Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Normative Orientations To Housing Activism And The Uneven Path To Nonprofitization In New York City, 1964–1989, Andrew Wilkes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

What are the distinct contributions of normative orientations (including theological and ideological ones) in the public policy process? While the literature on policy formation in the past three decades has embraced at least some idea that ideology matters, little has focused on whether the content of their specific normative orientations leads groups to contribute to, and engage in, a policy process differently. By examining Paul Sabatier’s advocacy coalition framework in conversation with Rev. Dr. Gayraud Wilmore’s tripartite, theoethical framework of liberation, elevation, and survival, this dissertation contends that the normative commitments of advocacy stakeholders within New York City’s tenant movement …

Mill's Harm Principle: A Study In The Application Of 'On Liberty', Sandra J. Peart

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

English philosopher and political economist John Stuart Mill argued that people learn by choosing: this is how they become creative and productive individuals. For this reason, and because he felt that individuals are typically the most capable people to make their own choices, Mill was highly skeptical of restrictions on choice placed by a third party, such as the state.

Mill famously separated actions into two categories: (1) self-regarding actions that do not affect others; and (2) other-regarding actions that do affect, and may harm, others. In the former category he placed thought and discussion, tastes and pursuits, and association, …

Political Rhetoric And Civility: A Challenge To “The Legacy Of ‘Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness’”, Timothy P. O'Brien, Melissa O. Stewart

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

“As you stand for your values do so with gentleness and respect—that’s how we move our country forward.”

Mike Pence, 48^th Vice President of the United States of America (2017-2021)

Since the founding of the United States of America, political discourse has often taken an unpleasant and nasty tone. Partisan disagreement concerning public policy is normal and policy should be the subject of vigorous debate. Disagreement, bickering, and even fights on the floor of Congress, are not new phenomena. However, today there is a growing sense in the country that civility and intolerance are on the rise. This study …

From The Ground Up: Restoring The Problem Of Education, William J. Norris Iii

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

This paper will examine the impact of families and how they can restore the promise of education. At the local level, parents and concerned citizens should review the impact of their local school boards and how they can become involved to effect positive change. Education policies that promote school choice and educational flexibility should be promoted at the local, state, and federal levels. A comprehensive approach is needed to help ensure equality of opportunity for each child in America.

The Impacts Of Local Property Taxes On Nebraska's State Legislator Elections And State Legislator Voting, Taylor Gold

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Throughout Nebraska’s history, concerns about the state’s property tax policy are one of, if not the most, discussed policy issues. Despite Nebraska’s emphasis on local fiscal control, state-level policy reforms shape the state’s property tax landscape. This seemingly contradictory emphasis on providing a state-level solution to a local policy problem leads this study to ask whether state legislative officials are held electorally accountable for legislative actions on local property tax and whether they are directly held accountable for changes in local property taxes. This study investigates this potential relationship through novel data collection on Nebraska’s state legislator elections, legislative actions, …

The Eagle’S Eye On The Rising Dragon: Why The United States Has Shifted Its View Of China, Jackson Craig Scott

Baker Scholar Projects

Since 1978, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has long been viewed as an economic trading partner of the United States of America (US). The PRC has grown to be an economic powerhouse, and the US directly helped with that process and still benefits from it. However, during the mid-2010’s, US rhetoric began to turn sour against the PRC. The American government rhetoric toward the PRC, beginning with the Obama administration, switched. As Trump’s administration came along, they bolstered this rhetoric from non-friendly to more or less hostile. Then, Biden’s administration strengthened Trump’s rhetoric. Over the past ten years or …

Bans Off All Bodies, Emily Davis Ryalls

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

World Less Than Satisfied With Climate Efforts, Julie Ray, Mary C. Evans

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

At the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) summit that took place in Egypt from November 6 to 18, 2022, nearly 200 nations rushed to seek deals to keep climate goals moving forward. The summit ended with minimal progress and many criticisms that more needs to be done.

To measure how people feel about their country’s efforts to preserve the environment, the Gallup World Poll asks people worldwide if they felt satisfied or dissatisfied with those efforts. Below, we explore the global data from this question and dive into the trend on this question in the United States …

Impact Of Social Media  On Public Perception Of Government Covid-19 Response Efforts, Taher Taher

Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to understand this phenomenon to provide insights into how governments can perform better in times of crisis regarding social media and its impact on public opinion. This research aims to understand how social media impacts public perception of government COVID-19 response efforts by studying Facebook comments, likes, and reactions (emoticons).

The study was based on data gathered from Facebook comments on the daily infographic COVID-19 statistics from the official site of the Ministry of Health and Population. The sampling frame is the 52 weeks of 2020, January to December, through random sampling resulting in 546 comments. The …

Blight Remediation And Affordable Housing Finance: A Potential Future Model For Hartford Homeownership, Luke Tressy, Joseph Perkus, Justin Olson, Suliman Foster

Masters Theses

This report is designed to aid the Hartford Land Bank (HLB) in its efforts to remediate blight as well as lay the groundwork for a more frictionless path to homeownership for residents in the City of Hartford. Over the course of the semester, the team has conducted research and analysis on various models and state funding systems that could increase property ownership among city residents. In collaboration with the HLB and Cleveland Housing Network (CHN), the team has focused on existing rent-to-own (RTO) and lease-purchase models of homeownership with decades of high success rate.

Democratic Processing Of Waste: European Federalism And Decentralized Waste Management In Navarra And Basque Country, Michael Stinavage

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Every country, regardless of regime-type, produces garbage. Waste is a significant contributor to the climate crisis, and its management requires the participation of society at large. The competency for waste management falls on the most decentralized forms of governance. The local government, however, faces a tremendous difficulty in that it may not be able to realign economic and political incentives to make the sustainable management of post-consumer material a viable option. Using waste policy as a lens to assess climate crisis readiness and federal governance, this study considers Navarra and Basque Country, two of Spain’s most decentralized regions, and creates …

Support New Business To Solve Old Problems With Kentucky’S Keystone Waste From Bourbon & Brewing, Samuel C. Kessler

Commonwealth Policy Papers

Provided here is a policy solution from the backside of Kentucky bourbon and brewing to upcycle Kentucky’s “keystone” wastes and grow businesses in the process. Potential effects range from removing the bottleneck on bourbon production and producing GHG-friendly biogas to lowering the price of milk.This full whitepaper brief provides an incentive model for keystone wastes which have a provider and a use. It is equally applicable for policymakers or advocates wishing to place a policy incentive behind waste-to-product upcycling, businesses involved with methane sequestration & renewable biogas energy, and shifting regulatory and penalizing models of pollution into incentive model for …

Employing A Public Policy Evaluative Framework: An Analysis Of Domestic Theme Park Development, Anthony Gray Houser

Honors Theses

The intention of the thesis is to examine the relationship between the development of the Walt Disney Company’s theme parks and public policy. Using the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California and the Walt Disney World Resort outside of Orlando, Florida as case studies, this thesis will execute a comparative analysis to better understand the relationship between the Walt Disney Company’s theme parks and public policy. Using an evaluative framework, this thesis will provide a deeper understanding of how public policy affected the development and the current operations of these theme parks. The driving research question in this thesis is, ‘what …

The Sanctuary Campus: Establishing Safe Spaces Of Higher Education For Undocumented And Daca-Status Students, Lizbet Martinez-Port

CSB and SJU Distinguished Thesis

The election of President Donald Trump in 2016 brought fear to undocumented and DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) status students on campuses across the United States. In his campaign, Trump detailed his desire to get rid of the Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Various institutions of higher education created resources, put in place sanctuary policies, and even declared themselves as sanctuary campuses to fight against the challenges that hindered undocumented and DACA students from achieving a higher education. This paper focuses on the policies at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, two private Catholic …

Deterioration Of The Tenth Amendment: Why Federalism’S Hierarchy Must Be Restored, Giana Depaul

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

No abstract provided.

Variation In Covid-19 Outcomes In The United States: A Policy Perspective, Lauren Mcrae

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Is It Us? Is It Them? Or Is It This Place?: Predicting Civility In State Legislatures, Jaclyn J. Kettler, Luke Fowler, Stephanie L. Witt

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

While many scholars and analysts have observed a decline in civility in recent years, there have been few examinations of how political, economic, and institutional structures may partially explain inter-state differences in these trends. We suggest three potential explanations: (1) institutional structures, such as legislative professionalism and gubernatorial power, have created different contexts in which legislators build and maintain inter-personal relationships; (2) partisan competition has led to less bipartisan cooperation and contributed to strained relationships between members of different parties; and, (3) economic inequity and change has contributed to economic anxiety among citizens, contributing to conflict in legislative bodies as …

Respuestas Iniciales Ante El Covid-19 Por Cuatro Gobiernos Centroamericanos, José Andrés Díaz-González

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

El artículo revisa las respuestas iniciales de los gobiernos de Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica y Panamá ante la pandemia del Covid-19. A partir de una revisión de documentos oficiales, se identifican y comparan las características de las respuestas que estos gobiernos ejecutan durante el primer semestre del 2020. Se concluye que, si bien los gobiernos desarrollan principalmente medidas de bioseguridad, hay diferencias importantes en las estrategias adoptadas por estos, posiblemente motivadas por las características sociales, política y económicas imperantes en dichos países. Asimismo, la incertidumbre y falta de información que se tenía en los primeros momentos de la pandemia …

Impacts Of Immigration Detention On Sub-Saharan Africa Asylum Seekers In The United States, Felix Vescovi Ogunsuyi

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Detaining asylum seekers has become an established practice in many countries. There is a large body of research suggesting that immigration detention causes asylum seekers harm. However, the focus of these studies has been on diagnosable disorders and mental health, with no descriptive understanding of how detention and resettlement are experienced and conceptualized by asylum seekers. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine how formerly detained asylum seekers from sub-Saharan African countries perceive the impact of detention on their resettlement experience in the United States. Ager and Strang’s conceptual framework of refugee integration was used as the study’s …

Retaining Foster Parents In San Bernardino County: Identifying And Accessing Resources And Support Services Since California’S Continuum Of Care Reform, Charles A. Varadin

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Foster care is a vast social justice issue that impacts nearly every local community. Yet, it receives relatively little attention due, in part, to the low social constructs of many of the most affected groups (Schneider and Ingram 1997). Thus, it should come as no surprise that foster care and the child welfare system in California, and the United States in general, is in a crisis as more children enter the system than there are foster parents to care for them. Retention of quality foster parents reduces the need for recruitment and increases the likelihood of more stable placements with …

Status Quota: The Representational Efficacy Of Legislative Gender Quotas Upon Public Policy, Daniel Partin

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Legislative gender quota policies are political rules which are designed and implemented with the goal of increasing the representational presence and influence of women in government. Fundamentally, representation operates along two separate dimensions and can be considered as either descriptive or substantive. Descriptive representation is the numerical proportion of a group within a deliberative assembly while substantive representation concerns the ability of a group to shape influence policy outcomes in accordance with their preferences. Past research into legislative gender quotas has been prolific but has also been largely focused upon the tendency of quotas to shape the descriptive dimension of …

When Half The Neighborhood Is Missing: How To Overcome Systemic Poverty And Gentrification Following The Models Of Dudley Street And Mission Waco, Kevin A. Brown, Kevin A. Brown, Kevin A. Brown

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

Abstract

By following the examples of Mission Waco and The Dudley Street Initiative, it is possible to renew a sense of beloved community by changing the narrative of poverty and gentrification by rebuilding the village through empowering the poor and marginalized.

Mission Waco and The Dudley Street Initiative are comprehensive sustainable communities because they combine numerous social and economic interventions under developed strategic plans. The principal question that this dissertation seeks to answer is whether these models can be implemented in local communities to help overcome gentrification and poverty. Implementation can be successful if we can identify the problem, rethink …

The Effect Of Lgbt Film Exposure On Policy Preference, Grant Baldwin

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.

The Eviction Landscape In South Carolina, Ethan Magnuson

Senior Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze the South Carolinian eviction crisis from the perspective of radical geography. South Carolina was chosen for the severity of its crisis and the lack of research at a sub-state level. Court records of eviction filings from 2019 were geocoded and tested for spatial clustering, which was clearly visible. Plaintiff names were used to identify the most frequent filers and distinguish landlords by type. At the census tract level, eviction filing counts were compared with neighborhood characteristics using negative binomial regression, and most were found to be significant in South Carolina. …

Políticas Públicas Locales, Un Caso De Estudio Sobre La Cultura Ciudadana, Santiago Silva Jaramillo, Juan Diego González Rúa, Andrea Arroyave Mejía

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

El estudio de las políticas públicas locales guarda importantes lecciones y aprendizajes sociales para los tomadores de decisión que se encuentran inmersos en procesos de diseño, implementación o evaluación de intervenciones y acciones dirigidas a resolver problemas colectivos. Las contribuciones de estos análisis resultan fundamentales para la consolidación de las perspectivas de la disciplina en Colombia y América Latina, y aportan a la consolidación del conocimiento sobre las políticas públicas pensadas, construidas y desarrolladas desde la localidad.

Esta tarea resulta particularmente relevante al revisar políticas públicas locales desde el enfoque de cultura ciudadana o dirigido a identificar los efectos sobre …

The State And Cannabis : What Is Success? A Comparative Analysis Of Cannabis Policy In The United States Of America, Uruguay, And Canada, Gideon C. Cunningham

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Globally, the policies that states engage in concerning the cultivation, production, distribution, and sale of recreational cannabis in the 21st century is changing rapidly. Three countries have now legalized, regulated, and implemented recreational cannabis frameworks, albeit in starkly different ways. These countries are The United States of America, Uruguay, and Canada. This research identifies the contradictory nature of cannabis policy goals and compares the similarities and differences of each countries’ recreational cannabis framework. It proposes a theory of understanding the contradictory nature of creating cannabis policies post-legalization and presents a framework from which to analyze the success of individual cannabis …

Putting Policy In Its Place: Policy Enactment And Engagement Through A Multiscalar Policy-Shed Framework, Barbara L. Maclennan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The objective of this research is to examine the spatial components integral to policy formation, implementation, and evaluation. The research uses solid waste as a case study to explore a multiscalar GIS policy-shed framework. To this end, the goal of this dissertation is to examine the spatial nature of public policy. The research applies spatial concepts and multiscalar methodological applications embedded within GIS and geovisualization to explore the complex spaces surrounding public policy implementation and evaluation.

Internal And External Determinants Of The Adoption Levels Of Sustainable Development Policies In The Energy, Industry And Agricultural Sectors Of Turkey, The United States, The Russian Federation, And The People’S Republic Of China, Onur Kolcak

Graduate Liberal Studies Theses and Dissertations

Our planet's natural resources have helped humanity advance and build countless civilizations. We are a fossil fuel civilization and have evolved so that today's production and energy use has become the most crucial part of all modern economies. We cannot function without reliable, resilient, and secure energy sources that help us continuously produce. Human history is full of important events that have tremendously shaped our experience on this planet. These experiences have sometimes forced us to make quick decisions and change our ways, but some of these changes occurred gradually and gave us time to plan and adapt. Adaptability is …

Using Lenses To Understand Policy Failures: The Case Of The 2012 Census In Chile, M. Angélica Pavez

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Policy failures are controversial, costly, and above all, messy. More often than we wish, what begins as a well-intentioned policy becomes a failure. In all countries and policy areas, some initiatives end up failing miserably, wasting resources, creating endless political struggles, and even affecting countries' governance. However, the perceptions and understanding of failure are dissimilar. Different actors, including researchers, have diverse and indeed conflicting viewpoints of what constitutes failure, its characteristics and avenues of resolution. The growing policy failure literature offers concepts and models to approach this elusive phenomenon, emphasizing the critical role of social perceptions, characteristics of failure episodes, …

The True Capabilities Of American Education Policy, Mirren Galway

Political Science

This paper is an analysis of today’s American education system, how it has come to be, and why it seems to consistently fall behind when compared to other countries. Beginning with an evaluation of American education today, this paper follows the implementation of recent policy, the deep issues facing the education system and what can be done to address them. Specifically, it explores why, despite such bipartisan legislation like the No Child Left Behind Act, many students and teachers are still being left behind, and why common arguments about education policy continue to fail students. I argue that, although new …