Political Theory Commons^™

“Decentralization Dilemma In Indonesia: Does Decentralization Breed Corruption?”, Glenys Kirana

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Given the pervasiveness of corruption, collusion and nepotism during Suharto’s rule (1967-1998), many people assume that the Reformasi era (1998-present) would introduce a new wave of liberal democratic values, which would consequently reduce corruption in Indonesia. This paper seeks to look at the changes in people’s socio-political incentives to corrupt given the changes in political and legal structure, analyzing it in the context of its contribution to Indonesia’s socio-economic development. Specifically, it centers on how decentralization has affected corruption in the regional districts, legislative, judiciary, and other civil society groups. It is the prominence of the corruption issue in the …

Republican Realignment: Building A Majority Coalition For Future Electoral Success, Anthony J. Del Signore

Honors College Theses

Since the election of President George H. W. Bush, Republican presidential candidates have had difficulty winning popular elections. Republican candidates lost five of the next six popular elections to their Democratic opponents. This paper investigates why. It outlines the growing demographic shift in electoral politics which is detrimental for future Republican success. The growing dissonance between non-white, non-male voters and the Republican Party hinders the Party’s success when its message does not resonate with a majority of voters.

Utilizing realignment theory as first espoused by political scientist V. O. Key, this paper analyzes nine essential battleground states and the growing …

From Topos To Utopia: Critical Buddhism, Globalization, And Ideology Criticism, James Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

No abstract provided.

After Fukushima: The Equivalence Of Catastrophes, Jean-Luc Nancy

Philosophy & Theory

In this book, the philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy examines the nature of catastrophes in the era of globalization and technology. Can a catastrophe be an isolated occurrence? Is there such a thing as a “natural” catastrophe when all of our technologies—nuclear energy, power supply, water supply—are necessarily implicated, drawing together the biological, social, economic, and political? Nancy examines these questions and more. Exclusive to this English edition are two interviews with Nancy conducted by Danielle Cohen-Levinas and Yuji Nishiyama and Yotetsu Tonaki.

How Secular Should Democracy Be? A Cross-Disciplinary Study Of Catholicism And Islam In Promoting Public Reason, David Ingram, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

I argue that the same factors (strategic and principled) that motivated Catholicism to champion liberal democracy are the same that motivate 21^st Century Islam to do the same. I defend this claim by linking political liberalism to democratic secularism. Distinguishing institutional, political, and epistemic dimensions of democratic secularism, I show that moderate forms of political and epistemic secularism are most conducive to fostering the kind of public reasoning essential to democratic legitimacy. This demonstration draws upon the ambivalent impact of Indonesia’s Islamic parties in advancing universal social justice aims as against more sectarian policies.

The Problem Of State Intervention In Post-Abolition Slavery: A Critique Of Consensus, Anthony Talbott, David Watkins

Political Science Faculty Publications

Slavery is now illegal by all states and under international law. Contrary to the hopes of abolitionists, this state of affairs has transformed rather than eradicated slavery as an institution. Furthermore, responses by states to post-abolition forms of slavery have often been less than ideal. This paper begins by comparing two state responses to slavery in the early 20th century: the federal peonage trials in Montgomery, Alabama from 1903-1905, and the federal response to an alleged epidemic of “white slavery” from 1909-1910, culminating in the passage of the White Slave-Traffic Act. Taken together, these responses engender pessimism about the state …

Voting Across The Sea: The Politics Of French Nationals In Morocco, Sydney France

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The goal of this paper is to explore the way French nationals in Morocco continue to participate in French politics even though they no longer live in French territory. The research examines three organizations that are based in Morocco and participated in French elections in May 2014. They are the Union de Français de l’Etranger, Français du Monde and UMP Maroc. The paper examines how these organizations interact with French nationals in Morocco and how these organizations interact with the French government. The paper determines that Union de Français de l’EtrangerCasablancaand Français du Monde Maroc are different from political parties …

International Organizations: An Early History, Michael Davies, Richard Woodward

Books/Book Chapters

This text provides a pioneering and comprehensive analysis of over one hundred international organizations. After introducing the broad historical and contextual settings, the book covers the full range of international organisations including those that are often overlooked or get minimal inclusion elsewhere. Each organization is analysed in a stand-alone section that consider its origins, basic mandates and evolution, the governance structure and the associated key players, current activities and future challenges. The descriptions also reflect each organization’s broader relationships with other international bodies.

An Interpretive Plan Guide For Wilderness Park In Lincoln, Nebraska, Rachel J. Ward

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

Wilderness Park, located in Lancaster County, Nebraska, is a public park of unique ecological and historical value to the city of Lincoln and to the surrounding region. The natural and historical features of the park present an opportunity to communicate environmental and historical topics that are relevant on local, national, and global levels, as well as inspire a lively sense of pride in the community. The problem is that many topics relevant to Wilderness Park are not currently being interpreted at the park, and that there are relatively few interpretive resources available to park visitors.

The purpose of this project …

Seno'o Giro: Life And Thought Of A Radical Buddhist, James Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

No abstract provided.

Congruence Across Levels Of Role-Taking In U.S. Foreign Policy, Paul A. Kowert, Stephen G. Walker

Political Science Faculty Publication Series

A psychosocial approach to national behavior, emphasizing the foreign policy roles selected by states, has proven to be a fertile source of insights into the ways states respond to their external environment. Disaggregating the phenomenon of role into several distinct processes—e.g., roletaking, role contestation, role enactment, and role transition—highlights interactions across different levels of analysis as part of a general process of role location. We focus in this paper specifically on the process of role-taking leading to role selection and conceive of this process as operating simultaneously at the state, domestic, and individual levels of analysis. Rather than assume that …

Cold War, Chilly Memories: The Role Of Political Socialization On International Perceptions, Allison Shea

Senior Honors Projects

A variety of agents aid in the political socialization process. Political socialization is the inheritance of political attitudes, beliefs, and values that explain one’s interaction with the political world (Riccards, 1973, p. 8). Parents, here meaning the primary caregivers of the child, however, are generally the earliest socializing agents in an individual’s life. The effect of parents on their children’s political views is both pro- found and lasting. Indeed, a child is more likely to “inherit” the party preference of their parents “than they are to inherit any other social predisposition except religion” (Riccards, 1973, p. 40). In the early, …

Video Games As Free Speech, Benjamin Cirrinone

Honors College

The prevalence of video game violence remains a concern for members of the mass media as well as political actors, especially in light of recent shootings. However, many individuals who criticize the industry for influencing real-world violence have not played games extensively nor are they aware of the gaming community as a whole. First, this thesis aims to illuminate the chronological history of game distribution. Second, this thesis covers small segments of games of the modern age to illustrate the unique communicative mechanisms offered by games. Third, this thesis analyzes whether or not the industry should be regulated through the …

Political Participation And Politics Of The Possible: A Comparative Case Study Of Political Activism In France And Maine, Jennifer Ferguson

Honors College

Political activism and political culture provide great insight into how movements not only form but attempt to enact change within society. However, political culture will vary by nation due to the divergent historical foundations and the use of tactics that resonate with citizens as the most effective way to promote change in a government. Therefore, it is critical to cross-nationally examine the effect that political culture can have on current social movements. In this thesis, I examine the impact of political culture on recent social movement activity in France and the state of Maine, with a focus on debates over …

Black Radicals And Marxist Internationalism: From The Iwma To The Fourth International, 1864-1948, Charles R. Holm

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This project investigates historical relationships between Black Radicalism and Marxist internationalism from the mid-nineteenth through the first half of the twentieth century. It argues that contrary to scholarly accounts that emphasize Marxist Euro-centrism, or that theorize the incompatibility of “Black” and “Western” radical projects, Black Radicals helped shape and produce Marxist theory and political movements, developing theoretical and organizational innovations that drew on both Black Radical and Marxist traditions of internationalism. These innovations were produced through experiences of struggle within international political movements ranging from the abolition of slavery in the nineteenth century to the early Pan-African movements and struggles …

The Vital Role Of Ideas In Industrial Policy Changes In Ireland During The 1980s, John Hogan, Brendan O'Rourke

Conference papers

Employing a discursive institutionalist approach in the form of the critical juncture theory (CJT), this paper examines the nature of the changes to Irish industrial policy in the mid 1980s, a time when the country went through one of its worst economic crises. Did these policy changes, ushered in by the Telesis Report of 1982, constitute a transformation in industrial policy, or a continuation of a previously established policy pathway, and if so why? To answer this question the paper explores the roles played by various change agents, and their ideas, in altering the industrial policy that had been established …

Strange Bedfellows: How An Anticipatory Countermovement Brought Same-Sex Marriage Into The Public Arena, Michael C. Dorf, Sidney Tarrow

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Since the 1980s, social movement scholars have investigated the dynamic of movement/countermovement interaction. Most of these studies posit movements as initiators, with countermovements reacting to their challenges. Yet sometimes a movement supports an agenda in response to a countermovement that engages in what we call “anticipatory countermobilization.” We interviewed ten leading LGBT activists to explore the hypothesis that the LGBT movement was brought to the fight for marriage equality by the anticipatory countermobilization of social conservatives who opposed same-sex marriage before there was a realistic prospect that it would be recognized by the courts or political actors. Our findings reinforce …

Thoroughly Under The Skin, Patrick Pride

Honors Projects

This honors project examines the connections between literature and political theory. Specifically I will follow the journey of the British literary critic Raymond Williams. Williams had a very interesting life. He grew up in the Black Mountains of Wales as the son of a railroad worker: a life he memorialized in his autobiographical novel Border Country (1960). In his obituary of Williams in The New Statesman in 1988, Stuart Hall reminds us how Williams’s deep sense of attachment to the Welsh working class border community of inhabited shared commitments in which he grew up. This community of shared commitments was …

Constituting The Entrepreneurial Poor: Social Capital, Development, And The Contemporary Microfinance Industry, Luke Allen

Political Science Honors Projects

The contemporary microfinance industry struggles to manage the tensions that arise from its competing roles as a tool in the fight against poverty and as a lucrative financial market. I contend that the microfinance industry manages these tensions through discourses that emphasize the entrepreneurialism of the poor in the Global South. Furthermore, I argue that the industry attempts to constitute the entrepreneurial "microfinance subject" through networks of coalitions, discourses, personnel, and technologies. These networks produce and distribute new forms of risk onto these subjects, necessitating a critical response.

Patterns Of Role Transition: A Taxonomy, A Research Program, And The Three-Body Problem, Paul A. Kowert, Stephen G. Walker

Political Science Faculty Publication Series

In foreign policy, role transition as a process of role change implies at least two roles (a state'ʹs old role and its new role) and a dynamic process of role location in which Ego’s role changes over time. If every role for Ego presumes a counter-role for Alter, a pattern of role transition for Ego implies as well a potential process of role transition for Alter. In order to model the process of role transition, a taxonomy of mutually exclusive and logically exhaustive roles and counter-roles is desirable, in order to identify and specify the possible combinations of old and …

China's Military Modernization, Japan's Normalization And Its Effects On The South China Sea Territorial Disputes, Zenel Garcia

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

China’s military modernization has allowed it to take a more assertive position on the territorial disputes it currently has with Japan and its Southeast Asian neighbors. The South China Sea (SCS) dispute is a clear example. Meanwhile, Japan is normalizing its military status to play a more proactive security role in the region. Japan’s normalization process has been greatly influenced by China’s growing military capabilities as it fears that China could pose a threat to its sea lanes of communications. Although Japan does not have territorial claims in the SCS, it regards the SCS as a strategically vital area. It …

"Those Stubborn Principles": From Stoicism To Sociability In Joseph Addison’S Cato, Christine Dunn Henderson, Mark Yellin

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Joseph Addison’s 1713 play, Cato: A Tragedy, dramatizes the final days of Cato the Younger’s resistance to Julius Caesar before his eventual suicide at Utica in 46 BC. Although Addison initially seems to present Cato as a model for emulation, we argue that Addison is ultimately critical of both Cato and the Stoicism he embodies. Via the play’s romantic subplot and via his work as an essayist, Addison offers a revision of the Catonic model, reworking it into a gentler model that elevates qualities such as love, friendship, and sympathy and that is more appropriate to the type of peaceful …

The Public Sphere As Site Of Emancipation And Enlightenment: A Discourse Theoretic Critique Of Digital Communication, David Ingram, Asaf Bar-Tura

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Habermas claims that an inclusive public sphere is the only deliberative forum for generating public opinion that satisfies the epistemic and normative conditions underlying legitimate decision-making. He adds that digital technologies and other mass media need not undermine – but can extend – rational deliberation when properly instituted. This paper draws from social epistemology and technology studies to demonstrate the epistemic and normative limitations of this extension. We argue that current online communication structures fall short of satisfying the required epistemic and normative conditions. Furthermore, the extent to which Internet-based communications contribute to legitimate democratic opinion and will formation depends …

Sarajevo Heart Of Europe? Global Politics, Symbol(Ism) & Liminality In The Centenary Of Ww1, Joan Davison

Faculty Publications

The analysis highlights the inter-connection and intra-connection between societal facts (mythology, symbols, and religion), socio-anthropological concepts (imitation, liminality), and psychological factors (human will and “I will”) with global politics. The approach identifies dynamics and “repetitions” which can affect individuals and societies, perpetuate tension and violence, and constrain certain political outcomes. Thus follows the particular shortcoming of International Relations theory as the product of rational choice, which strives to separate the unconscious from the conscious, to understand and remedy certain socio-political conflicts. Conversely, this analysis employs the theory on mimesis, imitation, hence, memory “me willed” (as the distillate of modernity). The …

Public Attitudes And Support For The Eu In The Wake Of The Financial Crisis, Jennifer R. Wozniak, Chris Hasselmann

Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The economic and financial crisis has dominated the political agenda of both the European Union and its respective governments for the past several years. The economic effects, from rising unemployment to negligible growth rates, have been widely documented and explored. The political consequences likewise have been examined in terms of the impact on various national elections, especially in Greece and most recently in Germany. One area in need of attention, however, is the extent to which existing theories and models of support for integration are able to capture the public's changing perception of the EU. Drawing on a series of …

Goodbye To Europe And Hello To Asia: The New Imperialism Of “Chindia” In Africa, Sybil Gelin (Class Of 2014)

Writing Across the Curriculum

In 2006, the Chinese government released its first ever Africa policy paper. In the document, the government of China announced its plans to forge a strong and enduring relationship with Africa on the basis of four ideals: mutual tolerance despite differing ideologies, cooperation in international politics, economic intercourse predicated upon fairness, and observance of Africa’s right to choose its own path to economic development.[1] This document, along with the third Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (or FOCAC) (at which more than forty-five African leaders gathered to discuss the future of China-Africa relations), served as a springboard for future Chinese engagement …

A Discernible Impact? The Influence Of Public Opinion On Eu Policymaking During The Sovereign Debt Crisis, Jennifer R. Boyle, Chris Hasselmann

Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The European sovereign debt crisis provides an excellent opportunity for examining the extent to which public preferences constrain member state preferences for EU policy solutions. We examine the influence of public opinion on austerity, spending, and regulation on member state preferences on 4 major EU solutions to the crisis from 20I0-2011: the initial Greek financial rescue, the creation of the European Stability Mechanism, the reform of the Stability and Growth pact, and enhanced EU financial regulation. Our analysis reveals that prior to elections and/or when there is a degree of fragmentation in the governing party or coalition public opinion constrains …

From Heresy To Policy: My Prescription For China's Population Policy 25 Years Ago, Shaomin Li

Management Faculty Publications

Recently scholars have been calling for the loosening up of China's one-child policy, and even the Chinese government has begun to show some willingness to do so. The call is not new. In my doctoral dissertation 25 years ago I first showed that China should allow couples to have two children and could still achieve the same population control goal as the one-child policy. I am glad to see that what I proposed 25 years ago is repeated by many scholars and even acceptable to the Chinese government.

The Inevitable And Difficult Transition From Relation-Based To Rule-Based Governance In China, Shaomin Li

Management Faculty Publications

China has benefited tremendously from replying on the relation-based way of doing business and governance, as evidenced in its rapid economic growth up to now. However, further relying on the relation-based governance may eventually hinder China's economic growth and exacerbate inequality, resulting in political instability. On the other hand, given China's cultural heritage and powerful vested interest groups, can China shed its relation-based way? This article argues from logical, theoretical, and empirical perspectives the inevitability and difficulty of China's transition from relations to rules, and discuss the implications of the transition or the lack of it for China.

Conditional Spending And The Conditional Offer Puzzle, Mitchell N. Berman

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.