Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Policy Imperatives For An Arctic Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

No abstract provided.

The Morning After A General Election: The Vice-Regal Perspective, Peter Neary

History Publications

Everywhere in Canada, election night now produces a television extravaganza, with the commentariat out in full force. The next day newspapers chime in with their reporting, as the country wakes up to further analysis of what has happened and what the future might bring. From the vice-regal perspective, however, the path to be followed after every election is always clear and always the same: the conventions of responsible government must be respected and politics eschewed. The vice-regal representative is the protector of the Constitution and not a political actor: the job is to follow convention, stay away from party strife, …

Little Liberals: A Child-Centred Approach To The Inculcation Of Values, Alison M. Braley-Rattai

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In a liberal-democracy, the proper role of parents and of the state in forming children’s beliefs involves several separate but interrelated debates: These concern the conceptual space that children occupy within liberal theory, the basis of the ‘control rights’ adults are said to have over children, and the tension between the values of autonomy and diversity, which are foundational values for a liberal-democracy. To clarify these debates, competing paradigms are identified in political theories that address them: A dual-interest view and a child-centred view. The former ‘balances’ the interests that parents and children have in the child-rearing relationship, and the …

Policy Implications Of The Financial Crisis And Recession: Canadian Performance In Comparison, Michael W. Carfagnini

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Global Financial and Economic Crisis involve complex interaction among diverse causal factors. This article seeks to ascertain the policy implications of countries’ exposure and responses to these twin crises. It does so by comparing five economies – The United States, United Kingdom, Iceland, Greece, and Canada - according to their economic performance through the crises. This comparison aims to discern why Canada’s performance surpassed that of the other four cases. The paper compares countries’ financial regulations and initial exposure to the financial crisis, as well as monetary and fiscal policy responses to mitigate the crisis and recession. It finds …

“Winds Of Change”: Explaining Support For Wind Energy Developments In Ontario, Canada, Chad Jr Walker

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis addresses a major gap in the wind turbine and risk assessment literatures. It explains local support for wind energy in some areas in spite of vocal opposition in others. Findings from Port Burwell and Clear Creek, Ontario indicate that social and contextual forces may help explain much of the difference in opinion between the two communities. The case study was focused through 21 in-depth interviews. The interviews were analyzed verbatim using NVIVO 9 software. The findings were found to be consistent with Kasperson’s theory of the Social Amplification of Risk and seem to explain why Port Burwell is …

Democratic Opposition Parties And Democratic Outcomes In Hybrid Regimes, Jeremy M. Ladd

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Leading up to and following the end of the Cold War a new wave of democratisation commenced in Sub-Saharan Africa and around the world which, in both cases, has been characterized by “blocked transitions,” the “rise of competitive authoritarianism,” and the proliferation of hybrid regimes. This thesis is primarily concerned with “democratic” outcomes within these hybrid regimes. Excluding data from prior to the end of the Cold War in global investigations of democracy, this thesis utilizes a temporally truncated dataset to reanalyse dominant theories of democratisation both at the global and regional (Sub-Saharan Africa) level, finding that when contaminating effects …

When Voters Decide: Causes, Correlates And Effects Of The Time-Of-Voting-Decision, Robert M J Mcgregor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Why do individuals make their vote decisions at the point in time at which they do, and what impact does the time-of-voting-decision (TOVD) have upon other important political variables? Through a series of integrated articles, this dissertation explores the causes, correlates and effects of TOVD in Canada. The first two articles explore the relationships between TOVD and political attitudes, employing TOVD as both an independent and dependent variable. The first examines the impact that consistency, intensity and direction of summary political attitudes have on TOVD, and introduces a new measure of attitudinal ambivalence. The second article employs cognitive dissonance theory …

The Political Left Rolls With The Good; The Political Right Confronts The Bad: Physiology And Cognition In Politics, Michael D. Dodd, Amanda Balzer, Carly M. Jacobs, Michael W. Gruszczynski, Kevin B. Smith, John R. Hibbing

Political Science Publications

We report evidence that individual-level variation in people's physiological and attentional responses to aversive and appetitive stimuli are correlated with broad political orientations. Specifically, we find that greater orientation to aversive stimuli tends to be associated with right-of-centre and greater orientation to appetitive (pleasing) stimuli with left-of-centre political inclinations. These findings are consistent with recent evidence that political views are connected to physiological predispositions but are unique in incorporating findings on variation in directed attention that make it possible to understand additional aspects of the link between the physiological and the political.

An Institutional Explanation Of The Formation Of Intergovernmental Agreements In Federal Systems, Jeffrey T. Parker

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Intergovernmental agreements are a common and useful instrument in federal systems, serving a variety of purposes from establishing new social programs, regulating agricultural practices, and even changing a country's constitution. Despite their importance, there have only been limited attempts to understand agreements in a comparative context or to provide a theoretical framework for their study. This dissertation addresses both of these deficiencies by comparing the use of agreements in seven federations and considering why certain federations form more agreements than others.

In order to understand these differences in intergovernmental agreement formation, this thesis proposes an institutionalist approach with two components. …

Justice, Culture And The Political Determinants Of Indigenous Australian Health, Dominic O'Sullivan

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Indigenous Australian health is distinguished by a median age of death in the order of 20 years less than that of the non-indigenous population (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009). This makes Australia unique among comparable post-colonial societies in failing to make substantive reductions to the indigenous/non-indigenous health differential. Relatively poor indigenous housing, educational attainment, labour market participation and access to traditional resources for economic purposes contribute to the differen- tial. These contributing variables have an inherently political character which is integral to examining the just distribution of public authority, the purpose of political activity, equal political participation and cultural responsiveness …

Beyond The “Three Bs”: How American Christians Approach Faith And Politics, Amanda Friesen, Michael W. Wagner

Political Science Publications

While it is well-known that religiosity measures inform modern political alignments and voting behavior, less is known about how people of various religious orthodoxies think about the role of religion in society. To learn more about this veritable “black box” with respect to whether and why people connect their spiritual life to the political world, we conducted several focus groups in randomly selected Christian congregations in a mid-sized Midwestern city. Our analysis offers confirmatory, amplifying, and challenging evidence with respect to the “Three Bs” (believing, behaving, and belonging) perspective on how religion affects politics. Specifically, we show that while contemporary …