Political Science Commons^™

Blunt Instruments, Glass Slippers, And Unicorns: Ocean Governance In A Climate-Changed Gulf Of Maine, Susan E. Farady

Maine Policy Review

Management and governance systems should ideally match the nature of the natural environment and the range of human uses. Today’s ocean and coastal governance system is made up of singular laws and government agencies, the product of years of evolution. This system was never intended to reflect the complexities of the marine ecosystem and varied human uses of marine resources. The resulting “silo-ed” management system has never worked particularly well, but as we face a rapidly changing Gulf of Maine, and accompanying changes in uses, this system’s limitations are increasingly obvious. An “ideal” ocean governance system would be comprehensive and …

Imperative Protection Or Veiled Persecution? Balancing §230 Immunity And The First Amendment In The Censorship Of Social Media, Emily A. Middleton Valdés

New England Journal of Political Science

In the new age of fast-paced digital news, the primary platform for political discourse has evolved from the static town square to an ever-expanding, broadly accessible, and immediately available forum of global proportions. As traditional publishers scramble to adapt to this shift, social networking platforms like Twitter and Meta (“Facebook”) have become harbors of unverified, even dangerous, information. This position has prompted the creation of “fact-checkers,” which attempt to identify and block information deemed subjectively inappropriate from disseminating into the public. Other industry leaders, like Google, have adopted a similar policy of censoring information and choosing market winners, through the …

Maine, James P. Melcher

New England Journal of Political Science

No abstract provided.

New Hampshire, Christopher J. Galdieri

New England Journal of Political Science

No abstract provided.

Note From The Editor

New England Journal of Political Science

No abstract provided.

Rhode Island, Emily K. Lynch

New England Journal of Political Science

No abstract provided.

R&R: Retirements From And Retentions In The Popularly-Elected Senate, Hanna K. Brant, Theodore J. Masthay, L. Marvin Overby

New England Journal of Political Science

While there has been a good bit of scholarly attention paid to career dynamics in—including retirements from—the U. S. House of Representatives, relatively less attention has been paid to the Senate. The few studies of career decisions in the upper chamber (e.g., Bernstein and Wolak 2002; Masthay and Overby 2017) have focused on the more or less modern Senate. In this study, we extend the time series back to the early 1900s, taking in the entire century of the popularly elected Senate. In doing so, we increase our analytical leverage to explore dynamics in the frequency, ratio (compared to …

Race And Reparations In Providence, Rhode Island: The Role Of Public History In Racial Justice, Patrick Shea

New England Journal of Political Science

Contemporary critiques of race reparations programs in the United States often highlight two primary concerns: the shortcomings of similar policy in the past, and a perception of reparations as a kneejerk response to nationwide protests against police violence. This article presents the city of Providence’s 2020 reparations project as a potential response to these criticisms. By contextualizing the bill within the history of reparations in the United States and decades of historical activism on racial violence in the history of Southern New England, this article establishes Providence’s reparations project not simply as a reaction to recent racial justice activism, but …

Fiscal Crisis As Political Artifact: The Problem Of Misplaced Trust, Marc A. Eisner

New England Journal of Political Science

This article examines how early decisions regarding the financial model supporting Social Security—a dedicated payroll tax and a fully-funded reserve account—shaped the understanding of revenue flows and, ultimately, the debt. Although the original model was discarded, the residual features of the model had unintended consequences. The segregation of payroll taxes from the general fund and the distinction between the debt held by the public and the intragovernmental debt accentuated concerns over an imminent fiscal crisis and created pressure for austerity in discretionary spending. The projections of trust fund insolvency, in turn, framed a larger narrative about the entitlement crisis. To …

Connecticut, Paul Petterson

New England Journal of Political Science

No abstract provided.

Massachusetts, Jerold J. Duquette

New England Journal of Political Science

No abstract provided.

Vermont, Paul Petterson

New England Journal of Political Science

No abstract provided.

All Politics, No Longer Local? A Study Of The New Hampshire House Of Representatives, 2001-2021, Dante J. Scala, J. Mitchell Scacchi

New England Journal of Political Science

New Hampshire’s state legislature is at the heart of its political culture. The Granite State prides itself on the legislature’s intensely local brand of politics, in which representatives remain highly attuned and accountable to their constituents. In this article, we explore whether state representatives still possess strong local ties.

We use biographical data to examine whether legislators build robust local public service experience before joining the legislature. We conclude that the latest generations of New Hampshire state legislators were less likely over the past decade to bring significant local experience with them to the legislature. This decline occurred among both …

The Contributions Of The Gulf Of Maine Council To Regional Climate Resilience, Pamela A. Jordan

Maine Policy Review

This article investigates Canada-US collaboration in support of climate resilience efforts in the Gulf of Maine by focusing on the work of the binational Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment (GOMC). Despite lacking authority over coastal management policymaking, the GOMC made significant progress between 2004 and 2022 towards achieving its climate resilience goals. Most importantly, GOMC actors, including members of the Climate Network, have helped build capacity for more effective measurement, monitoring, and analysis of climate change impacts in the Gulf of Maine. While its participants share common values and support rigorous climate action and marine conservation measures, …

An Analysis Of The Education System In Turkey: Supervision Policies Between The Years 1980 – 2021, Anıl K. Eranıl, Ali Erkan Barış

Journal of Educational Supervision

This article intends to delineate the policy of the supervision system, which is a sub-system of the Turkish education system, for the years 1980-2021, through policy analysis. A systematic literature review (SLR) analyzed the research findings of 44 studies. The findings of the study were categorized according to four main themes that Eranıl (2021) pinpointed as the critical periods in the history of the Turkish education system. Critical periods were classified as a post-coup period: (1980-1997), compulsory eight-year education period: (1997-2005), constructivist period: (2005-2012), 4 + 4 + 4 education system period: (2012 and later). The results of the research …

Maine And The Arctic: Why Maine Should Develop An Arctic Strategy, Jonathan Wood

Maine Policy Review

Jonathan Wood articulates why Maine’s recent history as an Arctic player and a detached federal administration, coupled with other Near-Arctic subnational entities creating their own Arctic strategies it is a good time for Maine to articulate its own Arctic strategy.

Ed Muskie, Political Parties, And The Art Of Governance, Don Nicoll

Maine Policy Review

In its 200-year history as a state, Maine has gone through three major political realignments and is now in the midst of a fourth. The Jefferson Democratic Republicans supplanted the Federalists to achieve statehood. The Republican Party dominated state politics from the eve of the Civil War until 1954. The Maine Democratic Party, under the leadership of Edmund S. Muskie and Frank Coffin, transformed it into a competitive two-party state. Now the goals of open, responsive, and responsible governance that Muskie and Coffin sought through healthy competition and civil discourse are threatened by bitter, dysfunctional national trends in the political …

Freedom Of Speech And The Classification Of True Threats, Elena S. Smith

The Cohen Journal

No abstract provided.

Our Country Is Addicted To Control: Legalize Drugs, Victoria Hood

The Cohen Journal

No abstract provided.

Plastic Paradise: The Trends & Effects Of Cosmetic Surgery Tourism In Economically Growing Countries, Amanda Livingston

The Cohen Journal

No abstract provided.

U.S. - Iran Relations: A History Of Covert Action And A Promising Future, Cody Morgan

The Cohen Journal

No abstract provided.

Climate Policy 2015: Reports From The Congressional Trenches, Sharon Tisher, Peter Mills

Maine Policy Review

The bipartisan commentary by Peter Mills and Sharon Tisher urges action in Congress to address the problem of climate change, and stems from interviews with Senator Susan Collins, Senator Angus King, and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree regarding their climate-related initiatives in 2015.

What Bonds Hold? An Examination Of Statewide Bond Referenda In Maine And Other States, James P. Melcher

Maine Policy Review

Since 1990, Maine has held votes on statewide bond referenda than any other state. In this article, James Melcher tackles three main questions: (1) How often do voters approve bond proposals in Maine, and how does this compare to other states? (2) Are some types of bond referenda more likely to pass than others? (3) Does a bond’s placement on the ballot make it more, or less, likely to pass?

Why Did No One See This Coming? How Did It Happen?: The 2016 Presidential Election, Sandy Maisel

Maine Policy Review

Sandy Maisel discusses the results of the 2016 presidential election.

Book Review: Kofi Annan And The Role Of Morality In International Relations, Robert Potts

The Cohen Journal

This is a book review of Interventions: A life in War and Peace. The book was written by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The American Dream, Equal Opportunity, And Obtaining The Vote, Benjamin Wyman

The Cohen Journal

The United States was founded on the principles of inalienable and natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Out of those ideals arose the ideas of an American Creed and American Dream, which have provided aspirations for millions of Americans to pursue their dreams, and, with hard work, the chance to improve their situation in life. The fundamental values of the new American Creed became “liberty, equality, individualism, populism, laissez-faire, and the rule of law under a constitution” (Jillson 2004, 4) while the idea of an American Dream which was first instilled upon the citizens of the …

Let’S Act Now, While Things Are Good! Social Change And The Need For Policy Action In Maine’S Lobster Industry, Samuel Belknap

The Cohen Journal

The motivation behind this letter was a remark by Maine Department of Marine Resources Lobster Biologist, Carl Wilson. While attending the Rockland Maine based Island Institute’s annual Climate Round Table event, where fishermen, scientists, and others gather to talk about the past year in the Gulf of Maine, Wilson said, in reference to the lobster industry, “When the resource changes, everything changes.” This comment, poetic in its simplicity, got me to start thinking. I began retracing the history of Maine’s lobster industry to find examples of Wilson’s statement, and I was surprised by how many instances supported this comment. What …

A Legal Analysis Of The University Of Maine’S Ban On Firearms Following District Of Columbia V. Heller, Abigail Macdonald

The Cohen Journal

On April 16, 2007, the deadliest shooting by a single gunman took place on the college campus of Virginia Tech, taking the lives of 33 individuals (Johnson 2007). This event shook America, and yet the next year it was followed by six more shooting deaths at Northern Illinois University (Northern Illinois University 2008) and three more at Louisiana Technical College (BBC News 2008). Many universities around the country have responded to these events by either establishing firearm bans or strengthening and clinging to their existing policies, and the University of Maine is no exception (University of Maine 2004). Yet in …

Introduction, Secretary William S. Cohen

The Cohen Journal

No abstract provided.

Standing Firm: Maine’S Delegation To Congress During The Secession Crisis Of 1860-1861, Jerry R. Desmond

Maine History

In the years leading up to the Civil War, many Americans in both the North and the South considered it inevitable that a war between the sections would occur. Historians have debated this idea ever since. Could the war have been avoided? Was a compromise between the sections of the country possible? In this article, the author examines the role played by Maine’s congressional delegation in resisting compromise during the Great Secession Winter of 1860-1861. The author is a graduate of the University of Maine, with master’s degrees in education (1979) and Arts (History-1991). He served as the lead consulting …