American Politics Commons^™

Challenging Conventional Campaign Wisdom, Bradley Joyner

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The common wisdom in political campaigns is that the most effective way to get people to vote is by sending people out into neighborhoods and going to people’s doors, personally encouraging them to vote. This method, canvassing, is undoubtedly effective in getting people to feel like their vote matters, and then getting them to actually vote. It is also incredibly expensive. While other methods may be less effective by percentage, they maybe more cost-effective and allow campaigns to reach a broader base. Further, the ineffectiveness of these campaign strategies may be mitigated by multiple means of voter outreach, such as …

Discovering A Gold Mine Of U.S. Government Information: Exploring The Hathitrust Catalog And Its Rich Veins, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

The Hathitrust Catalog provides researchers at member institutions with exponentially expanded access to historical U.S. Government information resources. This presentation describes how researchers can use this resource to conduct substantive research using government information resources on public policy issues such as Internal Revenue Service program problems, infectious diseases such as Ebola, and U.S. foreign relations with the former Soviet Union/Russian Federation.

U.S. Space Policy: The Militarization Of Space, Donald M. Borock, Joel R. Hillison, Rutherford V. Platt, Emily K. Costley, Jessica R. Jozwik

Joel R. Hillison

This year the Eisenhower Institute Undergraduate Fellowship Program in studying the past, present and future of United States Space Policy. Learn about the militarization of space, the space race, and origin of GPS, reconnaissance satellites, and how they impact your day-to-day life. The Militarization of Space faculty panel has been organized by EI Undergraduate Fellows, Emily Costley '14 & Jessica Jozwik '14. This event is co-sponsored by the Interfraternity Council. The EI Undergraduate Fellows program offers a select group of Gettysburg College students the chance to develop their leadership skills and grow in their knowledge and understanding of public policy. …

Interest Groups, Political Party Control, Lobbying, And Science Funding: A Population Ecology Approach, Allyn Katherine Milojevich

Doctoral Dissertations

Science plays an increasingly important role in public policy in a range of issues from national security to public health. Thus, scientists will play an increasingly important role in society. This dissertation first examines how federal science funding changes with partisan control of key political institutions. Next, science-related interests groups, including their formation, specialization, and lobbying activities, are examined. Interest groups are a growing aspect of the American political system. However, they are an understudied aspect of political institutions. While much of their activity occurs within the legislative branch, they also work in the executive and judicial branches to advocate …

Environmental Protection And U.S. Foreign Policy & Decision-Making In Multilateral Development Banks, Maui Cheska L. Orozco

Honors College Theses

In recent decades, the promotion of policies that are environmentally friendly has become an important goal in U.S. foreign policy. One way that the United States has influence over protecting the environment is through the policies attached to projects funded by the multilateral development banks (MDBs). This gives the U.S. the ability to indirectly fund projects in developing countries. Using data provided by the United States Treasury, I examined U.S. voting decisions on projects from 2004 to 2011. These votes come from multiple development banks including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), African Development …

Paid Family Leave, Rachel-Lyn Longo, Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz

Senior Honors Projects

Paid Family Leave policies are rare in the United States. Around the world, one hundred and eighty-two countries provide some form of paid maternity leave, and seventy countries also offer paid paternity leave. It is estimated that only 36 percent of U.S. employees have access to paid leave if they get sick, a policy that is almost universal in other developed countries, and only 12 percent of employees have access to paid family leave. Presently, just three states have implemented Paid Family Leave (PFL) to help offset the cost of time taken off of work to care for a newborn …

Curbing Corporate Inversions: A Study Of National And International Efforts To Establish Corporate Tax Equity, Scott Novak

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In recent years, the number of U.S. companies trying to merge with a foreign company and thereby reincorporate themselves in countries with a lower corporate tax rate – a practice known as corporate inversion – has skyrocketed. The public outcry in 2014 against corporate inversions led the U.S. Treasury to release a series of new anti-inversion regulations, and more policy changes are in the process of being debated. At the same time as this national discussion on the harmful effects corporate inversions have on the U.S. tax base is progressing, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is in …

It's All In A Meme: A Content Analysis Of Memes Posted To 2012 Presidential Election Facebook Pages, Bobbie Foster

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis was an exploratory study to understand how Democrats and Republicans design memes, use traditional media framing, and how memes fit into modern humor theories. The study explores the relationship between the traditional media frames of the ideal candidate, populist campaigner, and the sure loser (Grabe & Bucy, 2009) and the commentary added by Internet users to these images in the memes.

The study also applies the benign-violation theory (McGraw & Warren, 2010) to the analysis of memes to understand the design choices made by meme creators. The benign-violation theory states that a physical or psychological violation is benign …

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 …

Exploring The Invocation Of Emotion In Presidential Speeches, Cengiz Erisen, José D. Villalobos

José D. Villalobos

Scholars have long explored why presidential rhetoric is important and how it matters for public leadership and policy-making. However, relatively few works have considered the role that emotion plays in leadership communication and no research has conducted a thorough examination of the various types of emotions invoked in presidential rhetoric, their frequency, or how they have shaped presidential discourse over time. In this study, presidential speeches across 13 administrations (1933–2011) are examined to provide a first assessment of the extent to which US presidents have invoked fear, anger, and hope across policy domains and key types of speeches.

Grey, Benjamin Edwards, 1809-1875 (Sc 2875), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full text of letter (click on "Additional File" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2875. Letter, 24 May 1853, of Benjamin Edwards Grey, Henderson, Kentucky, to Hardinsburg, Kentucky lawyer J. B. Bruner. Seeking reelection to Congress, Grey complains of lack of support from his own Whig Party and promises to help reconcile breaches among its members. He encloses a broadside advertising a Democratic Party meeting in Henderson County on 28 May as evidence of its organization and aim to carry the election.

Sebastian, Benjamin, 1741-1832 (Mss 523), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 523. Letters and papers of Benjamin Sebastian, associate justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, relating to his involvement in the Spanish Conspiracy and his response to a congressional investigation of his conduct that led to his resignation from the Court.

Elected To Lead, Betrayed By Greed: The Hoodwinking Of Constituents, Redd R.J.G Branner

Learning Showcase 2014

As we make our way to the polls during election season, we take several approaches: we have our mind made up on who we want to lead; we vote for the same party in all categories; or we are not sure about the candidates, but we vote safely. Our hopes are that we have collectively selected the candidate(s) that will lead us, advancing our best interests ethically. Most candidates are everyday people, cut from the same cloth as the constituents. As they campaign for our votes, there is no doubt that there goal in attaining office is to be a …

A Veteran Welfare State: Veterans' Benefits, Coalition Politics, And Social Policy Change, 1943-1973, Melinda R. Tarsi

Doctoral Dissertations

America’s commitment to the reintegration of veterans via social policy is not a recent political development; since the end of World War II, federal and state government programs have been designed (and redesigned) to successfully transition former military personnel back into civilian life. Beginning with the 1944 Serviceman’s Readjustment Act (commonly known as the G.I. Bill), the federal government has taken the primary role in this reintegration initiative, investing billions of dollars into veterans’ benefit programs for education assistance, unemployment compensation, and job placement services. Even as the legislation has been renewed after military conflicts, veterans’ education benefits have remained …

Southie Versus Roxbury: Crime, Welfare, And The Racialized Gubernatorial Politics Of Massachusetts In The Post-Civil Rights Era, Daniel T. Kirsch

Doctoral Dissertations

Racial and ethnic divisions at the national level and their effects on politics take on an abstract character when not discussing specific communities. To obtain a reliable, consistent, and potentially reliable measure of a relationship, demographic information and voting behaviors at the small community, submetropolitan level must be examined in high-turnout, same-office elections over a protracted period, ideally in a polity with a penchant for racial tolerance. The political language of Boston has been mired in racialization since at least the Civil Rights era, particularly since the Boston anti-segregation busing crisis of the 1970s. While previous research has focused on …

Guest Editorial: Measure E Is A Hoax By Oc Supervisors, William R. Mitchell, Fred Smoller, Dave Baker, Shirley Grindle

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

"Measure E is a hoax, It is moot and deceptive."

Teaching Better, Teaching Together: A Coordinated Student Exit Poll Across The States, Jennifer Kelkres Emery, Alison D. Howard, Jocelyn Evans

Alison Dana Howard

Why Vote?, Jeff Taylor

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Does politics have anything to do with faith? Why should a Christian vote? How voting put in the proper perspective, and done with good intent, can be a God-glorifying, community-serving activity."

Posting about voting from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/why-vote/

China's Nine-Dashed Map: Maritime Source Of Geopolitical Tension, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The South China Sea (SCS) is becoming an increasingly contentious source of geopolitical tension due to its significance as an international trade route, possessor of potentially significant oil and natural gas resources, China’s increasing diplomatic and military assertiveness, and the U.S.’ recent and ongoing Pacific Pivot strategy. Countries as varied as China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and other adjacent countries have claims on this region’s islands and natural resources. China has been particularly assertive in asserting its SCS claims by creating a nine-dash line map claiming to give it de facto maritime control over this entire region without regard to …

Imparted Montana Values And The Election, Evan Barrett

Highlands College

A Montana Public Radio Commentary from Evan Barrett.