Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Book Review: Resourcing The National Security Enterprise: Connecting The Ways And Means Of Us National Security, Christopher Sandrolini

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Edited by: Susan Bryant and Mark Troutman

Reviewed by Christopher Sandrolini, Foreign Service officer and professor, US Army War College

Foreign Service officer and US Army War College professor Christopher Sandrolini calls this anthology, which contextualizes the defense budget within federal spending, a “well-organized and lucid practical introduction to working within the confines of a bureaucracy.” He highlights and distills Bryant and Troutman’s main arguments, noting, “[m]astering these rules [of bureaucracy] is essential to turn strategies and policies into funded, viable programs.” He also discusses the book’s explanation of how the Department of Defense balances the “four pillars” framework (force …

Vive La Différence?: Is There A Gender Gap In Campaign Strategy And Spending, And Does It Matter?, Paul S. Herrnson, Charles Hunt, Jaclyn J. Kettler

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Record numbers of women were elected into office in the US in recent years, and campaign financing may have contributed to their successes. This raises two questions: Is there a gender gap in campaign strategy and spending? And if there is, does it have an impact on election outcomes? Using a new dataset that includes itemized campaign expenditures for the almost 3,500 candidates who contested a House election between 2012 and 2020, we report little evidence of a gender gap in candidates’ campaign spending, but we find some differences in the effects of communications spending on women’s and men’s electoral …

Primary Barriers To Working Class Representation, Sarah A. Treul, Eric Hansen

Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

How do working class candidates perform in primary elections? Working class candidates rarely emerge, but existing evidence suggests workers perform as well as white-collar candidates once on the ballot. However, this evidence comes from studies of general elections. It is unknown whether these findings extend to other types of elections like primaries, where candidates compete without the political and financial backing of a party. We collect and analyze novel data describing the occupational background of all candidates who competed in U.S. House primaries between 2008 and 2016. The results show that working class candidates received an average vote share 24 …

The Transformation Of Congressional Policy Making In A Partisan Era, Patrick Rickert

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the transformation of Congressional politics away from traditional practices and the consequences of those changes. In the House of Representatives, I consider this with respect to the party and chamber rule changes introduced by the new Republican majority after the 1994 election, while in the Senate I use the lens of paired voting to evaluate how the Senate has evolved. The first chapter discusses the literature on party government and theorizes how parties have used committees to achieve their goals. Chapters 2 and 3 center how Speaker Newt Gingrich used rule changes to alter the relationship between …

Argument For H.R. 82 "The Social Security Fairness Act", Troy Domini M. Ayado

The Gettysburg Journal for Public Policy

This paper analyzes H.R. 82 "The Social security Fairness Act" of 2021 by using SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis. The paper focuses on the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset provisions of the social security Act. When social security was initially passed, pension benefits were not extended to public sector employees until the reforms in 1950s. However, in the 1970s the Supreme Court declared that men were no longer required to prove that they were reliant on their spouses to be eligible for spousal or widower's benefits, thereby making thousands of male retirees eligible to receive benefits. …

Examining The Effects Of Student Loan Forgiveness And The Christian Perspective, Sarah Rogers

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

On August 24, 2022, President Joe Biden announced his plan for federal student loan forgiveness. The program allows individuals who make less than $125,000 a year and families under $250,000 relieve up to $10,000 of their loan debt. Those who fall under the Pell Grant program are able to relieve up to $20,000 of their debt. The reactions to this “revolutionary” program were mixed. Typically, those who the program would directly affect were very enthusiastic about this idea while those, most notably Republicans, were less than thrilled. While the idea is good in theory, the execution of debt forgiveness will …

The Rise Of Agenda Diversity In America: Its Cause And Consequences, John K. Wagner

Political Science ETDs

More than ever, Americans disagree on what issues are important. This diversity in the public agenda has received scant attention in recent years. Consequently, our understanding of why agenda diversity developed relies on a single analysis method, and we know next to nothing about the consequences for the American polity. Using a novel approach to measuring agenda diversity and an advanced experimental design, this dissertation demonstrates the causal connection between issue-based selective exposure to news and higher agenda diversity. Concerning its consequences, this work investigates congressional responsiveness. Results from a complex analysis of constituency public opinion, Congress bill sponsorship, and …

Identifying The Interconnection Between Maine's Lobster Industry And The North Atlantic Right Whale Population In Order To Guide Federal Action, Devon Lammert

Honors College

North Atlantic Right Whales (NARW) are on the verge of going extinct because of human activity. Entanglements in fixed fishing gear and vessel strikes are killing NARW at such a rate that their extinction is inevitable unless human-caused deaths are significantly reduced. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has subjected Maine’s lobster fishery to regulations aimed at protecting whales since 1997 as part of the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan. Recently proposed changes to the plan would effectively regulate Maine’s lobster industry out of existence. Lobstering is a cultural and …

Polarized By Design: Does The Structure Of Congress Eliminate Moderates?, James Hotham

Honors College

Over the last few decades scholars have noted the new structure of Congress has become much more leader centric, with them holding more power than they had in the past. This has helped to foster polarization within Congress as a body, by making bipartisanship a more difficult process and poses the question: why would a moderate member of Congress choose to pursue a career where their goal and insights are largely discounted by the rest of the body they serve in? In order to determine whether these new limitations on moderates impact their presence this thesis will analyze a number …

Law Library Blog (February 2023): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Term Limits: An Argument For The Senate, Deanna Ferry

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

In this research study an argument is made to impose term limits on Senators serving in the United States Congress. It looks to explore historical data to prove effectiveness of self-imposed limits, real time data of sitting Senators to offer a modern perspective, and examples from other imposed term limits for sitting elected officials to demonstrate their benefit to constituents. The data utilized in this study is applied through organizational theory and quantified based on results and responses from both primary and secondary sources. Historical sources are applied as well through the literature review focusing on three primary themes emerging …

How Do Black Congressional Members Frame The Issue Of Gun Violence? An Analysis Of Twitter Posts, Speeches, And Press Releases From The 117th Congress, Solena Ornelas

Political Science & International Studies | Senior Theses

Black Americans are disproportionately affected by gun violence. In fact, in 2022 Black Americans were projected to be ten times more likely than White Americans to die by gun homicide.1 One of the responsibilities of Congress is to represent people within their district by developing and voting on legislation that protects constituents by making their communities safer. It is the responsibility of Congress to address the issue of gun violence because it is an issue that jeopardizes the safety of many American communities, as there are roughly 100,000 victims of gun violence each year.2 Research has shown that the race …

The Campaign To End U.S. War-Making In Yemen: Strategies Of Congressional Advocacy, 2015–2020, Zachary Laub

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Civil society groups and a handful of lawmakers have pursued a robust campaign to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen in Congress. By framing the conflict as a war of Saudi aggression and pulling legislative levers that enabled them to force floor votes, advocates turned a niche issue into one that galvanized majorities in Congress and generated significant media coverage. Even when vetoes blocked their ability to enact binding war powers and arms transfer legislation, advocates nevertheless exerted political pressure that gave the president and the Saudi-led coalition alike impetus to moderate the war effort. This case …

Law Library Blog (July 2022): Legal Beagle Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of The Education Realignment On Party Position Taking In The United States, Joel B. Kersting

Dissertations - ALL

In recent decades, observers of American politics noticed a growing divide in the voting behavior of individuals with and without a college education. Today, Americans with a college degree are much more likely to support the Democratic Party and those without a college degree are much more likely to support the Republican Party. This trend, concentrated among whites, is a reversal of voting behavior in the past. I call this reversal the education realignment: the movement of college educated whites from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party; and of non-college educated whites from the Democratic Party to the Republican …

Legislating Against Liberties: Congress And The Constitution In The Aftermath Of War, Harry Blain

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

How far can a democracy go to protect itself without jeopardizing the liberties upon which democracy depends? This dissertation examines why wartime restrictions on civil liberties outlive their original justifications. Through a comparative historical analysis of five major American wars, it illustrates the decisive role of the U.S. Congress in preserving these restrictions during peacetime. This argument challenges the prevailing consensus in the literature, which identifies wartime executive power as the main threat to postwar freedoms. It also reveals broader narratives of American constitutional development, including the rise and fall of intrusive congressional investigations, the decline of sedition legislation since …

Interns And Institutions: Interactions Between Unpaid Interns And Public Policy, Hannah G. Waterman

Honors Projects

Political, and especially Congressional, internships are all but mandatory to launch a career in politics. This text examines the demographics of how these internships are dispersed, how they are paid, who is paid, and how this manifests in full-time Congressional staff demographics. Data shows that both paid and unpaid Congressional internships belong disproportionately to white students. Top staff in the House of Representatives is similarly disproportionately white. The text also examines the inherent danger of working in Congress and the broader case for paid internships.

Law Library Blog (May 2022): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

White Constituents And Congressional Voting, Eric Hansen

Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Why do some members of Congress vote more on the extremes of their party than others? I argue that lawmakers representing more homogeneously white districts have greater electoral incentive to moderate their voting records, since the two parties compete more for support of white voters than for the support of minority voters. I provide evidence using roll-call votes from the U.S. House and Senate. I find members representing more homogeneously white districts have more moderate voting records, a finding that holds for Democrats and Republicans. I explore two potential mechanisms: legislator responsiveness and electoral punishment. While legislators do not seem …

The American Congress Digital Archives Portal Project White Paper, Danielle Emerling

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This white paper documents the work of the American Congress Digital Archives Portal project to aggregate congressional archives into a single, online platform and make them more broadly available. Congressional archives document the democratic process; the development of public policy; and multiple narratives related to the country’s social, cultural, and political development. Work of the project included developing standards and best practices; creating governance structures for the one-year project and future phases; developing a web portal that meets user needs and adding archival content; determining digitization priorities via a research survey; conducting usability testing; and communicating and publicizing the project. …

Law Library Blog (March 2022): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Bent, But Not Broken: The Constitutional, Legal, And Procedural Issues In The 2020 Electoral College Vote Certification, Nicholas Kapoor

eJournal of Public Affairs

In 2016, Democrats protested in Trump-won states asking Electoral College members to vote their conscience and against their state’s popular vote. In 2020, President Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6^th demanding that the certification of the Electoral College vote in favor of Joe Biden not move forward. Are the laws, court decisions, and the Constitution itself set up to cause such an uproar around a routine item? Was the 2020 iteration of counting the Electoral College votes an aberration, or is this the new normal? This essay will chronicle the Constitutional, legal, and procedural issues around the …

A Democratic Norm Endures January 6th: Congress And Deference To States’ Election Certifications, Kevin R. Kosar, Elayne Allen

eJournal of Public Affairs

Congress rarely overturns elections to either of its chambers. legislators tend to follow a norm of deference to election results lawfully submitted by states. This norm is longstanding and is the product of the Constitution, federal law, and habit. Yet, on January 6, 2021, our national legislature flirted with violating that norm and denying the presidency to Joseph Biden based upon spurious claims of electoral fraud. Fortunately, legislators from both parties forged strong majorities to uphold the norm, and subsequently reaffirmed it during Congress' review of a disputed Iowa congressional election. Viewing both these events closely reveals both that those …

Delegating Climate Authorities, Mark P. Nevitt

Faculty Articles

The science is clear: the United States and the world must take dramatic action to address climate change or face irreversible, catastrophic planetary harm. Within the U.S.—the world’s largest historic emitter of greenhouse gas emissions—this will require passing new legislation or turning to existing statutes and authorities to address the climate crisis. Doing so implicates existing and prospective delegations of legislative authority to a large swath of administrative agencies. Yet congressional climate decision-making delegations to any executive branch agency must not dismiss the newly resurgent nondelegation doctrine. Described by some scholars as the “most dangerous idea in American law,” the …

Back To The Sources? What’S Clear And Not So Clear About The Original Intent Of The First Amendment, John Witte Jr.

Faculty Articles

This Article peels through these layers of founding documents before exploring the final sixteen words of the First Amendment religion clauses. Part I explores the founding generation’s main teachings on religious freedom, identifying the major principles that they held in common. Part II sets out a few representative state constitutional provisions on religious freedom created from 1776 to 1784. Part III reviews briefly the actions by the Continental Congress on religion and religious freedom issued between 1774 and 1789. Part IV touches on the deprecated place of religious freedom in the drafting of the 1787 United States Constitution. Part V …

The Power Of One: Majority Leadership Power In The United States Senate, Andrew Taylor Ordentlich

Honors Theses

The United States Senate has long been heralded as an institution known for its strong reliance upon procedural rules and the leadership that is able to use those rules to their advantage. Recent leaders including Senators Reid, McConnell, and Schumer have attempted to reform the rules of the Senate to its advantage. But why are we seeing this influx in reform now? This thesis utilizes the theory of Conditional Party Government (CPG) to explain the prevalence and lack of reform between 1900 and today. Using roll-call vote data and primary sources such as historical newspapers and the Congressional Record, this …

S11, E05: The Department Of Justice, Nia Rodgers, John Aughenbaugh

Civil Discourse Podcast

Aughie and Nia move on to the next department in the series, the Department of Justice. They discuss the various Attorneys General, the structure of the Department of Justice, and interesting tidbits about the history, political intrigues, and the people who have served within the DoJ.

Building Our Own Houses: Aapis In Congress, Daenerys Pineda

CMC Senior Theses

During the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-Asian hate peaked and came to national attention. Given the country-wide scope of this issue, a potential avenue for its address is through federal representatives, and particularly through those representatives who identify as Asian-American. This community’s political participation began long before 2020, and this thesis evaluates how Asian-American representatives have provided meaningful political representation in various situations for a national Asian-American constituency. For the purpose of this thesis, I define substantive representation as an action of a representative, using their particular political powers and privileges, in the interest of their constituents. I conduct three case studies …

From The End Of Politics To Legitimate Opposition: Political Perceptions Of The 37th Congress Of The United States In The North 1860-1862, Lauren Dubas

Honors Theses

This paper intends to explore the political landscape of the Union during the first two years of the Civil War, specifically how the people in the North perceived what remained of the Congress from 1860-1862. I will be using a combination of primary and secondary sources to cover the 37^th Congress of the United States, whose members were elected in 1860 and legislated until the next Congressional election in 1862. My research shows several significant stages in the political landscape during this period and uses these stages of partisan politics as the foundation for understanding how the federal government, …

White Supremacy, Police Brutality, And Family Separation: Preventing Crimes Against Humanity Within The United States, Elena Baylis

Articles

Although the United States tends to treat crimes against humanity as a danger that exists only in authoritarian or war-torn states, in fact, there is a real risk of crimes against humanity occurring within the United States, as illustrated by events such as systemic police brutality against Black Americans, the federal government’s family separation policy that took thousands of immigrant children from their parents at the southern border, and the dramatic escalation of White supremacist and extremist violence culminating in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. In spite of this risk, the United States does not have …