Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Framing The Debate: The Role Of Gender, Beneficiaries, And Cost In Paid Parental Leave Policy Support, Kimberly Anne Saks Mcmanaway

Wayne State University Dissertations

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy’s Commission on the Status of Women found that the lack of income security during pregnancy and childbearing “one of the major remaining gaps in the protection of workers against losses of income,” (American Women 1963, p. 27). Despite popular support for such a policy, the United States remains one of only three countries that does not have a such a policy (OECD, 2017). Commentators have argued that the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 was successful due to the diverse coalition behind it which included feminist groups and conservative religious organizations alike. The …

Delivery Of Usaid Aid To Afghanistan, 2001-2017, Abdullah Fayez Bataineh

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

DELIVERY OF USAID AID IN AFGHANISTAN, 2001-2017

by

ABDULLAH BATAINEH

May 2018

Advisor: Dr. Nadejda Marinova

Major: Department of Political Science

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

Afghanistan is currently foreign aid dependent. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has allocated over 100 billion US dollars since 2001 for the development and modernization of Afghanistan. The United States has invested over 700 billion US dollars overall. There is a breakdown or a problem in USAID funding for Afghanistan, whereas not all the money allocated was utilized for intended purposes. Today Afghanistan remains a LDC, a least developed country, with extensive …

Mass Shootings As Issue Management Exigencies And Focusing Events For Public Policy Debates, Melvin Gupton

Wayne State University Dissertations

This content analysis of multiple mass shooting cases examines a crisis genre that is not as frequently studied as other crises such as natural disasters or organizational exigencies. Though just as rich with stakeholders’ communicative exchanges and neatly traversing the three crisis stages, mass shootings have yet to be fully elaborated. To further the examination of these crises, this dissertation identifies those actors who hold the principal stakes in the aftermath of a mass shooting incident, and explores what these stakeholders are saying. By applying focusing events and issue management theories, it uncovers the prominent public policy issues reported in …

The Political Determinants Of Food Security: Democracy, Decentralization, And Federalism, Catherine E. Schmitt-Sands

Wayne State University Dissertations

Food security is partially determined by politics. This dissertation examines three political determinants of food security: democracy, decentralization, and federalism. Each one is operationalized and tested quantitatively against food security using a dataset of all countries from 1990 to 2011, although each model employs a different subset of the dataset. Democracy is divided along two dimensions: political rights and civil liberties. Both are significant positive predictors of food security. Increases in civil liberties are more consistently and strongly associated with food security than increases in political rights.

Decentralization is assessed along three dimensions: fiscal, administrative, and political. Fiscal and administrative …

The City Is Black, Black Is The City: Exploring The Intersections Of Race And Stratification Beliefs On Policy Preferences, Randall Rashad Wyatt

Wayne State University Theses

This paper examines the association between race blame attitudes with support for policies aimed at improving the nation’s large cities among White and Black Americans. Although legislative safeguards protect the constitutional rights of all Americans, Blacks trail Whites on nearly all quality of life indicators. By extension, the quality of life within cities with disproportionate and segregated Black populations is decidedly worse than in other cities. That said, the current study largely finds that black and white Americans maintain different motivations for supporting increased or decreased funding for large urban American cities, which often serves as a code word for …

Recording Of Custodial Interrogations: Policies And Practices, Laura Rubino

Wayne State University Theses

Within the last century, interrogation practices throughout the United States have notably changed. Police interrogations went from physical harm (i.e., the third degree) to psychologically suggestive techniques. These psychologically coercive techniques put suspects at risk of giving a false confession, which is one of the contributing factors in wrongful convictions. One remedy to reduce false confessions is to electronically record interrogations. Very little is known about the specific policies and practices of electronic recordings during interrogation within law enforcement agencies. Policies and practices vary by state and by agency, which makes it difficult to identify agencies that do electronically record …

A Study Of Performance Based Budgeting Reforms In The National Park Service And Their Effects On Agency Management And Operations, Nichole Marie Fifer

Wayne State University Dissertations

This is a case study of performance-based and budgeting reforms in National Park Service (NPS). The study examines the effects of reform initiatives on the agency’s administration, budgeting, and management. Previous research suggests that current reform initiatives are more effective than those of the past. Further research on reforms suggests reform impacts, while small or non-existent at the agency level may be significant at the sub-agency level. The main reform studied here is performance based budgeting (PBB), under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA). Its purpose is to improve policy implementation at the “street level.” If working as intended, …

The Federal Banking Regulators: Agency Capture, Regulatory Failure, And Industry Collapse During The 2008 Financial Crisis, Justin Rex

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation examines the process of agency capture at four federal bank regulatory agencies leading up to the 2008 financial crisis: the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve, The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and The Office of Thrift Supervision. Though public administration and policy scholars have moved away from capture theory toward a more pluralistic understanding of agency policymaking, recent events like the Gulf oil spill, coal mining disasters, and the 2008 financial crisis have renewed attention to the role lax regulation plays in disasters and crises. As such, I set out to explore whether banks …

Bankruptcy And Politics: A Framework For Bankruptcy Policymaking In The United States Congress And Courts, Kevin Mandell Ball

Wayne State University Dissertations

The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 was enacted amid much controversy and was considered by many observers to mark a major change in the direction of U.S. bankruptcy policy. The dissertation uses the law's passage as a vehicle to develop an explicit model of the integrated role of Congress, issue networks, and the courts in making policy. Following Baumgartner and Jones (1993), Sabatier (1988), and others, the dissertation tracks bankruptcy policymaking and implementation over a seventy-five year period to demonstrate that policy is made in three distinct venues: Congress; a policy community made up of lawyers, …

Outcomes, Adaptations And Performance: A Local Evaluation Of Shelter Plus Care, Sloan R. Herrick

Wayne State University Theses

Individual outcomes and barriers to program implementation for Shelter Plus Care are presented in an exploratory study investigating the impact of a permanent supportive housing program - Shelter Plus Care - in Detroit, a city that faces unique challenges and complicated needs. Individual outcomes including improved housing stability, increased income and reports of enhanced self-sufficiency suggest the program is achieving the goals projected by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Despite positive outcomes for individual consumers, barriers to program implementation emerged as thematic problems for organizations running the program. The study provides recommendations that may increase the …