Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

State Judicial Selection Methods As Public Policy: The Missouri Plan, James A. Gleason

Open Access Dissertations

State judiciaries are foundational institutions of governance in the United States. They are coequal, policy-making branches of government whose members, along with the legislative and executive branches, are constitutionally authorized and empowered in all fifty American states. Extant research on judicial selection in the American states provides neither a comprehensive theory of why states choose their particular judicial selection method nor a comprehensive empirical assessment of this important question. This research seeks to fill this lacuna by increasing understanding of American state courts through the formulation of a theory of state judicial selection, a short but comprehensive history of state …

Understanding The Formation Of American Mental Health Policy Preferences, 1952-1981, Andrew D. Tuholski

Open Access Dissertations

In the United States, the emergence of an outpatient-centered, drug-based model of mental health care was physically feasible from the 1950s onward, with the introduction of thorazine and other first-generation antipsychotics. However, it was not until 1981, with President Reagan’s veto of the Mental Health Systems Act, that American mental health policy tipped over definitively into the outpatient-centered, drug-based model. In this quantitative study of the formation of policy preference, the delay between the feasibility of the outpatient-centered, drug-based model and its adoption was explored through five research questions answered through corpus analysis and time series statistics: How do shifts …

Post-Transition Human Rights Performance In Peru, Uruguay, And South Korea, Nusta Pitushca Carranza Ko

Open Access Dissertations

The literature on transitional justice and international human rights norms has been useful for explaining norm internalization for transitioning states. And yet, the literature could not account for the variations to state behavior after norms were implemented via domestic transitional justice policies of truth-seeking, prosecutions, and reparations. Why have states where great efforts were put into confronting an ugly past relapsed in their behavior? This research fills this lacuna be examining the period after states institute transitional justice policies to determine how states have varied in respecting norms. Taking the case of Peru, Uruguay, and South Korea that have advanced …

The Politics Of Town Hall Meetings: Analyzing Constituent Relations-In-Interaction, Robert J. Green

Open Access Dissertations

The politics of town meetings proposes that town hall meetings are institutions of representative democracy that present an opportunity for constituents to hold their elected representatives accountable in a public setting. Constituent relations-in-interaction glosses a complex set of interactional practices and procedures through which ensembles of participants bring town hall meetings, as structures of social interaction, into being. This study uses conversation analysis, the study of talk-in-interaction, to show that the politics of town hall meetings orients to three types of accountability: Interactional accountability, political accountability, and public accountability. The articulation of these accountability types provides a sense of overall-structural …

Us Strategic Retrenchment And Security-Seeking Behaviors Of The Us Allies In Northeast Asia, Seok Ryul Kang

Open Access Dissertations

This research is planned to explore how a regional state could improve its security during the time of its patron’s strategic retrenchment. It introduces a theory of a regional state’s security-promoting behaviors during the time of its patron’s retrenchment. According to this theory, it is hypothesized that there is covariation between the level of a regional state’s security concern and the scope of its domestic drives to increase societal contribution to autonomous defense posture. It also hypothesizes the existence of covariation between the level of a regional state’s security concern and the level of its commitment to the pursuit of …

State Based Financial Liberalization, Robert J. Kulzick

Open Access Dissertations

In the last 40 years, states around the globe have increased the role of markets in their financial systems. Using newly collected information on the educational backgrounds of Central Bankers, I demonstrate that the beliefs of state officials about the proper role of markets in the financial system influence the extent to which state's liberalize their financial systems. By tracing the liberalization experiences in both France and China through secondary sources, I show that bureaucrats within the state suggest reforms that conform to their neoliberal training when political leaders turn to them for solutions to what are perceived as technical …

After The Honeymoon: The Obama Effect On Political Attitudes And Participation, Laurent W. Vesely

Open Access Dissertations

My dissertation takes a mixed-methods approach to investigating the possibility of a lasting Obama Effect on the political attitudes and behaviors of Obama supporters from 2008. Defining the Obama Effect as the extraordinary enthusiasm surrounding Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, I argue that a short term Obama Effect was clearly present in 2008 based on Obama’s electoral success, fundraising prowess, and ability to inspire volunteerism, as well as on the historic nature of his candidacy. But I ask, was it a lasting effect? My quantitative analyses—built upon panel survey data from the American National Election Studies—suggest little evidence of a lasting …

A New Reality: Funding Formula Changes And Property Tax Caps And Their Effects On The Role Of The School Superintendent In The State Of Indiana, Patrick L. Gentry

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover how school superintendents were using general fund referenda to meet their school district’s operational budgets. However, after interviews began it became clear that the superintendents wanted to tell a different story and that was how the current school funding mechanism and property tax caps has changed the job of the school superintendent. The research consisted of one-on-one guided interviews of a mixed qualitative methods framework combining theories of hermeneutics and phenomenology. The interviews combined open-ended, guided questions and conversations and were with superintendents who were leaders of school districts that have …

Nurturing Transitions: Housewife Organizations In (Colonial) Indonesia, 1900-1972, Liberty P. Sproat

Open Access Dissertations

From 1900-1972, housewife organizations in the Netherlands Indies and Indonesia assisted the population of the archipelago in adapting to the political upheaval that attended Indonesia's national liberation from the Netherlands. Under the Ethical Policy (1900-1942), the Association of Housewives sought to "uplift" indigenous society in the Netherlands Indies through teaching women household management skills including proper sanitation, hygiene, and food preservation methods. Through educational and social welfare initiatives, Dutch housewives maintained the Netherlands' control over the territory while promoting Dutch development efforts. At the same time, the Indonesian women's movement aligned with the Indonesian nationalist movement, as exemplified in the …

Strategic Public Diplomacy: Cultivating Relationships With Foreign Publics And Measuring Relationship Outcomes Using The Relationship Assessment Of Diplomatic Interaction Outcome (Radio) Scale, Lai Shan Tam

Open Access Dissertations

In response to calls for a tool to measure public diplomacy effectiveness, this study was inspired by the organization-public relationship assessment (OPRA) scale in public relations to develop the Relationship Assessment of Diplomatic Interaction Outcome (RADIO) scale. Its purpose is to measure the perceived relationship quality between a country and its foreign publics.Political, economic, cultural, interpersonal and corporate interactions are proposed to be antecedents whereas positive and negative megaphoningbehaviors are proposed to be outcomes. Perceived relationship quality in between the antecedents and outcomes classifies relationships into two types: experiential (those with direct experiences in terms of having visited …

Bringing The Ballot Box To The People: Election Administration And The Origins Of Inclusive Voting Practices, Kevin Pallister

Open Access Dissertations

Countries holding competitive elections vary in the extent to which the administrative practices surrounding the voting process facilitate or impede voter participation. Differences in the requirements for voter registration, the distances voters must travel to reach a polling place, the mechanics of casting a ballot, and the provision of voter education, among other factors, pose varying obstacles to participation. This variation poses a puzzle that this dissertation addresses: Why do some democracies adopt election administration practices that lower barriers to voter participation, while others adopt practices that raise prohibitive obstacles to the participation of at least some citizens? More simply, …

Resilient Environmental Governance: Protecting Changing Ecosystems Through Multilevel Governance, Casey Stevens

Open Access Dissertations

International governance is increasingly defined by multilevel governance; with short-term projects, transnational cooperation between different groups, and unclear institutional space. In this situation, a key issue is the resilience of governance arrangements or the ability of governance arrangements to respond to political and ecological shocks to the system. Using international biodiversity governance, this study explores the question: What social and political processes produce resilient governance?

This study argues that the key to understanding resilient governance is the network structure within and outside of the governance arrangement. Modular network structures are able to generate ideas from multiple sources, able to solve …

In Transition: The Politics Of Place-Based, Prefigurative Social Movements, Emily Hardt

Open Access Dissertations

The Transition movement is a grassroots movement working to build community resilience in response to the challenges of climate change, fossil fuel depletion, and economic insecurity. Rather than focusing on the state as a site for contestation or change, the movement adopts a "do it ourselves" approach, prioritizing autonomy and prefigurative action. It also places importance on relationships and community in the context of local places. It is open-ended and characterized by an ethos of experimentation and learning.

Transition shares these place-based and prefigurative features in common with many other contemporary movements, from the Zapatistas to alternative globalization movements, to …

Transnational Networks And The Promotion Of Conservationist Norms In Developing Countries, Kemi D. George

Open Access Dissertations

The political economic pressures of development contribute to unsustainable environmental practices in developing countries, and marginalize civil society participation. This dissertation looks at the following countries where policymakers are faced with strong incentives to foster rapid economic growth. In Jamaica, the bauxite industry demands mining rights in sensitive mountainous ecosystems. In Mexico, the tourist industry demands access to construct in vulnerable coastal environments in the southeast. In inland Mexico, unregulated agriculture threatens ecosystems in the Yucatán Peninsula. Finally, tourist and energy industries in Egypt demand access for infrastructure in sensitive ecosystems in the Red Sea region. In all of the …

Elemental Challenges: Environmental Troubles Beyond The Limits Of Democracy, Brad Mapes-Martins

Open Access Dissertations

From an examination of how environmental issues reshape politics, this inquiry focuses on the theoretical grounds of deliberative democratic theory to ask whether such a vision offers the best means of resolving environmental problems. Arguing that the very terms in which environmental politics have been defined retain features better suited to previous historical circumstances, the analysis proceeds from features typical of environmental problems to a more context-specific assessment of the role for democratic participation. Engaging the works of Jürgen Habermas, the author details the way in which deliberative democratic theory is indebted to a concept of communicative action that defines …

The Exclusion Of Non-Native Voters From A Final Plebiscite In Puerto Rico: Law And Policy, Ramon Antonio Rodriguez

Open Access Dissertations

U.S. Puerto Rico relations have always been mystifying to countless U.S. citizens, due to inconsistent policies and judicial decisions from the United States. Puerto Ricans have no control over immigration, yet they can decide the future of the island nation. Puerto Rico is a nation under colonial rule. Paul R. Bras sistains the possibility of corporate recognition for the ethnic group as a separate nationality within an existing state evocative of the United States. The United States has treated Puerto Rico as foreign country nevertheless at times as domestic. Under U.S. law and jurisprudence Puerto Rico is not part of …

Engineering Of Artificial Cellular Circuits Based On The Luxi-Luxr Quorum-Sensing System, Daniel Jon Sayut

Open Access Dissertations

Natural cellular networks are very good at processing diverse inputs, generating complicated responses, and confounding researchers with their complexities. As an alternative to traditional cellular engineering approaches, the field of synthetic biology attempts to avoid the complexities of natural systems by focusing on the bottom-up construction of artificial cellular circuits. By rationally building up circuit complexity, synthetic biologists hope to both create novel systems capable of programming unique cellular responses, and gain insights into the design principles of natural systems. Circuits that allow for the programming of intercellular responses are of particular interest, and researchers have focused on the use …

Ideological Endzones: Nfl Films And The Countersubversive Tradition In American Politics, Nicholas R. Archer

Open Access Dissertations

This study examines the role of propaganda and popular culture in constituting the American political tradition through the study of NFL films by employing a decidedly overlooked theoretical conception of the American political tradition—the countersubversive tradition thesis. Originally put forth by Michael Rogin, the countersubversive tradition is defined as “the creation of monsters as a continuing feature of American politics by the inflation, stigmatization, and dehumanization of political foes.” It is my belief that in looking at what constitutes the individual characteristics of the countersubversive tradition in a text like a sports film it is easier to see how it …

The Business Community And The Forging Of Political Consensus Against The Clinton Healthcare Security Act Of 1994, Michael Lenz

Open Access Dissertations

My research provides an insider's view of how political consensus is formed within the business community. More specifically, my research sheds light on the sociological processes of political mobilization within the business community against the Clinton Health Security Act of 1994. In this study, I build off Jill Quadagno's stakeholder thesis which largely attributes the defeat of the healthcare reform effort to the political mobilization of anti-healthcare business forces. I probe Quadagno's thesis a bit deeper in this study by exploring how conflicting business forces resolved policy disagreements on the merits of healthcare reform in order to arrive at the …

Formulating Older Driver Licensing Policy: An Evaluation Of Older Driver Crash History And Performance, Heather A. Rothenberg

Open Access Dissertations

This research sought to understand the relationship between licensing policy and the opportunity for the development of a scientifically-based approach to identifying high risk older drivers based on prior driving history. This research focused on five tasks: 1) review of the literature, 2) compilation of information on licensing policy for use by decision-makers, 3) assessment of charges and payer source for older driver crashes using linked crash and hospital data , and 4) the development and 5) validation of an older driver crash prediction model. There is relatively little available in the way of information for policymakers regarding licensing, and …

City Marketing And Gated Communities: A Case Study Of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, Carlos A. Suarez-Carrasquillo

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the dynamics of gated communities with attention to the municipality of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. Despite the growing numbers of gated communities worldwide, research on this matter remains scarce. I argue that a “gated community consensus” has emerged in Puerto Rico. The hypothesis is that in Guaynabo, the municipality facilitates the emergence of gated communities in order to change the face of the city and reap an economic windfall. Interviews demonstrate the municipality’s commitment to facilitating the construction of new communities and lending support to older communities. Most of these gated communities respond to high end income …

The People And Me: Michael Moore And The Politics Of Political Documentary, Jon Scott Oberacker

Open Access Dissertations

Perhaps no one has had more influence on the role of political documentary in the contemporary public sphere than filmmaker Michael Moore. His unique melding of committed political arguments with an ironic reflexive style have changed the very look and feel of documentary film, contributing significantly to the form's newfound popularity. Furthermore, his steadfast commitment to progressive politics has given the issue of socioeconomic "class" the kind of attention it rarely receives within the mainstream media. However, Moore's films have also been the recipient of viscous attacks from his political opponents, and subject to some of the most contentious public …