of witnesses participated: business, government, and non-business. Total testimony for business and government were comparable, while non-business had fewer witnesses and less testimony. Government supplied more testimony in oral form, which was interpreted as a higher degree of participation than written testimony, predominantly supplied by business. There was little evidence of lobbying coalitions as measured by crossreferencing; witnesses rarely referred to anything but …

Political Action Committees In The State Of Michigan, Keeley I. Taylor

Masters Theses

A survey was conducted of all political action committees (PACs) registered with the Secretary of State's Office in Michigan for the 1986 and 1990 Statewide elections. A portrait of the structure of the organization, decision making criteria, and solicitation techniques of Michigan PACs has been developed from the survey data.

Most PACs in Michigan tend to be infant organizations because they are cyclical in nature, forming and dissolving around election periods. They tend to form around economic issues; have no specific PAC office; no permanent staff; have little or no office budget; fund their activities through direct mail solicitation; focus …

The Rhetoric Of Slobodan Milosevic And War On The Territory Of Yugoslavia, Agneza Bozic

Masters Theses

The hypothesis of this work is that the political rhetoric of the Serbian leader, Milosevic, was among the major factors contributing to the political and social changes in Serbia and Yugoslavia, which ultimately led to the war.

Three of Milosevic's speeches were studied in detail: the speeches of April 24, 1987, October 17, 1988, and November 19, 1988. The method of rhetorical analysis was adopted from Andrews (1990) because this method stresses the importance of context and effects of the speech. The theories of political language (Graber, 1981) and of political rhetoric (Bitzer, 1981) together with Johannesen's (1989) theory of …

John Quincy Adams As Minister To Russia, 1809-1814: The Ideals And Realities Confronting His Mission, Mary Elizabeth Willwerth

Masters Theses

To John Quincy Adams, the early nineteenth century proved itself to be not only a struggle for American independence from Europe, but a struggle for the eighteenth century ideal of the recently formed American philosophy of government. This unique philosophy inspired by key figures of the American Enlightenment, such as Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, incorporated the vision of America leading the way of enlightened world governments.

Son of the proud American revolutionary, John Adams, John Quincy Adams continued to follow the basic axioms of his father's generation and implement their basic ideals within his own various careers …

The U.S. State Department Position At The Geneva Conference On Indochina In 1954, Eva Dragosits

Masters Theses

This paper intends to provide a coherent analysis of the United States position at the Geneva Conference on Indochina in 1954. The paper is based on U.S. State Department documents, edited in 1981 in the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series.

At the Berlin Conference in January 1954, the French, against the will of the United States, placed Indochina on the agenda of the Geneva Conference, which was to start on May 8, 1954. The United States, concerned that the French might accept an unfavorable Communist settlement, regarded participation in the Conference as essential in light of their …

Perestroika From Below: Civil Society And Informal Associations In The Soviet Union, Jerry James Sheehan

Masters Theses

During the 1980's the Soviet Union underwent a decade of dramatic change. The study of these changes initiated by the Gorbachev government has focused primarily on the reforms initiated by the state- perestroika from above. However, by the mid 1980's it was apparent that the state was not so much reforming society as society was drastically altering the state. Some analysts at this time began to shift to examining reforms at the grassroots level- perestroika from below.

This thesis is an examination of these perestroika from below reforms. The thesis seeks to asses the usefulness of the civil society model …