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Conceptualizing Congressional Organization: The Legacy Of Keith Krehbiel’S Informational Theory, Madalyn Browning-Perry Apr 2016

Conceptualizing Congressional Organization: The Legacy Of Keith Krehbiel’S Informational Theory, Madalyn Browning-Perry

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

A small-scale replication of Keith Krehbiel’s original test on the 99th Congress is carried out in this paper. This replication consists of four committees in the 112th Congress selected because of their symptomatic distributive tendency. The aim in this paper is to characterize committees as diverse in composition with heterogeneous high demanding members who possess different bits of information. Furthermore, this heterogeneity of membership is associated with a higher percentage of closed rules assigned to the committee by the House Committee on Rules. Though evidence supports Krehbiel’s assessment of committee composition, there does not appear to be a relationship between …

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Offline Student Political Activism: Supported Or Thwarted By Online Political Engagement?, Nicole M. Jovicevic Apr 2016

Offline Student Political Activism: Supported Or Thwarted By Online Political Engagement?, Nicole M. Jovicevic

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

Social media is an integral part of everyday life for the current generation of college-age students. Researchers debate whether the time invested into these sites has a positive or negative influence on offline political activism. Drawing on an original survey of undergraduate students at Illinois Wesleyan University, this study finds that online political engagement has a significant, positive relationship with offline political activism, and this relationship holds even when controlling for the respondent’s political efficacy and natural political inclination. There is a positive relationship between online and offline political activism for students who believe that social media is an appropriate …

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Belarus After Communism: Where To Now?, Preslav Mantchev Apr 2016

Belarus After Communism: Where To Now?, Preslav Mantchev

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

This paper examines the political development of Belarus since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Attention is devoted to the country’s internal politics, along with its foreign relations. Especially scrutinized is the de-facto dictatorial rule of president Alexander Lukashenko, along with the deteriorated relations between Belarus and powerful European states including Russia. A thorough historical context is provided, which identifies political violence and demographic change as causal factors for the country’s current political environment.

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Are Women Winning? Does Descriptive Representation Of Women In Parliament Lead To Woman-Friendly Policy In Sub-Saharan Africa?, Molly Willeford Apr 2016

Are Women Winning? Does Descriptive Representation Of Women In Parliament Lead To Woman-Friendly Policy In Sub-Saharan Africa?, Molly Willeford

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

Under what conditions will women’s presence in elective office promote woman-friendly policies? The research outlined here will examine this question through a comparison of six Sub-Saharan African democracies (Benin, Botswana, Lesotho, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania). Women have been elected into sub-Saharan African parliaments in record numbers, but is this leading to increased substantive representation, or the enactment of policies that focus on benefitting women? Following a Most Similar Systems design, this research develops an original composite scale to measure woman-friendly policy and finds that there is no clear relationship between descriptive and substantive representation. The remainder of the analysis …

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When Equal Is Not Always Fair: Senate Malapportionment And Its Effect On Enacting Legislation, Lindsey Alpert Apr 2016

When Equal Is Not Always Fair: Senate Malapportionment And Its Effect On Enacting Legislation, Lindsey Alpert

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

A brief and concise analysis on the current apportionment rules in the Senate and whether or not those rules affect enacted legislation. This was done to monitor whether the malapportioned Senate votes in accordance with the House. It is acknowledged in empirical literature that due to population variance some states are under-represented while others are over-represented. However, it has not been determined what effect, if any, this has on policy. The study was conducted by comparing pass rates of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate on enacted legislation over the last decade. I conclude that, on average, the …

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The Happiest Xenophobes On Earth: Examining Anti-Immigrant Sentiments In The Nordic Countries, Maggie Zeisset Apr 2016

The Happiest Xenophobes On Earth: Examining Anti-Immigrant Sentiments In The Nordic Countries, Maggie Zeisset

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

The Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland) are widely known as progressive, open and tolerant. However, in recent years these countries have witnessed growing intolerance towards immigrants, particularly Muslims. This intolerance is manifested in violent attacks against foreigners and the rise of far right, exclusionary populist parties. This paper seeks to understand what causes some citizens in these Nordic countries to embrace anti-immigrant xenophobic attitudes and other citizens to, not only reject, but to fight such views.

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Authors’ Biographies Apr 2016